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Ladies and gentlemen, the music off-season is just about over. The off-season basically takes place from about mid-November until mid-February. During this time period most labels all but cease putting out records. Traditionally, music retailers would reserves self space during this time period for holiday music and sale items. So if you think about it, music can be looked at as being almost like a sports season that culminates with the playoff-like release of the year-end best lists.

Continuing with this analogy this time of year with all the festival announcements and the start of new releases trickling out can almost look like the pre-season. What trend will be this years swag-rap? What indie band will crossover to mainstream success a la Bon Iver? Which artist will get massively over-hyped and burnout in the public eye before their record comes out a la Lana Del Rey? So many questions to be answered!

So, this week we let the games begin with new videos from Austra, Youth Lagoon, A Place To Bury Strangers, Trust and Guided By Voices. Plus, the usual tongue wagging I get up to.

@leftfordamian

The Wedge airs tonight at 2:00 AM EST. Follow us on Twitter at @MUCHTheWedge.

Tags: Blog, Damian Abraham, The Wedge

Posted on Wednesday, January 18th, 2012 at 4:59 pm by Cam and is filed under Blog, The Wedge.

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