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.  

Adele

I saw Adele on Letterman last night and it reminded me to mention her on here.  I've seen a few other of her late night talk show appearances and I enjoyed all of them.  Her album is mostly great, too, but I particularly enjoyed the extra cd of live songs that came with it.  I think sparse accompaniments of just one main instrument really suit her voice well.  Oh, and in case you didn't realize, the album is called 19 because she was 19 when she recorded it!  She already has two grammys at the age of 20!

Thao

I've been enjoying Thao Nguyen's cd We Brave Bee Stings And All lately.  It's a pretty good album and I think along with her band The Get Down Stay Down she has somewhat of a unique sound going for her, and could establish herself as the next big female voice in indie rock.  Her lyrics aren't bad either.  Here's "Bag of Hammers":

Nina Simone

Nina Simone's start is interesting:  she began playing piano in church, aspired to be a classical pianist and studied at Juilliard, but in order to pay her way through school she began playing clubs and started to sing jazz standards.  Though she's playing jazz in her early work, you can definitely hear the classical and gospel influence.  Her version of "I Loves You, Porgy" is heart-breaking and fantastic:

Here's one of her later performances:

Damien Jurado

I started listening to Damien Jurado with his early albums Waters Ave S (1997) and Rehearsals for Departure (1999), and he's had some good ones after that, but I kind of lost track of what he's been up to lately.  Then I read an article about his latest album, Caught in the Trees, in the Jan/Feb issue of Relevant Magazine.  Although the songs on this album are based on his personal life, specifically a recent divorce, Jurado collaborates with Eric Fischer and Jenna Conrad on the songwriting, and the result is quite good.  Here's the music video for "Caskets":

Noble Beast

Andrew Bird's new album Noble Beast is available today for $1.99 from Amazon.com!  I've listened to it once so far and it is very good!