Lawrence.com

The Noise FM's 2008 release "Dream of the Attack" was rife with cool guitar tones to complement Alex Ward’s flighty riffs, and it jumps out of the speakers like a funny car at a Volkswagen bug rally. Standout tracks include “Circles” and “Simple Simon,” although the whole album retains its potency for nine indefatigable songs.The Abracadabras are a Kansas City band that channels the psych-rock majesty of past and present in a manner not too unlike Oasis and/or The Vines. Driven by delightfully nasal singer John Nixon and 6' 8" drummer Kyle Rausch (who traded a D 1-A basketball scholarship for a life of poverty), the group released its sorcerous debut album "Be Still, Be Cool" in 2008 and survived a tragicomical van-theft episode. Such tomfoolery hardly impeded the group's ability to pen perfect-10 rock anthems and leave it all onstage every time they perform.

Ample Branches' 16-song debut "True Vine" merits an honorary degree from the academy of innovative home recording -- it would be "lo-fi" if only if weren't so well-produced. Fans of homespun indie bands like The Microphones, The Books and Animal Collective will dig the collection immediately, but its more populist touchstones -- The Beatles, Pink Floyd, Sufjan Stevens -- lend "True Vine" an across-the-universe appeal.M.M.O.D. is a newish Lawrence band featuring Cameron Hawk of Dead Girls Ruin Everything and a couple of his party-hard brohams. The group kicks out effect-pedaled indie rock jams with delightfully beer-goggled melodies.