Although their brand of wild-eyed, tuneful garage punk is unlike anything else in contemporary indie, the Black Lips have still been the talk of the underground for the past year. The Atlanta quartet's explosive, raucous stage show has earned them notoriety (and rabid fans) wherever they've played, and the recent VICE Records release of the all-live Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo has only solidified their rep as a ridiculously exciting gigging group. Recorded in Tijuana - that capital city of licentiousness - Los Valientes captures a group on the brink of self-immolation, playing insanely-catchy garage punk tunes with the vigor and zeal of rock and roll evangelists.

"Hunting For Witches" is, perhaps, the most serious-minded track on the new Bloc Party CD; while it's as infectious and propulsive as anything Bloc Party has yet released, its condemnation of the politics of fear is unflinching. Written in response to the crackdown following the London bombings of July 2005, "Hunting For Witches" examines government and press manipulation of popular sentiment; fear, Okereke suggests, can easily turn into a desire to scapegoat dissidents and foreigners. He's talking about Britain, of course, but his is a message that will have special resonance for American listeners. Revenge becomes an excuse to set aside critical thinking, and to indulge in our baser impulses in the name of "accountability."

If you've been with HIP from the beginning, you've been sent three terrific videos from Bloc Party: one for "Banquet", another for "Helicopters", and a third for the lead U.S. single from A Weekend In The City, "I Still Remember". The three clips introduced viewers to some seriously altered states - the "Banquet" video introduced the group with a trippy, restless camera effect, "Helicopter" was an animated phantasmagoria, and "I Still Remember" used a passenger train as a visual metaphor for the impermanence of memory. The message is clear: sure, Bloc Party makes you want to dance, but theirs is head music too, thoughtful, multidimensional, and often subtly mind-expanding. And as Kele Okereke's writing has become more sophisticated and emotionally nuanced, directors have paired his songs with images that reflect that development.

Walter Stern's (David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Spiritualized, Massive Attack) clip for "The Prayer" continues that growth. Superficially, it's the story of an evening out: a typical evening spent clubbing among a set of stylish twentysomethings. The camera finds the four members of Bloc Party relaxing on sofas in a London night spot; around them, other young men and women take to the dance floor, but they're reticent, watching the interaction from easy chairs. Their expressions are uneasy and their postures are slightly defensive - it's not that they don't belong or that they don't appreciate the comely dancers, it's that they're guarded, cautious, uncomfortable with ostentatious displays of sexuality, worried about getting burned. Ironic, then, that the song itself - which peaked at #4 on the U.K. charts earlier this year - is a wild wish for dance-floor abandon and sexual confidence. With its gigantic beat and its insistent riffs, it's a departure for Bloc Party - at once the most club-friendly track they've ever recorded and something utterly unlike anything else on contemporary radio. "The Prayer" is a song destined to further the quartet's claim to be America's favorite British rock band.

In their hometown of San Antonio, they're already stars (they're favorites of the City alternative weekly, the Express-News, and the much-read S.A. Rocks weblog); in the rest of the Lone Star State, they're spoken of by music aficionados as a group on the rise. Now, the wide release of their self-titled debut seems certain to show the nation what Texas already knows: Blowing Trees have the sound, the talent, and the live energy to connect with a mass audience. Their intelligent pop-rock is already deep, layered and nuanced; on Blowing Trees, Producer Dave Castell (Blue October) has given these powerful songs a bright, radio-ready aura.

The quartet was, without a doubt, one of the most discussed bands at South By Southwest. This year, Blowing Trees rocked both the Fuse and the PureVolume showcase, and were selected as one of the Featured Emerging Artists in the corporate-sponsored SXSW sweepstakes. Since March, the band's reputation has spread by word of mouth - Matt Pinfield is a fan, and has played their music on his Sirius Radio show -and Blowing Trees has chosen to cement their foundation by touring Texas relentlessly. Those who'll pack the upcoming shows will experience a rare treat: a band of sharp young writers who marry thought-provoking lyrics and singalong melodies to a majestic tapestry of sound.

