Who: Jack's Mannequin, the SoCal quartet fronted by piano player Andrew McMahon (formerly of pop-punkers Something Corporate) whose second album The Glass Passenger has already scored a top-ten debut.

Sounds Like: Known for his intimate lyrics — the band's debut record aired the details of a break-up with a long-term girlfriend — Passenger tracks McMahon's life following his 2005 Leukemia diagnosis and blends sunny Beach Boys pop with stout piano rock. McMahon adds he was "hugely inspired" by Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and Tegan and Sara's The Con, which can be heard on the anthemic "American Love" and the layered orchestration of "Annie Use Your Telescope."

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Photo: Soren Solkaer Starbird

Ladies and gentlemen, Tom Jones is back. The smooth new tune "If He Should Ever Leave You" is the debut cut from 24 Hours (S-Curve Records), due November 25th and you can hear it right here. The track, produced by Future Cut (Lily Allen, Estelle), will appear alongside a cover of Bruce Springsteen's "The Hitter" on the crooner's first fresh studio set in 15 years.

"If He Should Ever Leave You"

Three former members of Seattle screamers Blood Brothers (Jordan Blilie, Morgan Henderson and Mark Gajadhar) plus Devin Welch (who was with the group briefly) recently unveiled their new project, Past Lives. The band's debut EP Strange Symmetry is due November 4th via Suicide Squeeze, and its title track has a dance-punk groove with a David Bowie-esque swagger. Check it out for free right here:

"Strange Symmetry" [right click and select "save as"]

Photo: Amelia Bauer

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Department of Eagles
The Buzz: Two pals meet in an NYU dorm, make a bunch of sample-fueled keyboard symphonies, accidentally become big in Europe and hit home with spookily beautiful In Ear Park.
Listen If: The Zach Braff association has ruined the Shins for you.
Key Track: "Teenagers," where Fred Nicolaus' off-kilter guitars and keys make way for handclaps that make you sort of nervous.

The Band: Land of Talk
The Buzz: Canadian trio evolve past the jagged noise of their debut EP in favor of subversive melodies, all with foxy Elizabeth Powell at the helm.
Listen If: Sonic Youth is your favorite band and poutine is your favorite late night snack.
Key Track: "Death By Fire," the prettiest little doomsday anthem you've ever heard.

The Band: Big Shug
The Buzz: Gruff, heady Boston-based friend of Guru from Gang Starr throws back to the old school with old fashion beats carrying his street narratives.
Listen If: You think hip-hop peaked at Hard to Earn.
Key Track: "My Boston," which finds Shug making a case for hard living in Beantown before getting out of the way to let DJ Premier scratch.

Who Rachael Yamagata, a Philadelphia singer who, after backing up artists like Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes and Rhett Miller, is ready to step into the spotlight.

Sounds Like: With her second album Elephants...Teeth Sinking Into Heart, Yamagata abandons the chick flick soundtrack feel of her first album with a darker, more intimate double-disc affair. On Elephants, Yamagata channels macabre ballads like Fiona Apple while Teeth… finds her embracing her inner-Chrissie Hynde. "The lyrics were telling me it was going to be different this time, there was backbone," Yamagata says. "I didn't want it to be pretty, and I didn't want it to be safe."

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Who: Cleveland-born singer-songwriter whose second record of hushed folk-rock, Simple Times, topped the iTunes album chart after he rocked the lesbian wedding of 2008: Ellen DeGeneres invited the 34-year-old to serenade her and Portia de Rossi at the pair’s August nuptials (Ellen then aired a clip on her show). “I played a few songs, then stuck around for some vegan red-velvet cake,” says Radin, who struck up a friendship with DeGeneres after sitting next to her at a dinner party. Now his first single, the John Mayer-esque “I’d Rather Be With You” is getting radio play. “Aside from my mom,” says Radin, whose CD was produced by Elliott Smith collaborator Rob Schnapf, “Ellen’s been the biggest supporter of my career.”

Back Story: A onetime aspiring screenwriter, Radin penned his first song after splitting with girlfriend Schuyler Fisk (Sissy Spacek’s daughter) in 2004.

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Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Her Space Holiday
The Buzz: One time depressive folkie brightens up, crafting forward-falling guitar pop songs that are as charming as they are simple.
Listen If: You miss the days when Weezer was a little less self-aware.
Key Track: "The Heartbreak Moment," where shoo-wop backing vocals glide between a steady strum and shuffling backbeat.

The Band: All the Saints
The Buzz: Based in the Bible Belt, All the Saints use echo-drenched, cataclysmic guitars as accompaniment to their prophecies of doom.
Listen If: You've got any part of the Book of Revelation tattooed on your body.
Key Track: "Regal Regalia," which opens like black metal but settles simply for black, a hailstorm of guitars hammering Titus Brown's woe-is-me vocals.

The Band: Dreamend
The Buzz: Dusky, druggy and myserious, Dreamend make heavy-lidded psych-folk designed to score late nights in open fields.
Listen If: All of your dreams contain black lights and lava lamps.
Key Track: "The Tulip Staircase," whose gaga title belies the surreal psych-out inside.

In Rolling Stone's recent review of Lou Reed's Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, Barry Walters writes, "The Kurt Weill-like class commentary of 'Men of Good Fortune' gains severity: Guitarist Steve Hunter embodies privilege with flashy heroics, and Reed represents unskilled labor via blunt six-string bursts." The album is out digitally now via iTunes and drops on disc November 4th, but we've got a freebie download of that very track for you right now. Plus, check the next issue for an interview with Reed, and click below for David Fricke's review of the Brooklyn show that's documented on the new album.

"Men of Good Fortune" [right click and select "save as"]

• Lou Reed Plays Berlin in Brooklyn

• The Immortals - The Velvet Underground By Julian Casablancas

• All Lou Reed Album Reviews

The Pretenders' latest album, Break Up the Concrete hits stores tomorrow, but we've got the whole record for you to hear right now. Click below to listen to each of the record's 11 tracks, and check out our Q&A with Chrissie Hynde and behind-the-scenes footage of the band's "Boots of Chinese Plastic" music video.

• Behind the scenes of the Pretenders' "Boots of Chinese Plastic" music video

• Q&A;: Chrissie Hynde on Opening a Vegan Restaurant and Her Rootsy New Record

Sorry! The free stream of the album has expired.

Who: Electro-pop artist Sam Sparro, a soulful, Aussie-American vocalist whose hit single “Black & Gold,” soared to Number Two on the U.K. singles chart, and made it into the Top 10 in Ireland, Australia and Turkey.

Sounds Like: If Daft Punk took off their helmets and turned up the "emotion" setting on their vocoders. Sparro draws from a pool of funk/soul influences ­— "Prince and Chaka Khan and the Gap Band, Parliament, things like that," he explains — and ‘80s electro à la New Order to create a distinctive 21st century sound. "I wanted to be in amongst the contemporary music that I like at the moment, which is a lot of stuff like Hot Chip and Cut Copy and French electro stuff like Justice."

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