Recently, it seems like Robbins has been content staying behind the board, producing albums by bands like Braid, the Promise Ring, Against Me!, and Lemuria. But his new band, Office of Future Plans, seems to have fallen together perfectly.

Robbins asked bassist/multi-instrumentalist Brooks Harlan, drummer Darren Zentek, and cellist/guitarist Gordon Withers (who released an album of Jawbox songs played on the cello) to back him on what was initially a one-off solo show in 2009. But all four musicians clicked, and you can hear it on their debut self-titled album.

Office of Future Plans features Robbins’s angular guitar, but it’s not just a Jawbox rehash. Wither’s cello swoons around the riffs, both majestically (“Riddle Me This,” “Abandon”) and diabolically (“The Beautiful Barricades”), and the rhythm section keeps the vast, textured sounds moving forward.

Even though Office of Future Plans was sort of an accident, J. Robbins proves that he’s still got it, even out from behind the production board.

(Dischord Records, 3819 Beecher Street NW, Washington, DC 20007)

On January 24th, Nada Surf released their latest critically-acclaimed album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy. They have just unveiled the music video for “When I Was Young,” and will perform tonight on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon.”

Watch the video below:

The b-side includes Bazan’s version of the classic Headphones song, “Gas and Matches.”

Stream “No One Asked Bazan to Dance” below:

Deerhoof (feat. David Bazan) – No One Asked Bazan to Dance by Polyvinyl Records

(Tonequake Records, c/o McDonough Management468 Pennsfield Place, Suite 202, Thousand Oaks, CA 91360)

Little known and inconspicuous, Brooklyn venue 285 Kent is a tiny warehouse riddled with graffiti. It is a dark, hot, and, yes, dirty space where the beer and mixed drinks appear to be store-bought. Oddly enough, all of these things make it one of the Williamsburg neighborhood’s most interesting and enjoyable venues — assuming you love being tightly sandwiched between bespectacled, skinny jeans-wearing music junkies…and I assume you do.

On Saturday, January 21st, the warehouse became home to the polyrhythmic, noise jam experts, Akron/Family, who took to the stage after openers Dustin Wong and Bad Weather California, both of whom put on an impressive show.

They enticed the frothing and surging all ages crowd with bombardment of experimental textures and sounds before moving into the opening song, “Gravely Mountains of the Moon.” With no end, but rather a heavily reverberating progression they rolled into one of their more well known tracks, “River,” which pleased fans immensely, who screamed along with them. “River” came to its signature climax and erupted with an onslaught of energy from both artists and fans, who jumped in time with Dana Janessen’s percussionary pyrotechnics.

One of the most incredible — if not most heart-warming — moments of their insane performance was the elaborate and sprawling version of “Island.” The track is from their new album, S/T II: The Cosmic Birth of and Journey of Shinju TNT, and it took the audience to another place. Seaton and Olinsky prepped the audience for the mesmerizing journey with witty and sassy dance instructions. Putting their “asses out,” as Seaton said, and with no shame at all, they encouraged fans to throw one finger up in the air. With hands held high, the completely mesmerized group of concertgoers swayed gently from side to side. From there, the harmony grew and the bass swelled into a pulsating and beautifully explosive anthem to an island somewhere far away. The crowd fell silent for the first time all night, entranced in the slow progression and climax of the song. It was an unexpected but happily welcomed change from the combustible web of noise that preceded it.

That moment of powerful emotion was quickly countered by the band’s need for noise, and as the night progressed, so did the chaos. Between jumping and moshing fans came improvisational chord progressions, kaleidoscopic sounds, and the erratic burst of song. After endless prompting from their frenzied listeners, the band finally caved and produced a hypnotizing rendition of “Say What You Want To.”

In signature Akron/Family style, the trio moved between moments of quiet introspection to elongated and distracted waves of distorted sound. As things began to come to a close, Bad Weather California members slowly began to join in the party, making their way both onstage and into the pit of hyped-up fans. As sweat dripped from beards and articles of clothing were ripped apart, Seaton and Olinsky ran their microphones through mixers creating an ambient thunderstorm of sound. They franticly scratched guitar notes and manipulated every chord with pedals and noisemakers into echoing waves.

They made their way off stage and in typical concert fashion, the crowd refused to leave. They sang a random assortment of lyrics from various songs and cheered with hopeful excitement for just a little bit more. Never ones to leave fans unhappy, the group made their way back onstage for an encore — and as fans sang the refrain to “There’s So Man Colors,” it was clear that these Colorado natives have a second home in Brooklyn. They ended with “Light Emerges” and a deep admiration for the crowd that had provided the shot of adrenaline for the show.

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download “Silly Bears” by Akron/Family

Throughout the 12 tracks on their self-titled debut, Bobby toys with loads of different sounds: slow-building folk on “We Saw,” downbeat pop on “Sore Spores,” jangly precision on “Groggy,” and noisy ambient on “The Shed.” Tones pile on top of tones, thick percussion decants over the harmonies and the vocals stay soft, the constants in a dense world of experimentation.

It’s those vocals, dual male and female voices, which keep everything grounded. Melancholy opener “We Saw” features its title repeated again and again sang atop a rising pyramid of anxious rust and strings, as if its narrators have witnessed the unspeakable and are now left unable to saw any other words. “It’s Dead Outside” could be a sequel to Wilco’s “Radio Cure” with its electric-noise-meets-acoustic rhythm approach. “Shimmychick” squeals like a chipper pop ditty dunked underwater.

