Sound Liberation’s “Elegy” isn’t so much an album as it is an unbolting of several sonic cages, letting the inhabitants mingle, argue, and eventually, find a strange, compelling harmony. Gene Pritsker and his rotating ensemble are, as ever, on a crusade against the "segregation of sound vibration," and here, their weapon of choice is grief, remembrance, and an absolutely defiant refusal to sit still...

Ken Woods and the Old Blue Gang kick up some serious dust with their single "Ride the Rails," and listening feels less like tapping your foot and more like watching the ground crack open nearby. It’s got that Bakersfield twang alright, bright and wiry, but tangled up with a nervous psychobilly heartbeat and the kind of scuffed-boot roots rock energy that sounds like it’s...