Rundgren’s own latest album is called State and it brings the long-time innovator into the modern scene full bore, with energetic stabs at Electronica, Dub Step and Techno, with his unique vocals and multi-layered/multi-instrumental arsenal thrown up against the electronics to see what sticks.  

Olly Murs makes pure Pop gold. His third No. 1 single, “Dance with Me Tonight,” is as perky and dance-ready as music can be. (Expect to hear it on Cincinnati radio sometime in 2014.)  

 Forget “love at first sight.” A cappella group Pentatonix had harmony at first sight. Recently, they found viral-video success with “Evolution of Music,” a medley of music from Gregorian Chants to contemporary Pop. Now, let them wow you.   

If brevity is a virtue, Warm Soda should be up for some sort of musical sainthood. The Oakland, Calif., quartet’s debut album, the recently released Someone Like You, clocks in at just more than 27 minutes but its 12 tracks quiver with unbridled Pop/Punk intensity.    

Night Moves took the reverse Radiohead route in getting its full-length debut, Colored Emotions, a proper release. The Minneapolis trio streamed its self-produced album for free on Bandcamp, eventually drawing notice from the peeps at Domino Records, who released a “refurbished” version of the album last fall.   

Mod Sun works a feel-good genre angle he’s dubbed Hippy Hop that runs on sunshine, positive vibrations and righteous herb. His infectious positivity and zest for living makes him Hip Hop’s Andrew WK.     

It’s been nearly a decade and a half since New York City percussionist Adam Pierce anagrammed his name in order to christen his new solo project Mice Parade.   

Brooklyn, N.Y.’s Swear and Shake coalesced just a couple of years ago, but from the sound of its debut full-length Maple Ridge, you’d swear (and shake) that this electric Folk marvel has been percolating over the course of a decade or more with a half dozen previous releases under their belts.   

Joey Cape might be among Punk’s busiest purveyors, but his longest standing and best-known band is obviously Lagwagon, one of the original Punk/Pop groups that emerged from the early ’90s California scene.   

Mixtapes guitarist/vocalist Ryan Rockwell and his bandmates developed an interesting songwriting regimen after the release of their first recording. Whenever Rockwell and Maura Weaver, Mixtapes’ guitarist/vocalist and Rockwell’s songwriting partner, would hit on a particularly resonant tune, they would relegate it to a slush pile of material for an album they intended to serve as their full-length debut. Mixtapes’ song bank proved to be an effective strategy.