The summer releases are starting to heat up again. This week, there’s a strong showing from the Pacific Northwest from The Cave Singers, who will be performing during KEXP’s broadcast from the Bumbershoot Music Lounge on Labor Day weekend, and Portland band Ramona Falls, who will be live on KEXP next Friday (8/28). NW label Sup Pop is unrolling Pissed Jeans, and Anacortes, WA, project Mount Eerie ascends with Wind’s Poem. Among the must-buys this week are several by excellent male songwriters who defy the “singer/songwriter” stereotype: Brendan Benson, whose guitar playing and singing in The Raconteurs, for many people, surpasses Jack White’s; Jack Penate, whose upbeat pop songs belie offbeat vocals and subversive lyrics; Jay Reatard, who’s been cranking out scuzzy garage/punk guitar rock like nobody’s business while also continually refining his sound; and Joe Henry, whose superior songwriting is surpassed only, and just barely, by his Grammy winning work as a producer.

Folky weirdos should take note of the latest from Six Organs of Admittance and the debut of Denmark’s Choir of Young Believers. Also of note, Madrid’s DePedro, the project of Jairo Zavala, who’s been touring regularly and performing with Calexico. Check out the rest of the list at Largehearted Boy, but not before sampling these: