Those of you who were at the Grog Shop the last time Sebadoh made it to Cleveland should recognize the next track. On that particular night, Lou told some self-deprecating story and then played a new song on an acoustic guitar. Ok, Lou told a lot of self-deprecating stories that night and the band played a handful of new songs. This one stood out, however. He recounted the emotion he felt as he saw his neighbors take their children to school and wondered how we would do as a family man, himself. No, “State of Mine,” isn’t your typical Sebadoh track detailing another day of being bored and stoned and Lou is no longer the same lovable loser he worked so hard to portray all those years ago. He’s a different lovable loser who has found a way to sing about adult matters and adult responsibilities and still sound like that guy crashed on your sofa and who hasn’t left for days. Sebadoh’s Defend Yourself will be out September 17th on Joyful Noise Recordings.

Unstoppable. Gabe Fulvimar’s Gap Dream is an unstoppable pop force these days. Just when you think he can’t possibly top his last track of slacker electro pop magnificence, he comes up with something like “Shine Your Love,” a majestic, practically Beatles-esque number, recalling something written by McCartney and Lennon around the time of Sgt Pepper or Magical Mystery Tour, but recorded with a budget of nothing. The “Shine Your Love” 7″ is available for pre-order via Fat Possum.

I remember this song from when the Dead Milkmen recorded it 25 years ago. That could be a compliment if I could ever make up my mind about Parquet Courts. I’m still listening and I’m still thinking and I’ll check out their new EP when it arrives this fall (10.8 on What’s Your Rupture). That says something, right?

“Screams” by Heaven’s Gate is a fastball over the center of the plate. It’s as if I am the one-man focus group and some evil manager in Brooklyn concocted a band with the sole aim of winning me over.

Shouty, but not screamed vocals? Check. Aggressive tempo? Check. Capable musicianship? Check. Vague references to grunge, post-punk, and shoegaze? Check, check, and check. Gratuitous jamming? No check. I really can’t ask for anything more from a two-minute jam. Transmuting, the debut LP by Heaven’s Gate will be released 9.24 on Inflated Records.

Ahh, the good old days, when I had time at work to both work and listen to new jams. These days, my co-workers seem to think headphones are the universal signal for “Do you have a minute?” Now, instead of a little web and a little work and a little more web, I often have to wait until I get home to jam and then I have ten or more tabs of jams from all of the articles and emails I starred throughout the day.

Yesterday during jam time, something startled me while TV Ghost was playing. I was sure one of those other tabs with a different jam was polluting the TV Ghost jam. After double checking every play button on SoundCloud and every play button on Youtube, I realized TV Ghost, alone, was responsible for all that racket. This track, “Siren,” from their Disconnect album (9.3 on In the Red) is like three psych revivalist bands and three separate songs all aligning for one magic freak out. It’s like that time when you watched Wizard of Oz and listened to Dark Side of the Moon and it was too much of a coincidence that the two went so well together. This time, however, there’s no weed involved to make the trick work.