Schools kicks off the flurry of Panic activity with the August 17th release of More Talk About Tonight, his second LP as Slang, an electronic-tinged collaborative project...

How can you mend a broken heart?" Who hasn't asked that question? Opinions vary – booze, drugs, meaningless sex or just shut up and surf out the inevitable post-breakup depression, hoping the spiral ends up in some better place. On the basis of Where It Goes, Lori Carson's second solo album (and her first since she joined the Golden Palominos), she has tried them all and still hasn't found...

Lori Carson's songs convey the pain of abandonment and lonely personal struggle in unsparing detail. Her writing is clear and direct, swept to heart by her ability to enter her sad, often luckless characters. That she sings like she's haunted, even a ghost herself, makes her debut album, Shelter, all the more poignant.

With her whispery chirp of a voice and her acoustic guitar, Carson has been...