Essential Tracks: Vertical Scratchers, Schoolboy Q, St. Vincent, more

Vertical Scratchers, “Daughter of Everything” (Merge Records)

A band named for the method in which guitarist and singer John Schmersal works his instrument, Vertical Scratchers are an L.A. two piece that teams said scraping with catchy songs and the wild percussion of Christian Beaulieu to create roughhouse guitar pop. “Daughter of Everything” is their first and features 15 compact songs, many of which are under two minutes long.

The result is a beautiful mess, guitar pop as viewed through a shattered mirror, one that suggests Ray Davies’ memorable melodies with the Kinks, the in-and-out bursts of the post-punk band the Minutemen and a vocal wail that conjures Pete Shelley of the Buzzcocks. Does Schmersal hits all of his notes? Heck, no. He’s got a voice that races like a runaway train on “Turn Me Out.” “Someone” sounds like a Fleetwood Mac song — if heard on a just-out-of-range FM station spitting static. As if to cement its place as a killer rock ‘n’ roll record, the album’s last song ends in a bar. Anyone who suggests rock is dead might try using “Daughter of Everything” as a defibrillator.

Schoolboy Q, “Oxymoron” (Top Dawg/Interscope)

The highly anticipated new album from South Los Angeles rapper Schoolboy Q was worth the wait and further solidifies Top Dawg as one of the most vital hip-hop imprints working today. “Oxymoron” is as deft as it is raw, a focused look at the streets circa 2014, one that Q, born Quincy Hanley, ran while dealing pockets full of pills. Specifically, oxycodone, which helped name the album, permeate “Oxymoron,” offering further evidence of the thriving illegal prescription pill market.

The album’s highlight: “Prescription/Oxymoron,” a harrowing seven minutes in which Q narrates a story of a pill-driven stupor starring “Percocets, Adderall, Xany bars, get codeine involved.” As a syrupy beat moves the narrative, the voice of his toddler daughter arrives, attempting to wake him. He can barely register. She thinks he’s mad at her. Far from a celebration, the track is a steely eyed look at addiction. Elsewhere, Q shows himself to be a great beat selector. In addition to typically magnetic rhythms from Top Dawg producers Digi+Phonics, “Oxymoron” offers crawling beats from Pharrell; Mike Will Made It; Tyler, the Creator; Clams Casino and the Alchemist. Deep with bass and woven with synthetic texture, the album offers more evidence of a city in the midst of a grand hip-hop renaissance.

Glenn Kotche, “Adventureland” (Cantaloupe Records)

Best known for his work as drummer for Wilco and the guy who plays water spigots in that ad for Delta faucets, Glenn Kotche was creating fascinating experimental solo and collaborative percussion records long before he accepted his Wilco gig. The best of these, “Mobile,” was released by Nonesuch in 2006, and sounded more like that label’s experimental Explorer series of the 1960s than it did a rock record by your typical attention-starved drummer.

“Adventureland” is equally explorational, filled with 14 pieces’ worth of curious percussion tones (bells, gamelon, electronics), strings (on one track it’s Kronos Quartet), free-roaming chunks of beat and sounds of unknown origin, all offering melody and texture. Combined, Kotche may have more in common with Edgard Varèse or John Cage than he does with Wilco founder Jeff Tweedy. Which is to say: Those looking for verses, choruses and bridges should head elsewhere. Those, however, who appreciate the ways in which an expert percussionist can take rhythm to places rarely ventured are in for a treat. “Adventureland” comes out March 25.

St. Vincent, “St. Vincent”

Those doubting that women are creating the most inventive and forward-thinking pop music in 2014 should absorb “St. Vincent,” the self-titled fourth album from the artist born Annie Clark. Merging dancy beats, joyous verses, a knack for simple and sticky melody and her remarkable guitar playing, these 11 songs constitute a future-pop manifesto, one equally balanced between human emotion as expressed through nimble fingers, and electronic static and layers of synth and beat laid out like geometric puzzles.

“I Prefer Your Love” is a gorgeous, trippy ballad. “Bring Me Your Loves” teams second-line New Orleans-style percussion with weird new wave keyboard warbles and a wicked strange quickie guitar solo that morphs into staticky strums. At varying times she’s a new-generation David Byrne, equally obsessed with sound, body and vision. She’s got the artistic assuredness of Kate Bush and Björk, and when she focuses on funk, she sounds like Prince with fresher ears. “St. Vincent” marks the arrival of an artist likely to steer the conversation for years to come.

Twitter: @LilEdit