SXSW's Best New Bands

Rolling Stone tracks down six up-and-comers

(NEWSER) - Maybe you've heard of them, maybe you haven't, but six up-and-coming bands are defining rock and pop this year, according to Rolling Stone. Next big things or one-disc wonders? Check them out, then listen up by clicking the link below:

• Low Vs Diamond: cinematic rockers from Los Angeles go epic in the vein of Coldplay.

This year has been a bummer, but the music's good

(NEWSER) - As the first half of 2010 draws to a close, James Montgomery lists his 10 favorite albums of the year—so far—for MTV :

• Kate Nash: “My Best Friend Is You represents Kate Nash at her most scattershot, squeaky and downright smart,” he writes. She’s made “an album that's rough, sprawling and unafraid to get plain weird.”
• Yeasayer: Odd Blood is “perhaps the most fittingly titled album in recent memory, a wavy, dreamy listen, full of supple, electronic fields that undulate and dip, creating precipitous peaks and delving canyons. Pop music for the 22nd century and beyond.”

They brilliantly mix 'accessible' and 'avant-garde'

(NEWSER) - The rise of Animal Collective in 2009 is often attributed to concessions to accessibility, Jonah Weiner writes. “Going by the blurbs alone, you might assume that, in a few years, Animal Collective will complete its career-long metamorphosis into ABBA.” But that’s just not the case. The quirky indie band mixes pop and avant-garde in the same measure as ever; but now, it has “expanded the overtures its music makes to our bodies.” More»

Add some Marley, Beach Boys to the Disney playlist

(NEWSER) - Parents, don’t let Disney's catalog of saccharine tunes ruin any more of your road trips. There are songs that can bridge the generation gap, Lindsay Armstrong writes on Babble:

• Jackson Five’s “ABC”: School the kids on the alphabet and pop music—all at once.
• Billy Idol’s “Dancing with Myself": If it’s good enough for the Muppets, it’s good enough for your brood.
• Simon and Garfunkel’s “Me and Julio": The kids will love characters like “Mama Pajama” and “Rosie, the Queen of Corona.”

(NEWSER) - In honor of Woodstock—which happened 40 years ago this weekend—and the “seminal documentary” that captured it, John Farr shares his list of the 10 best rock concert/performance films—all of which are “meant to be played loud,” he writes on the Huffington Post. “So crank it!”

• A Hard Day's Night (1964): “The disarming charisma and spontaneous energy of the Beatles made no traditional plot necessary. It was sufficient to portray a day in the life of the world's most talked about rock band.”