A big day for independent Minneapolis-based Afternoon Records, who are putting out three physical releases this week, two of which KEXP has already podcast! Sissy Wish, We All Have Hooks for Hands, and We Shot the Moon hit stores today.

Other worthwhile releases include David Rawlings, frequent songwriting partner of Gillian Welch, with his own Dave Rawlings Machine, a debut with fantastic covers from this bluegrass veteran. LA rock supergroup Them Crooked Vultures — Dave Grohl, Josh Homme & John Paul Jones — blast into stores, while Norah Jones softly drifts in with her fourth album.

And it wouldn’t be the pre-holiday season without an abundance of reissues and box sets. Some unlikely characters get the remaster treatment: Blood Brothers, Alejandro Escovedo, David Bowie, The Fall -- all great stocking or turkey stuffers! — while the mega-box sets weigh down with 11-disc Atlantic Records: The Time Capsule and the 6-disc The Doors: Live in New York.

Merge complete their SCORE! 20 Years of Merge Records series with The Remixes!, featuring reworking of Merge bands, past and present, by Four Tet, John McEntire, Mark Robinson and others, with proceeds to benefit the label (natch!). But what better kind of gift to give yourself or a friend than one that benefits others? If that’s your bag, check out Indie Rocks! A Benefit Album For Malaria No More, featuring KEXP-friendly artists like The Walkmen, Youssou N’Dour and Peter, Bjorn & John.

Beat the lines on Black Friday by compiling your list from Largehearted Boy now, sampling the tracks below, and heading out to your favorite record store.

compilations:

Every Monday through Friday, we deliver a different song as part of our Song of the Day podcast subscription. This podcast features exclusive KEXP in-studio performances, unreleased songs, and recordings from independent artists that our DJ’s think you should hear. Each and every Friday we offer songs by local artists. Today’s featured selection, chosen by Morning show host John Richards, is “Float” by Sissy Wish from her 2009 album Beauties Never Die on Afternoon Records.

If you happen to like quirky Nordic pop chanteuses (and why wouldn’t you?), we may have something right up your alley. In case you haven’t heard all the buzz (8.0 Pitchfork ratings tend to generate some of that), Sissy Wish is one of Scandinavia’s latest musical sensations. In fact, she (née Siri Wålberg) was nominated for the Norwegian Grammy (Spellemannsprisen) in 2005 for her debut album, You May Breathe, and has already been receiving an incredible amount of airplay in her home country of Norway. After sticking strictly to a familiar pop sound on stateside tours in 2007 and 2008, Sissy Wish has changed directions with her new album, Beauties Never Die. Gone are the acoustic melodies from before, now replaced with much better electronic ones. And not those cheesy electronics either, but something you’d expect from a unique persona like Siri Walberg. Call it New Wave, Dance, or Pop; we call it fantastic. She’s already taken over Norway and Europe; Sissy Wish is hoping this is just the start.

Sissy Wish just completed her first world tour, including North America. No future dates are yet scheduled, but you can find out more information on her website or listen to additional tracks on her MySpace page. For now, here’s a recent clip of Sissy Wish performing in “Ya Ya Ya” in Oslo earlier this year, and yes, she is wearing a shirt made out of cassette tapes: