Things That Go Pop!

Electrotrash artist Peaches has released her fourth album, I Feel Cream. (Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Fresh Peaches: Toronto-reared, Berlin-based electro-rock queen Peaches is known for gleefully indulging in shock tactics. She's the potty-mouthed vixen who brought us the pulsating anthem F--- the Pain Away (now banned at more than one strip club) and celebrated the wonders of small-chested women in the glitchy AAXXX.

While she may come off as gratuitously raunchy, the performer (born Merrill Nisker) invests even her dirtiest ditties with a critical edge: for Peaches, talking trash is about expanding our cultural ideas of what constitutes appropriate "feminine" behaviour. That's why she posed in a beard for the cover of her album Fatherf---er (2003) and tried to send up the surf-tastic fantasies of Jan and Dean in her track Two Guys (For Every Girl) (off 2006's Impeach My Bush).

But sometimes, it seems as though Peaches is more concerned with raising eyebrows than producing engaging music. Other than a brief foray into a brash, more guitar-driven sound on Impeach My Bush, the bulk of the Peaches canon finds the artist resorting to her default musical mode: a deadpan half-rapped growl over squelchy beats.

Peaches' new album, I Feel Cream, may be her most shocking release to date. Why? Because the over-the-top performer challenges herself to step up as a musician, resulting in some remarkably good disco tunes that reveal Peaches is a decent club singer. (N.B. This will come as no shock to those who remember Nisker from her pre-electro-trash days, when she was half of a coffeehouse folk duo known as Mermaid Cafe.)

Happily, she's smart enough to have recruited some solid producers to create slinky, synthesized dancefloor-friendly backdrops for her tunes. As you can see above, lead single Talk to Me is a punchy, percussive anthem with a bluesy vocal melody that should appeal to fans of Le Tigre and Roisin Murphy. I'm into the weird horror-flick atmosphere of the video, though I'm convinced Peaches' new punker haircut makes her look like a strange mix of Sandra Bernhard, Justine Frischmann (Elastica) and Amy Sedaris. Fans who appreciate the singer's dirtier side can revel in the lewd come-ons of Serpentine and Trick or Treat, but I'm most impressed by the icy Italo-disco number Lose You, a dazzlingly glittery love song that proves Peaches knows being tender doesn't make her any less macho.

-- Sarah Liss

Sister act: Sister Suvi's New Agey name belies the fact that this trio (made up of two boys and a girl, spread between Montreal and Toronto) is actually responsible for producing some rather rapturous jangly pop that has very little to do with crystals or self-indulgent psychedelia. Rather, their songs occupy some dreamy middle ground between the Velvet Underground and freak-folk acts like Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart. They've just released an album on Common Cloud records (available here as a pay-what-you-want download).

The group's tunes have a deliberately naive charm, due in no small part to singer-instrumentalist Merrill Garbus's way with a ukulele. Her breezy plucking anchors The Lot, a tribute to the joy of city cycling couched in a rambling fusion of urban folk and raucous guitar rock. Between the clip-clopping drumstick percussion, the snarling guitars and the endearingly wobbly three-part vocals, the track captures that stomach-in-your-throat thrill that comes from blazing down hills on a bike with busted gears on a drunken midsummer night. It's already touched a special place in the hearts of the folks at Pitchfork and Said The Gramophone.

-- Sarah Liss

Stuck in the '90s again: Two iconic groups that helped define the sound of pre-millennial indie rock have made triumphant returns this week. Their new material might make you feel like the last fifteen years never happened.

Rock godmothers the Breeders were already self-destructing when they hit the acme of their fame in 1993, with sophomore album Last Splash (the record that birthed the addictively catchy single Cannonball, still probably their most celebrated tune). Since then, sisters Kim and Kelley Deal have lived relatively quiet lives, marked by stints in rehab and the sporadic release of new records. Unlike the Pixies (Kim's other band), who had a much-publicized break-up and reunited in 2004 for a profitable reunion tour, the Breeders never really went away: they just settled down in their hometown of Dayton, Oh., kept finessing their defiantly sweet 'n' sour aesthetic and worked on getting healthy enough to tour without falling off the wagon.

The Breeders' combo of crunchy guitars, raw production and girlish vocals is still prized by their cult following, though fans have grown accustomed to waiting for new material -- the band took almost a decade to release a follow-up to Last Splash; last year's Mountain Battles came six years after 2002's Title TK.

That's why it was thrilling when Kim and Kelley Deal announced they'd be releasing a gritty, lo-fi independent EP this year, barely 12 months after their last full-length album. The Breeders recently put out a video for Fate to Fatal, the title track and lead single off the EP. The clip features shots of the Deals recording intercut with footage of rough-and-tumble roller derby girls -- it's a perfect complement to the resonant, slow-burn riffs, smoky vocal melodies, tinny keyboards and shouty chorus of the tune.

Also providing ample flashback fodder: the resuscitated Dinosaur Jr., who got back together for what was supposed to be a one-off show, then a tour. Turns out the chemistry between original members J. Mascis, Lou Barlow and Murph was still so potent that they felt compelled to record a whole new album. That was Beyond, which came out in 2007. Now they've managed to keep it together long enough to release another album, the forthcoming Farm.

Though the lo-fi aesthetic of the Breeders' latest songs can feel a bit melancholy, there's nothing sad about I Want You to Know, the brand spanking new Dinosaur Jr. single. It's a glorious tangle of fuzzed-out riffs, clattering cymbals and Mascis's inimitable plaintive yowls. Simply rad.

--Sarah Liss

Cut-less Ciara: Though she's released at least one viral single (2004's ubiquitous Missy Elliott-produced 1, 2 Step), I've always found R&B nymphet Ciara to be largely forgettable. (For the longest time, I was even convinced that 1, 2 Step was actually a middling Britney Spears track.) Her latest album, Fantasy Ride (out today) doesn't do much to change my mind.

Thing is, Ciara's no great shakes as a singer. Her vocals are papery and bland, with few defining characteristics to distinguish the 23-year-old from her neo-soul contemporaries. Ciara doesn't even have that intimidating untouchable fembot quality that's present in Rihanna's meticulously produced android vocal tracks. She's basically an aesthetically pleasing blank canvas on which contemporary producers can scrawl their tags; the songs on her albums say much more about her collaborators than they do about the main attraction.

So far, Love Sex Magic, the second official single off Fantasy Ride, is getting substantial airplay, likely because it's a sexy Justin Timberlake song accompanied by a sexy video that features JT bringing sexy back while Ciara comes along for the (fantasy) ride. Other than that, the only thing about the album that's generating much buzz is Ciara's decision to include the track Turntables, a duet with fallen R&B idol Chris Brown (aka Rihanna's violent ex). Not really sure why she kept it on the album (other than the free publicity that comes with making "controversial" choices), since the song is pretty awful. It's an overproduced free-for-all in which the disparate elements -- Ciara's reedy verses, Brown's muted hooks, layers of disconnected beats, bells and whistles -- never gel.

The only song worth listening to on Fantasy Ride is Work, a slithery club cut produced by Ciara's old 1, 2 Step partner Missy Elliott.

Yeah, the tune's a little Get Ur Freak On/Work It-lite, but since there's still no release date confirmed for Elliott's own forthcoming Block Party album, this is the closest we'll get to hearing new Missy material for the foreseeable future.

--Sarah Liss

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