A band as conscious of detail as Blowing Trees might seem like a good bet in the studio, and the aesthetic success of their ambitious debut has justified the faith of their many rabid fans. Dramatic as Mars Volta, cinematic as the Flaming Lips or Arcade Fire, and as carefully-conceptualized as Wish You Were Here, Blowing Trees also contains many pop charms. "The Day The World Left Me", the lead single, is quintessential Blowing Trees: a message song appointed with the proper balance of grit and gloss (and a fist-pumping chorus, too!) Frontman Chris Maddin delivers the lyric in a howl of passion; it's bracing, and moving, and it announces the coming of a singer with something to shout about.

If there was any doubt, the clip for "The Day The World Left Me" can put it to rest: Blowing Trees are a terrific-looking band, too. Playing in an old warehouse, they hurl the song at the camera, demonstrating the kinetics and the intensity that have made them such a live attraction. Directors Emma Branch and Carlos Cruz Sol position Maddin directly beneath a hanging lamp, and capture the shadows that travel across his face as he sings; he looks more than a bit unhinged, and it's awfully compelling. Elsewhere, in a junkyard crammed with electronic equipment, two hapless men doze, putter around, and fuss with wires. Shots of Maddin playing guitar are juxtaposed with those of a white-bearded old man in a chair hammering away on his own acoustic - all while another one watches the sands pour through an hourglass. Later, these images of helplessness and decay are counterposed with other: a teenaged boy wearing homemade wings, two boys wrestling in gas masks. It's ominous, weird, symbolically-rich and undeniably compelling - much like Blowing Trees's captivating music.

Here on the East Coast, the sun is shining, the nights are warm, and the clubs are hopping. In Downtown Manhattan, it often seems like there's a rock show on every corner; across the river in Brooklyn, the pavements bleed music. In an environment like this, it's almost impossible for a young band to attract any attention - but Bridges and Powerlines have managed to beat the odds and establish themselves as one of the city's true indie favorites. They've done it by gigging around Gotham relentlessly (they recently completed an "outerborough tour" that took them to neighborhoods that most hipsters neglect), playing long-running parties at hot clubs, courting the local alternative press (the influential Deli magazine loves them), and by penning irresistible indie-rock songs.

Ghost Types compiles the best and most exciting of the band's material. It's dense and compelling power-pop, performed with enthusiasm and sung with detached, nerdy cool by Andrew Wood. The heady Bridges and Powerlines favor scratchy guitars and buzzy, haywire analog synthesizer; they're also partial to character studies, musical short-stories, literary irony, and telling details. Many of the tracks on Ghost Types are narrated by introspective workers: steamship captains, cabbies, laborers keeping the urban infrastructure humming. Theirs is indie rock that's brainy enough for New York City webloggers, sufficiently theoretical for the college set, and propulsive enough to dizzy up the rest of the nation.

Produced by Chris Zane (Asobi Seksu, Les Savy Fav), "Uncalibrated" is the purest introduction to Bridges and Powerlines's slightly-twisted worldview. The track rides in with a giddy Moog lead before exploding into a hooky chorus; it's just the sort of undeniable indie rock track that can compel a roomful of jaded hipsters to hit the dancefloor. The song seems destined to focus national attention on Bridges and Powerlines: Yahoo Music has already posted "Uncalibrated" on its main page, and Pitchfork followed with a feature of their own. "Uncalibrated" led the B&P charge into the CMJ Top 200, as left-of-the-dial radio stations across the country have gotten excited about the NYC quartet with the ingratiating sound.

Like many of Bridges and Powerlines' songs, the clip for "Uncalibrated" juxtaposes the small and human with the large, cold, scientific, and impersonal. The video opens with an official-looking map of the nation; this fades into an animated sequence of two DNA-filled cells dividing. A high-school instruction film? Not exactly - instead, it's the backdrop for a band of endearing sock puppets. Like Bridges and Powerlines, the puppet band is a quartet; also like B&P, every move they make is enthusiastic and purposeful. They don't, however, have hands, so they're forced to take their Moog solos with their faces and twist the knobs and throw the switches on the instrument with their mouths. Other sock puppets are along for the fun, too, including identical zebra-striped twins, a googly-eyed green customer, and a pink scene-stealer with an orange feather boa. It's sweet and geeky, bright and even occasionally glorious - and just like the track, there's something undeniably haunting about it, too. In short, it's a perfect late-spring anthem for New York 2008, and maybe the rest of the country, too.

