Do you ever wish you were a famous songwriter? Well, so did thousands of Americans who, starting in the 1950s, began mailing their original words to grubby record labels and actually paid a fee to have their lyrics set to music. These "song-poems" might never have made a star of every (or any) John Public or Susie Q, but it did leave some

Singer/songwriter Meredith Bragg is incontestably well read, but his greatest gift is the conversational subtlety with which he weaves an educational tale. Like his hyper-literate contemporaries the Decemberists and their frontman Colin

Patience is apparently not a virtue in the world of singer/songwriter Rafter Roberts. With his second full-length, Sex Death Cassette, locked and loaded for release on Jan. 22 via Asthmatic Kitty, Rafter has already moved on -- and with a purpose. "I'm trying to write and

Justin Timberlake may have initially brought sexy back, but then he had to go and get all preoccupied with his so-called "love." Luckily, Hey Willpower -- the electronic dirty duo featuring Will Schwartz of Imperial Teen and Tomo Yasuda of Tussle -- pick up the sleazy slack. Here on

Before becoming a wedded Harvard grad, Weezer's Rivers Cuomo banged out post-grunge, fuzzy pop bliss with playful naivety -- a tradition that Brooklyn trio Right On Dynamite are more than happy to maintain. Like 1994's Weezer (The Blue Album), "Won't Let It Go" is a welcome reprieve from brooding and over-serious rock,

Sixties pop revivalists the Clientele have always channeled the era's most whimsical and languid numbers, drenching George Harrison-style guitar phrases in plenty of tremolo and reverb. On "Your Song," the wobbly, bubbling effects are in full tilt as the six-string drips with echo and the bass does a soft dance. A violin kisses the