Ra Ra Riot

Billboard

"A weight has been lifted." That's how Wes Miles, lead vocalist for Ra Ra Riot, described his band's reaction to the release of its debut full-length, "The Rhumb Line."

It's not an unusual feeling for any young band taking its first stab at a long-player to have, but Ra Ra Riot's weight has been much heavier than most. A little more than a year ago, the band's original drummer, John Pike, drowned at 23.

Aside from his talent behind the kit, Pike was also the band's primary songwriter and lyricist, and even contributed vocals. Although "The Rhumb Line" was recorded after his death, his presence is felt throughout, with more than half of the album's songs having been co-written or co-arranged by him.

The relief Miles expresses, then, is a complex one: relief to have the band's first full-length on the books, relief to have survived as a band after experiencing such a heartbreaking loss, relief to let go of the past and move forward into Ra Ra Riot's future.

"When you've gone through a year of not quite being in the public eye, but where many people have an interest in your band and your songs, inevitably that has an effect on you and on how you make a record," he says. "Now that we've made this album that came from a certain place, we want to find out where the next place is, where we're going to go. It's really exciting to have something on the table, but also to have that freedom."

Miles also insists that, despite its often melancholic lyrics, the album is really about "staying positive" and perseverance.

"If there's a theme, it's the totality of [human] emotion. The album is like a journey. Every song takes you through that range of feelings that every person has in their life, but also specifically through things we experienced in the past year. There's sadness, and there's joy. There's a lot of celebrating, for sure.

"We did desire to make ['The Rhumb Line'] a tribute to John," Miles continues, "but mainly through celebrating good things. In remembering the things that make us happy, we continue to honor John's life and contributions."

"Dying is Fine," a nuanced celebration of life written primarily by Pike, is a suitable centerpiece for "The Rhumb Line." With words taken from an e.e. cummings poem of the same name, the song -- a first-rate example of the band's stormy, string-cushioned indie-pop -- embraces dying as part of living, even while the chorus determinedly declares, "I wouldn't like death / not even if death were good."

Miles says that "the way the band works is kind of like a family -- there's a family dynamic of sticking together." And that's where, he says, Ra Ra Riot "took the strength from -- being in a group, being friends," to weather John's passing.

He also stresses that the band's "main goal" has always been and still is "just to have fun. And that's exactly what we want for people who listen to the album or who come to our shows: we want them to be having fun, we want them to have a good time."

Fans seem to be responding to that message. Earning Ra Ra Riot its first chart ink, "The Rhumb Line" debuted at No. 3 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart four weeks ago and continues to stand firmly within the chart's top 10.

Miles, speaking to Billboard from the road as the group tours behind the new album, says that he and his band mates "don't know what's next, and that's what's exciting -- the world is our oyster. We're in this together, and that gives us all the purpose we need to keep going."

The Walkmen, "You & Me"

Billboard

If the Walkmen's last proper album, "A Hundred Miles Off," was a desperately rousing affair, "You & Me" is simply a desperate one—and that's no snub. Singer Hamilton Leithauser's chief concerns have always been loss, regret and the way life can unravel so slowly we hardly notice, but a fight-it-at-all-costs grit and thrilling vocals preserved the silver lining. Here, refracted through the lens of a lasting but troubled relationship, these themes become staggeringly heavy; the endless ebb and flow of the tide is a recurring lyrical motif reflected in the music, the band circling around Leithauser until he sounds as if he's drowning. It's muted, but intoxicating stuff, especially "Red Moon" and "On the Water." Though the album is at least three songs too long, Leithauser's words have never been more pointed, and the musicianship dazzles.

Silver Jews, "Lookout Mountain, Loookout Sea"

Billboard

On Silver Jews' "Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea" lead Jew David Berman channels his inner Shel Silverstein, serving up a set of shiny, country-fried children's songs for adults. Berman's back from the brink and instead of looking inward, he spends much of these 35 minutes proffering colorful moral fables that confront America's obsession with the superficial. At the center of his tales stand party barges, candy jails and "longtime guzzler[s] of hydrogenated crap." But fanciful settings, odd protagonists and smart-as-a-whip rhymes notwithstanding, there is a wispy, twee quality to many of these songs, and ultimately the most affecting are those that sport the emotional and anthemic heft of the best Jews material, especially the wry yet achingly lonely "Suffering Jukebox" and the darkly dreamy "My Pillow Is the Threshold." A warm, enjoyable effort, but perhaps short on the Jews' best asset: Berman himself.

