1. Charlotte Sometimes
-Taking her stage name from the children's book or perhaps the Cure song, Jessie Poland, is a new singer from NY that was recently signed to Geffen records. Her debut album came out on May 6th. She's a bit like Ingrid Michaelson meets Fiona Apple, 'cept more poppy, if that makes sense. Judging from the content of this site, I'm going to guess most members will take a liking to her song "Sweet Valium High." (lyrics), her biggest hit so far, though, is "How I Could Just Kill A Man." (Biting off Rage Against The Machine?)
http://www.youtube.com/v/0_DW9xJTX-4
2. Tom Waits
-For those of you that haven't heard of Tom Waits yet, for shame. The singer, songwriter, artist, composer, actor, extraordinaire has a voice that takes some getting used to. Critic Daniel Durchholz describes it as sounding "like it was soaked in a vat of bourbon, left hanging in the smokehouse for a few months, and then taken outside and run over with a car." He uses lots of blues, jazz, and Vaudeville type sounds in his music, touching lightly on industrial at times. My favorite album of his is probably Nighthawks at the Diner though I really love most of his stuff. Here's one of my favorites, "Eggs and Sausage" from Nighthawks at the Diner.
http://www.youtube.com/v/ZPH189gsVFg
3. Nouvelle Vague
-Ever seen LA Ink? You know the song playing in the opening sequence. You may have noted it was a rather interesting cover of Billy Idol's "Dancing with Myself." The band doing that cover, though, is Nouvelle Vague. "Nouvelle Vague" in French translates to "New Wave" although the band covers a lot of punk and post-punk along with new wave songs of the 80s. I found it interesting when reading about them that the female singers only cover songs they haven't heard before, making sure each cover sounds unique. Here's their "Dancing With Myself"
http://www.youtube.com/v/ekQZPozjCX8
4. The Specials
The Specials are pretty well known if you're into ska. The English 2-Tone Ska Revival Band from Coventry formed in 1977 and since then have had a lot of their music featured in tv and movie soundtracks such as "Sixteen Candles," "SLC Punk," "Snatch" "Shaun of the Dead," and "Natural Born Killers," to name a few. Here's "Ghost Town," possibly their biggest hit. (I couldn't find an actual video for the song, so here is somebody's sad attempt at art.)
http://www.youtube.com/v/Dtb5HA1ovHI
