Close your eyes for a minute and you could almost imagine it was the late seventies. That's because the two biggest releases of an otherwise pretty thin week are from two of that era's biggest rock and roll bands.

Black Ice is AC/DC's first album in seven years, and from the first gut-crunching guitar riff, it's as though they never went away. Nothing fancy here. Just the same basic formula of the sort of simple, primal-sounding rock where the riff is always king. Produced by Brendan O'Brien, the Aussie bad boys do what they do best here on songs like "Rock N' Roll Train," "Big Jack," and "She Likes Rock N' Roll." It ain't exactly groundbreaking, but it has worked for these guys for going on four decades now. God bless 'em for it.

Big is probably the best way to describe Ikons, the new four-disc boxed set from Kiss. There have been plenty of these "Kiss Kollections" throughout the years of course, but this one is just a bit different. Each disc spotlights an "ikonic" character in the form of the band's four founding members, and highlights songs where each of them were featured as vocalist. And here I thought Peter Criss only sang on "Beth" all these years.

Speaking of founding members, the Jayhawks' Gary Louris has a companion piece to his solo debut earlier this year with Acoustic Vagabonds, which offers stripped-down versions of songs from that album. The soundtrack from High School Musical 3 has loads of sugary sweet teen pop from lead actors Zac Efron and Vanessa Hudgens, as well as Ashley Tisdale.

We gave Mark Saleski the week off, but joining us for the first time as an NAR contributor is Masked Movie Snob Fantasma el Rey to talk about the new one from Hank Williams III. In the meantime here's regular NAR contributor Josh Hathaway with this thoughts on jazzman Dave Carter.

Even though I'd been looking forward to this album since Fast Horse Recordings founder Barrett Martin first mentioned it early this year on my BlogTalkRadio program B-Sides Concept Album, there was some apprehension on my part when it arrived. What do I do with a jazz record? Apparently, just listening was not an option- at least not one that came to me immediately. I was completely unprepared for how stupid I was, thinking I somehow needed to prepare myself at all.

With standout tracks like "Short Street," "Pusa Lulu," "Ok Anyway," and "Nopajam," this album has joined the increasingly crowded field of contenders for Best of 2008.

Hank Williams III hits hard and delivers his sixth CD with force and a loud ‘n proud rebel yell. The thirteen tracks on Damn Right Rebel Proud explore a bit more of Hank III’s dark side in a mix of his brand of traditional outlaw country and his flair for metal and punk. At times he's viciously proud and at others H III expresses remorse for the life he chose to embrace and the torch he willingly bares. With his head held high H III kicks out his jams and looks to please his core audience, which is divided between country stompers, mosh-pit rompers, and us psychos that dig both and get what H III is putting down.

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