It's time to meet the new kids who'll rule 2008: the A&R; girl turned New Wave singer; the Led Zep disciple from L.A.; the home-schooled hippie folk-rocker. To read more about Santogold, MGMT, OneRepublic and seven more up and comers — and to check out videos and must-have tracks from the whole bunch — click here.

WHO Liam Finn is such a dynamic performer that a biker gang once forced him to play all night. When the New Zealand singer-songwriter was in his first band at age sixteen, some brawny motorcyclists invited the group back to their clubhouse for an after-party gig. "We were like, 'OK, we're going to stop playing,' and they were like, 'No, you're not!' " Finn recalls. "All of a sudden it was seven in the morning, and they were all off their faces." Luckily, his more recent gigs have been less intimidating: The twenty-four-year-old has toured with Crowded House, his dad Neil Finn's band, over the past year while also recording his gorgeous folk-rock solo album, I'll Be Lightning.

SOUND Recorded with a mixing deck that once belonged to the Who, I'll Be Lightning melds Elliott Smith-style melodies with loosey-goosey execution and the big, airy harmonies of yacht rock. Finn plays every instrument on the album — and during live shows. Triggering loops he creates via pedals, he'll riff on guitar, go nuts on theremin and pummel a drum kit for a one-man-band extravaganza. "The aesthetic is DIY, leaving the woolly edges," he explains.

IN THE NAME OF ... During his decade-long career, Finn has learned a valuable lesson about band names. His first one was Betchadupa. "I got a T-shirt that said 'Betchadupa I'm Polish,'" he says. "I later found out it meant 'Bet your ass I'm Polish.' It wasn't a wise move because we were forever asked what it means." Things have been smoother as plain old Liam Finn, he says. "Plus, it's a lot easier to stay alive when you're only looking after yourself." — Caryn Ganz

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

Who: Staten Island-based instrumental funk twelve-piece the Budos Band, who are currently on the road with labelmates Sharon Jones and The Dap-Kings. After ten years of lineup changes and style shifts, the current Band came together at a jam session hosted by Brooklyn Afrobeat legends Antibalas.

Sounds Like: Parliament infused with a bit more Funkadelic. Their second album, simply titled The Budos Band II, finds the outfit diving headfirst into dark atmospheres of Fela Kuti and Ethopian funk, while having a rollicking party on the way down.

Three Things You Should Know:

1. The band's influences are eclectic, to say the least. In one breath baritone saxophonist Jared Tankel big-ups Ethopian funk god Mulatu Astatke ("It's pretty wild stuff, and it's definitely been a big influence of ours"), and in the next he's listing off inspirations like "Heavy metal, death metal. The drummer and bass player love that stuff. Black Sabbath, Slayer," he says, "Even though you can't hear that easily in our sound, a lot of our songs have a dark sound — a lot of that comes from the metal aesthetic."

2. The strangest concert the band ever played? A yoga studio in tiny Ashland, Oregon. "There were yoga mats and pilates balls. We started playing, and granted it was a Monday night in the middle of February, but there were ten to fifteen people there. And people started doing yoga in the middle of the set," Tankel reminisces, "That was one of those times we started playing new stuff, we're like 'Fuck it, let's use this as rehearsal.' "

3. The Budos Band briefly entertained the idea of adding a singer. "One of the incarnations did have a vocalist. They were Dirt Rifle and the Bullets," Tankel admits, "Since that, and the turn toward Afro-funk, we've thought of maybe having a vocalist once, and the thought passed really quickly. At this point, we're never going to have one," he adds. "We have enough people as it is trying to make music together."

Get It: The Budos Band II hit stores in August, and is available on iTunes. Check out the band's electric live performance opening for Sharon Jones & The Dap-Kings, or at their special Hanukah concert at New York's Webster Hall on December 8th. Click the above video to watch the band's "The Volcano Song," from their first album.

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

Who: Aussie new-rave trio Midnight Juggernauts, who just wrapped up their first U.S. tour supporting Summer '07 "It" band Justice. After tours of Europe and China, the group — guitarist-singer Andy Streetcrimes, singer-keyboardist Vin Vendetta and drummer Daniel Stricker — started accruing some major word of mouth thanks to MySpace. The dance-rockers ultimately scored their Justice gig the old-fashioned way: by cooking the French duo dinner.

