Many years back, I had to have someone explain to me what a "hater" was. I realized quickly upon hearing the category defined that, despite better intentions, I often fell into it.

Like many haters, I viewed my hate as a protective version of love, trying to maintain a sense of purity or integrity that may not have existed in the first place. Zine veterans Nicole Georges, Dawn Riddle, and Steve Gevurtz probably felt the same way when they created Sour Grapes, a power trio of acoustic guitars, trembly harmonies, and occasional piano. Residing in the punk rock Neverland of Portland, Ore., they turn their razor wits inward – at least demographically – to chop up the hubris of bike messengers, emo bands, and ubiquitous exes. Riddle's star turn on Japanther's Master of Pigeons (Menlo Park) is reprised here with a prequel to the song by the same name, "Pacific Northwest Last Chance to Dance." Pretty Girls Make Graves are taken to task for charging $4 for a 7-inch, and if you aren't paying attention, it's easy to miss references to "Zoolander chaotic hardcore" when they're buoyed by pretty female harmonies. Aside from other tracks ripping on bands for misdeeds (Gravy Train!!!!, Robots in Disguise), the greatest bile is reserved for boys who done wrong, as the opener, "Send My Valentine to the Burn Ward," makes clear: "I want to set you on fire / Do you mean, inspire me? / No, I mean realistically / I mean with kerosene." This song alone, and a mean acoustic cover of the Misfits' "Skulls," makes this my favorite record of the month. Caustic honesty or shit-talking inside jokes? It all sounds good to me. (George Chen)

Odawas
The Aether Eater (Jagjaguwar)

Any song titled "Ant Man Messiah Elijah" better be pretty durn weird, or it's just pretentious. But when Odawas's new album, The Aether Eater, slides from weird (a priggish female voice conversing in vaguely morbid, druggy parlance about "the slippery, greased insides of the children spilled out across the rides," with an equally chimerical computer-death fiend, backed by harpsichord) to sultry (a two-and-a-half-minute wash that's just two glorious channels of rainy-street-corner saxophone fucking over warm keyboard layers) on the perfectly titled "Song of Temptation," you know you're not dealing with just any band of stoned book freaks.

Furthermore, if a record sets itself the task of trying to represent hell, it had better be hauntingly bizarre. Luckily, the Bloomington, Ind., trio Odawas have swallowed enough Dante with their sugar cubes to make both influences equally vivid on this, the first in a trilogy representing Dante's trip. The Aether Eater never lets you see the reality between its elusive motions, shuffling up unexpectedly honest, rockish momentum only to let it vaporize into yet more ambient-slash-tentative computer-talk deception. Topped by giant, wispy keyboards, which soar overhead like majestic pterodactyls, Odawas's songs are sky-scraping towers of sound. Longing, homey hints of guitar, banjo, and trumpet are kindly inserted between the birdlike screams, chimes, and eerie chirps from hell. Human voices, likely those of multi-instrumentalists Michael Tapscott and Isaac Edwards, materialize, ghostlike, at random intervals to narrate in obtuse poetry and give us some idea of what's going on ("So we talked about these things / As we passed Saturn's rings and the lessons were learned"). It's safe to say that any band that oozes a piece as exactingly eccentric as The Aether Eater has transcended pretension. Hell would never let its weirdness become this fulfilling. (Ian S. Port)

Keyshia Cole
The Way It Is (A&M)

Keyshia Cole left her native Oakland three years ago after catching her boyfriend cheating. She drove straight to LA and wasted little time landing a major-label contract. The anger of heartbreak singes intensely into many cuts on The Way It Is, one of the most auspicious R&B debuts in recent memory. "Guess what? Nigga, I'm leavin' you. And guess what? I'm gettin' my keys from you," she wails in searing mezzo tones over buoyant Sean Garrett- and Diesel-produced hip-hop beats on the irresistibly catchy "Guess What?" Jadakiss, in the role of the cheater, is allowed to plead his case briefly, but Cole gets the final word, telling him, "Take all your shit and get the fuck out!" The fury of this self-described "smart bitch" is more contained on other tunes, as when she turns the tables with the ballad "I Should Have Cheated."

She may be 23 and street tough, but Cole is in many ways an old soul. Vulnerability is seldom far from the surface, especially on "Love," an old school-style weeper penned by Cole in collaboration with producer Gregory G. Curtis, on which she slices the word "found" into octave-leaping syllables that ooze the type of raw emotion one associates with the tragic '60s soul singer Linda Jones. A subtle underpinning of violins, violas, and cellos serves to heighten the passion of her performance. Heavyweight contributors to the 12-track disc include Kanye West, John Legend, and Eve, but The Way It Is is first and foremost Cole's affair. It's one in which she shows herself to be a songwriter with clear vision and such a strong singer that she rips most of her R&B contemporaries to shreds. (Lee Hildebrand)

Z-Trip
Shifting Gears (Hollywood)

Is the turntable DJ a dying breed? Not if Z-Trip has anything to say about it. After facing deep frustrations attempting to clear samples for his and DJ P's 2001 self-released underground mash-up sensation, Uneasy Listening (Volume 1), Z-Trip hits the throttle and brings us Shifting Gears.

