Today we've got a new J Dilla collection that Rolling Stone calls "possibly the best posthumous rap record since the final releases of 2Pac and Biggie," along with new music from Baltimore's The Seldon Plan, Dave Allen from Gang of Four's new band Faux Hoax, a free track and $5 album from Butterfly Boucher, and more!

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With a sound deep-seated in Americana and an added rock-and-roll pulse, Old Crow Medicine Show's latest release is the musical remedy to all your ailments. Tennessee Pusher is available for purchase today!

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Called "the smartest and finest purveyors of American music to come down the pike in decades" by Don Was (who produced the new album), Old Crow Medicine Show relives the spirit of old-time traveling bands with passion and spirit. Pre-order Tennessee Pusher for only $5, exclusively on Amie Street!

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A group of multi-instrumentalists, influences ranging from sea shanties to American roots rock, and a fantastically produced album with all the power and energy of a live show: Decibully are an exceptional band, and Sing Out America is their best yet.

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Take bluegrass, Irish-pub tunes, ska, country, and rock -- throw them all in a blender and the result is the music of Vancouver natives, The Clumsy Lovers.

features fifteen tracks of the band's signature fusion and sounds reminiscent of everything from Barenaked Ladies, to Enter The Haggis, to Old Crow Medicine Show, and often sound like a combination of all three. So whether you're interested in picking out their influences or you just like to hear great original music, give The Clumsy Lovers a try -- they'll be sure not to disappoint.

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was released in 2005 by Portland (the left one) natives Foghorn Stringband, but the songs may as well have been discovered in some forgotten West Virginian time capsule, finding light after generations of darkness. Critics whose livings are made by knowing such things heap praise on the band's faithfulness to old-time styles and sensibilities, which is agreeable to me but falls short of justice for the folksy triumph of Foghorn Stringband's music. It sounds concomitantly familiar and new; it is at once similar to so many other wonderful fiddle-driven concoctions you've tapped your foot to before, and refreshingly unique.

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Thick with anticipation, the crowd hushes as the lights dim and the house music fades. Under cover of darkness and armed with instruments, an unassuming five piece takes the stage. Fingers fly deftly up and down fret boards, landing precisely in their intended spots, sounding note after accurate, split-second note. The PA fills the room with the crisp, clear ring of...banjos and fiddles. This, my friends, is how the other half shreds.

The first thing that'll occur to you when you listen to The Mammals is that this band can play. Soon after, you may slowly come to the realization that even though you never fancied yourself a bluegrass fan, you're tapping your toes, you're already singing along to Way Down the Old Plank Road on your first listen. In fact, if you try to tell me you didn't sing along, I'll look you square in the eyes and call you a liar. When they're at their best, The Mammals transcend the confines of genre; they make music that might be classified as bluegrass or folk but should rightly be called simply "good."

But Amie Street is full of great music that can be classified thusly. Let's talk specifics, shall we? For the indie-minded among us, 69 Pleasant Street is an absolute can't-miss, featuring Iron-and-Wine-evoking whisper-sung vocals. If a little political commentary is your thing, check out Whirlwinds , Lil’ Sally and the closer: Industrial Park . For pure, unadulterated sing-along fun, the aforementioned album opener Way Down the Old Plank Road is phenomenal, as is Wandering Boy .

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[Editor's Note: The following is from the review "Abigail Washburn plays as hot as Sichuan tofu" written by August Brown -- a guest blogger for the LA Times.]

As jingoistic as country artists can seem sometimes (word, Darryl Worley), it's easy to forget that it's essentially acoustic folk music, which comes from a long line of music from other far-flung ethnicities. Abigail Washburn is out to right that wrong, trekking all the way to the Sichuan province of China and the feminist mythologies of Tori Amos to make a wholly unique folk music of her own.

The short version of Washburn's biography is that she plays hill-country music while writing and singing lyrics in, oh, fluent Mandarin Chinese. It's not as crazy as it sounds; Asian instruments like the pipa and koto are distant cousins of her preferred banjo, and the sing-songy phonetics of Mandarin are an unlikely but apt fit for the melodies and cadences of bluegrass.

With backing band the Sparrow Quartet (banjo god Bela Fleck was her sideman), Washburn stomped and skipped through firey Appalachian takes on the local songs of Sichuan. Her bilingualism's no gimmick; she nails the dips and peaks of pitch while leading her band in scorching variations on simple, repetitive traditional melodies.

But anyone who stops at the gosh-wow factor of a pretty white banjo player singing in Chinese misses the nuance of her English tunes. Red & Blazing and Eve Stole the Apple are slow-burning torch songs, steeped in subtle but powerful feminism that only deepens the folkloric and storytelling qualities of her songs. But she knows from bluesy 'sugar-in-my-bowl' double entendres as well; she ended one Chinese song about the pan-ethnic subject of baby-making by saying "That's some hot stuff from the Sichuan province there." Her album

is just as hot, and you'd do well to search it out.

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