Fall is typically a busy time for CD-releases here in the Twin Cities, but this time around it doesn't seem like there's an end in sight. Bands are busy popping out new albums every week in December, and already the list of anticipated releases coming in 2013 is starting to grow. In an effort to keep up with the album-release madness, here's a handful of the latest and greatest tracks seeping out of this prolific community—plus one oldie just for fun.

1. Cloud Cult release first track from Love

Clould Cult recently announced that their ninth studio album, Love, is coming March 5, with a pre-sale starting today. Sample an instrumental track off the album, "All the Things We Couldn't See," and all of the beautiful imagery it inspires in the video below.

2. STNNNG get "Brain-Dumb"

Fresh off playing Shellac's All Tomorrow's Parties festival in the U.K., STNNNG have released the first song from their forthcoming Empire Inward, and man, they are sounding good. The record is expected to drop in February 2013.

 
3. Solid Gold shine bright on MN Original

Surely by now you've heard all about Solid Gold's gig in First Avenue's Mainroom tonight. If you're still on the fence about attending, maybe this neon-enhanced video filmed in MN Original's studios will seal the deal. These new songs seem to grow on me a little more with each repeated listen.

4. Curtiss A keeps on keepin' on

It's hard to wrap my head around the 33rd annual installment of anything—probably because that's longer than I've been alive—so I've always been in awe of Curtiss A's unrelenting dedication to presenting his John Lennon tribute. As I was searching for videos from past years at First Avenue I came across this gem, which features Curtiss A playing one of his one tunes on December 9, 1980, just one day after performing his first ever tribute on the night of Lennon's assassination. According to the video description, it was filmed on the set of the KTCA-TV show Night Times Variety.

5. War Poets strike a chord with "Close Enough"

When singer-songwriters Rex Haberman and Jenny Case uploaded the first track from their new project, War Poets, to YouTube, they didn't anticipate such an immediate and supportive reaction. The GLBT-positive video, which mixes footage of gay and lesbian couples falling in love with images from recent same-sex marriage rallies, has already topped 181,000 views and is growing at a rate of about 1,000 views per day. War Poets will release their debut full-length album, Dulce Est Decorum Est, tonight at Bunker's in Minneapolis.