Number 35: Architecture In Helsinki

The best Australian band since Silverchair! Holy shit these cats are way better than Silverchair. Inspite of being card carrying members of the ADD rock scene (not much of a scene really), AIH could just coast putting together Frankenstein beasts of albums all noise and drastic shifts. Instead they bring surprising sense of coherance to the indie party. All that, and their open ended vibe could be doing more to change the sense of hippie like collectives than even Broken Social Scene (if for no other reason than that these folks seem like hippies). Mostly these guys are the technocolor version of Belle and Sebastian that Belle and Sebastian have tried to be for the ast few years.

Number 36: MF Doom

Ever since Kanye brought a touch of Back Packer class to hip hop and Outkast decided to bust open the musical parameters a bunch, the underground's been coasting. Coasting on mainstream baiting and unlistenable preachy records. Not Doom though. Doom decided at some point to just spill the wittiest, wrongest, most bananas rhymes he could cook up in his metal coated dome. He's now the most respected and prolific MC in the underground and everyone who's anyone is trying to work with him. New albums with Dangerdoom and Madlib will keep his feet on the ground as colaborations with Ghostface begin to flaunt the man in the mask in front of the Vibe Magazine set. It's hard to imagine how the mainstream will react to Magilla Gorilla references and poorly spoken Italian not to mention a high quotiant of "Egads" and "Gee Wilikers," how shit goes down from here is for sure one of the most interesting developments in the hip hop pipe line.

Number 37: Isaac Brock

Everything Isaac Brock touches turns to Wood*. If he were signing the Xtinas and Nickelbacks of the world this would be no feet, however working as an A & R man for Sub Pop and signing such acts as Iron & Wine, The Shins, and Wolf Parade (who's labum he produced) Isaac Brock has established himself as the hipster taste maker. He may be more O.C significant than Peter Gallager's eye brows.

Plus he's got this other project this rock and roll band called Modest Mouse. Who knows when the Mouse will drop another album but upon it's release it'll be sure to elicit psychotic reactions and the industry will be looking for another "Float On." My impulse is to not bank on one though. I can sort of picture the record comapny meetings. "Isaac there's no hit on this album."
"We already had a hit," Isaac would say unable to muster up enough concern to even raise his voice.

*"Wood" is the music industry term for albums that sell 100,000 copies.

Number 38: Bloc Party

We've all been there. A hot new band comes out and we just want to write off all the calls of "But these guys are different." But here we are eating our backlash against Bloc Party.

Indeed it seems we may be eating that backlash for a little while. It's spotty but their remixed version of Silent Alarm suggests this is a band unafraid of throwing off the shackles of a straight guitar band. They may in fact be the first of the "New Rock" guys who seem eager to do so. Perhaps by next year Gang of Four will be but a faded influence in the Bloc Party repetoire.