Sounds Like: David Bowie if his Berlin Trilogy was a collaboration with Kraftwerk and Faust. Their debut album Dystopia takes uplifting Numan synths, Daft Punk beats and Pink Floyd's affinity for all things astronomical and Orwellian, then melts them all together with the help of some good psychedelics.

Three Things You Should Know:

1. The band played fake Michael Jackson benefit shows to lure in unsuspecting fans. "He was having some some legal troubles and the idea was to give money to the show to fund legal expenses," says Vincent. "It was just a joke, but I think some papers caught up on it and did some stories. They even got some child-abuse spokesperson to comment on it." Some attending the event didn't find the joke funny, as they complained when no actual Jacko covers were played.

2. The group's rejected monikers include Dragon Lord and Warlords. "We had revolving names in the beginning and then there were other bands on the other side of the world who contacted us saying 'We already had the title. We'll sue you if you continue with that,' " Vincent explains. "So we just tried to come up with the most ridiculous thing. I guess Midnight Juggernauts is just literally an unstoppable force in the middle of the night, so we thought that may suit our music."

3. The trio's influences are wide-ranging — from Bowie and Floyd to Pixies and Slayer to old-school melancholy surf music — and their overall goal is lofty. "It's not all about beats or dance floor moods and styles. It's about taking the person to another place," says Vincent. "It's fun creating these different soundscapes where it's just another kind of universe."

Get It: Dystopia hit Australia in August, and its North American release date is still TBD (though music is always available on iTunes or their MySpace). Check out the video for "Into the Galaxy" and some footage of the Juggernauts navigating New York's Lower East Side above.

>> Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

French DJ duo Justice blew through New York City last week, but before they could jet off again the Breaking Blog got them to sit down to confirm and/or deny a few stereotypes about the French (They're mean! They smell!) and give us the dirt on hot new French bands. Click above to watch the interview, and click here to check out the pair explaining their wacky Jimmy Kimmel performance, which featured some familiar faces from the Eighties.

Who: Staten Island, New York singer-songwriter Ingrid Michaelson got her big break when "Keep Breathing" was discovered on MySpace and used during a pivotal moment of the Grey's Anatomy season finale. The twenty-seven-year-old also scored an Old Navy commercial with "The Way I Am," helping to rocket her second LP Girls and Boys to the top of both Billboard's Heatseekers and Alternative New Artist charts -- despite the fact that she has never signed to a label.

Sounds Like: Feist with a bit of Regina Spektor's quirk. On Girls and Boys, Michaelson tap-dances between piano-based ballads with pristine vocals and a few attitude-heavy guitar-centric tracks that show off her more rockin' side.

Three Things You Should Know:

1. After Old Navy ran with "The Way I Am," Michaelson started a forum on her MySpace to open discussion on selling out vs. succeeding. She says it's difficult for developing artists to turn down big breaks but, "If a big bad corporation comes up to me and wants me to be their mascot hopefully I'll be able to do my research and do what I know in my heart to be the right thing."
2. Girls and Boys is about (surprise) relationships. "I sing about those kinds of issues but in very boiled down simple terms," she says. "I listen to every kind of music and I have no idea what some people are talking about, but I still enjoy it. I want to say a lot with as few words as possible."
3. After being raised on pop-free diet of folk, classical music and the Beatles, Michaelson took to show tunes as a kid. "My parents put me in theater when I was nine. I did Guys and Dolls, a lot of Gilbert and Sullivan, Into the Woods," she says, adding that she studied musical theater in college but is actively trying to move away from such theatrics in her newer songs.

Get It: Girls and Boys was re-released in September and is in stores and available on iTunes. Check out a special acoustic performance of "The Way I Am" shot right here at the Rolling Stone offices by clicking the video above.

›› Watch every episode of our weekly New Breaking Artist video podcast by subscribing via iTunes (when prompted, click "Launch application"). Every Wednesday, an exclusive video profile of an emerging artist will be delivered to your iTunes. [If you don't have iTunes, download it here.]