No Age

Billboard

In many ways, the L.A.-based No Age has a fitting name. The guitar/drums duo creates a practically indeterminate sound on its debut full-length "Nouns," crossing genres and evoking varying eras in rock's history almost from song to song. The end result is music that embodies an alluring sense of timelessness and abandon.

But once you've had the opportunity to chat with the two fine fellows who make No Age go -- Dean Spunt (drums, vocals) and Randy Randall (guitar) -- it becomes clear that the band's name captures not only the spirit of its music, but also its determination to break with mainstream conventions and traditions.

Rather than being fixated on how many records it is going to sell, Randall earnestly tells Billboard.com that No Age's aim is "to inspire future generations, as well as people alive today from previous generations, to change the world, or at least transform the U.S. into a place that is free and safe for artistic expression and social gathering outside of an exclusively monetary exchange."

Whether through a dedication to playing all-ages, low-cost shows in unexpected places; focusing on grassroots community-building; or taking the view that how they conduct themselves on stage and off is tantamount to a political statement, Spunt and Randall carry on the ethos of L.A.-area forebears like Black Flag, who embraced self-reliance, transparency and close interaction with fans.

Says Randall, "I look at the politics of culture as a personal choice and feel like it is my responsibility to say what I feel about issues I care about. However, we are not interested in preaching to the converted or shoving our opinions on other people," he adds. "For me No Age is an opportunity to talk to other people about going out in the world and getting involved in whatever they are interested in."

Randall also says that he'd like No Age to demonstrate that "you don't have to be remarkably special to make art or music; you just have to believe in yourself and express what you are feeling."

No Age's populist, inclusive approach -- as well as its passionate live shows -- quickly gained the duo a steady following and eventually caught the attention of Sub Pop, which signed the band shortly after it began work on "Nouns." The album, which mixes everything from My Bloody Valentine-style shoegaze to straight-up punk and early '90s alt-pop, started at No. 14 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.

The bond between Spunt and Randall seems like a special one, which isn't surprising given the intensity and intimacy of the band's music. Spunt says "it took a little time for us to realize that we really enjoyed each other's company... [but] once we realized we were tight pals, the doors opened up for us to understand and appreciate our individual influences. I sometimes think Randy is the only person I can be in a band with or something since we are so interlocked musically now."

Spunt and Randall met when mutual friend Jeremy Villalobos, a drummer, recruited them to complete a hardcore/punk trio called Wives in which Spunt played bass.

Spunt remarks, "We like to say [Wives] was a punch in the face, and [No Age] is like a warm, salty wave. . . . Musically, [Wives] became very uninteresting for the both of us and [it] didn't have the open style that No Age has, where we agreed the songs would be ‘whatever we like.'" Randall adds that Wives, which split in 2005, "came to an end in order for us to start a new band with a clean slate."

In keeping with No Age's general M.O., Spunt and Randall decided on a duo format "partly out of necessity and partly out of using the restriction as inspiration." As Randall explains, "We had to see what we could come up with only using instruments and elements that the two of us could operate. I feel like when you embrace your restrictions, you make something new and unique happen."

And of their already legendary live performances, Randall comments, "I love to see people who come see us lose their sh*t and just freak out and have fun and not worry about how cool they look or what other people will think."

In fact, for Randall and Spunt, "fearlessness of expression" is the bottom line: "No Age is a way to say to anyone interested in pursuing a creative outlet but are afraid that they might look stupid or fall on their face, that it is OK to look stupid and fall on your face because the benefits of making your art and believing in yourself far outweigh the minor embarrassments that just come with everyday life. I look stupid all the time," Randall concludes, "but I also have a sh*t-ton of fun."

Man Man

Billboard

It's easy to get a good sense of Man Man and the music it makes by taking a look at the stage names of its band members: Honus Honus, Sergei Sogay, Pow Pow, Critter Crat and Chang Wang. This is a band that is eccentric, just a touch loopy and adept at pulling off madcap antics both on stage and on record.

That's not to say Man Man isn't a band to be taken seriously, however. The Philadelphia-based quintet was signed to esteemed indie Anti- for "Rabbit Habits," its third album, and scored a No. 7 debut on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart with the set. Honus Honus, aka Ryan Kattner, tells Billboard.com the band's manic energy and off-kilter approach is integral to what Man Man aims to achieve.

"We want to create some kind of human response: uncontrollable smiling, heart palpitations, projectile vomiting, pulling hair -- something people feel."

