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Kentucky-based Wooden Wand (the alias of James Jackson Toth) had a really great experience recording a split seven-inch with his friend Duquette Johnson and his band, the Gum Creek Killers. So much so, in fact, that he decided to invite them to help out with some new tunes as the Briarwood Virgins, along with other pals Brian Lowery and Jody Nelson (Through The Sparks). This collaboration resulted in new album Briarwood, which was just released by Fire Records. Hey, what are friends for? Here’s a cool mix tape that Toth made for MAGNET.

“Big Mouth USA” (download):

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Pat Hare “I’m Gonna Murder My Baby”
This is my favorite guitar tone of all time. I’ve collected every side that the under-recorded Hare plays on (Coy “Hot Shot” Love’s “Wolf Call Boogie,” in particular, is a hoot), but this is my favorite, not just because Hare, true to his word, eventually did murder his “baby” and spent the rest of his short life in prison. Dig that guitar tone! Raw like “Rocket 88″ but way more hair-raising and brilliant. Video

Raime “This Foundry”
Been pretty obsessed with the Blackest Ever Black label and its myriad limited releases. Raime is my favorite, a minimal techno duo working the sinister angle in a way that makes Demdike Stare sound like Stock, Hausen And Walkman. Play it loud, or don’t play it at all. (And don’t even get me started on computer speakers.) Video

Blind Owl Wilson “Sloppy Drunk”
Blind Owl was a prophet and probably the greatest white blues vocalist of all time. These recordings were made from a hospital bed just months before Wilson passed from this mortal coil. The Owl was a reluctant star and proto-environmentalist who cared more about the Redwoods than groupies. (He wasn’t immune to all the trappings of the rock star life, however; The Owl loved him some dope.) Truly a man out of time. Wilson’s voice conveys broken beauty like few others. Video

Peaking Lights “All That The Sun Shines”
It gets mighty hard keeping up with all the upstart tape labels, trends (hypnagogia, anyone?) and side projects of side projects, especially when there are, impossibly, still Dick’s Picks CDs I haven’t heard, but I try to keep an eye on the Not Not Fun label no matter what. LA Vampires are a favorite (check out the So Unreal 12-inch!), but Peaking Lights, the duo of Indra Dunis and Aaron Coyes, recently caught my attention with this killer jam, a sort of hazy, slow-motion dub that recalls the sorely missed Pocahaunted at their most blazed and mellow. Why murder the soundboy when you can just dose his drink? Video

Jesse Sykes & The Sweet Hereafter “Hushed By Devotion”
While a lot of you dummies were reliving imagined ’80s childhoods and pretending you’ve always liked Peter fucking Gabriel, this record happened. I’ve always liked Jesse Sykes (and Sweet Hereafter guitarist Phil Wandscher, who is clearly one of the greatest guitar players working right now), but this game-changer sorta blew my mind. I wasn’t even sure if I liked this album at first, with it’s Pink-Floyd-as-California-doom-band affectations (alt country, what?), but the fact that I kept coming back to it trying to even decide how I felt about it tells the tale. I’ll go out on a limb and say it is one of the most literally compelling albums I have heard in a long, long time. Video

John Martyn “One World”
My friend Jack Rose turned me onto John Martyn’s music many years ago, and I went so bananas over it I even paid homage to his album Stormbringer by, err, ”referencing” the cover art on my album Second Attention. So when, sitting in the audience of a panel at the Hopscotch Festival in Raleigh, N.C., guitarist Yair Yona happened to mention offhandedly “the album John Martyn made influenced by Lee Perry,” I immediately had that “whoa, back up, what?” moment. Upon hearing the album in question, which sounds like a lost Arthur Russell album recorded at Black Ark, I was immediately angry at everyone I knew for not sharing this album with me sooner. Your life needs this. Video

Uncle Acid & The Deadbeats “13 Candles”
The CDR version (read that again before you continue: “CDR version”) of Blood Lust, the second album by this mysterious doom-pop band from the U.K., recently fetched almost eight hundred fucking dollars on eBay. Ever wary of collector-bait, I tried to convince myself that I didn’t need yet another occult-themed, analog-inclined, kif-fogged metal album in my life, but after finally hearing the record (it was recently reissued), I had to concede its greatness. Totally boneheaded lyrics about ritual knives and candles and chaotic evil, with great hooks and extremely stoney guitar playing beamed directly from the year 1975. Like the great lost private-press doom album by Plastic Ono Band (dig those vocals). Exemplary. (Still not worth 800 bucks, though.) Video

Relatively Clean Rivers “Easy Ride”
Some albums just endure. I break this album out every couple of years, and it always knocks me out. I love all the albums Phil Pearlman made (all under different band names), but this one occupies a very special place in my heart. Easy-breezy psych with rollicking Dead-isms (but with better harmonies) and production that’s After The Gold Rush-perfect. I betcha Beachwood Sparks studied this album. More bands should. Try being in a bad mood while this is playing. Video

