"Patrick Watson is a musical mad scientist." So begins the California-born, Montreal-based musician's official bio, which I would normally dismiss out of hand as some record company-generated hype. But I've seen the seen the future of musical mad scientists and his name is Patrick Watson. Strangely enough, that's also the name of his band, although more recently they've been called Patrick Watson & the Wooden Arms. The latter part of that moniker is also the title of the combo's recently released album.

Watson and his bandmates-percussionist Robbie Kruster, guitarist Mishka Stein, and multi-instrumentalist Simon Angell--have been known to turn making their albums into musical adventures. With that in mind, my friends over at Yahoo! Music thought it would be a good idea to take the musical mad scientists out of their laboratory and stick them an unfamiliar environment. Check out what happens when Watson and company were transported to a piñata shop in downtown Los Angeles and set free

I don't know about you, but when I hear the word "folktronica," for some reason I immediately think of Adam Sandler's "Hanukkah Song." Sure, Sandler never actually sings that word in the song, but he easily could have. Check out the last few verses: "Tell your friend Veronica / It's time you celebrate Hanukkah / I hope I get a harmonica, on this lovely, lovely Hanukkah / So drink your gin-and-tonic-ah, and smoke your mara-juanic-ah / If you really, really wanna-kah, have a happy, happy, happy, happy Hanukkah."

You see, had Sandler known about British musician James Yuill, he could have easily slipped in a reference that would sound something like this: "Tell your friend Veronica / James Yuill plays folktronica." The only problem, of course, is I don't think James Yuill has anything to do with Hanukkah.

Whatever the case, Yuill's music has been described as folktronica. Yes, you guessed it, that's a hybrid incorporating bits of folk music with electronica. You're probably wondering if

The city of Manchester, England has spawned a number of incredibly great bands over the years from recent entries the Ting Tings to the Buzzcocks, Joy Division, Oasis, and the Smiths. In fact, lyrics from the latter act's "Suffer Little Children" inspired the headline of this very blog. Manchester Orchestra, however, isn't just another great band from Manchester. They're not even British. They hail from Atlanta, Georgia, but they're still pretty damned good. Check out the video for "I've Got Friends" from the band's recently released album Mean Everything To Nothing.

Formed in 2005 when singer/guitarist Andy Hull was still in high school, the five-piece Manchester Orchestra is very much a band, although Hull remains its mastermind.
Mean Everything To Nothing is the band's second album and judging by its early chart showing, Manchester Orchestra has already broken out beyond cult status. Last week, the album entered The Billboard 200 at No. 37, which is quite an impressive feat for a

It was the recently announced lineup of All Tomorrow's Parties New York that finally pushed me over the edge. The festival, set for September 11-13 at Kutsher's Country Club in Monticello, New York, is co-curated by everyone's favorite psych-pop oddballs, the Flaming Lips, and features plenty of cool bands, including Animal Collective, Iron & Wine, and No Age. It will also feature performances by Deerhunter and Deerhoof. I don't know about you, but the flood of relatively new bands with "Deer" (or "Dear") in their name has left me a bit verklempt. It's enough to make a guy sing "Do Re Mi" from The Sound Of Music as Homer Simpson, "Doh! A deer!" In order to help you navigate your way through the wilderness, I've compiled a list of Deer bands with the hopes this will help you tell them apart.

Deerhoof -- This San Francisco-spawned quartet has actually been around since the mid-'90s, but it's only been in the last few years that they've started getting some attention beyond the