When it comes to the band's live shows, renowned as energetic and unpredictable affairs, Kattner says, "We only have an hour or so to justify this self-destructive lifestyle of ours, so why not take advantage of it? I've always hated going to shows where bands replicate their albums exactly. There's nothing to watch, no blood and sweat in the performance."

But the band doesn't play it safe in the studio, either: "We don't shortchange our records; we just make them very different than what we do live. But they are both visceral experiences."

"Rabbit Habits" has a shambled, wild-eyed energy sometimes reminiscent of Tom Waits and Frank Zappa, but feels firmly of its time. The music incorporates everything from squeaky toys and utensils to cap guns, strings and horns, creating a sublime blend of high and low, traditional and modern. Much of it wouldn't sound out of place on a soundtrack to a carnival sideshow.

Man Man has been a touring band for about five years, but Kattner says its existed as a concept for eight. Of the band's slowly rising profile, he says, "One of my favorite quotes is, 'You gotta pay your dues before you pay the rent.' Saint [Stephen] Malkmus said that. We're still simmering under the radar and it's a little frustrating sometimes, but we're earning our fan base by word of mouth and I guess that's really the best way to do it."

The other advantage? Man Man has avoided the hype backlash so many young indie rock groups suffer. "I feel bad for bands who blow up really hard on blogs or whatever on their first record and then cannot live up to that again," says Kattner. "And those fans that latch on to the hottest thing, they don't stick around -- they jump to the next ship as soon as it's sailed."

Currently on the road, Man Man tours incessantly, and Kattner says that's how the band funded the recording of "Rabbit Habits," cut while Man Man was between labels. "We used money we'd saved up from two years of touring to make [the record]. We didn't want to wait around for another label."

But Kattner couldn't be happier about Anti- taking on the band. "You spend years kissing frogs till you find a prince. Or, in a different analogy, you got to have a handful of substantial relationships before you find the one to ride off into the sunset with. We got really lucky with Anti-. It's a great family to be associated with and it doesn't come with the usual label bullsh*t -- they actually care about their bands."

Kattner says Man Man will continue to do things its way: tour, and "keep it interesting. We just want to spread the word, you know? We want to get out there and get kids out of Hot Topic. What could be more important?"

Jammy Awards Reunite Phish, For A Moment

Billboard

The reunion of all four members of Phish on stage at the Jammy Awards, which took place last night (May 7) at the WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden, was a stunning, albeit brief, highlight of the seventh -- and final -- edition of the event.

Trey Anastasio, Page McConnell, Mike Gordon and Jon Fishman had not shared a stage since their final show as Phish in August 2004, but came together at the Jammys to accept a lifetime achievement award.

Although the four did not play together -- despite emphatic urging from the crowd -- an emotional acceptance speech, highlighted by heartfelt comments from Gordon and a lengthy thank you from Anastasio, served as a reminder of the band's commitment to its fans and brought the cheering audience to its feet.

Gordon, who was under the weather, said he struggled to make it to the awards ceremony, but realized he couldn’t pass up an opportunity to be "on stage with my oldest and deepest brothers. This means so much."

Anastasio said, "For the last five years I've wanted to convey to some degree what this all meant to me and to the other guys. It was so much bigger than the four of us. It was even bigger than our friends and the scene. It was a cultural thing, and we were like servants, there to express what was going on around us. It's a wonderful feeling to do that ... and that's the feeling Phish gave us all those years. It's an honor. Thank you so much for letting us be part of your experience."

The band members made no indication of a possible reunion and exited the stage quickly after Anastasio wrapped his remarks.

The presentation of the lifetime achievement award came toward the end of the evening and capped a night of interesting one-off collaborations, including Anastasio -- who's been keeping a low performance profile since his 2006 arrest for driving while under the influence of drugs -- making a surprise appearance on guitar during a mini-set by Beatles cover band the Fab Faux. The band followed Anastasio's lead as he ripped through lengthy jams on "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" and "Everybody's Got Something to Hide Except Me and My Monkey."

McConnell took the stage to play keyboards several times throughout the night, most notably with a quartet of jazz musicians that included Christian McBride on bass and Roy Haynes on drums. He led the well-oiled group through meaty interpretations of two of his three recorded Phish originals: "Magilla" and "Cars Trucks Buses."

Other highlights included Sharon Jones joining Galactic with Booker T. Jones on organ for a take on "Born Under a Bad Sign" and then Jurassic 5's Charlie 2na and MC Doug E. Fresh joining Galactic for songs like "Hip Hug-Her" and "Think Back," which inspired the crowd to throw its hands in the air.

