Pens are the latest word in uber-hip lo-fi noisy stuff, apparently, and Hey Friend! What You Doing? is their debut long player. Is it trash, treasure or both?

Is this finally the one? Is Born Again Revisited by Times New Viking the lo-fi album I can recommend without reservation? D’you know, I think it might be close.

New Yorican trio-next-door Vivian Girls return with Everything Goes Wrong, a second album that’s fuller and more consistent than their ragged debut.

Great, a new Black Lips single. “Drugs” is two and a half minutes of your life you’ll never get back, but the Faris Rotter B-side cover version is OK by comparison.

Adorable noisy lunatics Lovvers have a second album of stripped-back garage silliness; OCD Go Go Go Girls is half an hour of smiles. But don’t ask what it means.

Nathan “Wavves” Williams’ label-released debut, Wavvves, is noisy and poppy and a little bit mad… but is it less an album than a form of self-defence?

Silly things are afoot on Capitol Hill… no, not the promise-breaking of the Obama administration but the geeky garage of Caustic Casanova’s Imminent Eminence.

Drop everything, grab this new Lovvers record and listen to it immediately. Think may last less than thirteen minutes, but it’s pure punk pop liberation all the way.

Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences – the new Nick Cave or the new Tom Waits? On the evidence of We Are Not Other People, Duncan Harris reckons “neither”.

Just when you thought it was safe to pick up your headphones … it’s another super-weird slice of nutter pop from Paul Hawkins & Thee Awkward Silences.