Michael Rudd, Going to the Mountain (Invisible Road Records)

Although one would naturally assume that Bob Dylan viewed Townes Van Zandt as a competitor, the two were quite respectful of each other; like the Stones and The Beatles, one couldn’t exist without the other. Thus we could wax hyperbolic and say that there are only two types of roots-folk fans in the world, and this K-8 school principal, an Albuquerque resident who left New Jersey to concentrate on writing, lumps into the “darker please” category, preferring muddy examinations of slovenly desperation to Dylan’s more laissez-faire, metaphor-stuffed acquiescence. Rudd’s second album begins with “Before The Demon Came,” and immediately comparisons to Eels and Tom Waits spring to mind, along with the usual suspects, T. Bone Burnett and such. In that, the tuneage is more appropriate for an American civilization that’s creaking awkwardly around on its last legs; sung in a baritone that’s both weary and indestructible, Rudd weaves a tapestry comprising dream fugues (“Going To The Mountain”), quiet soul-searching (“End Of Days”) and spidery unplugged honky-tonk (“Walk My Way”). Boy, would I like to hear local folkies lean into this approach. A+ — Eric W. Saeger

Carriers, Every Time I Feel Afraid (self-released)

This band’s leader/frontperson is Curt Kiser, formerly of indie rockers Pomegranates; in this project his focus is fixed in the direction of War On Drugs (for reference, old people should think David Essex fronting Pink Floyd). There’s a similar airy quality to these songs, and in fact Kiser’s infatuation with WOD is a little off-putting: The title track is a little too close to WOD’s “Suffering” for my comfort, not that that should necessarily dissuade you from checking this out, and besides, a little melodic helium does fit our zeitgeist a lot better than that of Bon Iver and such, especially given that the Aughts-indie period has finally been consigned to the recycle-bin of history where it belonged on Day 1. What am I even saying, you ask? I mean that it’s melodically pure if derivative in spots; where WOD’s “Under The Pressure” is more Joy Division-ish, Kiser selects A-ha’s “Take On Me” as his spirit animal for the push track, “Motion.” Hey, either way, at least I don’t have to stomach more Sigur Ros verisimilitude, put it that way, which is always a good thing. B — Eric W. Saeger

_PLAYLIST

A seriously abridged compendium of recent and future CD releases

• Hooray, the most pointless month of the calendar is over, good old March, goodbye forever, hasta la vista, arrivadertch, but oh goodie, here comes March’s annoying little brother, April, the month when we all hit Target at 7 a.m. the morning after Easter just to stock up on Reese’s peanut butter eggs at 50 percent off, what else are you supposed to do in April other than start a really inadvisable romantic relationship now that the alcoholic bars are serving their gourmet cheeseburgers outside, when there isn’t a “freak” (in other words normal for April) snowstorm? Well, OK, there’s always that other thing you can do, go to Strawberries or Rockit Records or Bradlees or K-Mart or Amazon to buy bad albums, but you can do that every week, when Friday strikes, with its Easter basket-load of new albums! Just look at this one, streeting this Friday, April 4, a collaborative album between Elton John and Brandi Carlile, titled Who Believes in Angels! Now hopefully, Elton, who recently celebrated his 3,000th birthday at his vampire pyramid-castle, had some vague idea of who Brandi Carlile is when he was doing these recordings and didn’t think she was actually Lorde or Madonna or Brenda Lee, who can even keep up with all this nonsense, you know? In case you’re also a mega-old vampire who doesn’t know who she is: Carlile’s a famous folk-rocker who wrote a bunch of tunes for Tanya Tucker, so maybe Elton’s handlers told him she was actually Alison Krauss (of frequent Robert Plant-collaboration fame) to get him on board, but either way, I’m sure the circumstances of their collaboration are bizarre indeed, but belay all that, folks, let’s go listen to the title track of this collaborative collaboration between the 3,000-year-old mummy-vampire and Carlile, whom some of us professional rock journalists refer to as “No, Not Bonnie Raitt, The Newer One.” Yikes, you should see the video for this song, they’re trying to revive Elton’s most famous antics, the stage set in the video revolves around his Captain Fantastic-era optics, you know, when he was into high nonsense-art a la Hieronymus Bosch (but nice!), and then we move to the song, which is in the same vein as “Candle in the Wind,” Elton’s famous ode to Princess Diana. What am I saying? Well, basically I’m saying that there was no need for this mutually collaborative collaboration-a-thon to ever happen, but I’m sure there are some 80-year-old National Enquirer readers who’ll love it, and Elton looks really good for someone who’s been preserved in a Dracula coffin with ancient tanna leaves since Carter was president.

• DOGGOD also comes out on Friday; it’s the third album from L.A. Witch, an all-girl garage band that launched when the singer’s boyfriend forbade her from playing with male musicians, and instead of dumping him on the spot she decided to go with it, because boyfriends don’t just grow on trees, you know. “The Lines” is a cool ’80s-goth-dance thingie, evincing the band’s love for The Gun Club (and by extension X-Ray Spex, but don’t tell them that). It’s fine, sure.

• And yadda yadda, here’s another one, The Ophelias, with their new LP, Spring Grove! Oh, it’s not the California psychedelic band, it’s the Ohio indie band, what are we even doing right now? The single, “Salome,” is a grungy filthy indie-grinding mess with a really catchy groove, I approve of these people, whoever they are.
• We’ll put this week to bed with New York noise-poppers Sleigh Bells, who are selling a new album, Bunky Becky Birthday Boy! The single, “Bunky Pop,” is like a Nintendo-ized ripoff of Outkast’s “Hey Ya,” and yes, it’s as artistically important as it looks. — Eric W. Saeger