Jozef Van Wissem, Gregg Kowalsky

(Josephine) For a tiny segment of the world's music lovers, drones are as essential as oxygen. While many find this minimal, seemingly static style somnolent, true drone-oisseurs exalt it as the ultimate expression of sonic transcendence. Gregg Kowalsky proved his mettle with 2006's Through the Cardial Window, a nutritious aural soup of guitar, violin, melodica, and field recordings. With this year's Tape Chants, Kowalsky feeds the sounds of shruti box, gongs, and percussion through a cassette recorder, forging intimate, whorling sine-wave symphonies. It's pure bliss. DAVE SEGAL

Passion Pit, Pyramiddd

(Moore) In contrast to the millions of bands borne of guys' frustration with girls, Passion Pit came to be via nothing but love. To commemorate an anniversary with his college girlfriend, Michael Angelakos composed a quartet of synthy tribute songs, which went on to form the bulk of Passion Pit's 2008 EP Chunk of Change. This year brought the now-four-piece band's full-length debut, Manners, which earned a splashy four-star review in Rolling Stone and sounds like the result of what James Murphy prophesied in "Losing My Edge": 21st-century indie rockers who sold their guitars to buy synths and arpeggiators. Had they been up and running in the '90s, Passion Pit could've wrapped their songs in grungy alterna-rock trappings and succeeded just as well. Landing at the tail end of the aughts, Passion Pit slather their indie rock in shameless synth hooks, and they're doing fine. DAVID SCHMADER

Stripmall Architecture, Erik Blood, the Tea Cozies

(Chop Suey) San Francisco's Stripmall Architecture used to be called Halou, which sounds very much like a Cocteau Twins song title. Nomenclature aside, the sextet's creative core, vocalist Rebecca Coseboom and guitarist Ryan Coseboom, share an obvious appreciation of Liz Fraser and Robin Guthrie. However, SA lack Cocteau Twins' textural innovations, strange, cathedral-esque atmospheres, and vocal acrobatics. As a result, Stripmall Architecture's We Were Flying Kites comes across as a pleasant shoegaze-y collection that floats somewhere between Slowdive and the Raveonettes. That's not a bad place to be, but it's also not terribly distinctive or, in SA's hand, riveting. More interestingly, Seattle singer/songwriter/producer Erik Blood released one of this year's best local albums with The Way We Live, a strong revivification of shoegaze rock's most appealing qualities, bolstered by impeccable songwriting chops. DAVE SEGAL

Strong Killings, MK Speed Dial, Man Rockwell

(Sunset) It's been about three years since Strong Killings started working on a record with the Toy Box studio's Justin Cronk. I wanted to preview this show because I thought there's no way that record is still not finished. Guess what? That record is still not finished. So instead of using this space to write about how great Strong Killings' new record is, I have to just say that you should go see them because their devil-may-care punk rock is a blast to see live. Confidential to Mike Loggins: I want my fucking Hot Snakes and Earth records back—you've had them for two and a half years. Slackers! GRANT BRISSEY

And there's always more in our complete music calendar listings.