In our ongoing effort to bring music to your ears, this week we're giving away two special prize packs from a long-standing Bay area band, The Mother Hips. Formed back in 1991, it's been six years since the band last released a full album. They're back with a new studio record on April 3rd called Kiss the Crystal Flake. Said singer/guitarist Tim Bluhm: "It is very different from anything we recorded in the past.......

Cut Copy's CD Bright Like Neon Love makes us smile and dance like no other CD we own. We haven't taken a shine to an upbeat electro-pop band like this since Tahiti 80. Their bio describes theirs as a "sound that references 70’s rock staples like ELO and Fleetwood Mac, late 80’s/early 90’s indie like Sonic Youth and Guided By Voices, the disco production of Nile Rodgers and Bernard Edwards, post-punk and French house." Fans......

This week we're giving away an EP by promising up-and-coming local band Finest Dearest. We're excited to watch where this comely and talented co-ed group's bright future takes them. Fans of female-fronted indie rock should preview a few tracks here or here and pick up your own copy of their EP when they play the Hemlock this Friday night. (Contest ends Wednesday 10/12.) Hipsters unite at the Bill Graham Civic Center tonight for Franz......