BOBBY might come off as rainy-day music, but after a few listens, it becomes sit-on-your-car-and-look-up-at-the-swirling-night-sky music. And the best part? It works whether you’re with someone you really care about or if you’re flying solo. BOBBY harnesses both of those moods into a bulky stew of sound, ready to be ingested by all.

(Partisan Records, 281 N 7th St., #2 Brooklyn, NY 11211)

La Sera, featuring Katy Goodman (AKA “Kickball Katy“) of Vivian Girls, has released a video today for ”Please Be My Third Eye,” directed by Vice Cooler.

“Please Be My Third Eye” can be found on the new La Sera record, Sees the Light, coming out March 27, 2012 on Sub Pop Records subsidiary Hardly Art.

La Sera – Please Be My Third Eye from Hardly Art on Vimeo.

We Are The Works In Progress is a decidedly haunting assortment of songs. Emphasizing substance over style, the featured artists take all the time they need to unfurl their shimmering compositions and flatten out the wrinkles, leaving plenty of room for thought. You simply can’t hurry music like this.

Electronic mastermind Four Tet begins the album with rainy-day chirper “Moma,” before The Knife’s Karin Dreijer Andersson howls and yelps in her ambient creation, “No Face.” Given the album’s genesis, this pair of leadoff tracks might recall the darkness that seeped over Japan last March, a theme that limps further into the tracklisting.

Minimalist legend Terry Riley reworks an old tune of his, experimentalists Nosaj Thing and Pantha du Prince create swirling, textured beats, and Broadcast keeps it morose and melancholy with a previously tour-only track. Overcast skies might be an understated metaphor for this collection; it’s hard to find the sun in most of these tracks.

But the album’s best two songs suggest some brightness just beyond the clearing. The first comes from Makino herself in a remix of Blonde Redhead’s “Penny Sparkle,” in which her spirited whisper-vocals utterly gleam through the speakers. They’re goldenrod and strangely comforting in a dark time, like meeting the girl of your dreams at a funeral. The staggering chimes that open John Maus’s contribution “Castles in the Grave” offer one of the only spots of genuine glee on the whole album. “Castles” excites throughout its 2:27 runtime, doling out its joy with the rest of the world like a child eager to share a lick of her ice cream cone with her dog.

Interpol closes out We Are The Works In Progress with the nine-minute “Song Seven,” half-standard glum-rocker and half-dreamy meditation. With the hour of emotional weight that preceded it, it’s necessary to decompress and offer up some real rumination during this time. Time to think about this world and what it could end up leaving us with — or without.

All proceeds from the album go to charities benefitting Japan, including Japan Society and Architecture for Humanity.

(Asa Wa Kuru, c/o Beggar’s Group, 304 Hudson Street, 7th Floor, New York, NY 10013)

Outside of “Helen,” Teeth is a weird piece of stunning beauty, with new layer revealing themselves with each listen. This is an album with the potential to take the burgeoning chamber pop sound to its outer limits of experimentation. It is a stunning piece of work, but not a flawless one. However the flaws aren’t those of conservative mistakes, but only happen when The Loom is trying to expand their sound into new directions. When it works, it’s nearly perfect. When it doesn’t, it’s still a fun ride.

(Crossbill Records, 855 Lake Terrace Circle, Davis, CA 95616)

“For me Threads is about patterns and the feeling of being trapped in the same cycle of events; a fragile balance and a feeling of entanglement,” says singer Cacie Dalager.

Maybe it was the Vancouver scenery, the small van crammed with gear that trucked 1,800 miles across the country, or, as Dalager put it, the “pressure” — regardless, Threads shows maturity and growth. Dalager says of its creation, “We spent a couple of years on writing alone. We wrote and rewrote every layer of every song so many times. Hopefully these songs will feel more developed and complete. We tried really hard to make this album something we could be proud of.”

And proud they should be. Minneapolis isn’t often a town associated with cutting edge music. It isn’t New York, and it isn’t LA, but it has got quite the burgeoning music scene, one Now, Now is proud to be part of.

“There is a pretty surprising amount of successful bands that come out of here,” remarks Dalager, as she expresses its influence on the band’s sound and style. “Each region typically has a particular sound they are known for, and I think that probably has had some influence on our style of writing.

“The scene here — in Minnesota at least — used to be a little more pop oriented,” she continues. “When we first started playing shows in the area, there was a little cluster of indie and pop bands that would all play together.”

The trio — as it exists today — came together in 2008 when guitarist Jess Abbot came on board. Now, with their laptops, pedal boards, and guitars in tow, the band takes a collaborative approach to their compositions.

“Usually there is one of us that will write the initial idea for the song and will then present it to others to further develop,” states Dalager. While one member may take the reigns from tie to time Dalager explains that “it really depends on the song, but it is always collaborative.”

Regardless of creative process, location, or a former pension for pop, Now, Now has grown into a mature force to be taken seriously. They’ve have had a busy year not only releasing their second album, but also making the jump to a new label, Trans. The switch up, while welcomed, has left the band slightly reeling.

“I’m still in ‘this is too good to be true’ mode. Trans is a dream label for us. It feels really new and kind of scary, but also perfect and comfortable. We couldn’t ask for anything better than this,” says Dalager.

With plans to keep touring in the new year and a slew of ideas for the next album, Now, Now isn’t stopping anytime soon, but Dalager does want to leave listeners with a bit of advice for 2012: “Be productive, don’t be a pussy, and eat less Taco Bell.” Wise words.

Verbicide Free Download: Click here to download Verbicide Select Mixtape Volume 9 featuring “Jesus Camp (Remix)” by Now, Now