Pages tagged “best of what's next”

Mugison, the Icelandic rocker with the eccentric sense of humor, just announced nearly a dozen dates for his fall U.S. trek, his first true American tour after the occasional stray show here and there. Born Örn Elías Guðmundsson, Mugison is touring to support his third studio album, Mugiboogie, which was released in his native Iceland last year (where it quickly became a commercial and critical success) but finally made it stateside back in July. With songs like "Jesus is a Good Name to Moan" and "Two Thumb Sucking Son of a Boyo," Mugison's music definitely has an endearing oddness to it.

Liam Finn has had a long year. Newly minted as among the Best of What’s Next in the September issue of Paste, he put out his solo debut, I’ll Be Lightning, in January, and proceeded with an intense tour of trans-continental dates that took him to the U.S., U.K. and back to his native New Zealand.

Lists like this often end up being only superficially about the artist's work. The focus shifts instead toward triangulating which act is going to be the next to blow up (as if being the best were somehow a prerequisite for achieving blown-upness).

[Above: White Rabbits]

Mugison
Hometown: Ísafjörður, Iceland
Album: Mugiboogie
Why He's Worth Watching: Mugison likely embodies the person Led Zeppelin envisioned when writing “Immigrant Song.” One moment, this man from the land of the ice and snow is sounding the hammer of the gods, alternating between an infernal howl (much like Robert Plant’s) and a guttural heavy-metal groan, the next, he’s crooning to twanging guitar over eerie strings. He’s a shape-shifter and a funnyman, and Mugiboogie builds on his four previous genre-transcending works.  
For Fans Of: Tom Waits, Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy, Led Zeppelin
Acceptance Speech: “When I was 14 years old, I was voted the best-looking guy in school, but after the ceremony I found out that some of the girls in the school were running a campaign behind my back. The campaign was called ‘Vote the Freak.’ I also found out they did this to piss off the guy who’d won it three years in a row—they had some unfinished business with him. Is this something similar?”
Mugison on MySpace

Hometown: Eau Claire, Wisc.
Album: For Emma, Forever Ago
Why He's Worth Watching: Justin Vernon’s homespun album is full of intimate songcraft, and has already whipped up a veritable hurricane of blog buzz, not to mention perfect five-star ratings in major U.K. music rags Mojo and Uncut.
For Fans Of: Iron & Wine; Phosphorescent; Loney, Dear

Justin Vernon looks slightly out of place. The bearded songwriter who performs under the moniker Bon Iver (pronounced “bohn ee-VARE”) sits placidly on a black leather couch in an ultra-slick Manhattan photo studio. It’s dark in the back of the room and the screen of Vernon’s MacBook laptop throws a wan campfire glow on his face. If you didn’t know he was waiting patiently to have his picture taken for this magazine’s cover feature, you might mistake him for one of the photographer’s assistants. He’s in a hooded sweatshirt, ratty jeans and a T-shirt advertising some Wisconsin brewery, and has no plans to hit wardrobe. But his look serves as a reminder: It wasn’t cool that got him here; it was the cold.

Hometown: Oxford, Ala.
Album: Limits of the Sky
Why They're Worth Watching: Raised on praise-and-worship hymns and classic-rock vinyl, The Bridges deliver organic pop bliss devoid of saccharine filler. Their debut, Limits of the Sky, perfectly captures the majestic folk harmonies
of its three female vocalists with retro production flourishes from Matthew Sweet. The Bridges are poised to introduce the digital generation to the forgotten analog beauty
of ’70s-era album rock.
For Fans Of: Eisley, Fleetwood Mac, the beach

It’s hard to imagine another band with members as close as the musicians in folk-rock collective The Bridges. The group—consisting of three sisters, one brother and one cousin—has lived under the same roof in Oxford, Ala., since lead singer Brittany Painter moved in with her Byrd family bandmates in 2002. Six years and one magnificent debut album later, the quintet is still spending every conceivable moment in each other’s company. How a tour van full of siblings made its way from an extended family reunion to a signed contract with Verve Forecast is a tale as charmingly surreal as the pop gems the group has spent the last year polishing.

Hometown: Atlanta
Album: Metropolis: The Chase Suite (Special Edition)
Why She's Worth Watching: Janelle delivers daring, engaging, fun and thoughtful fusions of American music, and her live show can’t be topped.
For Fans Of: Prince, Talking Heads, Barack Obama

“This is a historic night,” the emcee shouts to the crowd. Waving blue and white inspirational signs, the assembly chants louder. The excitement is palpable. The diversity of the crowd—young and old, black and white, male and female—is itself a sign of the hope offered. When the shouts reach a fevered pitch, the guest of honor emerges. Welcome Janelle Monáe.

Hometown: Berlin, Germany (via Brighton, U.K.)
Album: Jim
Why He's Worth Watching: With a background in electronica, Jamie Lidell is an unlikely candidate for soul-music stardom, but with his multilayered live shows, disarmingly personal lyrics and intricate revisions of 1960s classics, the British musician proves that he doesn’t care about rules or expectations. As he continues to fuse the past and the present, his scope will only increase—even Lidell may not know where he’s going next.
For Fans Of: Amy Winehouse, Stevie Wonder, Caribou

Jamie Lidell and Conor Oberst have a lot in common. Alright, not a lot. But they do have one significant thing in common: a determined, earnest pursuit of authenticity. Their methods, though, couldn’t be more different, which is why, on a beautiful Saturday morning in June when he’d rather be outdoors than in the lobby of a photo studio, Lidell has a hard time competing with Oberst, whose music bellows at us through the speakers. “I can’t fucking concentrate with this shit,” Lidell gripes. “Shut the fuck up!”