Leslie West, backed by Rose Hill Drive, also got the audience worked up, especially during a rowdy take on "Mississippi Queen." And co-host Warren Hayne's collaboration with Glenn Tilbrook of Squeeze on the latter's classic "Tempted" also earned a strong audience reaction.

The Jammys, which ran more than four hours, was co-hosted by Grace Potter, who, along with her band the Nocturnals, appeared with several different musical lineups throughout the night.

The evening was closed-out by a jam super-group put together for the occasion and dubbed the HeadCount All-Stars, which included Disco Biscuits' Marc Brownstein and Jon Gutwillig, String Cheese Incident's Kyle Hollingsworth, Umphrey's McGee’'s Jake Cinninger and Benevento Russo Duo’s Joe Russo. The group ran through a series of well-played Phish covers including "Wilson," "Run Like An Antelope," "2001" and an excellent, near 20-minute "Maze," which also featured Disco Biscuits' Aron Magner.

Following the show, Jammys executive producer and co-founder Peter Shapiro announced that this would be the final edition of the Jammy Awards. "We accomplished our goals with the Jammys and it's time to take this momentum in a new direction."

The event will evolve into a larger celebration of live music.

Crystal Castles

Billboard

"Go easy on me."

That's how Ethan Kath, one half of electronics-obsessed duo Crystal Castles, begins his interview with Billboard.com -- and for good reason. Just moments earlier, Kath was in a crash with the band's rented tour van, the second vehicle mishap to befall Crystal Castles in just a few short weeks.

The first was far worse, however. Kath's counterpart -- Alice Glass, who handles vocal duties -- had gone out to celebrate with a friend after a Crystal Castles show in Chicago and ended up in a car wreck with two broken ribs to show for it.

As a result, CC was forced to cancel nine shows in the middle of a U.S. tour, and Glass played the remaining dates "in a lot of pain," Kath says. "Some people would notice she was holding her ribs while performing, but she did it, somehow."

Kath manages to squeeze in this previously scheduled interview while awaiting the arrival of the police on the latest accident scene in the band's hometown of Toronto. His weariness is audible.

"I'm not doing so good," he says. "Our album's finally come out and we should be celebrating. Instead, everything's just been a mess."

Indeed, Crystal Castles does have reason to celebrate. The band's self-titled debut, which arrived April 8 on Last Gang Records, recently bowed at No. 14 on Top Heatseekers. The duo has also been the recipient of feverish blog love and has been remixing a variety of buzz acts over the last several months.

So, despite the current circumstances, Kath realizes there's a lot to be excited about right now.

"We're getting ready to leave for Europe to do a headlining tour for NME magazine [the Topman NME New Noise Tour], and it's really nice because only 15 months ago we opened for Klaxons on the same tour. Fast-forward 15 months and we're the headlining band. That feels great."

About four years ago, Kath met Glass at a center for the blind while both were completing a high school community service requirement. They quickly realized they had a shared appreciation for noise rock bands like AIDS Wolf, but also a desire to "put a new spin on what those bands were doing. We were like, 'What if we make noise with electronics?'"

Kath says he gave Glass a CD in the summer of 2004 "with 25 instrumental tracks on it. I told her to choose the songs she wanted to write vocal parts to and she chose five of them."

The duo recorded those five songs as a demo and Crystal Castles was born -- but not without a measure of drama. As Kath tells it, "We were both in other bands at the time, and when we left those bands to do this, we made a lot of enemies. To this day, everyone [from those bands] resents us. Even some of our old fans talk sh*t about us. I still get emails asking me why I left behind a 'real band' for electronics."

But if a certain sampling of Canadians wasn't happy with the new venture, nobody across the pond seemed to mind. In fact, it was the London-based roommate of Klaxons' Jamie Reynolds -- who was just starting up his own label at the time -- who first put out the band's music: a 7-inch of a microphone test that had been unknowingly recorded while CC was cutting that aforementioned five-song demo.

"I sent him a copy of the demo and forgot that the recording engineer had put the mic test on there as the first track," Kath says.

The track came to be known as "Alice Practice," since it's primarily Glass "checking her mic levels," Kath explains. "I'm just playing around with a loop while she does it, but somehow people hear a song in there."

