Jonny Polonsky, “Lay Down Your Arms.” I remember interviewing Jonny Polonsky a couple of time when his first album came out and he toured with his mentor Frank Black. It was a memorable talk. Polonsky had led the houseband for one of the earliest non-New York productions of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and he had learned a lot from the ‘90s Chicago indie scene. But he was to tainted by many critics for his devotion to Frank Black. The sonic influence was all too obvious, but at the same time there were countless lame Pixies pretenders out there then and Polonsky was one of the rare good ones. Over the years, he found his own sound and matured into a mellower form of dark heavy percussion-structured rock. There’s a new album out, The Other Side of Midnight, and a new video for the leisurely yet intense single “Lay Down Your Arms” at Clash Music here.

Jacco Gardner, Hypnophobia (Polyvinyl Records). Neo-quasi-techno-psychedelia. What’s the desired pharmaceutical here—a hallucinogen or something for stamina? The lyrics, rhythmic build-up and airy guitars are all Lovely, in the Arthur Lee sense. But the digressions—movie-soundtrack-style thumps and keyboards, dance breaks, experimental interludes—can be as engrossing as the verses and choruses. When not sounding like ‘60s Sunset Strip bands, there’s a T. Rex early-glam thing going on. Wonderfully unnerving, to the point of charming.