Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of May 4, 2010. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.

Asia – Omega (King Japan/Zoom)
Avantasia – The Wicked Symphony (Nuclear Blast)
Toni Braxton – Pulse (Atlantic)
Broken Social Scene – Forgiveness Rock Record (Arts & Crafts)
The Dead Weather – Sea of Cowards (Warner Bros.)
Deftones – Diamond Eyes (Reprise Records) — Nick Greer
Extreme – Take Us Alive [CD/DVD] (Frontiers)
Fall – Your Future Our Clutter (Domino)
Flying Lotus – Cosmogramma (Warp Records)
Godsmack – The Oracle (Republic)
The Hold Steady – Heaven is Whenever (Vagrant Records) — Kiran Soderqvist
Richard Ingram – Consolamentum {UK} (White Box)
Jogging – Minutes (Richter Collective)
The Letter Black – Hanging On By A Thread (Tooth & Nail Records)
Rene Lopez – People Are Just People (Liberation Label)
Minus The Bear – Omni (Dangerbird Records) — Matt Wolfe
The Morning Of – The Way I Fell In (Tragic Hero Records)
New Po*nographers – Together (Matador) — Rudy Klapper
New Young Pony Club – The Optimist (America) — Davey Boy
Nonpoint – Miracle (Rocket Science)
Olafur Arnalds – …and They Have Escaped the Weight of Darkness {EU} (Erased Tapes Records)
Our Last Night – We Will All Evolve (Epitaph)
Lisa Papineau – Red Trees (Sargent House)
Mike Patton – Mondo Cane (Ipecac Recordings) — Tyler Munro
Josh Ritter – So Runs…

Here’s a list of major new releases for the week of April 27, 2010. Please feel free to request reviews for any of the following albums from staff or contributors.

1349 – Demonoir (Prosthetic Records)
65daysofstatic – We Were Exploding Anyway (Hassle Records) — Tyler Fisher
The Abominable Iron Sloth – The Id Will Overcome (Metal Blade)
Acid Tiger – Acid Tiger (Deathwish Inc)
Arma Gathas – Dead to This World (Metal Blade)
At the Soundawn – Shifting (LIFEFORCE RECORDS) — Trey Spencer
B.o.B. – B.o.B Presents: The Adventures Of Bobby Ray (Atlantic)
Bullet For My Valentine – Fever (Zomba/RED) — Trey Spencer
Mary Chapin Carpenter – The Ages Of Miracles (Zoe Records)
Miranda Cosgrove – Sparks Fly [Deluxe] (Columbia)
Discovery America – Future Paths (LUJO RECORDS)
DJ Kormac – Word Play (Scribble Records)
Drowning Pool – Drowning Pool (Eleven Seven Music)
Escape The Fate – This War Is Ours [2CD Deluxe Edition] (Epitaph)
Eisregen – Schlangensonne (Massacre Records)
Melissa Etheridge – Fearless Love (Island)
Peter Frampton – Thank You Mr Churchill (New Door Records)
Gogol Bordello – Trans-Continental Hustle (Columbia/Dmz)
Hole – Nobody’s Daughter (Mercury Records)
KMFDM – Krieg (Metropolis Records) — Trey Spencer
Lali Puna – Our Inventions (Morr Music/M.M.)
Lonestar – Party Heard Around the World (Saguaro Road Records)
Mono – Holy Ground: NYC Live with Wordless Music Orchestra [CD/DVD & 3xLP] (Temporary Residence)
Mouth of the Architect – The Violence Beneath (TRANSLATION LOSS)
My Education…

As lists have become increasingly popular on the site, it’s become necessary to gently step in and make sure things are going in a constructive direction. As a result, I’ve posted the following set of brief guidelines on the list creation page.

List Guidelines
– Your list should be related to music in some way
– If you’d like to post comments, suggestions, or complaints about the site, use the site forum instead
– If you’d like to post something completely unrelated to music, use the community forums
– If you’d like to post something related to a specific user, use their shoutbox

Lists that violate these guidelines will be deleted — so please don’t try to skirt them. We want to encourage you to make lists, but we also want to make sure that lists remain a valuable and interesting resource for users. Lately, lists have included rants, half-hearted rankings, obscenities, video-game discussion, and everything in between. Additionally, the fact that lists appear on the front page of the site has led to a lot of abuse. Let’s keep the focus on the music — we have an entire set of wonderful forums for every offtopic conversation you can think of.

If these new rules prove to be too stifling for users, I would consider re-implementing user journals. It’s important that we build a strong sense of community and individual user expression– I just want to make sure that it is occurring in the right…

About 2-3 weeks ago, we posted a news item asking for volunteers to improve the site’s database. Unfortunately, the announcement predated some new community album editing features that we were in the process of adding. As a result, thousands of hopeful, enthusiastic recruits were turned aside in dismay.

Never fear, eager album editors. Meatplow is still organizing an on-going effort in the forums. As of today, there have been over 2,400 album edits using the new and improved community editing system. If you are interested in helping out, visit the organizing thread here

Voting is currently underway on the next feature to add to Sputnik. Some of you may be asking: “Egads, so soon after the launch of the staff blog?!”

However, our hordes of web designers (read: me) need something to be working on over the next couple of weeks.

If you’re interested, check out the poll here

Sputnik 2 was an unmanned spacecraft. That is, except for Laika (pictured on the left), who calmly commanded the satellite as it rocketed through the heavens. She did an admirable job of things until she died of overheating. However, her name now lives on forever as the first mammal to orbit the Earth — an accomplishment that understandably subjected Yuri Gagarin and John Glenn to fits of jealousy.

We’re not launching Sputnik 2.0, and no animals have been harmed in the production of this update.

However, we’re happy to announce that Sputnik now has its very own staff blog.

Over the next few months, we anticipate that this blog will become a major part of the site. The focus here will be casual, frequent updates, as the staff (and perhaps eventually, contributors) continue to brainwash you with our exceptional musical taste.

If you ever come back to this page, you can expect:

• Track reviews and music highlights
• Sputnik’s very own ‘Track of the Day’
• Concert and Event Coverage
• Site News
• Lots of media
• Random musings on music, artists, and genres
• And lots of other scintillating content

Although we’re running on WordPress, you should be able to use your normal sputnik login to post comments. As always, make a post in the Site Forum if you have any problems.