Rogue Wave, Helio Sequence, Voxtrot

Like its Sub Pop labelmates The Shins, San Francisco's Rogue Wave weaves enough inverted-world details into its tuneful guitar-pop on zippy debut Out of the Shadow. You'll keep turning the songs over, wondering why something so obvious sounds so fresh, but the glockenspiel tinkles, warped-guitar whine and bird whistles add up to create an intangibly great sound. Helio Sequence, featuring sometime Modest Mouse member Benjamin Weikel on drums, plays trippy, muscular space-rock with nifty keyboard bleeps, and half-Scottish, half-Texan Voxtrot makes a rare stop in town on the strength of new EP Raised By Wolves to show off its flamboyant, spastic pop-rock.