Winter 2009 1 Loney dear - Airport Surroundings  Emil Svanangen, better known as Loney Dear, was in perfect company on his tour with Andrew Bird this winter. His folk-pop soars with more than just a guitar and his plaintive voice. Add some electronica and orchestral arrangements, and you're talking about a solid effort from start to finish on "Dear John."
myspace.com 2 Metric - Help, I'm Alive "My heart keeps beating like a hammer," sings Metric front-woman Emily Haines on the Canadian band's track "Help I'm Alive." Listeners can't help but to experience the same, with high-octane dance rock, big synth and guitar lines, and Haines' pure melodies.
artist link 3 Elvis Perkins in Dearland - Doomsday Just as could be expected from the son of an Academy Award-winning actor, Perkins adds sweeping drama and intellectual arc to his acoustic-led narratives.
myspace.com 4 Shugo Tokumaru - Parachute This Japanese singer-songwriter has supported acts from M. Ward and Howe Gelb - a testament to his mastery of roots and acoustic-based instrumentalism -to bands like Animal Collective and Deerhoof, an indication of his playfulness and imagination.
myspace.com 5 The Old-Believers - No More Duo Nelson Kempf and Keeley Boyle exchanged the snow of their hometown Kenai, Alaska for the rain of Portland, Oregon and came up with perfect American roots-pop in between. "Eight Golden Greats," indeed.
myspace.com 6 Marcio Local - Preta Luxo This Brazilian's Bill Withers-ian vocals meet sexy Samba and Afro-Cuban beats.
myspace.com 7 Asa - No One Knows A-S-A is actually pronounced "Ah-shah"; both sound eerily similar to "awesome." In her freedom-songs, this firebrand combines the African rhythms of her home continent with soul, R&B and acoustic pop bliss.
myspace.com 8 Eleni Mandell - Bigger Burn This sultry L.A. singer keeps good company: collaborating with folks like Chuck E. Weiss (Tom Waits) and Tony Gilkyson (X), her pop tunes have a dark, arty and soulful edge to them, perfect mood music for the next time you need to devise the perfect crime.
myspace.com 9 Fredrik - Black Fur With loops, hard punctuation, climaxes and eloquent dissonance, Sweden's Fredrik makes the aural equivalent of calligraphy.
myspace.com 10 Yonlu - I Know What It's Like Born Vinicius Gageiro Marques, Yonlu was the screen name of a 16-year-old Brazilian savant who shared his musical visions of post-rock, boss nova and experimental noise with the world before killing himself in his parent's bathroom. What's most surprising is that so much of his songs are completed works, while it seems, sadly, his life was not.
myspace.com 11 The Mighty Underdogs feat. Lyrics Born - Ill Vacation Boasting Gift of Gab, Lateef the Truth Speaker and Headnodic, this hip-hop supergroup pumps out genre-bending party grooves. Not satisfied with that amount of raw talent, the trio also tapped acts like DJ Shadow, Mr. Lif, Chali 2na and Damian "Jr. Gong" Marley to round out their record.
myspace.com 12 J-Boogie - Revolution - DJ Vadim Remix Be not fooled: J-Boogie's Dubtronic Science record "Soul Vibrations" sounds exactly how you think it sounds. It's graffiti splayed over a science fiction landscape where nobody sleeps and everybody has "a move."
myspace.com 13 Benjy Ferree - Fear In one moment, Benjy Ferree sunnily croons his way through '60s style pop like Mungo Jerry and, in the next, leads a runaway glam rock orchestra like Marc Bolan. A perfect example of Washington, D.C.'s Small World Syndrome, Ferree reportedly decided to pursue music while bartending at the Black Cat, after Fugazi's Brendan Canty encouraged him to do so.
myspace.com 14 Malajube - Luna Even if you don't speak French, you're probably fluent in this Montreal quartet's other languages: carnival-esque pop, dreamy psyche elements, and big choruses.
myspace.com 15 Bell X1 - Light Catches Your Face Damien Rice used to be the lead singer of this group - formerly named Juniper - before breaking out as a solo artist. Now it's this modern rock troupe's turn to sell out music halls, with frontman Paul Noonan's quirky tenor and the band's gigantic choruses.
myspace.com 16 DM Stith - Hoarse Sorrows and the Whole Blind Earth This Hoosier is pretty dark for having worked with My Brightest Diamond. David Michael Stith, on Sufjan Stevens' Asthmatic Kitty label, makes some creepy and mostly-acoustic music with growths and spurts of electronic elements and arrangements to raise the hair on the back of your neck.
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