The single, which exemplifies CC's exhilarating mash-up of Sega-evoking low-bitrate samples and processed vocal chants, sold out immediately and was followed by several other limited-edition 7-inches. The band signed in May 2007 to Canada's Last Gang for its full-length debut.

"The new album collects songs from the sold-out singles, as well as some unreleased songs from the early days and some new songs we just recorded in 2007," Kath says.

None of the old songs were re-recorded because the group "didn't want to recreate the past," he adds. "We know they're important songs and we wanted them to be on there, but we're all about moving forward."

The Black Keys, "Attack & Release"

Billboard

Throughout the course of four proper albums, the Black Keys hewed to a no-nonsense formula: guitar, drums, vocals, period. It was so satisfyingly simple and raw it's likely the duo could have successfully deployed it again. But, to paraphrase the old saying, you can't know what you've been missing until you've had it, and on "Attack & Release," we have it. Danger Mouse, the first producer to work with the Keys, takes on a role akin to gardener: He nurtures the duo's innate musicality, allowing its elemental blues-rock to bloom into something far grander. Clever but tasteful arrangements and an impeccable shine make songs like "Same Old Thing" seem anything but. The heavy, dirge-like "Lies" and the playful, faux-spooky "Psychotic Girl," which melds whimsical keyboard with earthy banjo and slide guitar, are but two of many highlights.

Kaki King, "Dreaming of Revenge"

Billboard

Kaki King plays her acoustic guitar like a drum set, literally tapping on it to create percussive sounds. But she also lays down foundational, virtuosic finger-picked or fret-slapped rhythmic patterns upon which she stacks everything from electric guitar and keyboard to bass, actual drums and, sometimes, vocals. One would expect a massive wall of sound, but King's arrangements are often airy and minimalist, evidenced best in the dusty, widescreen "Sad American" and the bouncy, urbane "Air and Kilometers." She uses pedal and lap steel to strong effect, sketching haunting portraits with "Montreal" and the climactic "2 O'Clock." While King's songs often hew closer to contemporary classical than pop, the patient listener will discern new colors in these lovely painted-desert landscapes with each listen.

City And Colour

Billboard

Dallas Green, who performs solo under the moniker City And Colour, says he only has one reason for making music: "I just want to write a better song."

Green, perhaps best known outside of his native Canada as a singer and guitarist in post-hardcore/screamo band Alexisonfire, has been writing music since he was 16.

"But I don't necessarily write one type of song," Green tells Billboard.com. "And I had all these acoustic songs I'd written that were never used for anything. I didn't know what to do with them."

A few years back, Green finally decided to record some of those songs "just for myself, just to have them on tape. That was the original idea." But with the encouragement of manager Joel Carriere (who also runs Dine Alone Records, the label City And Colour calls home), Green ended up cutting an EP from those solo studio recordings. "And then it snowballed," Green says.

A debut full-length called "Sometimes" appeared in 2005, which led to a People's Choice Favorite Canadian Artist award at the 2006 MuchMusic Video Awards and, eventually, a 2007 JUNO award for alternative album of the year.

Despite the acclaim, Green says a certain group of Alexisonfire fans rejected his gentle, country- and folk-inflected solo material. "There were those people who thought the whole project was contrived, that it was put together because it would sell more records and be more appealing to a wider audience than Alexis," Green explains. "But I can't help what kind of songs come out of me.

"Anyway," he adds, "I don't expect everyone to like everything I do. All I can hope for is that somebody gets it."

And clearly, the detractors are in the minority. The new City And Colour album, "Bring Me Your Love," which hit streets Feb. 11, debuted March 1 in the No. 11 spot on Top Heatseekers, earning Green his first solo chart ink.

Written in less than a year and a half -- mostly while on tour with Alexis -- "Bring Me" is a "snapshot of where I was at one particular time," according to Green. "That's really what separates it from the first album. 'Sometimes' was written over a span of 10 years, with no plan behind it. I had a vision this time."

With musings on everything from his own insomnia to death, Carriere says what unifies "Bring Me" is the quality of the songwriting. "It's a little bit country, it's a little bit folk, it's a little bit rock –- it's a fusion. But if there's one thing Canadians do well, it's write a good song."

With the album done, Green now turns his attention to getting the "Bring Me" material onto the stage. He appeared at the South By Southwest music festival this week and then plays his first U.S. club shows as a solo artist with bi-coastal performances at the Knitting Factory. In April, it's on to Europe, while May has him criss-crossing Canada.

From there, Green says he'll play it by ear. "I don't really decide when it's time to make an Alexis song and when it's time to make a City And Colour song. I just never stop playing guitar. I'm always working on writing a better song."

