New Pop Music Discoveries 08 - 09

Here are some artists I've discovered this year so far:

The Mountain Goats
- Once you get passed the nasality of the lead singer, this sem-acoustic group are great story tellers. From "Michael Myers Resplindent", about the complexities of being Michael Myers (the killer, not the comedian) to "Marduck T-Shirt Room Incident", all of Mountain Goat's tracks are singular stories-in-action. Think a less British Decemberist, combined with a hint of Sufjan Stevens and subtlle humor not unlike Fountains of Wayne

Nellie McKay
- As it says on the packaging for "Get Away From Me', Mckay draws comparisons to Norah Jones, Dolly Parton and... Eminem. Now that's one hell of a threesome. Although her jazz/lounge inused pop sounds similar to Norah Jones, Diana Krall, or even Pink Martini or Regina Spector, her lyrics and vocal style are far more to the liking of Alanis Morissette, Sarah McLaughlan, and yes, Eminenm. Tracks like "Sari", "Inner Peace", and "Identity Theft" take on views from education, US aid to third world countries, to human selfishness, the corruption of the entertainment industry in fast pace raps, while songs like "Clonie", "David", "Ding Dong", and the overly sarcastic "Mother Pearl" provide cute sounding yet harsh and clever tongue lashings on feminism, cloning, and alcholism ina more lounge oriented sound. Very fun to listen to, but not for everyone. As Mckay sings, "I'm sick and tired of being nice so fuck you once -no fuck you twice."

Israel Kamakawiwo'le
- "IZ" is known as one of the premier and most famous traditional Hawaiin artist. The iconic, now deceased artist is most famous for his ukelelee version of "Somewhere over the Rainbow". His original content may be disparring for big fans of the song, for while his other covers "Mona Lisa", "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star", and "Wonderful World" are simialr to Rainbow, many of his oringal songs are backed by orchetsra or synthesizer.

Daphne
Awesome French lyrics. Great pop voice. Subtle yet charming, not snobby, musical thought. Shameful that she only has one real album, Carmin.

Mechanical Bride
For fans of Yael Naim, Birdier Busch, and the lik, Mechanical Bride is the one of he next little female sub-pop artist coming into play. Her piano and handbell driven version of Rihanna's "Umbrella" is great, and her original content ranges from pretty melodic and pretty to standard rock.

Baby Soda Jazz Band
Found them in the subway on 6th. 2 Homeless guys, 2 college kids, a college professor, and a guy from Nasdaq, add a banjo, one string box bass, sax, trumet, clarinet, some makeshift drums, and a kick ass name and record label (the Brown Bag - all Cds come in a brown paper bag staple together), and you got me. They play good old-time swing with a bluegrass twist (and a kick of gospel in some songs. Worth checking out.

Peter and the Wolf
I always don't know how to correctly describe the sound of the New Pornographers - now I do - they're like Peter and the Wolf, with more comples lyrics. I really like Peter and the Wolf better though0 great hanging around on a weekend afternoon music.

Dreamtheater
They're more mainstream,an d they've been on my Ipod for awhile, but Dreamtheater is very good. I love that they 9as well as Tool and Coheed and Cambria) are bringng back the concept album (which hit a low after Rush's 2112, The Who's Tommy, and Pink Floyd's The Wall). Dreamtheater seem to be the perfect storm of rock - think Tool's drums with Queens vocals (hes not Freddy Mercury but) and RHCP's Flea on bass, with Roger Waters collaborating with Coheed for lyrics. Really good stuff.

Couer De Pirate
Another Frenchie, Couer de Pirate is much mellower and minor that Daphne. Legato, flowing melancholy music, great for the gray days of ennui.