Al Cisneros got a haircut, Chris Hakius morphed into Emil Amos (pictured above), and Robert Lowe of Lichens sat in on guitar, keys, and percussion. Om is very different now than they were when they last played D.C. Some growing pains were evident as the sound was rough and some of the pieces seemed a little sloppy. Still, with Cisneros staring wide-eyed at nothing while slamming his palm against his bass and Amos bashing the skins as gleefully as Hakius used to, it’s hard not to be transfixed by this band.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

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Neon Indian: “Should Have Taken Acid With You”
Houston, Texas/Brooklyn, New York’s Neon Indian waxes nostalgic about a missed opportunity to experience romance whilst getting experienced. The music–Daft Punk-style dance pop rendered with bargain bin synthesizers–suggests that he eventually found another opportunity to drop out. But that doesn’t make this moody gem any less affecting.

Kid Cudi: “You Can Call Me Moon Man”
“You Can Call Me Moon Man,” Kanye protege Kid Cudi reveals that he’s not from the Midwest, as previously believed, but from the heavens. Specifically, the Moon. And what’s it like on the moon? Dark, apparently. Cudi spends most of “You Can Call Me Moon Man” dropping sobering boasts along the lines of “Shit is so damn sick/ No antibiotic could ever fucking stop it/ If you copped it, please O.D.” Other lines–”I make immortal songs for the mortals to cruise with,”– imply Cudi might be getting high on hot air.

Gang Gang Dance: “Live @ Southpaw, April 2008”
Just in case you forgot they were out there, Gang Gang Dance recently slipped a full live set into a podcast by Social Registry (the band’s US label). Because the concert was taped all the way back in ‘08 and is largely made up of tunes from the group’s last record, Saint Dymphna, so none of this is new, exactly. Then again, the way that the songs “First Communion” and “House Jam” are mashed up here with slurry jams, you might not recognize them right away, anyway.

Six Organs of Admittance: “The Ballad of Charley Harper”
In his paintings, Cincinnati-based artist Charley Harper sought to simplify nature–to create an ordered representation of a complex reality. There’s a good chance that Six Organs of Admittance’s “The Ballad of Charley Harper,” with its slowly cycling melodies, is an homage to that sensibility. Ben Chasny uses simple components–an acoustic guitar, some distortion, a single lyric–to suggest some larger and more elusive mystic truth.