Digital Sales Boom For Post-Super Bowl Petty

Billboard

The New York Giants weren't the only ones to come away from Super Bowl XLII with a storybook ending. Artists who were tied into the game either through live performance or inclusion in advertisements also notched impressive victories, especially on the digital front.

Leading the charge, perhaps unsurprisingly: halftime show stars Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, who performed four of their best-known songs in a well-received 12-minute set. With more than 97 million viewers tuned in to the game -- the most in Super Bowl history -- Petty and his band dominated the ultimate platform for reaching consumers.

This issue, the group finds itself at the summit of Billboard's Top Pop Catalog chart with "Greatest Hits," which shot up 196% in the week following the Super Bowl with sales of 33,000, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Meanwhile, the band's "Anthology: Through the Years" jumped 240% to 7,000, taking the No. 6 spot on the same chart.

But that's just the tip of the iceberg. Petty collects his biggest trophy this issue for halftime show entry "Free Fallin'": The track shifted 63,000 digital copies, a gain of 305%, and bows at No. 10 on Hot Digital Songs. "I Won't Back Down," "American Girl" and "Runnin' Down a Dream," which made up the rest of Petty's halftime set, all registered similarly notable climbs in the digital realm.

Mike Davis, executive VP/GM of Universal Music Enterprises, which controls Petty's early catalog, says that advance preparation -- especially online -- was key to ensuring the best possible sales outcome.

"A huge part of our marketing was online-based," Davis says. "With big television events, the online aspect is so important because people can see [the performance] happen onscreen and then immediately react and buy it online. With so much music being bought online now anyway, it's an easy bull's-eye to market to."

Davis says iTunes was the biggest account on "Greatest Hits" and notes that 12,000 out of the 33,000 units shifted this week (or 36%) were digital.

But Universal was prepared at retail, too. "We were endcapped and positioned at every single account," he says. "We had ramp-up on this."

"Greatest Hits" actually broke the top 10 on Top Pop Catalog several weeks before the game, and Davis says those results were "mostly driven by retail and Super Bowl bumpers telling people that Tom Petty would be performing." In the past 10 weeks, the set climbed the chart 98-83-79-40-34-19-6-6-2-1.

The Whigs, "Mission Control"

Billboard

The dizzying tom-tom runs and shining buzz-saw guitar blasts that launch "Mission Control" opener "Like a Vibration" demand you sit up and take notice, but it's the track's pop hook heart and Parker Gispert's guy-next-door voice that make the two-and-a-half-minute sprint stick. Therein lays the beauty of the Whigs: not only is the band mercifully unpretentious, its power-trio format means the tunes are refreshingly uncluttered, allowing clear-as-a-bell melodies room to breathe. Even excursions into psych-country ("Sleep Sunshine") and horn-backed roots rock ("I Got Ideas") never feel gimmicky. Taking pages out of some very strong playbooks (think Superchunk, Guided by Voices, early Wilco), the Whigs find a way to revive honest-to-goodness pop rock for a new generation.

PJ Harvey, "White Chalk"

Billboard

On which PJ Harvey unstraps her guitar, sits down at a piano and completely reinvents her sound, creating a quiet masterpiece in the process. Seven proper albums into her career, she confronts less directly many of the themes that have defined her work—sex, love, betrayal—and instead focuses on what's left after all the damage has been done: an "empty" and "insignificant" life. This is no warm nostalgia trip down memory lane, but rather an offering to those the narrator has lost, either literally or figuratively, so she may ask "forgiveness." Essentially one long suicide note, the concept likely would have failed in less accomplished hands. But Harvey's mostly bare arrangements, stark vocal delivery and razor-sharp lyrics add up to a poignant, haunting rumination on what makes—and breaks—a life.

Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings

Billboard

Sharon Jones often hears people remark that "nobody makes good soul music anymore." She's got a message for those people: "We do."

Jones and the band she plays with, the Dap-Kings, have been churning out deliciously rich, retro-tinged, funk-influenced soul since the mid-'90s. But in one of those cruel twists of fate that seem so common to the music biz, it wasn't until the much-hyped -- and much younger -- British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse used the Dap-Kings as her backing band on sophomore smash "Back to Black" that the industry at large really took notice of Jones and her longtime collaborators.

