It would be disingenuous not to mention Salvador Santana's lineage: he's the son of the undisputed titan of Latin rock and Latin jazz. By the time he was fifteen years old, he'd already collaborated with dad Carlos on a Grammy-winning track from Supernatural. But just as Santana - the group - was always more than just a vehicle for the groundbreaking guitarist that lent the act his name, the Salvador Santana Band is a true multi-genre, multi-ethnic combo.

Drummer Tony Austin has been entertaining audiences for two decades - he's played wigged-out funk with Erykah Badu, bopped with Billy Higgins, improvised with The Monterey Jazz Festival All-Star Big Band, and swung with countless other talents in pop and jazz. Singer (and occasional TV actor) Quincy McCrary is a well-known face around Los Angeles; he's performed with Quetzal, Burning Star, and put out several recordings under his own name. Guitarist Woody Alpanalp has studied with jazz legend Charlie Haden, gigged with African music pioneer Thomas Mapfumo and the incomparable Lauryn Hill, and toured the world with soul superstar Bobby Womack. Multi-instrumentalist Jose "Crunchy" Espinosa is a former member of the unclassifiable, politically-charged Ozomatli (furthering that connection, Asdru Sierra, a founding member of Ozomatli, guests on the Salvador Santana Band debut to electrifying effect.)

But no matter how much wattage he's surrounded himself with, singer-rapper-pianist Salvador Santana is the star of this show. It's his vision that animates SSB, his voice that harmonizes this kaleidoscope of styles, and his varied musical tastes that color this wildly entertaining set. SSB is a brilliant amalgam of contemporary R&B, hip-hop, salsa, radio pop, Latin jazz, psychedelic music, and even classic rock. Carlos Santana makes an appearance on SSB; it's a breathtaking collaboration, but it also serves to illustrate that these young musicians can hold their own with a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. Yes, they're that good.

While many tracks on SSB are experimental and unrepentantly adventurous, "Summer's Day" is a track made for hit radio. Co-written with DJ Nu-Mark of Jurassic 5, the cut boasts a slamming beat, an irresistible chorus, and a magnetic performance from Salvador Santana. The clip for "Summer's Day" - a whimsical combination of Flash-style animation and live performance footage - feels as sunny and delightful as the song. Salvador Santana and the band drive their van through a cartoon California, tracing red lines on the map from San Francisco to Los Angeles. The SSB plays their song against a Flash backdrop, alternately performing on the streets of an animated Hollywood and the rooftops of a crisply-drawn Alcatraz. There's a woman he's after, too, and she's no cartoon either. She's the one who grabs the red lines that the band van is tracing and pulls them taut - and in so doing, she manages to draw the two California cities together as if she's stitching up a knot.

The "Becoming A Monster" video opens in a drab, old-school corporate office - the walls are institution green, the desks are Seventies brown, and the workers are outfitted with pens, lamps, and cheap electric typewriters. Dressed in white suits, the members of Self Against City sit at their cramped stations and fiddle with their analog tools. The song doesn't start, though, until one of the workers shoves a plug into an overburdened socket. The sprinklers are triggered, and the room is soon awash, covering floors and desktops with water. Suddenly, singer Jonathan Michael - still seated behind his desk - begins to advance toward the camera, as if drawn forward by a magnet. Intense, eyes blazing, he hurls his lines at the listener; then, without warning, he breaks a fourth wall and he's out on a suburban street. When the group returns to this office later in the clip, they'll tear it up even further, pounding out their contempt for the sterile environment.

Indeed, the San Luis Obispo quartet is no Internet phenomenon. They're Warped Tour veterans, and they've played to sold-out houses all over America; they are currently on tour with Mae and Relient K, and later this summer, they'll be hitting the road with Motion City Soundtrack. Their much-loved 2005 debut album Sing, But Keep Going announced the arrival of a multifaceted combo: a contemporary band that loves The Beach Boys as much as The Get-Up Kids, and who've got the rich vocal harmonies and sun-drenched California melodies to prove it. Alternative Press named them one of "22 underground bands that won't stay underground for very long", and the band will be appearing alongside MySpace head honcho Tom Anderson on an upcoming edition of TRL. On A Different Light, they've added dizzy synths to their modern rock, and the resulting hybrid is something singular - reminiscent at times of hellogoodbye's romantic electro-pop or Rooney's psychedelic beachscapes, but more elastic than either of those excellent groups. "Song In My Head", the lead single, is the undeniable rock anthem and inevitable radio hit, but A Different Light also contains letter-perfect electropop ("The Best In Me"), fascinating electronic experiments ("Alley Cat"), dazzling summer-funk ("Give Up!") and pure statements of purpose ("A Different Light"). If you find another 2007 modern-rock album that covers more territory with grace, we'd certainly like to hear it!

Directed by Sherwood guitarist Nathan Henry with help from his bandmates, the video for "Song In My Head" is a sun-drenched reverie, and a whimsical look at the "making" of a band. In the clip, the four members of Sherwood are imagined as paper-doll cutouts animated by a pre-school kid. The child constructs a shoebox diorama on the floor of his suburban home; inside the "room", the musicians are dressed in brown paper and given huge cardboard instruments to play. Scraping their fingers over strings drawn on by magic-marker, the quartet moves like marionettes. Later, the boy brings the shoebox out onto a lawn - and when other kids start to chase him, the four members of Sherwood are flung against the brown paper walls of the box. A twig tossed into the diorama becomes a gigantic log crashing down on the cardboard drumkit; a little girl stops to lend a hand and dresses the figures in roughly-cut pink floral outfits. Finally, the little boy and girl carry the band with them as they race off into the sunshine - their song still echoing across the open meadows.

