Act I: Davy Rothbart’s Found Magazine comes across a discarded demo tape by some ridiculously bad rap outfit called The Ypsilanti All-Starz (an even funnier name if you live in the Detroit area).
Act II: Davy’s brother Jason and his band The Poem Adept cover the All-Starz with a surprisingly earnest coffee house version of “The Booty Don’t Stop.”
Act III: The Poem Adept — who, unfortunately, are at their best when singing about booty — approach their muses for a multi-record songwriting deal, lest they end up next to Dynamite Hack in the history books.
The Mathletes
Hilarious, cute, and quite often catchy — just what you’d expect from a young bedroom pop maestro with a quivering voice who choses to go by The Mathletes instead of Joe, covers Boards of Canada, and openly admits to stalking Cat Power. (Thanks, Gabba Pod.)
Summer at Shatter Creek
Armed with not much more than an acoustic guitar, piano, and his voice, Craig Gurwich single-handedly fashions sparse, beautiful, and haunting songs.
Babbletron
Instrumentally sparse, lyrically thick head-nodders that — while decidedly unpretentious — exude the confidence of b-boys who know they’ll be around for a while.
babbletron.com
Olympic Hopefuls
If you’re still searching for a summer single, you won’t do much better than “Holiday,” an emphatic anthem with a pinch of despair that is the perfect male answer to the Go Go’s “Vacation.” There are a couple more pop gumballs from these Minneapolis jogging suit aficionados that’ll make you want to rock the Slip’n’Slide until mom makes you go inside and eat your fish sticks and tater tots.
Blockhead
Another Ninja Tune victory: scratchy electronic that sounds like how the movie 28 Days Later felt. This track seems to feature a bit of Strongbad right towards the end as well.
French Kicks
The latest from these fashionably flip young men takes on a new-wave polish that accentuates the hooks and speeds the rhythm section to heel-popping precision. Precious, but in a savagely catchy way.
Noise for Pretend
Sultry bossa nova noir… Mysterious and enchanting, and not just because frontwoman Esperanza Spalding is barely 18 years old.
Salvatore
Is it live or is it Memorex? (Wow, that reference seems really dated…) A band or someone hiding behind a curtain of computers? Either way it’s as if robots recorded My Bloody Valentine music in the Mojave desert. But robots like the Tin Man, who had heart.
Sam Bisbee
Bisbee’s unflinching romanticism and grandiose sampler symphonics beg for a John Hughes soundtrack to call home.