One thousand or so bands (give or take a few shaggy haircuts) hit New York City every fall for the CMJ Music Marathon, a five-day band-a-palooza where new acts get noticed (see Arcade Fire) and scores more get drunk at open-bar showcases. For the next few days, Rock Daily will be bringing you reports on the bands we consider most worthy of your time after CMJ has packed up and moved on: Hip-hop is already pretty scarce at the indie-rock focused CMJ, so it didn't help matters that the fest's two best rap lineups were scheduled for the exact same time on Saturday night in different parts of town. At the Lower East Side's 205 Chrystie, hot underground Pittsburgh MC Wiz Khalifa (a former RS Breaking artist) was holding it down with mixtape-circuit star DJ Green Lantern. But further uptown, at the Highline Ballroom, an indie-rap all-star team proved to be the stronger draw. Sweet-voiced female MC Psalm One from Chicago kicked it off, followed by a solo set from Dilated Peoples' Evidence.

But the place didn't really erupt until albino legally-blind Muslim rapper (yeah, take a minute with that) Brother Ali brought his fiery rhymes to the stage. With a preacher's cadence and poetic couplets on everything from his failed first marriage to civil liberties (he calls himself "Howard Stern meets Howard Zinn"), the MC, who recently released The Undisputed Truth on Rhymesayers Entertainment, had the crowd screaming "A-li! A-li! A-li!" "Imagine a chubby albino kid from Minneapolis," he said from the stage, cutting off the chant. "KRS-One is more of a father to you than your own dad. Melle Mel is your uncle in you mind, and you memorize every word Rakim ever rapped. You start making rap records without any record contract and you finally make it to New York, where all of your heroes come from and the crowd is chanting your name." Louder: "A-LI! A-LI! A-LI!"

Headliners Little Brother came up next and described the night's show up to that point the best they'd ever played. MCs Big Pooh and Phonte lacked Ali's vocal clarity, but it didn't matter, since most of the fan-packed house knew every word -- even to songs on their new album Get Back, which doesn't come out until Tuesday (Phonte acknowledged that he himself leaked the record -- which wasn't much of a surprise since the "genre" category on leaked tracks comes up "Don't Ever Say Phonte Never Did Nothin For Y'all Niggas ... lol Enjoy!"). Phonte mixed up the set with his trademark comedic interludes on everything from T.I.'s recent arrest ("Dude should have said he was stocking up to fight Osama") to their departure from Atlantic Records ("Kunte Kinte got his papers!"). It was certainly the hip-hop highlight of the fest (sorry Tip), but of course, it didn't have much competition.

One thousand or so bands (give or take a few shaggy haircuts) hit New York City every fall for the CMJ Music Marathon, a five-day band-a-palooza where new acts get noticed (see Arcade Fire) and scores more get drunk at open-bar showcases. For the next few days, Rock Daily will be bringing you reports on the bands we consider most worthy of your time after CMJ has packed up and moved on:

The copious bitching and moaning that precedes CMJ -- the exhaustive hype, the hordes of bodies, the wristband drama -- all but vaporizes once you're actually at a show, anticipating the goods. And if there's one up-and-coming band whose songs can send whiners packing, it's MGMT. They might not be an outright psychedelic band, but there's no way around the colorful escapism provided on their mercurial electro-pop debut Oracular Spectacular. Friday night's audience of evenly divided male and female, washed and unwashed attendees was a little worn out by the time the band hit the stage a bit before 1 AM, but bobbed in place to their Flaming Lips-like fantasy jams. MGMT themselves were more timid than expected, and didn't totally harness their music's potential to beam listeners out of a dank basement club and into the clouds -- but there'll be plenty of time for that in the coming months. MGMT seem poised to ride excellent track "Time to Pretend" into a realm where they won't have to visualize success. Prior to entering the land of pretty swirly-pop make-believe, gravity was firmly enforced during Foreign Islands' furious set. The Brooklyn-based band unloaded post-punk dance tunes that could've put a fissure in the earth's crust -- kind of like what Franz Ferdinand would sound like if they were fed nothing but steak and eggs for twelve months straight. The band's high-energy frontman Mark Ryan kept the audience scared, excited or both.

