PunksNotDead/DuoTasking

Indie games are often free, and all about ideas over high-end execution

The bassline starts, "1979" flashes up on screen and, over a scratchy recording, the voice intones "Walking down the street, I get punched; you're walking down the street, you get punched".

PunksNotDead's not going to hold your attention for more than a few minutes, but in those few minutes, this hyperkinetic, luridly day-glo explosion of punk attitude and violence encapsulates everything that's great about the indie games scene – it's the ideas, stupid (and they're free).

CD: Cold War Kids - Dear Miss Lonelyhearts

Californian quartet aim at stadiums but only occasionally thrill

Cold War Kids remain all mixed up. The Californian band appeared in 2006 bearing tasty blues-rock indie that leapt about in the same places Jack White hangs out. There was lots of media blather about their being a Christian band since most of them had met at the private Christian college, Biola University. Then it turned out they had much more complex and conflicted theological perspectives than were easy to sum up in music mag pull-quotes.

CD: Woodpigeon - Thumbtacks and Glue

Low-fi folkies decide prettiness is not enough

Mark Hamilton, with his bushy beard and plaid shirts, looks like he might be the singer with indie hipsters Grizzly Bear. In fact he is Woodpigeon - an act with a similar sound, but whom some consider a little more twee. But, in truth, although Hamilton and friends can sound quite light, there are very few albums anywhere that can match the pastoral beauty of Woodpigeon’s first three releases. On Thumbtacks and Glue, however, the introspective Canadian seems to have decided that prettiness is not enough.

CD: Low - The Invisible Way

America’s musical kin and their own past shade the 10th album from the quietly intense Minnesotans

TWenty years in operation, Minnesota’s Low could have comfortably chosen cruise control. Instead, for their 10th album they’ve looked to their own past and taken a step back from the Crazy Horse-influences which coloured their last album C’mon. Bringing Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy in as their producer seems to have reintroduced Low to an earlier form of themselves. Their new album was recorded at Wilco’s Chicago studio.

CD: My Bloody Valentine - m b v

Over 20 years late, the sonic voyagers return to put the pretenders in their place

It’s not much of a surprise that My Bloody Valentine have eventually followed up 1991’s Loveless. They’ve been playing live with increasing regularity, with the same line-up as back then. The way the new album has arrived – with no warning via a new website – isn't so surprising either. Despite the widespread co-opting of their sonic template, what is surprising is how much m b v sounds like My Bloody Valentine.

CD: Frightened Rabbit - Pedestrian Verse

Local heroes' major label debut hides its darkness under upbeat tunes

In theory, it’s close to impossible to achieve some semblance of mainstream success without being decried as a sellout by at least a proportion of your fanbase. Yet I don’t think there was a Scottish indie music fan who greeted this week's news that Frightened Rabbit had scored a Top 10 chart place for their major-label debut without a mixture of pride and delight.