Last year our melodic mates at Insound commissioned gifted designer Jason Munn to create the limited edition Insound20 line of posters, hoodies, and tees in tribute to 20 contemporary indie rock stalwarts including the likes of The National, Beirut, and The Decemberists. If last year’s collaboration didn’t do a good enough job convincing us of their good taste in both graphic design and musical arenas, this year’s sequel finished the job and damn near knocked our socks off in the process. Insound has turned to one of our favorite artists, Mike Perry, to create the “Insound 10 Classic” collection. This time the focus has been turned away from the contemporary and towards creating an updated visual representation of influential bands that helped define the genres of punk, post-punk and indie rock between 1977-1997. Included in the visually inspired line of tees, totes, and posters are seminal acts like The Feelies, The Magnetic Fields, and Sleater-Kinney. While the products are slated to arrive in September, pre-order officially launched on Monday at the Insound store, so your time to grab them is already running out. Save a Galaxie 500 Tee for me.

Leaves are falling, pumpkins are carving, and the annual college music fest, CMJ, is just starting to rock here in New York. All of this segues adequately into telling you that our musical compatriots over at InSound are offering a free poster! This Built to Spill “Time Trap” original, part of Jason Munn’s Insound 20, is up for grabs exclusively at JoshSpear.com. All you have to do is enter for a chance to win. Maybe you’re back at school and need a new dorm poster to counteract your roommate’s “John Belushi in ‘College’ sweater” print. Maybe you just lost your job on Wall St. and just want to win something! Maybe your just like clicking links. All of these are valid reasons to enter. Winners will be announced right here next Tuesday.

Bay Area designer, and poster artist for the indy stars, Jason Munn brings his clever, literal style to the world of T-shirts. In a limited set of tees, hoodies, and posters for Insound entitled the Insound 20, Munn blesses 20 bands with his simple storybook cover technique. The line-up includes Death Cab for Cutie, The Decemberists, Beirut, She & Him, The National and more. Each is a signature piece that is a graphic interpretation of the band’s name and the feel of their music, yielding sweet looking designs that you might only “get” with a second look. My personal favorite is the one for The New Pornographers.

After a Summer-long hiatus, Brooklyn’s Standard Motion studio has finally re-opened their online store. You’ll find some of Jon Stetzen’s latest posters and prints up for grabs on the new site, including all of those you see above and a few others. Since Jon is expecting a baby in November (well, I guess he’s expecting someone to give birth to a baby), he’s even designed a few cute-ish prints for the kiddies. I’ve always had a thing for hippos, so this reprinted drawing really gets me going, and this alphabet poster is sure to teach your kid what’s what before kindergarten brainwashes him/her. You can find some older Standard Motion prints at Insound — along with about a hundred other awesome concert posters — so browse both, then go ahead and fill up that empty wall space.

Kelly Clarkson: My December [RCA]

Entertainment Weekly says: “Recent management changes and her cancelled tour have furthered the assumption that December must be a train wreck. It's not. There's real artistry blossoming on this, the boldest and best effort ever by an Idol star.”

Slant Magazine says: “The press about the album… would have us believe that My December is some radical departure for Clarkson, but it's really just a logical progression – if not exactly a refinement – of the fingerless-gloved rock-chick persona the singer has created for herself in the years since her crowning as the premier American Idol.”

We say: “So, Miss Independent flips off Clive Owen, fires her management and finally makes a record her way – with honest, self-penned songs about her recent heartbreak. Good for her! It's just too bad we don't give a shit. Come on, nobody is buying Kelly Clarkson albums for the tortured introspection and personal exorcism. We buy them for the smash hits with karaoke choruses – and since summer sing-alongs are obviously absent from My December, we'll save our money for Rihanna singles.”

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Tonal Irreverence is, in short, a weekly summary of new (and new-ish) music releases, the print and e-buzz surrounding them, followed by our honest opinions…without the pretentious crap that often accompanies in unneccessarily long reviews. We’re not music journalists…we just love music. Period.

This week: The White Stripes, Art Brut, The Polyphonic Spree, Battles and Rihanna.

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The White Stripes: Icky Thump [Warner Bros]

New Musical Express says: “[Icky Thump] was recorded over the course of a practically-gargantuan three weeks in Nashville’s Blackbird Studio, and addresses the problem most people had with its predecessor by dispensing with the sombre piano balladry and replacing it with snarling, hellbound guitars and a healthy dollop of gleeful perversity.”

New York Times says: “The White Stripes aren't preservationists; they're magical utilitarians. Authenticity, in and of itself, seems to bore them. They're on a far more selfish mission, smelting down favorite bits of English-language culture for their own ends. Here these include Led Zeppelin, perfumed '50s pop, Celtic folk song and the blues, which Mr. White plays with an electronic pitch shifter. (The White Stripes' junk cart would have spinner rims.)”

Tiny Mix Tapes says: “People gawk at the monuments The White Stripes construct. Loitering teens vandalize them with aerosol spray and gum wads. Others take photographs in front of them, smiling and with thumbs-up. In the end, no wear-and-tear will tarnish these monuments. They are sturdy, virtually indestructible testaments. They are impressive, breathtaking at turns, and everlastingly present. They will go on to rival D.C., Greece, Rome, Egypt, and even Led Zeppelin.”

We say: “God, just shut up, already. This is rock and roll, motherfuckers.”

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Jon Stetzen, a designer at the Brooklyn based studio Standard Motion, is now distributing some of his awesome limited edition concert poster prints through Insound, my favorite online indie music retailer (and force behind the “Save the Album” campaign). Stetzen, along with other great artists/designers like Scott McPherson and Cole Gerst, only has a few up for grabs (for bands such as Cold War Kids and Sufjan Stevens), and they all look like great quality, reasonably priced prints (about $13-20 each). I’m crossing my fingers that the plan is to keep adding to the selection– right now there’s only 19 to choose from– because buying a band’s posters and music at the same time sounds like a killer one-stop shopping opportunity.