In case there was any question about it, the video for "She Moves In Her Own Way" announces The Kooks' intention to take the Western Hemisphere by storm. The beautifully-shot clip finds The Kooks on tour in Mexico, streaking from town to town on bus, walking the dusty streets and perching high above marquees written in Spanish, and horsing around in a luxurious hotel pool. They possess the ease and grace of true rock stars: there's an inevitability and confidence in every move they make, and all four bandmembers command the camera with playfulness and exuberance. This is the sort of clip that a group makes during the first flush of worldwide success - and that feeling of wonder and amazement at the thrill of rock and roll fame is present in every frame.

They've made an inspired choice of collaborator, too. Diane Martel is an auteur of glamour, and one of the most sought-after video directors working in American commercial music. She specializes in capturing the mercurial personalities of superstars, and her world-famous clips for Jennifer Lopez ("Get Right"), Alicia Keys ("If I Ain't Got You"), John Legend ("So High") and Beyoncé ("Listen") offer the viewer an intimacy rarely seen on contemporary music television. Martel has done the same for the rock bands she's worked with (Franz Ferdinand, The Bravery, and The Killers, just to name a few), showcasing both the dynamism of the groups and the star quality of the individual members.

Since the release of their Sing Song mini-album, hailed as "one of the year's most lovable indie-rock CD's" by The New York Times, the buzz about The Little Ones has electrified the underground. On weblogs, social-networking sites, MP3 lists, and elsewhere, deejays, record-store clerks, and tastemakers everywhere have been spreading the word and recommending this quartet to anybody who loves offbeat, melodic indiepop. The Los Angeles indie rock band has toured America and Canada with the Kaiser Chiefs and The Walkmen, played a stunning showcase set at SXSW, streaked across Britain with Tilly and the Wall and The Magic Numbers, all while securing rave reviews in Pitchfork and NME.

With its Jesse LeDoux (Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins, Achilles Heel by Pedro The Lion) album cover and its wistful track titles, Sing Song looks and feels like the perfect accompaniment for modern heartbreak. The songs are sunny and bright - but lead singer and frontman Ed Reyes's beautiful arrangements conceal barbs. "Lovers Who Uncover", the current single, is a fantastic singalong number complete with shouts and handclaps, and a sugar-coated melody that wouldn't sound out of place on a Fleetwood Mac set. But listen a bit closer: it's a song about miscommunication, and the passage of time, and the cost of maturity. The heartbreaking clip for "Lovers Who Uncover" borrows its concept from "The Gift" by The Velvet Underground: a foolish lover mails himself across the country to the object of his affections. But there's no cruelty or violence in this version of the story. This time, the tragedy comes entirely from misapprehension - and that makes it all the more painful. Unlike Waldo Jeffers from "The Gift", the main character of the "Lovers Who Uncover" video isn't kidding himself about his girlfriend's affections. Instead, she's trying her best to get his attention while he, halfway across the country, concocts his plan. She sends him Polaroids, calls him on the phone, and checks her mailbox regularly for a reply - but instead of giving her the quick ring she'd need to reassure her, he opts for the more spectacular (and time-consuming) gesture. By the time he arrives on her doorstep, she's grown tired of wating and left to find him on her own, leaving them literally on each other's doorsteps!

Although the group has yet to chart a stateside hit, mainstream press reaction to The Magic Numbers was nearly as overwhelming in the U.S. as it was in the U.K., where the quartet was nominated for the 2005 Mercury Prize. The New York Times listed the first Magic Numbers set among the year's finest; the Wall Street Journal concurred, and added that "to call it the debut album of the year might not be praise enough". Spin, Details and Rolling Stone all raved - and even the USA TODAY got into the act, lauding the band's songwriting and three-part vocal harmonies. Back home in Britain, The Magic Numbers received a shower of ecstatic praise, the album soared into the Top 10, and the band launched four singles into the U.K. top 20. Stodart and his band toured with U2, Brian Wilson, and The Who, and played almost every major summer festival held in 2005 and 2006 - including Bonnaroo and Coachella in the United States. Warm summer sun, outdoor stages, and The Magic Numbers music were all meant to go together.

Kenyata Sullivan and his team are back with a new clip for "Break It And Breathe", the second single from the independently-released and critically-lauded Schizophrenology, and we're excited to report that The Majestic Twelve have upped the ante. The song is a painfully honest reflection on a suicide of a friend, but the accompanying clip is no downer; rather, it plays whimsically on notions of escape, alienation, and breakthrough, and does it all under brilliant spring sunshine. Also, since this is a Majestic Twelve project, there are men in robot suits, and men in space suits, and men in cowboy suits getting chased through the streets of Wilmington by a tribe of gorgeous Amazons, and candid shots of bemused (but always game) passersby. It's an absolute hoot, it's beautifully shot and convincingly performed, and it conjures that same sense of defiance, camaraderie, and celebration in the face of tragedy that we've always found in Sullivan's music.

Kenyata Sullivan has been one of the principal organizers of the annual Wilmington Exchange Festival (www.wefestival.com ) since its inception over ten years ago. Whether he intends it to be or not, the "Break It And Breathe" clip functions as a fantastic advert for WEFest: the streets of the coastal North Carolina city look gorgeous and welcoming, the Cape Fear river is a dazzling blue, and the folks on the street appear to be game for all manner of good-natured weirdness. "Break It And Breathe" reminds us again that there's no better place to be during Memorial Day Weekend than Wilmington, and no more gracious hosts than Kenyata Sullivan and The Majestic Twelve.

The Meat Puppets are many things - Arizona music legends, stylistic pioneers who broadened the possibilities of punk, acknowledged favorites of Kurt Cobain, and formidable concert performers. But above all, Curt and Cris Kirkwood have always been ace songwriters, and no history of American independent music is complete without a chapter on the Puppets' influence on grunge, weirdo folk-rock, neo-psychedelia, and twisted punk. Consider this: The Meat Puppets were among the few underground Eighties favorites who did not compromise their sound or approach at all when they moved to a major label and widespread acceptance in the Nineties. They didn't have to: the music world had come to them.

Rise To Your Knees, the latest album from the seminal trio, reunites the Kirkwood brothers after a decade apart and finds the pair recapturing the spontaneous magic of their early recordings. Rise may sound as warm and accessible as their '94 hit Too High To Die, but the courageous songwriting here echoes the classics Meat Puppets II and Up On The Sun. Those were the albums that gave shape to the "cowpunk" movement - which has since splintered into a dozen subgenres all deeply indebted to The Meat Puppets - and spawned countless imitators. They also established Curt Kirkwood as one of the legitimate guitar originals of the period, and functioned as a showcase for his unconventional skills. The elder Kirkwood lets it rip on Rise To Your Knees, tearing into tracks like "Light The Fire" and "Vultures" with renewed energy and purpose.