Guitars

Pete Yorn

Dear Pete: I love you. You're nonchalant and whimsical and mix enough humor and poetry to make me like all your songs.

Dear Everyone Else: You should also like Pete. He's a great musician and also a great guy. I've met him a few times and he's professional and fun at the same time. He has great taste in other musicians (check out his live shows, always good cover song choices).

pic:www.puremusic.com

Nick Drake

I'm just starting to get into Nick Drake. His voice was earthy and deep...strictly tone-speaking, he sounds similar to Rufus Wainwright. However, he's way less campy and way more rustic/accoustic. I wiki'd him and he was also batshit crazy. That's always a good quality in a dead 60's rock star.

pic:2.bp.blogspot.com

Thom Bjork

Yes. Yes. Yes. Bjork has Eurotrash ethereal high note squaw princess sleek rock candy DOWN. And Radiohead...same, but sometimes with more guitars. Everyone should check out their mashups. They're my favorite mashups online today.

Witchcraft

 Great hollow drum sound...70s sleaze vibe...hints of Danzig or Zeppelin/Sabbath (I think Withcraf is better than Wolfmother regarding 70s metal throwback, but others probably disagree). Then they pull out a ballad like "Sweet Honey Pie" and you hear Nick Drake or Leonad Cohen.

pic:www.pastemagazine.com

Foo's Cover Arcade Fire

Foo Fighters' cover of Arcade Fire's "Keep the Car Running": lots of energy. Dave Grohl's "whoa-oh"'s are sooo good. Wish I'd been there...the original song is great...but this one is Americana---like Springsteen went back to the 70s and pounded out a classic rock/indie rock hybrid.

Ben Gibbard's covers MJ 

Accoustic. Haunting. These thriller nights are not danceable. You don't envision zombies in 80s fashion doing the zombie shuffle. You sort of see whatever craziness Cormac McCarthy sees when he's writing a book...and at the same time you think the thrill of "Thriller" could be about th Romeo & Juliet kind of of crazy love.