Emanuel and the Fear

This band is great. They are an electro/orchestral pop group from New York. So far they only have an EP released, most of which can be heard on their myspace, but they are working on a full length. Apparently they are an 11 piece band made up of people who have played with various other artists, including Sufjan Stevens and The National. I especially enjoy the first three songs from the EP: the bright, poppy "The Rain Becomes The Clouds," the folkier "Comfortable Prison," and the dancy "Jimme's Song" which goes into an extended experimental electronic section.

Mayer Hawthorne

Just heard this today, this single is currently free on itunes!

Colossal

I realize I have never mentioned them on here before. They are a great band that blends punk with a little bit of math rock and jazz--and they happen to be from my hometown! Here is their myspace.

This Town Needs Guns

That last video reminded me of this one because of the jolty stop-motion stuff. This band is pretty good, too, they have that odd time indie/math rock feel with cool repetitive guitar riffs that remind me of Colossal and Anathallo.

Ida Maria

I just listened to her album Fortress Round My Heart for the first time and it inspired me to return to this blog I nearly forgot about. Of course she's from Norway, which further affirms my belief that there is something special about Scandinavian pop... Here's "Oh My God":

Phoenix

I saw these guys on Saturday Night Live the other night.  The first and last time I heard them before that was on the soundtrack to Lost in Translation, but I never listened to any more than that.  I don't know if they've changed their sound much since then, but I listened to their new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix (which I think is a pretty sweet title) a few times and I really like it.  On SNL I thought the lead singer sounded a little like Ben Kweller.  The band is much dancier than Kweller's, in fact they sometimes verge on groove/lounge music, but they can still rock, and I prefer those songs in which they do.  Oh yeah, did I mention they're French?  You wouldn't have even noticed.  Maybe they should sing a few songs in French.  (Maybe they have, like I said I'm not familiar with their earlier work).  Anyway, here's their performance on SNL:

K'Naan

Aaron just hipped me to this dude.  I dig his stuff, it's honest.  It's got kind of a Will I Am or Wyclef Jean vibe to it, but it's a little different because of his Somalian background.  His full album is available streaming on his myspace.