New Rock&Roll& column at Barnes & Noble Review, on Brad Paisley, American Saturday Night.

• Paisley's Progress

New Consumer Guide for November 2009. Featured albums:

• The Avett Brothers: I and Love and You (American) [A-]
• Franco: Francophonic Vol. 2 (Sterns Africa) [A+]
• Nellie McKay: Normal as Blueberry Pie: A Tribute to Doris Day (Verve) [A]
• Modest Mouse: No One's First, and You're Next (Epic) [A-]
• Jemina Pearl: Break It Up (Universal Motown) [B+]
• Various artists: The Rough Guide to Tango Revival (World Music Network) [A-]
• Loudon Wainwright III: High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (161) [A]
• White Denim: Fits (Downtown) [A-]
• Arctic Monkeys: Humbug (Domino) [B]

Honorable Mentions: Kid Sister, No Age, Telekinesis, Amira Sagati, Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band, Maria Muldaur & Her Garden of Joy, Bygones, Basement Jaxx, Richmond Fontaine, Think Global: Tango, The Backsliders, The Donnas, Cymbals Eat Guitars, Lightning Bolt, Blitzen Trapper, La Roux, The Rough Guide to Tango, The Pica Beats, Mission of Burma, Loudon Wainwright III, Monsters of Folk, The Avett Brothers, Future of the Left, Paramore, Phoenix

Choice Cuts: White Denim, The Slits, Anjulie, Lightning Bolt

More Duds: The Avett Brothers, Franz Ferdinand, Tango Around the World, Telepathe, Martha Wainwright, Wild Beasts

New Rock&Roll& column at Barnes & Noble Review, reviewing R. Crumb, The Book of Genesis Illustrated.

• A Classic Illustrated

NPR music review: Nellie McKay's Love Letter to Doris Day.

New Consumer Guide for October 2009. Featured albums:

• The Black Eyed Peas: The E.N.D. (Interscope) [A]
• Goran Bregovic: Alkohol (Wrasse) [A-]
• Jay-Z: The Blueprint 3 (Roc Nation) [A-]
• Miranda Lambert: Revolution (Columbia) [A-]
• Various artists: Now That's What I Call Party Hits! (Capitol) [A-]
• Various artists: The Rough Guide to Merengue Dance (World Music Network) [A-]
• Seprewa Kasa: Seprewa Kasa (Riverboat) [B+]
• Serengeti: Conversations With Kenny & The Legacy of Lee (Goldenfloyd) [B+]
• They Might Be Giants: Here Come the 123s (Disney Sound) [A-]
• Ginuwine: A Man's Thoughts (Asylum) [C]

Honorable Mentions: Raekwon, Geoff Muldaur and the Texas Sheiks, Major Lazer, They Might Be Giants, Son de Madera, Wonderlick; Amsterdam Klezmer Band, Grant Peeples, Sila & the Afrofunk Experience, Speech Debelle, Living Colour, Yo La Tengo, Chris Smither; Grant Langston, Chrisette Michele, The Rough Guide to the Afrobeat Revolution, Cage, Nickodemus, Michael Hurley, Slavic Soul Party, Maxwell, Tanya Morgan.

Choice Cuts: Wonderlick, Jamie Foxx, DJ Quik & Kurupt, They Might Be Giants, Balkan Beat Box, Robert Earl Keen.

More Duds: Chris Cornell, Ledisi, LeToya, Ziggy Marley, Bobby V.

Update today adds the last four months of Consumer Guides to the database. Note also that the external world has been treating us rudely: Barnes and Noble Review did a redesign that broke all of their existing links; MSN's recent Consumer Guide redesign more or less did the same thing; NPR changed their search page. Those at least are the ones I know about.

New Rock&Roll& column at Barnes & Noble Review: Thurston Moore/Byron Coley: No Wave; John Cook: Our Noise; Stuart Berman: This Book Is Broken.

• Constructed Social Scenes

New Consumer Guide for September 2009. Featured albums:

• The Dead Weather: Horehound [A-]
• Deer Tick: Born on Flag Day [A-]
• The Morells: The Best Bar Band Ever! Live in '84 [B+]
• Willie Nelson: American Classic [B+]
• Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel: Willie and the Wheel [A]
• Brad Paisley: American Saturday Night [A]
• Various artists: The Panic Is On [A-]
• Bobby Pinson: Songs for Somebody [A-]
• Wilco: Wilco (The Album) [A-]
• Rascal Flats: Greatest Hits Volume 1 [C+]

Honorable Mentions: The Bottle Rockets, Willie Nelson, Hank III, In the Pines, Tanya Tucker, Swamp Dogg; Kitty, Daisy & Lewis; Deer Tick, Levon Helm, John Anderson, The Wingdale Community Singers, Elvis Costello, The Monks, Aaron Tippin, James Luther Dickinson, Kissing Cousins, Pat Green, Zac Brown Band, Eric Church, Rodney Carrington.

Choice Cuts: Willie Nelson, Brad Paisley, Dan Hicks & the Hot Licks, Dave Alvin and the Guilty Women, Charlie Robison, Keith Urban, The Boxmasters.

More Duds: Jason Aldean, Rodney Atkins, Billy Curlington, John Doe and the Sadies, Lady Antebellum, Martina McBride, Sonseed, Yim Yames.

New Rock&Roll& column at Barnes & Noble Review:

• Unbeautiful Winner: Leonard Cohen

New Consumer Guide for August 2009. Featured albums:

• An Horse: Rearrange Beds (Mom & Pop) [A-]
• J Dilla: Jay Stay Paid (Nature Sounds) [B+]
• Patterson Hood: Murdering Oscar (And Other Love Songs) (Ruth St.) [A-]
• Kronos Quartet: Floodplain (Nonesuch) [A-]
• The Pains of Being Pure at Heart: The Pains of Being Pure at Heart (Slumberland) [A-]
• Panama! 2 (Soundway) [A-]
• The Rough Guide to Dub (World Music Network) [A-]
• Oumou Sangare: Seya (Nonesuch) [A-]
• Regina Spektor: Far (Sire) [A-]
• Grizzly Bear: Veckatimest (Warp) [C+]

Honorable Mentions: The Rough Guide to Cuban Street Party, J Dilla, Metric, Bjork, Ida Maria, Crystal Castles, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Général Defao, Tiny Masters of Today, Touchers, Jarvis Cocker, The Clean, The Rough Guide to Latin Street Party, Busdriver, Manchester Orchestra, The Rough Guide to the Music of Brazil: Rio de Janeiro, Mika Miko, Xrabit + DMG$

Choice Cuts: The Juju Orchestra, Grizzly Bear, Sultana, Los Exagerados, Megapuss

More Duds: Crystal Antlers, Crystal Stilts, Department of Eagles, Grizzly Bear, Jason Lytle, The Music Tapes, Eddi Reader

New Rock&Roll& column at Barnes & Noble Review:

• Forty Years of History, Thirty Seconds of Joy: Rhumba Rules: The Politics of Dance Music in Mobutu's Zaire

New review in the July 9-23, 2009 Rolling Stone:

• Olatunji: Drums of Passion ***(*)