But the warm, big-hearted Jones isn't holding any grudges. "Some people have been trying to start a fight between me and Amy. A lot of the media have been trying to set it up that way. But I give thanks to Amy," she says. "Me and the band were moving on up on our own and we've gotten plenty of places -- but she put us in that mainstream."

Jones also has nothing but kind words for Mark Ronson, the "Back to Black" producer who brought the Dap-Kings to Winehouse's attention. "He knew what kind of sound he wanted for her and he knew where to find it," Jones says. "It was our sound they needed."

Jones started singing, as so many of the great soul singers do, when she was a young girl in church. Although she lived in New York with her mother most of the time, Jones spent third grade in the South with her father. That year, Jones says, "My sisters made me play an angel at church at Christmas. They made me a halo and wings and I sang ‘Silent Night' and people said, ‘That little girl can sing.' I knew since then I had it in me."

Throughout the late '70s and '80s Jones searched for her big break, but never quite got it. "I was always told I was too dark-skinned, I was too fat and, once I was past 25, I was too old," she recalls.

She worked odd jobs to make ends meet, including a two-year stint at New York's Rikers Island prison and four years as an armed security guard for Wells Fargo.

The musical horizon finally brightened for Jones in 1995 when she met Bosco Mann (a.k.a. Gabriel Roth) — producer, bassist for the Dap-Kings and co-founder of Daptone Records. He was looking for a singer for the band to back, and she was looking for a band. Jones says she initially wondered whether the "young white boys" of the Dap-Kings could really get down, but when she heard them play, her jaw "hit the floor. They had it," she says, and they've been working their funky soul magic together ever since.

Thrilling live shows and two full-length releases — 2002's "Dap Dippin' with Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings" and 2005's "Naturally" — gained the group a dedicated following. But it's their new "100 Days, 100 Nights," released Oct. 2, that is taking Jones and her crew to the next level. The album earned Jones her first chart ink, debuting at No. 3 on Top Heatseekers and No. 194 on The Billboard 200.

The results have Jones floating on a natural high. "I've been out here doing this a long time. I'm 51 now, so it's nice to know I'm finally getting heard in the mainstream. I'm just really excited," she gushes. "This project with the Dap-Kings is 12 years in the making, and all we've wanted is to be recognized."

Kevin Wortis, co-founder of World's Fair Entertainment, which manages Daptone Records, says there's no reason Jones "can't be a new star at 51. She's got the soul, she's got the talent. And the industry is changing. Sharon was always told she didn't fit the model. But the model has shifted," Wortis says. "The industry has had to shift to survive, and what matters now is finding artists that resonate. And that includes Sharon."

Wortis says he and Daptone will keep the momentum going by having Jones and the Dap-Kings stay on the road well into 2008. The group is currently in Europe, but returns to the States in November for a cross-country tour.

Jones is also acting and singing in a new Denzel Washington-directed movie called "The Great Debaters," which is due out on Christmas Day.

And don't be surprised to see Jones on daytime TV soon, too. Oprah Winfrey's Harpo Films produced "The Great Debaters," and Jones says she now has her eye on the TV talk queen's show. "I'm praying that I get to meet Oprah. I want her to hear me singing. That's my next goal."

But Jones isn't stopping there. "I'm going to do this till my body can't do this no more," she says. "I've just got to."

Amen.

Nicole Atkins

Billboard

Nicole Atkins hails from the quaint seaside borough of Neptune City, N.J., population 5,218. But her Colombia debut "Neptune City," named in honor of her beloved hometown, was recorded in a land better known for its ski slopes than sunbathing: Sweden.

Atkins met producer Tore Johansson just in the nick of time. She'd been signed to Columbia in January 2006 by Steve Greenberg, but a change at the top meant much of the team Atkins had been working with disappeared right in the middle of the making of her first album. On top of that, she had been recording with Lenny Kaye, of the Patti Smith Group, who ended up having to give up the helm to turn his attention to Smith's new album.

"I started getting worried about getting dropped," she tells Billboard.com. "A million people had left and I wasn't sure what [Columbia] was going to do with me."

Atkins felt she'd lost a lot of time as "another summer just slipped by." But after having the pick of her next producer, she innately knew Johansson would be the one to help get her vision on tape. "He spoke my language -- children and dolls and creepy and beautiful things."

She headed off with her band to his native Sweden in September of last year and began working on what would become the rich, dreamy "Neptune City," which debuted at No. 20 on Top Heatseekers.

Atkins says they spent two weeks working, took a break, and then continued for the whole month of November last year.

