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NEW YORK DOLLS

You wouldn't know it looking at them, but these guys contributed some serious seed to the birth of punk rock and metal. The Dolls were born in early 70s NYC playing dirty rock n roll with a glam edge--anarchic noise plus androgyny. They quickly built a mammoth cult following but broke up in 1977 after the double tragedy of a drummer death and MALCOLM MCLAREN mismanagement (who then went on to market the SEX PISTOLS a little more effectively). Fast forward to 2004, when MORRISEY invites the three remaining living members of the Dolls to share a stage. It was a success, and the band has since recorded a new album--and weathered the death of another original member.

THE NATIONAL

Since their album Alligator dropped a couple of years ago, these guys have slow burned a big old hole into indie rock radio. Matt Beringer fronts a solid band and sounds something like Bruce Springsteen and Leonard Cohen's melancholy Midwestern lovechild. Only with repeated listens do you realize just how fucking good these songs are. They're touring on their latest album, Boxer, which the critics have been calling "quietly good." Whatever that means. One of the greatest bands going right now.

FAUST

Germany in the 1970s turned out a lot of pioneering music (KRAFTWERK, CAN, and TANGERINE DREAM to name a few), but the band with the longest-lasting influence just might be Faust. Although not packing the headline power of the bands mentioned above, Faust's sound innovations can now be heard in pretty much every post-rock, noise or electronic record. After breaking up in 1975 (after their record label refused to release their new album) the band reunited in 1990 to reach a generation of kids who'd grown up on knock-offs. Nearly 40 years after they started, Faust still sounds ahead of its time.

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