You may have not heard her music (yet), but on the other side of the globe, she's a superstar. Brooke Fraser's two full-length releases have both made their debut at the top of the New Zealand national charts. Down Under, she's considered a major new songwriter, an articulate and prophetic voice, a compassionate and socially-conscious public figure, and a worthy inheritor of her country's tradition of intelligent-minded popular music. There's more than a trace of the Finn Brothers's urbane pop mastery in her aching, crisply-written melodies.

What To Do With Daylight, her thoughtful debut, spawned five hit singles and took up near-permanent residence in the NZ Top 20. Albertine, the recently-released follow-up, promises to be at least as successful: it went double-platinum a month after its release, and has broken into the Australian Top Ten. "Shadowfeet", the latest single from the set, is a stirring mid-tempo piano ballad marked by rich natural imagery; Fraser's performance is both passionate and poised, and her poetic lyrics are plainspoken, sensitive, and quietly articulate

It's also further evidence of the singer's admirable geopolitical (and spiritual) engagement. Fraser's first single from Albertine was the introspective "C.S. Lewis Song": she's well-read, and willing to grapple with the same cosmic issues that troubled the legendary author. After the success of What To Do With Daylight, Fraser traveled around the world on charity missions for the World Vision and Opportunity International relief organization, visiting Cambodia, Tanzania, and The Phillippines. She also journeyed to Rwanda on her own dime - and the experiences she has in that Central African nation heavily informed the songwriting on her latest bestselling set. Albertine is named after a young girl she met in Rwanda - a survivor of the civil war that nearly destroyed the nation. "Now that I have seen, I am responsible", sings Fraser in the title track, "faith without deeds is dead".

in Rwanda, the video for "Albertine" found Fraser surrounded by many of the children she met on her travels. The beautifully-shot "Shadowfeet" clip isn't quite so exotic, but it's just as provocative - and perhaps even as progressive. Encumbered only by a camera, Brooke Fraser walks through the streets of urban Sydney. Around her neck hangs a fifty-millimeter camera lens - the same lens that director TWiN has used to shoot the clip She begins to sing; after a verse, the camera cuts to another person performing in her stead, and then another, and then another! By the end of the clip, people of all ages and ethnicities have taken a turn at Fraser's empathetic lyrics. It's a portrait book come to life, and a bold affirmation of the universality of the young singer's message.

Butch Walker is a recording artist, songwriter, and record producer.

Walker grew up in Cartersville, Georgia and stood out as a guitarist and performer in several rock bands in the '80s including Bad Boyz and Byte the Bullet. In 1988, he took Byte the Bullet to LA and they were signed to Virgin Records within the year. The band changed names to SouthGang and released two albums, Tainted Angel in 1991 and Group Therapy in 1992. SouthGang was one of the first bands to tour China in the early '90s.

Afterwards, Butch took over lead vocals and with ex-SouthGang members Jayce Fincher and Mitch McLee formed several bands in the 90s including Floyds Funk Revival, The Floyds, and the popular pop-rock band Marvelous 3 which had a relatively successful hit with the song "Freak Of The Week." After the break-up of the band in early 2000, Butch then began a solo career, releasing the albums Left of Self-Centered in 2002 and Letters in 2004, finishing 2005 playing over 200 live shows across both the U.S. and Japan. Butch Walker was recently featured as a headlining artist on the My Space promoted Inaugural Hotel Cafe tour - supporting independent artists from the Los Angeles Venue of the same name.

Several of his songs have been hits for other artists, including Bowling for Soup's "Girl All the Bad Guys Want" and Avril Lavigne's #1 Hit "My Happy Ending". He has written and produced records for such artists as Bowling for Soup, Pink, Lindsay Lohan, Avril Lavigne, Lit, Sevendust, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Midtown, Puffy AmiYumi and SR-71.

In late 2005, he released his first DVD "Live At Budokan." On July 11th, 2006, his newest record was released, entitled "The Rise and Fall of Butch Walker and the Let's-Go-Out-Tonites," which he recorded with his backing band, the Let's Go Out Tonites. Butch Walker was named Rolling Stone producer of the year in 2005. He will be the producer for the new Rockstar:Supernova group.

Walker was a guest judge on the second season of the American reality television program Rock Star, during which, in consultation with Walker, Tommy Lee, Gilby Clarke, and Jason Newsted will select a lead singer for a new band, Supernova (Rock Star band), to comprise the three, the first album of which Walker will produce.