"We were in the middle of nowhere," she recalls. "The studio was a half-hour from anything. We were in the middle of a field, in an old barn. It was dark out all the time."

Although Atkins says she often felt homesick and depressed -- "You would not have wanted to know me at that time," she only half-jokes -- she also credits the cold, barren environment with helping maintain "good focus. All you had was the studio to lose yourself in."

Of the tunes that made the final cut, Atkins says "about a third were songs I had done for my demo, a third were songs I'd done with the band earlier that year and a third were new songs I wrote just before I got to Sweden or while I was there."

The tracks written in Sweden -- including one of the album's highlights, "Brooklyn's on Fire!" -- capture Atkins' mindset at the time, reminiscing about home and the people she missed.

But there was a beauty in the depth of the band's isolation in Sweden that found its way into Atkins' music, which ultimately helped to enhance the final product. "The landscape really inspired me to go for something dark and psychedelic," she says. Her dark pop songs have a baroque, Beach Boys-styled '60s feel, juxtaposed with sinister sounds "because of where we were, mentally and physically."

Currently on tour with the Raveonettes, Atkins says she's grateful for how "Neptune City" turned out and for all the opportunities she's been granted to travel and see the world.

But ultimately, her focus comes back to home. "I'm in Asbury Park [N.J.] now, and a lot of my friends in bands are living here now, too. We're trying to create a scene again, to make it a viable music town again. The roots go deep.

Ayo

Billboard

"Even when I was child, in days when it wasn't easy, I used to smile a lot," says Ayo. "I think it's because my parents gave me the name they did. A name becomes like a guide -- it's something very strong."

Ayo was born Joy Olasunmibo Ogunmakin in Cologne, Germany, in September 1980 to a Nigerian father and Romani -- or gypsy -- mother. Ayo, which translates as "joy" in the Nigerian language of Yoruba, was a nickname her father had given her as a child.

"Later, I had a friend," Ayo recounts, "who always used to call me 'Joyful.' And it fit. I am joyful. I love to laugh."

But Ayo, who ultimately decided to title her debut album "Joyful," explains that emotion as something far more complex than happiness. "People will listen to the album and may at first wonder, 'OK, what is joyful here?' But it's joyful because there's a lot of hope. I believe when there's hope there's joy, and I do have a lot of hope."

That hope reveals itself most fully in Ayo's rich yet ethereal voice, which seems pulled from somewhere deep within, profoundly soulful, yet shimmers as if it has emerged almost fully intact, unscathed.

And in many ways that unique sound represents the journey of the singer herself. At around the age of 6, Ayo's mother became addicted to heroin, which led the family into poverty and then fueled her parents' divorce. Thereafter, Ayo and her siblings spent periods of time in and out of foster care, until her father was finally granted sole parenting rights when Ayo was 14.

But Ayo says music has been her "therapy" since she was a child, allowing her to stay positive and optimistic instead of falling into despair. "What I share in my music is from my experience. I need to tell the truth. I'm not a good liar, anyway," she tells Billboard.com. "And I believe that only if you stay ho you really are, can you bring something new and meaningful to the people. It doesn't matter if you are black or white; our feelings are the same. As long as we share our true emotions, we can all connect."

And Ayo's music, which draws upon and deftly blends the varied sounds of her youth -- reggae, soul, folk, jazz and rock -- is most certainly connecting. "Joyful" was released in Europe in 2006 on Polydor and bowed in the 'States in November via Interscope, debuting at No. 16 on the Top Heatseekers chart.

Currently serving as opener on tour with Babyface, Ayo recently brought an unsuspecting crowd at New York's Nokia Theater to its feet after she capped a spirited set with the heart-wrenching standout "Down on My Knees."

It was a fitting reception for Ayo who, after spending several years in London and then Paris, is now living full-time in the Big Apple.

"I believe so much in energy," she says, "and I love the energy of New York. It's so stimulating. It's good for your mind and your soul."

With a dedicated following already established in Europe, Ayo now aims to build momentum stateside. "I hope I'm going to reach people and touch people here, because I believe in people more than in record companies. People will find you and share with you because they want to, not because it's all hyped up by some label. They don't want the hype. You need to create something that's bigger than just a business thing, because in the end, that connection you make is not in the record label's hands, it's in the universe's hands."

And Ayo wants to create something that is lasting. "People joke with me and say, 'Haven't you gotten everything out of your system? Haven't you already said everything in your lyrics?' But I tell them I'm still in therapy, I still need sessions -- it's not over yet. I still have a lot more to say."