The Bitter Tears draw from their guts and the things that come into their workspace. In fact, the entire thing plays out as a coherent, albeit eclectic, album.

As the album’s title suggests, Japandroids’ debut album is a moment after something. A breakdown of some sort of aesthetic, en route to something new. The band works feverishly to deliver something somewhere between two other somethings. But what?

Diane Obomsawin’s inaugural graphic novel in English is Kaspar, a sadly truncated volume that unveils the life of Kasper Hauser. The Canadian filmmaker and cartoonist’s envisage of this unbelievable narrative is told frankly in comparison to the more extravagant tones already lended to Hauser by the likes of Werner Herzog and Harlan Ellison. No mention of the controversy of whether Hauser is just a snappish fraud is discussed nor is even much revealed about his death. Obomsawin favors the part of the man-child’s life where he was introduced into bourgeoisie society. After all, the other side of erudite culture studies that as well.

“I have a naïve request,” said Swedish troubadour Jens Lekman, looking down at group of adoring Los Angelinos after a years’ absence from the city. “You can record and take video all you want, but please don’t post it on the Internet. I want this to be special…just between you and me.”

Sleepwalking Through The Mekong documents Dengue Fever’s performance in Cambodia—marking the first performance of Cambodian music by a Western group since the fall of the Khmer Rouge. Though Dengue Fever formed in the States, founding brothers Ethan and Zac Holtzman sought out a Cambodian singer in order to better capture the nuance of Cambodian rock n’ roll from the 1960s and ’70s.

Idjut Boys and Rune Lindbaek joined forces as Meanderthals to produce an album that pulses its way through prog, disco, ethereal, folk, and more.

Known to casual indie-rock fans as, “That guy from The Postal Service who isn’t Ben Gibbard,” Jimmy Tamborello (a.k.a. Dntel) has been a fixture on the electronica scene for nearly a decade and a half. In 1994, inspired by Aphex Twin, µ-ziq, and Warp Records, Tamborello compiled his first collection of songs onto a cassette that would go on to become Something Always Goes Wrong.

USA Network original shows generally do not suck. As the newest in the network’s character-driven series, Royal Pains does not suck, either. Mark Feuerstein plays Dr. Hank Lawson, who is dismissed and blackballed after a judgment call at his hospital that costs a major donor his life. After endless days of television watching and apparently not showering, his brother, Evan (Paulo Constanzo) drags Hank out to the Hamptons for a weekend break.

In the early 1980s, the hallowed Glasgow School introduced a cadre of smart pop bands to the world, Orange Juice being its top scholar. The Glaswegian quartet Bricolage is the latest addition to that storied tradition. The band may have very little to do with the musical term of the same name but they do try so very hard to approximate its adventurous ethos.