David Bowie's influence is undeniable. Well, duh. Talk about stating the obvious. Countless new wave, art-rock, and glam-rock bands of the '80s, and electronic, dance, and indie acts of the past decade (including obvious disciple/worshipper Trent Reznor and the occasionally lightning-bolt-faced Lady Gaga), owe Mr. Stardust an enormous and basically unpayable debt. And even now, the great bi-colored-eyed legend continues to inspire today's baby bands--despite the fact that he's pretty much a rock recluse now and hasn't released a new studio album since 2003's Reality (meaning that many of these baby bands were almost literally babies, or at least tweens, when Bowie was still making the scene).

This is why the two-disc covers compilation We Were So Turned On: A Tribute To David Bowie is so impressive. Buzz artists as disparate Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros, Vivian Girls, Chairlift, Warpaint, Carla Bruni, Devendra Banhart, Keren Ann, and A Place To Bury Strangers have all recorded

Rock 'n' roll history is filled with iconic album cover images--Sticky Fingers' functional zipper, the Velvet Underground's Warholian banana, Nevermind's dollar-chasing pool baby, Sgt. Pepper's collage-like group shot, Rio's extremely '80s Nagel print--but all of those covers just look like cheapo clip art next to the recently unveiled genius artwork for the Klaxons' sophomore album, Surfing The Void, which just came out in the U.K.:

Really now, fans of British nu-ravers the Klaxons had reason enough to rejoice when they learned that the group's frustratingly delayed follow-up to 2007's Mercury Prize-winning Myths Of The Near Future was finally coming out on August 30, 2010. Such  news was a relief, after the album had gotten off to several false starts in 2008 and rumors had swirled that the Klaxons' label had demanded that some of its cuts be re-recorded because they were deemed "too experimental for release."

But this album cover? It was too awesome NOT to release!

While you're

Cee Lo Green has become the latest viral sensation with his salty-tongued kiss-off song, "F**k You," a profanity-spewing R&B romp that is shaping up to be the unlikely feelgood hit of the summer. But Cee Lo's got some competition from "Our Riotous Defects," an equally hilarious and vitriolic ode to a psychotic ex-girlfriend by Athens indie-psych-glam pomp rockers Of Montreal.

Of Montreal are hardly a new band--their first album, incredibly, came out way back in 1997. But their R&B/spoken word jam "Our Riotous Defects," featuring vocals by powerhouse Janelle Monae, just may be the song that finally puts the underground collective on the mainstream map, even more so than when their tune "Wraith Pinned To The Mist (And Other Games)" was appropriated for a widely seen Outback Steakhouse ad campaign.

This song is just relatable to the everyman and everywoman, despite the fact that flamboyant, somewhat unrelatable Of Montreal lead singer Kevin Barnes often performs in metallic speedos or

With a boastful stage name like How To Dress Well, the artist also known Tom Krell better be one cool cat. And indeed he is. But rest assured, this experimental one-man indie-soul project isn't all style and no substance.

HTDW in fact cites such artistic inspirations and influences as surrealist artist Hans Bellmer, philosopher Immanuel Kant, and musical acts ranging from The-Dream to Einsturzende Neubauten to '90s R&B lotharios like Al B. Sure! and Keith Sweat. Additionally, his day job in research involves translating a book of "post-Kantian philosophy" in Cologne, Germany (where he resides when he's not in trendy Brooklyn), and he's currently studying for his Ph.D. Not too shabby.

With an impressive dossier like that--not to mention his eerie falsetto that the Village Voice likened to "Maxwell on Xanax"--How To Dress Well is clearly a man of style, a modern-day Renaissance man of sorts. And his debut album Love Remains (out September 21 on Lefse Records) may be one of the most

Not just a quartet, but a quartet of individual singers and songwriters who have already proven themselves--to much acclaim--on the live circuit, the Rescues are very good indeed.

The Los Angeles-based combo--whose recent album Let Loose The Horses is packed with gorgeous harmonies and top-flight songwriting--are the very personification of the whole being more than the sum of its parts. Comprised of Kyler England, Adrianne Gonzalez, Rob Giles and Gabriel Mann, the quartet joined forces in LA, where as solo artists they occasionally shared the stage several times and, following a suggestion, put their four heads together and see what they could come up with.

Following significant success in the TV soundtrack world--their music was heard on such shows like Private Practice, One Tree Hill and Grey's Anatomy--Let Loose The Horses fairly well now puts it all together: A terrific album that takes four distinct musicians, weaves them in and out and blends them together, and presents a

A high-energy, blown-out soul revue is not the sort of event regularly documented in the Y! Music studios, but Eli "Paperboy" Reed isn't a "regular" performer by any stretch of the imagination.

Reed, whose talent as a singer and songwriter is drawing attention on a global scale, is drawing raves for his brand new album Come And Get It--which manages to sound utterly modern, yet simultaneously evokes the unforgettable sound of prime American R&B, circa the early '70s.

From Boston, but with a bit of travel under his belt--including extended stays in Clarksdale, Mississippi and Chicago--Reed has taken an encyclopedic knowledge of blues, R&B and country music forms and, after a lengthy period of performance both as a singer and accompanist, put together a sound that is dynamic, tight and--in the live context--absolutely spectacular.

His new album follows two others released independently (titled Sings Walkin' And Talkin and Other Smash Hits! and Roll With You respectively) and a host of

You know BrunoMars, the smoothed-out, pop soul singer behind the choruses for B.o.B.'s "Nothin' On You" and Travie McCoy's"Billionaire"? Not only does he sing the hooks for those songs, he co-produced them alongwith his The Smeezingtons business partners Philip Lawrence and Ari Levine.

But here's the even cooler Bruno Mars factoid. In 1992, apint-size Mars (born Pete Hernandez) portrayed a miniature Elvis impersonator inthe Nicolas Cage and Sarah Jessica Parker film Honeymoon In Vegas. The young Hernandez had a scene-stealingmoment, perfectly performing the King's "Can't Help Falling In Love With You,"decked out in a sparkling, royal blue costume and pompadour.

He got squeamish and embarrassed when Perez Hilton asked himabout his old gig, and jokingly referred to himself as a circus freak.

The artist who is now touring with Maroon 5 and OneRepublic,learned how to gyrate like his idol when he was 4 years old, watching hisfamily band play Presley songs at shows in Hawaii. He quickly

Cassidy Haley is a modern-day Renaissance man of sorts, a multi-faceted artist who's done everything from stiltwalking in avant garde circus acts to designing celebrities' leather fashions for his company Skin.Graft, from auditioning with a Death Cab For Cutie song on "American Idol" to recording original music and directing his own outlandish music videos.

Cassidy first came to many music fans' attention last year when his friend (and frequent Skin.Graft customer) Adam Lambert tweeted about his music--thus causing his self-issued EP, Little Boys & Dinosaurs, to catapult to number 3 on iTunes' electronic albums chart. And now, with the release of his first full-length album, The Fool--which veers away from the earlier dark techno vibe that Cassidy once described as sounding like "a drugged-out Justin Timberlake lost in the backstreets of Berlin on acid after being kidnapped by a pack of raving mad drag queens," and dabbles in some acoustic balladry as well--Cassidy is set to add "pop