Black Merda “Reality”
No, not a gangsta rapper, though you’d be forgiven for thinking so. No, these guys would pummel any gangsta rapper you could name. This 1970 jam boats an irresistible groove (would pay a lot of money to hear Royal Trux circa 1996 cover this), but the best part are the lyrics, which turn that good-time groove on its head by celebrating the power of negative thinking. “Your reality will cause your fantasies to die,” sings the lead vocalist on the chorus, while the background vocals coo “‘Cause your fantasy to die/Die, die/Oh why?” Elsewhere, these pioneers of half-empty glass soul poke fun at you for praying, then proceed to diss you for being patriotic. All in just more than two minutes. Perfect. Video

William Elliott Whitmore “Everything Gets Gone”
You might think, as I did, that William Elliott Whitmore is just another punk-rocker-turned-hillbilly-shouter with a banjo and a porkpie hat. But you’d be wrong to dismiss him as such, because not only does dude have a beautifully evocative voice that transcends genre trappings, but (and this is where he breaks from a lot of his conspicuously old-timey contemporaries), he can write a goddam song. “Like shutters in the wind I’m holding on/But everything gets gone/Everything gets gone.” I wish I wrote that. His new album, Field Songs, made me go back and buy everything else he’s released. Dude rules. Video

Mandolin, violin, cello and upright bass are instruments most rock groups will only bust out for a song or two as a novelty, but Brooklyn-based Miracles Of Modern Science is clearly not your average band. This quintet completely forgoes the typical guitar, bass and keys setup in favor of these under-utilized strings (along with drums) and manages to shape the old-timey symphonic sound into irresistible, stuck-in-your-head pop tunes. Debut LP Dog Year will be released December 6, but in the meantime, check out the below mix tape, made with the help of all five band members.

“Eating Me Alive” (download):

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QQQ  “Sister Sparrow”
Evan: A beautiful song inspired by Paul McCartney’s “Jenny Wren” (which is also great). Google “Hardanger fiddle” if you’re wondering what’s making that incredible drone sound. Audio

Bluejay “Shoot For The Toucan”
Josh: Bluejay’s album was recorded partly at the wonderful Spaceman Sound, where we recorded Dog Year. It’s full of punk energy, ’80s pop textures and completely over-the-top muppet-like vocals. It’s catchy, but the closer you listen, the more you notice the awesomely complex touches. Audio

Boy Without God “Of Cowboys And Other Beautiful Men”
Josh: Though the boy who leads Boy Without God grew up only one town over from my suburban Massachusetts hometown, to me his voice sounds as traveled and weathered as deep-voiced veterans Bill Callahan and Michael Gira. Audio

Gotye Featuring Kimbra “Somebody That I Used To Know”
Kieran: I finally saw Gotye a couple weeks ago after hearing a lot about him from my friends back in Australia. He gave one of the most compelling and memorable performances I’ve seen in a long time. This is his big hit featuring another Australian artist, Kimbra. Fantastic voice and some very interesting and spare instrumentation. Video

Bruce Springsteen “New York City Serenade”
Geoff: I’ve become obsessed with this song lately. It is the last track on Springsteen’s second album and one of the early incarnations of the E Street Band. It’s long and weird, its story is a mess (especially by the standards of New Jersey’s balladeer laureate), and it covers so much musical terrain that it seems schizo. Or at least ADD. But somehow it holds together. Or it doesn’t, and I still love it. Video

The Riot Professor “New Salt”
Tyler: My buddy’s group from my hometown in California who just released their first album. This song in particular has a dreamy, underwater quality to the sound that I find very compelling. Video

The Lounge Lizards “Voice Of Chunk”
Evan: This is what MOMS’ next album will sound like. Josh gets the credit for turning me on to this, but I love it more. Video

Miracles Of Modern Science “Eating Me Alive”
Josh: This is actually our oldest song. Evan and I began piecing it together in GarageBand months before Kieran, Geoff and Tyler had come on board. When we first started playing together, we didn’t have much of a clear direction or genre; we played country tunes, sea chanties and Disney ballads at our earliest shows. But “Eating Me Alive” set out an early framework for the MOMS sound. Since those early days, we’ve picked the song to pieces and put it together again, and that’s what you’ll hear on the album. Video

Darius Milhaud “Scaramouche”
Geoff: This addictive collection of three miniatures has been orchestrated in several ways, but I prefer it as a duet for two pianos. The opening is as goofy as anything MOMS has ever written—even stuff from practice that will never see the light of day—but is especially fascinating to me because it manages to be fun and while doing musically adventurous things like splitting into two keys at once (Milhaud, in the ’20s, was one of the first people to try that). If you can hear the last movement, “Brasiliera,” and not want to dance, you are a jerk. Video

mewithoutYou “The Dryness And The Rain”
Tyler: Emotional vocals that half-shout a lengthy story, yet the song is cohesive and rocks hard. I was surprised at how much I enjoyed this album, even on first listen. Video

Charlotte Gainsbourg “Me And Jane Doe”
Josh: To me, this is what the Shaggs would have sounded like if they knew how to play their instruments. Video

Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds “Red Right Hand”
Kieran: This song came to mind for a couple reasons (other than the fact that I love it). I was reminded of this song after listening to the new Tom Waits album (which is great!) a bit recently, and like “Somebody That I Used To Know,” the instrumentation of this one is interestingly spare. Cave’s voice and style really come through here in a great way, that spine-chilling chime strike marking the end of each apocalyptic “red right hand” is a favorite, and the organ part that comes across as something out of an old horror film is the icing on top. Video