When I say \"Detroit music\", what do you immediately think of? The White Stripes? True. Iggy Pop? Yeah, I can see that. The Von Bondies? I suppose you\'re right. But what about Times Beach Records (TBR)? Haven\'t heard of them? Well, you should. Because if you like good music, chances are TBR has something for you.

Teen Wheat\'s vs. Old Wheat is a kick-ass debut from the new Atlanta-based label Dead Medium. It’s the label and band’s first release, and, man, is it a powerhouse!
Combining the dissonant guitar riffs of Sonic Youth with the power of post-punk and the anger of Screamo, Teen Wheat is a force to be reckoned with. The energy level of this disc makes you feel like you’re there in the front row of a show. Teen Wheat plows through song after song, pummeling the crowd, causing even the most jaded audience member to nod along to the beat while everyone else freaks the fuck out.

This is the pill you place in your player to find yourself back in the day, five years old, watching Sesame Street and The Electric Company, lacing up your sneakers to play double dutch or just plain run around until you collapse with exhaustion. This is Kool-Aid and Happy Meals, with soul music blasting out of your mother’s record player while she vacuums the rug. This is sunshine, sandcastles, snowmen, and Christmas morning. This is everything that allows you to wax a hazy shade of nostalgia, and smile in the process. And it’s only four songs long.

There’s one moment at the end of this album that completely strikes a nerve in me every time I hear it. It’s extremely difficult to explain in a way that will do it justice, but I have to try. I want everyone to hear it. It gave me goose bumps the first time I heard it, and that doesn’t happen often.

EDITOR\'S NOTE: This month\'s Shit You Need is special. My editor, Wayne, has a soft spot for Soft Skull Press-- an independent publishing company that releases some of the best books around. They challenge authority, make you laugh, and, best of all, say something different than the usual tripe Oprah gets all wet over. So, I had Wayne do a quick run-through of some of his Soft Skull favorites.
1. Get Your War On by David Rees

Adam,
Remember when we first started dating back in the early Nineties? You used to make me laugh so hard, and I loved you for it. I admired everything you did: Billy Madison; Happy Gilmore; Opera Man. You were great at your craft, and good to me. Some people didn\'t understand your sense of humor, chalking it up simply to moronic, kiddie behavior. And it was. But it was funny, and that was all that mattered.

Let’s now get ready, Sherman, to hop into the Way, Way Back Machine to the late Eighties. 1987, to be precise. It’s here that I’ll tell you about one of my first comics: Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #131. It just so happens that Peter Parker, The Spectacular Spider-Man #131 was the third part of a six-part story only later titled \"Kraven’s Last Hunt\".

Originally, I was going to spend most of this review ranting about how lead singer John Congleton\'s vocals made me want to kill kittens. I had thought up oodles of evil-minded things to write about his voice sounding like \"toddlers chewing glass\" or a \"wombat in a woodchipper\". But, by my umpteenth listen to the pAper chAse\'s fourth LP, God Bless Your Black Heart (Kill Rock Stars), I really didn\'t hate John\'s voice anymore. As a matter of fact, I actually started to like it.

Player One: Staff Member #716
I’m gonna go ahead and make a pretty bold statement here, one which will probably see me ostracized by my fellow gamers: I hate stealth games. Sure, I jumped on the Metal Gear Solid bandwagon when it first came out, when sneaking around and hiding from your enemies was a novel idea amidst the kill-everyone mentality of virtually every other game on the market. But there have always been inherent flaws in every stealth game since (and including) Metal Gear which seem to contradict the logic these games are based on.

Normally I hate spoken word in rock songs, but Ludo\'s song \"Good Will Hunting By Myself\" is an exception. It\'s amusingly self-deluding as a guy tries to convince himself he\'s better off after his girlfriend dumps him. The spoken word in the middle gets more and more frenetic, until he\'s talking trash like, \"Yes, your ass did look fat in those jeans. Your mom\'s a MILF, and I plan to get on your little sister just as soon as I call her back!\" It might read misogynistic, but doesn\'t come across that way in the song.