Shout Out Louds are lucky to have their own in-house director: bassist Ted Malmros, whose production company (that also includes his brother Tom) has shot clips for many popular Scandinavian bands. His animated video for "Young Folks" by Peter, Bjorn & John became one of the best-loved spots of 2006, received international acclaim (and thousands of downloads on social-networking sites), and won the bassist and filmmaker a Swedish Grammy. The Malmros brothers-directed clip for "Tonight I Have To Leave It" - the lead single from Our Ill Wills - is described as a documentary, and it does indeed have the intimate feel of a video diary or an exploration journal. Shot aboard a giant transport ship, it follows the story of a young man's journey across the ocean. All the seafaring details are here: the cramped quarters and steamy mess-hall, the white-bearded old captain, the arcane navigation equipment, and the clouds of steam and frost that hover in the air after the crewmembers exhale. Life aboard an oceangoing vessel is shown in a few bold, rich strokes: exciting and mundane, dull and surprisingly beautiful. Below the deck, the members of Shout Out Louds (they've taken this trip, as well) gather to sketch the skylines of the cities they've seen. In fact, the video itself is based on a dream of the band's to tour the world on a ship and do shows at every port!

They've brought along their instruments, too. The quintet sets up in the cargo hold, and the cold grandeur of the gigantic room perfectly suits the cinematic sound of "Tonight I Have To Leave It". Produced - as is all of Our Ill Wills - by Bjorn Yttling of Peter, Bjorn & John, it's a gorgeous synthesis of Scandinavian indiepop and classic Head On The Door-style alt-rock. Shout Out Louds deliver a sweeping string arrangement, rattling percussion, a dark and engrossing lyric wedded to a potent melody, and an impassioned performance by frontman Adam Olenius. Wide-eyed and urgent, Olenius sends his song up to the top of the cavernous hold, as his band fills the shadows behind him with echoing harmony.

For the "Impossible" clip, Shout Out Louds bassist Ted Malmros reprises his double-role as the band's video director. Malmros won a Grammi (the Swedish Grammy Award) for his endearing video for Peter, Bjorn & John's "Young Folks", and we hope he's got room on his mantelpiece for another. "Impossible" is a gorgeous piece of filmmaking as well as the perfect accompaniment to Olenius's tale of romantic despair. It's a chronicle of a long Scandinavian night - the sort of too-bright evening that complicates longing and compounds midsummer disorientation. Malmros catches the band under the whirling lights of an amusement park; they arrive separately and leave the same way, but gather in the arcade to keep each other cold company. One Shout Out Loud shoots a target and wins a stuffed Pooh bear, and the poor doll spends the rest of the clip staring upward from a bicycle basket. The carnival rides crash and spin under the never-dark sky, and the five bandmembers wander as if in a dream. The coin-op claw, fishing for prizes behind a glass case, becomes a metaphor for the futility of romantic connection; the inexorable rush of the rollercoaster suggests the speedy approach of the future. Throughout, Malmros's colors are bold, dazzling, and hypnotic, and the red-stained faces of the Shout Out Louds are tremendously expressive in their impassivity. Heartbreak seeps through the frames, and radiates from the winsome faces of the young musicians.

Sia Kate Isobelle Furler, also simply known as Sia, is an Australian pop singer. She is noted for her work with Zero 7 and her two major label solo albums.

If you were there, you know it's true: SXSW '08 was bigger and better than the festival has ever been. And if you were in Austin this year, chances are, you've heard the name Sink to See. The Los Angeles quartet emerged from South by Southwest with the sort of buzz that any publicist would kill to manufacture for their clients. Their shows in Austin were a celebration: head-turning performances that felt like affirmations of the power of rock and roll. But although the members of Sink to See are young still carving out their place on the American musical landscape, theirs is no overnight success-story: they've been honing their sound for years, touring steadily, and opening shows for some of the biggest bands in the indie rock underground. They've shared bills with The Breeders, ImaRobot, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, and other like-minded rockers, and have developed a stage set that is at once explosive, meditative, and inspiring.

The band's self-titled debut puts all of those qualities on bold display. The independently-released Sink to See, a collection of sharply-performed and bracing rock songs, has been compared by critics to Radiohead, The Killers, and Sugarcult. Frontman Jason Napier's voice roars out of the speakers like a thunderstorm; Donie West's guitar scalds, snarls and stings; drummer Tariq Mills and bassist Shawn Bathe are rock-solid, energetic, and poised. The licensing execs at MTV are already notable appreciators of the band's cinematic sound: they've placed songs from Sink to See in episodes of Newport Harbor and The Hills. Sink to See have become favorites of adventurous Cali radio deejays, too, winning heavy airtime on L.A.'s influential KROQ. And they've accomplished all of this on their own - they're true indies, handling everything from production to booking to merchandise on their own.

"Speakers", the lead single, is a statement of faith in the transcendent power of sound. "You feel the speakers pumping", sings Napier - and right on cue, a synthesizer riff rises, snake-like, from the mix to join the fuzzed-out guitar and pounding drums. The song promises an escape into the lush soundscape; its empathetic video does, too. Directed by Tanya "Lynx" Brown - another up-and-coming Los Angeles artist - the "Speakers" clip wraps a narrative of rock and roll initiation around footage of Sink To See in performance. The video opens with an establishing shot of a typical suburban house. Sounds of a domestic squabble are heard from inside; a mother is telling her grown son to get out of her home and to take his rock and roll records with him. But there's another son living here, too - a kid, maybe seven or eight years old. On his way out the door, the elder brother grabs a forbidden record, brings it to his younger sibling, and whispers "this will change your life". As soon as the mother has left the room, the little boy takes the record from its cache, slips it onto a turntable, and dons headphones. His eyes widen, the room turns from black and white to full color, and the picture of Sink to See hanging on the wall comes to vivid life, and begins to play. .