Living Things, Ahead of the Lions (Jive)
This album is so good it makes me sweat and leaves a rash. The three Berlin brothers (Berlin is their last name – they're from the suburbs of St. Louis) play heavy punk rock with a precocious soul that was born to push people's buttons. Political ditties like "Bombs Below" and "I Owe" could scorch the hiney-hole of anyone on Capitol Hill. The music is aggressive, relentless, flashy, grungy, and sexy-faggy. (Oh, two of the brothers are named Lillian and Eve. Bonus points for having to grow up in the burbs with girls' names.) Ahead of the Lions puts you on the frontlines of chaos and charisma. Welcome to the jungle, fuckers.

Bonk, Western Soul (Ace Fu)
Track one starts out like a soundtrack to another Mitsubishi commercial but it eventually gets swallowed in the gaping maw of a deranged hobo with magical powers. Norway's Andreas Grotterud and Leif Koren are self-proclaimed "sleazy hippies of the Oslo punk scene." Heavy on blitz attacks of fuzz and underlying garage rock swing, Western Soul is an orchestrated seizure. Screams, hot-wired guitar solos, and ravaging conglomerations of feedback seal the deal. Let's bonk.

God Forbid, IV: Constitution of Treason (Century Media)
Jersey's devils God Forbid recently dropped THE SHIT with IV, a three-part political-ass-kicking album. Imagine Iron Maiden and Pantera mud wrestling buck naked in middle earth. (I'll let you have a minute alone with that visual.) "Into the Wasteland," "Under This Flag," "To the Fallen Hero," and "The Lonely Dead" release heavy metal hair-whipping frenzy and a bit of sentimentality. The vocal overlaps, the wicked squiggle guitar solos, the double bass drum boom-boom, and the all around cerebral dismantling make this one of the most profoundly awesome metal albums of the year.

Early Man, Closing In (Matador)
Rubbing their codpieces together for inspiration, these two skinny dudes threw up the devil horns and produced a shit load of power metal chords with nerdy, noodley solos. Clutching a young Ozzy's plums in his mighty hands, Mike Conte hits notes that could feather your mane in five seconds flat (check out "War Eagle"). Songs touch on standard metal topics like suicide, Satan, and death. Lots of death. Clearly, he and drummer Adam Bennati spent plenty of time brooding, drawing pentagrams on their denim jackets, and drinking cheap beer in their youth. Or like, last week.

Face to Face, Shoot the Moon: The Essential Collection (Antagonist Records)
Before three-chord songs became mainstream and the Warped Tour was an enterprise, skate punk was a thing you found in suburban basements, along with a few empties, moldy carpeting, and the family cat's litter box. Face to Face embodied all that was aggravating, confusing, and bittersweet about reluctantly growing up. Trevor Keith was a little more righteous than the every-dude, and for that reason alone, he ruled. The hook-laden rough-cut punk songs on this remarkable retrospective were handpicked by Keith, listed in chronological order, and easily define the sound of the West Coast throughout the early to mid 90s. All the best songs are in here: "Walk the Walk," "Pastel," "Blind," and of course "Disconnected." Get a copy for your little Blink-182-loving cousin and tell her she can thank you later.

Secret Mommy, Very Rec (Ache)
This is disturbing. Secret Mommy produced an entire CD full of sounds taken from various recreation facilities and sporting event sound bites – everything from a swimming pool to a yoga session to a daycare facility. He then threw in some original sonic bubbles, devoured the whole thing and promptly shat it out with glee. (I swear I've heard asses make similar noises to those in "Tennis Court." Not MY ass, of course...) It's pretty friggin amazing and thoroughly retarded in an exuberant way. Listeners indulge in choreographed blips, boingies, squelches, chops, pops, skids, armpit farts, mouth farts, butt farts... Um, I feel nauseous.

Various Artists, Live At Continental Best of NYC Volume One
Let me tell you what a typical night at the Continental is like: loud rock-n-roll bands, beer drinking, and it's usually really dark – your unfriendly neighborhood shithole. This is a good sampler of the local bands who made Continental their home. As is common with live albums recorded in a club, some tracks sound much better than others, and the standouts here are Jesse Malin's slow-mosey misery "Faded Flowers," Handsome Dick Manitoba and Cheetah Chrome on the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer," Sea Monster's ferocious "Psychotronic Roller Boogie Disco Queen Sock it to Me," and the Lunachicks' mental-punk "Cross My Heart." What's especially awesome is Dee Dee Ramone's band the Ramainz doing "Cretin Hop" and listening to Joey Ramone introduce "I Wanna Be Sedated" in his goofy, loveable voice.