Summer 2008 1 Fleet Foxes - White Winter Hymnal  Sup Pop records marks its 20th year in existence this summer and, lo/behold, they've got themselves a dustily melodic breadwinner out of Seattle five-some Fleet Foxes. It doesn't scorch like Nirvana's "Bleach" but it exhales with shimmering guitars and impressive vocal layers like a tuckered toddler after a day at Gymboree.
myspace.com 2 The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made for You Oh no no, it's not enough for vocalist Alex Turner to move a bazillion copies of his records with Arctic Monkeys. No, he has to hook up with the Rascals' Miles Kane and make creepy, epic rock tunes that could walk straight out of a film noir. The nerve.
myspace.com 3 Bajofondo Tango Club w/Mala Rodriguez - El And»n Bajofondo Tango Club changed their name to only Bajofondo just to try and confuse you, but we won't let them. They wisely enlisted Rodriguez to liven up this track. English-language hiphop has yet to produce a female MC as intoxicating as Mala.
myspace.com 4 Dosh - Kit and Pearle If ever there was such thing as emotive electronica, this is it. Dosh is Martin Dosh, longtime percussionist for Andrew Bird.
myspace.com 5 Delta Spirit - Children This San Diego quintet's newest album is called "Ode to Sunshine." It features an aged photo of a be-speckled middle-aged man grinning ear to ear, earnestly hoisting up a glass of red. This band sounds just like that photo.
myspace.com 6 Black Kids - Hit the Heartbrakes This Florida band brings a campy mix of hiphop, funk, psych and fanny-pack-bearing dance-punk. SPOILER ALERT: Not all the members in the band are black.
myspace.com 7 Laura Marling - Tap At My Window SWF Seeks Sprvsrs: tiny-voxd gal w/ gtr luvs soul, spite, J. Sobule, J. Buckley. Call xoxo
myspace.com 8 Mates of State - Now This husband-wife duo isn't exactly new but they manage to make each record sound like a new riff on the drums-and-keys combo. Kori Gardner's voice continues to soar higher while Jason Hammel could beat stripes off a zebra.
myspace.com 9 Solid Gold - Who You Gonna Run To? This track asks, "Who you gonna run to?" Considering how goddamn sexy the song is, the question comes off as rhetorical. Minneapolis may be freezing, but this trio keeps warm by grinding their synthesizers.
myspace.com 10 Hercules and Love Affair - Hercules Theme What's good enough for Antony is good enough for us. Hercules and Love Affair, in a deal with DFA, makes vulnerable disco for the masses.
myspace.com 11 Camphor - So Lucky... Every great film has conflict and the same goes for Max Avery Lichtenstein's songs. It's no wonder he made his start in music composing for films; His melodramatic tracks are like the devastating turn of events that keep your butt in the seat despite your unnerving need to go to the bathroom.
myspace.com 12 Tu Fawning - Out Like Bats Some people are turned on by a man who dresses like a woman who's dressing up like a man. Tu Fawning is a modern day woman pretending to be transported back to a speakeasy in the 1930's pretending to perform in the future. Does that make any sense? God we hope so.
myspace.com 13 Time Machine & Maya Jupiter - (If You Know What) I Mean Originally hailing from the musical mecca of Rhode Island, trio Time Machine relocated to a lesser destination, Los Angeles, where they pump out the Thinking Man's club tracks, chock full of samples, nerdy rhyming schemes and pop beats.
myspace.com 14 Christine Fellows - The Spinster's Almanac Christine Fellows sounds like she's singing about stuff like heartbroken unicorns and bleeding stones and white lace curtains covering photos of dead loved ones, whether she is or not.
myspace.com 15 Music Go Music - Explorer's of the Heart The members of Secretly Canadian's Music Go Music probably grew up on a lot of musicals and Elton John. Blame the Broadway revival of Xanadu for the band's current rise.
myspace.com 16 The M's - Breakfast Score If the Kinks and T. Rex looked in the mirror simultaneously, they'd smile and see The Ms. Practically each of the five members of this Chicago-based Polyvinyl crew can play each other's instruments and engineer.
myspace.com 17 The War On Drugs - A Needle In Your Eye #16 Were the actual war on drugs to sound anything like The War On Drugs, then everybody's still on drugs but can keep good time. Frontman Adam Granduciel makes extensive use of his guitar samplers and vocal effects, layering them over consistent rhythms and auxiliary instrumentation.
myspace.com 18 James Jackson Toth - Look In On Me This singer-songwriter is perhaps best known for his contributions to Wooden Wand, but his solo debut will very likely eclipse that reputation with its lyrics-centered dark Americana and its lazy promo photos.
myspace.com 19 Haley Bonar - Queen of Everything For our Twin Cities hat-trick, we have folk-inspired songwriter Haley Bonar, who sites Justin Timberlake and Black Sabbath as influences. Which is just so wrong. Think more along the lines of Richard Buckner, Ingrid Michaelson and losing your electricity on a stormy day on the Plains.
myspace.com 20 Little Vic - The Exorcist It's good to know somebody's claiming Long Island - not Brooklyn, not New York - as their center of operation. Little Vic spits smart rhymes, backed by understated, rich beats.
myspace.com 21 The Explorers Club - Don't Forget the Sun Does Brian Wilson drink? If he does, The Explorers Club owes him a few.
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