As free downloads make it possible for anyone to take any two tracks and crunch them together, more often than not would-be DJs are uploading "creations" to the Net that demonstrate a lack of knowledge of turntablism's nuances. The online DJ has led to the oversaturation of mash-ups and a general, growing fear that technology may replace the traditional turntablist. What's lost when DJs can't run their fingers over the fine ridges of vinyl and when fans are unable to see the art of the DJ in performance? The fact that Z-Trip is one of the most entertaining turntablists around right now and a respected mash-up DJ, gives the defiantly old-school Shifting Gears, his major-label debut, a kind of significance: Are mash-up DJs taking another turn and moving on to something new – or old?

Perhaps you have to go back before you can move forward. Demonstrating a definite change from Uneasy Listening by showcasing less sampling and more MCs, Shifting Gears returns to hip-hop's roots, featuring pioneers Chuck D, Whipper Whip, and Grandmaster Caz, while it builds a bridge between the old and the new schools, highlighting artists like Lyrics Born, Busdriver, Aceyalone, Murs, and Soup. Z-Trip shows he's able to roll with the punches on "Everything Changes." The track captures the end of a relationship, and fans can hear hints of disappointment related to not being able to release an album like Uneasy Listening, a labor of love.

Change is one theme that hangs heavily at the end of the album. Pushing the boundaries of hip-hop, Z-Trip invited Linkin Park's Chester Bennington to deliver mournful vocals over "Walking Dead" 's synthesized keys, eerie guitar riffs, and scratches. Z-Trip also takes a moment to comment on the changes that have been going on in the United States in the past four years: His "Shock and Awe" questions the intentions behind the war in Iraq with Chuck D's gruff voice delivering the message. But the DJ understands the importance of fun too. Fans will reminisce with Murs and Supernatural about waking up early and eating sugary cereals while watching Saturday-morning cartoons on "Breakfast Cereal." The zany beat makes for the perfect head-nodder that will stay with you long after you've stopped spinning the disc.

This isn't something that can be learned by running a computer program, and it's unfortunate that the younger generation of DJs may never touch a pair of Technics. By mastering the art of sampling, backing it up live, and producing a recording on which every track promises to be a hit, Z-Trip has proved that turntablism still lays behind two decks and a mixer – not a keyboard and a mouse. (Jana Rogers)

White Mice
ASSPhIXXXEATATESHUN (Load)

White Mice are a three-piece band from Providence, RI. They play an electrogadget-damaged form of metal, with lots of sound effects pealing off hither and yon, manipulated guitar and synth noise, and the usual double-tracking feedback inner-ear shred. The metal part comes in when all these trendy electro noises get squelched by punishing bass, guitar, and drum. The vocals are guttural and screeched. The second song on ASSPhIXXXEATATESHUN, "The White Mice," gives the impression that these kids are really onto something – with a careening, woozy trudge-riff that doesn't sound too far from Eyehategod's La Brea Tar Pits metal – and the louder you play it, the better it sounds. The sludge gives way to fits of spazziness and simple chaos, which I am not so into, but maybe it's because they are trying to combine cool-kid noise and the drug-doomed and awesome power that was Eyehategod. I guess I'd rather just listen to Eyehategod. But I still like White Mice.

"Slo Poison" comes through with another superheavy riff. In a live setting, and in true Providence tradition, White Mice play in costume, dressed as blood-caked lab rats. The thing about bands that have a good idea and a fun live show is that they usually put out really crappy records. We've seen a few of those in our time, haven't we? Anyway, I have voluntarily listened to the White Mice record five or six times, which is saying something, believe me. Is it good? Yeah, it's good. Sure. Is it as good as say, the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Blood Sugar Sex Magik (Warner Bros.)? No, but what is? White Mice remind me of Crom, a jokey metal band that put out a record a few years ago featuring lots of samples from Conan the Barbarian and an encyclopedia of lifted metal riffs and ideas. They got away with it because they were very funny and they took the concept to ridiculous extremes. Like Crom, White Mice are nonmetal kids playing around with metal and getting away with it. White Mice play a Load Records showcase Mon/27, 12 Galaxies, SF. (415) 970-9777. (Mike McGuirk)