New in Toronto Music rounds up recently released audio & video from local talent.

WE WERE HEADS / TRASH FACTORY / NOVEMBER 30TH
You know, I was ahead once but now I feel behind. Somewhat similarly, We Were Heads sound ahead while also sounding behind. What do I mean? Take "You Like the Shop, Pops?" It's fresh, it's cool but it also gestures to that '90s sound that all the kids are going crazy for — again — these days. Am I the only one who enjoys the renaissance of the sound more then the sound that's being renaissanced? I think I just dug my own grave there. Sheesh. Catch We Were Heads live on November 30th at the Cameron House as they release their hilariously titled album Trash Factory.

SERENA RYDER / HARMONY / NOVEMBER 27TH
Serena Ryder is back with a fresh new sound that will surely have all sorts of folks exclaiming "this sounds like a better and more organically titled version of that Skyfall song!" "Stromba" is fairly good indication of what Harmony, a somewhat eclectic collection within loose neo-soul parameters sounds like. I would like to take this opportunity to apologize for the phrase "a somewhat eclectic collection within loose neo-soul parameters." This reporter would definitely not surprised to hear a song like this in one of those cool Heiniken beer commercials in which the hero does some astounding things amidst exotic people and surroundings.

RUN WITH THE KITTENS / LETTERS FROM CAMP / NOVEMBER 23RD
The tricky part in writing about Run with the Kittens is avoiding penning a sentence that can be pulled for a quote for their website. Here goes... The always entertaining Run with the Kittens are back with a new album that's sorely lacking--a dull moment, that is. What it does have is moments that'll make you want to get up and dance, albeit poorly, because any intimation of societal pressure to dance within normal conventions is gone, much like your interest. Your interest in reading this, that is, because it's probably very confusing. Run With the Kittens suck. Like a tree, sucking up the CO2 of unspirited music, only to breathe out fresh, clean oxygenated music.

CRYSTAL CASTLES / III / SAD EYES / NOVEMBER 6TH
Crystal Castles' MANY fans have surely had a great week listening to the new Crystal Castles album, III. Across the city people were walking their dogs and listening to Crystal Castle's III, they were riding the streetcar and listening to Crystal Castles III, and perhaps they were even washing the dishes and listening to Crystal Castles III.

The follow up to II (duh!), III offers the classic Crystal Castles beep-bops with more of that "Euro-feel" that made me oddly nostalgic about playing mini-sticks and listening to Dance Mix '96 at my friend Eric Ihrig's birthday party when I was 11. Eric Ihrig's was the best because his parents had a restaurant and thus a soda fountain. In many ways, Crystal Castles III is like having a best friend with a soda fountain. Crystal Castles make interesting and engrossing music (the best friend) but it also comes with some cultural cachet (which is like the soda fountain). Crystal Castles: like a best friend with unlimited soda. I'm great at my job.

MILES JONES / THE JONES ACT III / CATCH ME IN THE RYE
The production on the new Miles Jones album, The Jones Act III, is very relaxing. Maybe that's not what Mr. Jones was shooting for, but listen to "Catch me in the Rye" and you can't tell me that the burden of stress in this workaday isn't lifted a little bit. The name is even a relaxing allusion — whatever your memories of Holden Caulfield, protagonist of the J.D. Salinger classic The Catcher in the Rye, you were probably in high school when you read that novel. Life was simpler then.

Lead photo by aktivioslo on Flickr