list season: the top 5 breakout stars of 2005.

sometimes, a band is a lot more special when they come from nowhere. last year, that band was a husband/wife songwriting team with a supporting cast of extremely capable musicians from montreal. this year, that band took over the fucking world, and david bowie invited them over for sandwiches. in 2005, there were a considerable amount of breakout stars, but few of them had the potential to be future superstars as the following five bands:


5. art brut-
eddie agros is a witty man. he got together with a bunch of rockers down for the cause, and wisecracked all the way to the bank [and top of the pops]. by just talking to the kids, art brut blitzed their way towards indie-rock royalty in 2005.

4. giant drag-
annie hardy took the "foul-mouthed, but cute-as-a-button" female singer/songwriter approach to new levels of stardom this year. oh, and the songs aren't half bad, either.

3. the subways-
although "rock and roll queen," the song that is all over modern rock radio and the o.c., is a "microwave anthem" for kids too young to remember nirvana the first time around, these kids took the perfect rock template [good looks, kick-ass stage presence, and the boy-brother-girlfriend lineup], and made better songs to back up their image. "i wanna hear what you have to say" and their amazing cover of tv on the radio's "staring at the sun" are good enough reasons to say that these kids are off to a running start.

2. wolf parade-
i must not be very cool. i didn't hear about these guys until sub pop had already released their untitled demo, building up buzz for their debut, apologies to the queen mary. then, before i knew it, they were playing cmj, and being touted as the next big things. oh, and the songs are amazing. i could name at least five songs off of the album that are modern classics.

1. arctic monkeys-
horrible name, amazing songs. at first, i couldn't see what the buzz was about. then, i heard "i bet you look good on the dancefloor" on kexp. needless to say, i was converted. i downloaded the demos that had been circling around the internet, and "scummy", "riot van", and "from the ritz to the rubble" are three of the best songs i've heard all year. if there were a genre called "band-that-absolutely-fucking-rocks," then the monkeys would be peeking their heads into the upper echelon.