[Photo: Sam Horine]

One thousand or so bands (give or take a few shaggy haircuts) hit New York City every fall for the CMJ Music Marathon, a five-day band-a-palooza where new acts get noticed (see Arcade Fire) and scores more get drunk at open-bar showcases. For the next few days, Rock Daily will be bringing you reports on the bands we consider most worthy of your time after CMJ has packed up and moved on:

One night after Dan Deacon metaphorically brought the house down, the Bowery Ballroom played host to another anticipated CMJ showcase. First up on the bill were the Tiny Masters of Today, featuring two siblings, thirteen-year-old guitarist-vocalist Ivan and eleven-year-old bassist-vocalist Ada, and a father-figure-like man on drums (yes, folks, we know it's onetime Jon Spencer Blues Explosion kitman Russell Simins). The wear-and-tear of CMJ showcases seemed to drain the youngsters, as the duo seemed lethargic throughout their performance, like they've been staying up way past their bedtimes. When they were on, they sounded like pre-teen Ramones playing Paddy Cake, especially on songs like "Hey Mr. DJ" and the Ada-sung anti-George W. rocker "Bushy." The band closed out their set with a Kidz Bop-esque version of House of Pain's "Jump Around." Yeah, they were cute, but hopefully this band's sound continues to mature or they might grow up and no one will like them anymore, like Frankie Munoz.

Next up was the decade that spawned the Tiny Masters, the 1990s. While their name conjures up images of grunge and Bill Clinton, the Glasgow trio is more indebted to the late Seventies/early Eighties, especially given the Buzzcockish riffs and Elvis Costello bounce of their songs. Singer-guitarist Jackie McKeown, who was once in a band called the Yummy Fur with Franz Ferdinand's Alex Kapranos, delighted the steadily-increasing Bowery crowd with songs from debut album Cookies. U.K. single "You're Supposed To Be My Friend" and "Enjoying Myself" (with a Modern Lovers' "Road Runner" tease) even had the cross-armed in the crowd swaying before closing out their fast eight-song set with "See You at the Lights."

After a spirited set by Pela, British Sea Power took the stage at half-past midnight to introduce American audiences to songs off their upcoming album Do You Like Rock Music? If your answer to that question was "Yes," then BSP's set didn't disappoint. While the band seemed more restrained during this visit than at their Bowery visit in 2005, the band still had the full attention of the crowd, especially a contingent of die-hards in the front. Some fans were singing along with new songs like "No Lucifer" and "Lights Out For Darker Skies," even though those songs won't be released until January (can someone say "album leak?") Guitarist Noble was especially on point, eviscerating his guitar strings on new tracks like "Atom" and "The Pelican." While the older material lacked the urgency it used to pack on previous tours, the band and the crowd surged to the next decibel level on the set-ending performances of "Carrion" and frequent stage-demolishing closer "Rock In A." While British Sea Power didn't bring the Bowery down like Deacon, they still did their fair share of damage.

You know Chicago's hip-hop scene is on the rise when a) Kanye West cameos on hometown rapper Kid Sister's "Pro Nails," and b) big, beer-chugging guys wave their cuticles in the air to its girlie chorus: "Got her toes done up with her fingernails match." Last night at Hiro Ballroom, the pint-sized diva, backed by West's DJ A-Track and sporting a platinum-blonde bob, got the crowd bouncing to kiss-off anthems like "Telephone" (chorus: "Nigga, quit callin' me!"), the Tangerine Dream-remixing "Let Me Bang" and the old-school banger "Control." But "Pro Nails" topped the show. "You ladies remember when you went to prom just because you wanted to dress up like a bride and get your nails did?" she asked, by way of introducing the track, and at least one quarterback-shaped dude hollered back in response.

Earlier that night, Cool Kids echoed the same Eighties-style vibe as Kid Sister, adhering to the golden rule of old-school hip-hop: As one journalist in the crowd put it, "When in doubt, rap faster." While a video screen mashed up Muppet Babies footage with clips from Michael Jordan-era Bulls games, the Chicago duo kicked things off by asking everyone to shake their key rings to their version of LL Cool J's "Jingling Baby," moved on to the M/A/R/R/S-sampling "Pump Up the Volume," and even played a track called "88," where they bragged about taking things back to the days of acid-washed jeans. At nineteen years old, the group's MCs, Chuck and Mikey, are probably too young to root their nostalgia in that part of the past. But their fresh, stripped-down sound definitely feels like it has a future.

[Photo: Dziekan/Retna]