The Hold Steady keyboardist Franz Nicolay is best known for his classic boogie piano lines, jubilant backing vocals and sharply curving mustache, but his new solo album Major General looks to catapult him to star status. Click below for an exclusive download of the excellent "World/Inferno Vs The End of Evening."

• "World/Inferno Vs the End of Evening"
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Who: North Carolina's Annuals, a sextet of indie rockers that are getting melodic on their second album, Such Fun, which amazingly features cover art by PBS painter Bob Ross.

Sounds Like: The Tar Heel State's version of the Arcade Fire, with singer Adam Baker leading a small army of multi-instrumentalists. "We focused more on the song," Baker said of this album compared to the band's debut, the critically-acclaimed Be He Me. "We'll listen to parts of the songs for awhile, then each member of the band will come together and find what fits well with the song. We just tried to keep in more balanced on this record." The result is a less experimental but no less energetic and entertaining sophomore disc.

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