Monster Movie, Eau Claire, Hidden Agenda, and Linus Pauling Quartet

With summer, um, approaching, and the smell of week-old barbecue in the air, weird shit is afoot in these hills. Monster Movie is Christian Savill and Sean Hewson, and their latest disc is Transistor on Chicago's Graveface Records. While they're from Chi-town, Rachel Staggs of Austin's Experimental Aircraft lends her vocals to several of the LP's wispy tunes, from the Radiohead-ish "Left" to the beach-friendly harmonies of "The Family Plot." Elsewhere in the sonic universe, Staggs has created Eau Claire, a duo with Chicago solo artist Jessica Bailiff. Produced by Alan Sparhawk of Low, the self-titled EP on Claire Records is an homage to all things lo-fi. The singers converge on opener "Freefall," with its Farfisa-driven beat, and then "Soaring," a tremolo backbend into Lush's Lovelife. Closer "Song For" simmers and boils for a lovely pop concoction. Austin's Hidden Agenda are back, sort of, with two completely different albums. Music That Hurts is their "best of," from the death metal send-up "Kurt Cobain Is Dead, I Wish It Were You" to the classic "Busload of Nuns." And don't forget "Betty Ford Baby," their (cringe-worthy) ode to hip-hop. Topographic Pictures of the Crimson Lamb's Tears, however, puts down the crank and picks up the dank. The first four songs are, of course, Yes-man outros that dive into the New Age gene pool. "Ne Vomissez Pas Sur Les Petits Gens" stumbles onto John Tesh in a dark alley and shanks him, the last half of the disc freefalling through soft porn soundtracking, Eighties dance, and, for some reason, sounding like Paul Simon's Graceland. The new Demo 2005 EP from Houston's Linus Pauling Quartet delivers more molten psych along the lines of 2000's Ashes in the Bong of God, including a cover of Syd Barrett's "Vegetable Man." Weird shit, indeed.