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Jenny Lewis

All-Time Best Band: 7 Seconds
All-Time Best Solo Artist: Jenny Lewis
Best New Band: The Bleachers

Reno’s finest punk band were outcasts among outcasts: in 1980, they were straight-edge kids in a state with legalized prostitution; and while their contemporaries screamed, Kevin Seconds committed the unforgivable felony of writing melodies you might actually want to hum. More than 15 years later, thanks to their status as granddaddies of pop-punk, 7 Seconds got swept up in the post–Green Day major-label signing frenzy, and more recently have been convalescing comfortably on SideOneDummy, mentoring a new generation of kids with bad tattoos and decent hearts. | Jenny Lewis has come a long way since Troop Beverly Hills: fronting Rilo Kiley; joining up with the Watson Twins; singing with the Postal Service, Bright Eyes, Dntel, and Elvis Costello; and writing her own suites of sugar-sweet country pop. If only we could say the same thing for Shelley Long . . . | Can a synth-heavy trio that sounds kinda Moby-ish be a bar band? There’s something uplifting in the gloomy Britpop of Sin City’s the Bleachers. Maybe it’s the human touch on percussion (as opposed to a drum machine) and the jazz-tinged guitar solos that distinguish these occasionally dissonant anthemists. “Freebird!”

Video: 7 Seconds

Download: Jenny Lewis, "Melt Your Heart" (mp3)

Listen: 7 Seconds, "Young Till I Die"

Listen: The Bleachers, "Ice on the Equator"

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