Viper Bite, 2010

Goodbye God is a mixed bag – part power-pop, veering at its most sugary toward quirky synth-pop (see “Days Of Thunder”), part subtle indie rock, where songwriter Jon Sebastian’s confiding voice takes precedence (see “It’s A Miracle”). It’s a brief assortment, with 12 tracks at under half an hour, and a bit disjointed – but enough strong individual songs make it worth a spin.

Inhaler / Chruchkey, 2010

A quirky name for some quirky – in a stripped-down, angular, energetic and hip way – indie rock. The North Carolina trio’s debut lands somewhere between garage and college rock, somewhere between the edgy drive of Jawbox and the catchy nerdishness of Weezer – and was produced by Jawbox’s J. Robbins, no less.

Big Bullet, 2009

Geeky pop-rock that works best when it treads thickly-laid power-pop territory, rather than when it swerves into gimmicky synth-pop (compare “Oh Kay” to “Time Travel”) – even if the former route does borrow too much from (Blue Album-era) Weezer.