Man Man: white on whiter

Philadelphia's Man Man sound like the gap-toothed love child of Modest Mouse after a sweaty night of inbreeding with Tom Waits. They all dress like Mr. Clean, go by names like "Sergai Sogay" and write songs called "The Ballad of Butter Beans." They should be the worst band in the world.

But lo and behold, beneath the meth-y yelps and fashion idiosyncrasies, they've really found their sea legs as an inimitable indie rock band. Grafting chiming disco-punk onto swamp gospel and demonic circus calliopies on their album "Rabbit Habits" was a pretty unprecedented move, and live it came off like a Barnum & Bailey sideshow field trip to a church revival (and that's a compliment, as this year is slim on weirdos).

If you could roll with the visual antagonism (expect lots of moustaches), they were an unexpected early-day treat.

-- August Brown

Photo by Michael Buckner / Getty Images