Staff Recommendations: January 15th, 2012

Hey, it's Sunday. It's recommendation time from your faithful staff conglomerate. We've got a bunch of cool things coming up next week, so don't forget to check the website throughout. Oh, and feel free to leave your recommendations in the replies. We're looking for some new stuff to check out. Thanks for visiting this week.

Jason TateSeriously, did you think I would recommend anything except A Wilhelm Scream? Check out "Career Suicide" and "Ruiner" and "Mute Print" and don't even bother with anything else. Band is dominating my life. PS: Those are Spotify links. If you're looking for other stuff I like and am listening too, follow me on twitter or rdio. I'll return to regularly scheduled recommendations once the AWS kick has worn off.

Christian WagnerA Golden Era is getting back together. Check out "Shake It Off" on the music player on the home page. Just great pop-rock that was never discovered and runs along the lines of Anarbor. Also been jamming Amber Pacific's The Possibility And The Promise and The Morning Of's The World As We Know It. And this is the greatest music video of all time.

Kyle HuntingtonNaturally I'm going to be recommending The Maccabees' new album Given To The Wild this week. So pleased at the amount of love it's getting, let alone the fact that people are giving it a listen. If you haven't checked it out yet then stream it here and check out my review here. Feel free to follow me on Twitter to check out my thoughts in general and find other things that I'm enjoying...but this album will dominate my year already.

Jack ApplebyNow that I don't have to hear about Tebow anymore, we can start talking about how great the Clippers are? The start of the year has been a bit slow for me musically, so I've been flashing back to Foo Fighters (catch my retro review?) and Third Eye Blind, with the new Kurt Travis getting some spins as well. If you want to talk music, NBA, or social media talk, come tweet at me.

Dre Okorley Propagandhi. Need I say more? They've come a long way from the knee-slapping puns in Less Talk, More Rock. The fact is, they're homegrown (no pun intended), and they produce and release their own music, rocked out in their own space. No Trigger is another gem that happens to map the Prop influence across their musical landscape, and Tycoon will be released on February 21. Are you ready for the wreckage of both bands combined?

Blake SolomonIt didn't take long for 2012 to hit me hard. arrange's new EP Five Years with the Sun is some electro-bedroom pop virtuosity. The Maccabees' Given to the Wild is like what Foals would do if they were invited to more parties. And Driver Friendly's new video for "Ghosts" is not only visually stunning, but the song's mantra, "It's not death that scares us / It's the ghost we cannot see," is going to be one of those driving forces I use to make it through another sure-to-be ridiculous year.

Jason GardnerIt's been a week full of two things for me – Enter Shikari and Childish Gambino. Besides having a hard time not spinning Camp on my commute to and from work, A Flash Flood of Colour has been finding a place in my daily listening sessions as well. Is anyone else as excited about a new Gambino mixtape as I am?

Adam PfleiderJust came home from a show inside a shed with The Reptilian, Innards and Living and Wrestling. Check them all out. Also spinning new albums by Big Sir - and the Indian Handcrafts' self-titled is going to destroy you. Sickest guitar tones I've heard in a while.

Deborah RemusSeeing the studio update from Billy Talent this week inspired me to dust off their older records. And after all these years, I can definitely say that their 2003 self-titled debut has stood the test of time. I still love "Lies" and "Prisoners of Today."