DUFFY The most hotly anticipated album release of this New Year comes not from someone rammed into the collective consciousness by their media ubiquity. Duffy is an unknown quantity at this point, having performed but a small number of gigs, mostly in support of The Magic Numbers, and having only just begun to be seen on TV, most notably with recent appearances on Jools Holland’s Later and New Year Hootenanny. [READ MORE]
	SUGAR RAY Sugar Ray was formed in Orange County in 1992. Guitarist Rodney Sheppard, bassist Murphy Karges, and drummer Stan Frazier had been playing parties together in a hard rock/heavy metal cover band, Shrinky Dinx, since the late '80s. Karges served as the touring bassist of L.A. punk veterans the Weirdos in 1990. Friend Mark McGrath became the lead singer of Shrinky Dinx after jumping up on-stage to perform one night, and they soon began collaborating on original material ... [READ MORE]
	GAVIN DEGRAW Gavin DeGraw is a talent, who in just a few short years has become one of today’s premier singer-songwriters. He’s done it the old-fashioned way, on the merits of his creative abilities, perseverance and a healthy, homegrown perspective, establishing himself as a magnetic, new voice in music. Now, Gavin DeGraw adds a new chapter to his celebrated narrative with the release of his second studio album, the self-titled, Gavin DeGraw ... [READ MORE]
	SARA BAREILLES So I’m supposed to tell you about myself and we’ve tried to write something fancy, and I’m just not that fancy, so here I go. The non-fancy me. I’ve been writing songs for as long as I can remember. Some of them make me happy and some of them are shit, but all of them come because I can’t imagine what else to do with my head and the things that are in it besides write songs. Songs and some pretty bad poetry. But mostly just songs ... [READ MORE]
	LENKA “I’m really in my element,” says Lenka as the wind chimes sound and she surveys the forest outside the Woodstock, NY recording studio where she laid down the final tracks of her self-titled solo debut and is now noodling around on a few other tunes. The natural setting clearly reminds her of home – not her adopted home of Los Angeles, but the Australian bush, where she grew up ... [READ MORE]