Artist:	Title:	Label/Due date:
Abe Vigoda (alt-rock group, not the actor)	"Reviver" (Hear here)	(PPM, Feb. 17, 2009)
... And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead	"The Century of Self" (producer: Chris Coady; Hear here; Read here)	(Justice/Richter Scale/Fontana/ Universal, Feb. 17, 2009)
Architecture in Helsinki	"That Beep" (Hear here)	(Polyvinyl, Feb. 17, 2009)
Asobi Seksu	"Hush" (first single: "I Know You Want It"; Hear here)	(Polyvinyl, Feb. 17, 2009)
Audrye Sessions	"Audrye Sessions [EP]" (Hear here; See here)	(Black Seal, Feb. 17, 2009)
Centipede Eest	"Confluence" (Hear here)	(100 Legs, Feb. 17, 2009)
Darla Farmer (7-piece carnival-rock outfit)	"Rewiring the Electric Forest" (Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Paper Garden, Feb. 17, 2009)
Alela Diane	"To Be Still" (Hear here; Read here)	(Rough Trade, Feb. 17, 2009)
D. Rider (fronted by former U.S. Maple member Todd Albert Rittmann)	"Mother of Curses" (Hear here)	(Tiazona, Feb. 17, 2009)
Emanuel and the Fear (11-piece orchestral dance-rock band)	"Emanuel and the Fear [MP3 Download]" (5-song EP; producer: Jamin Gilbert; Hear here)	(Paper Garden, Feb. 17, 2009)
Ernie and the Automatics (featuring former Boston members Barry Goudreau and Sib Hashian)	"Low Expectations" (Hear here)	(Open E/Vagrant, Feb. 17, 2009)
Fake Problems	"It's Great to Be Alive" (Hear/read here)	(SideOneDummy, Feb. 17, 2009)
Sutton Foster (Tony Award winner)	"Wish" (jazz-infused mix of Broadway, cabaret and pop favorites; Hear here; Read here)	(Ghostlight, Feb. 17, 2009)
HalfDown Thomas	"Beautifully Strange" (producer: 3 Doors Down guitarist Chris Henderson; Hear here)	(Rock Ridge Music, Feb. 17, 2009)

BTW: Like any young band, HalfDown Thomas wanted simply to put out an album and take over the world. But, guitarist Wesley Smith tells P&P, "the process soon became to just make this thing see the light of day.

"We laid down the disc originally something like four years ago. We worked for a couple of weeks down in Chris (Henderson's) studio in South Mississippi, but Hurricane Katrina saw fit to lay waste to that effort. Chris came off tour with 3 Doors Down and then had the task of rebuilding his life after the disaster, so once he was able to rebuild a new studio, we went back down and did two weeks of power tracking. From the ground up, all 13 tracks again. Sent the tracks to mix, and a computer glitch had erased almost all the guitar and vocals.

"So we reconvened in Chris' studio (relocated to Nashville) for a third time. Over two weekends, we put down half the albums tracks again, guitars and vocals. We duplicated the hard drive, sent one to the East Coast, one went West. This time, everything went smoothly. The album's done and dropping Feb. 17th on Rock Ridge Music, so now we're close to completion of step one ..."

How did the Cullman, Ala., band come up with its name?

"(Lead singer) Randy (Ayers) had a parrot and a dog," Smith says. "I can't remember the parrot's name, but the dog was Thomas. He used to split crackers between them as treats, but the process was always a three-ring circus. The parrot squawking like crazy for his half, Randy yelling for Thomas to get down, crumbs flying everywhere. Eventually at treat time, the parrot began screeching the phrases 'Half!,' and 'Down Thomas!' to start the feeding spectacle ..."

Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3	"Goodnight Oslo" (Hear/read here; MP3 Download)	(Yep Roc, Feb. 17, 2009)
Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit (Isbell is formerly of Drive-By Truckers)	"Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit" (producers: Isbell and The 400 Unit, Matt Pence; Hear here)	(Lightning Rod/Thirty Tigers/RED, Feb. 17, 2009)
Tommy Keene	"In the Late Bright" (producers: Keene, R. Walt Vincent; Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Second Motion, Feb. 17, 2009)
Living Things	"Habeas Corpus" (producers: Michael Ilbert, Living Things; first single: "Let It Rain"; Hear here; Read here)	(Jive, Feb. 17, 2009)
Eleni Mandell	"Artificial Fire" (producers: Mandell, Drake, Ryan Feves, Kevin Fitzgerald, Dave Trumfio; Hear here)	(Zedtone, Feb. 17, 2009)
Mishka	"Above the Bones" (producers: Mishka, guitarist Darryl Thompson, with creative assistance of Matthew McConaughey; Hear here)	(JK Livin/Universal, Feb. 17, 2009)
Gurf Morlix	"Last Exit to Happyland" (guests: Ruthie Foster, Patty Griffin, Timbuk 3's Barbara K. MacDonald; Hear here)	(Rootball, Feb. 17, 2009)
Morrissey	"Years of Refusal" (producer: Jerry Finn; guest: Chrissie Hynde; first single: "I'm Throwing My Arms Around Paris"; Read here; MP3 Download)	(Attack/Lost Highway, Feb. 17, 2009)
Obscura	"Cosmogenesis" (Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Relapse, Feb. 17, 2009)
Plushgun	"Pins & Panzers" (first single: "Dancing in a Minefield"; Hear here; See here)	(Tommy Boy Entertainment, Feb. 17, 2009)
Psapp	"The Camel's Back" (producers: Psapp; Hear here)	(Domino, Feb. 17, 2009)
Sam Roberts	"Love at the End of the World" (Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Rounder, Feb. 17, 2009)
Soul of John Black, The	"Black John" (Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Eclecto Groove, Feb. 17, 2009)
Thursday	"Common Existence" (producer: Dave Fridmann; first single: "Resuscitation of a Dead Man"; Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Epitaph, Feb. 17, 2009)
Christopher Titus	"Love Is Evol" (See here; DVD; MP3 Download)	(Comedy Central, Feb. 17, 2009)
Various artists	"Dark Was the Night" (all-star album benefits the AIDS organization Red Hot, featuring Feist, Cat Power, My Morning Jacket, Iron & Wine, Spoon, the Arcade Fire, Yo La Tengo, the New Pornographers, etc.; producers: Aaron & Bryce Dessner of The National; Read here)	(4AD/Beggars Banquet, Feb. 17, 2009)
Vetiver	"Tight Knit" (Hear here)	(Sub Pop, Feb. 17, 2009)
M. Ward	"Hold Time" (guests: Lucinda Williams, Zooey Deschanel, Tom Hagerman of DeVotchka, Jason Lytle of Grandaddy; Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Merge, Feb. 17, 2009)
Weird Owl	"Ever the Silver Cord Be Loosed" (Hear here; Vinyl LP; MP3 Download)	(Tee Pee, Feb. 17, 2009)
William Elliott Whitmore	"Animals in the Dark" (Hear here; MP3 Download)	(Anti-/Epitaph, Feb. 17, 2009)
Charlie Wilson (of The Gap Band)	"Uncle Charlie" (producers: The Underdogs, Wilson, Stargate, The Platinum Brothers, Babyface, T-Pain, Gregg Pagani; guests: Justin Timberlake, T-Pain, Jamie Foxx, Snoop Dogg; Hear here)	(Jive, Feb. 17, 2009)