I saw Richman live a few months ago. My favorite album of his is Jonathan Sings, with the female backup singers. E-mail me if you have trouble finding a copy!
And is that Setzer album new? I admit I haven’t paid much attention to him in the last few years, but he’s always been one of my favorite guitarists and overall musicians.
I agree with you that The Killers have borrowed heavily from the 80s New Wave sound, although it’s hard for me to pinpoint what bands they sound like. I know I’ve heard some early Duran Duran influence. I’ve only heard the hits, since I don’t have the CD. I’m curious to hear what bands you compare them to.
And thanks for letting us know about Colin James’ new album. Since I moved from 15 minutes to the border to 3 hours, I only get to hear Canadian radio when I’m visiting. I haven’t heard anything from him in a while and I loved his older stuff.
I am woefully uninformed with my JRichman listening - I really only know the first album (featuring Dave Robinson from the Cars on drums and Jerry Harrison of the Talking Heads - both before they joined their more successful bands…but you know that BBVLou - that trivia moment is just for the uninitiated…)
As for Setzer, the CD dropped in July of this year. And if you don’t have both that and the DVD Brian Setzer Orchestra, Live in Japan - you don’t know what you’re missing. He is a true virtuoso - one of my top 3 players…
The first time I popped the cd in and heard “Jenny was a friend of mine”, I thought I’d accidentally bought a Duran Duran cd. It sounds to me like there is an 80’s influence in about 4 or 5 tracks on the cd, but that’s about it.
I definitely hear an eighties vibe too.
The latest band that’s made a big impression on me is Rilo Kiley. Love those guys. And this past weekend I found The Thrillseekers latest mic CDs; “The Producer” disk is amazing…just blows me away.
Earlimart
Dredg - Catch Without Arms www.dredg.com
There’s a Swedish psychodelic band called Dungen that’s really been on my groove lately. Can’t understand their lyrics, but they’ve got some great hooks with their spacey guitars, reverb flutes and clapboard drums reminiscent of 60’s flower power.
There’s also the mellow harmonies of Kings of Convenience that makes good incense burning music. It’s also fun to hear a cool-sounding track on college radio and find out it’s another song by Ween.
Well, let’s see - haven’t done the whole album yet, but so far I’ve got Frankie Goes to Hollywood and a hint of Charlie Sexton on “Jenny Was a Friend of Mine,” and a strong U2 sound on “Andy, You’re A Star.” There’s one song that could be lifted straight from a Chalk Circle album - I’ll listen to find that one again. The New Wave 80’s Techno Pop sound is strong throughout most of the album.
I’ve been loving Rilo Kiley too. Jenny Lewis is one of two female singers I’ve fallen in love with just because of her voice, only to find out later she’s beautiful as well. (Neko Case is the other one.)
I just recently got into Flogging Molly, for all you Celtic punk fans out there.
Awesome. And if you like them, check out the Pogues (the first band to combine Irish/Celtic folk music with punk), Dropkick Murphys, and Black 47.
I listened to Dungen’s Ta Det Lugnt obsessively for several months this summer. It’s a fabulously rawktastic album, and sounds like it walked right out of 1970 even though it was released in 2004. I was able to see them live recently. They played a short set, but they totally kicked my ass with some long psychedelic jams. They also used a flute, which I don’t think they did on Ta Det Lugnt.
If Dungen put out a live album, I would buy it in a heartbeat.
I think you’ll enjoy R.E.M.'s other albums when you eventually give them a listen.
After producing New Adventures in Hi-Fi in 1997, R.E.M. lost Bill Berry, their long time drummer, when he retired and since then things have kind of gone downhill. 
sorry, meant to say
Death Cab for Cutie’s song “Soul Meets Body”. It’s a killer video too. (I don’t mean the Yahoo! exclusive performance either.) You can also find their video on MTV.com, and likely VH1.com as well.
Okay, discussed it with my husband (also a huge 80s fan), and he mentioned Flock of Seagulls and Duran Duran influences in The Killers album. We both agree that The Killers sound a lot like Strange Advances and Chalk Circle, but that’s probably not influences that The Killers would have heard, seeing as how they were big in Canada in the 80s. We’re having trouble coming up with U.S. or British versions of the sound of bands like Strange Advances and Chalk Circle - a big, meaty, chunky, rock-and-roll with technopop sound.
Oh, thought of another example as soon as I hit ‘submit’ (ain’t that the way?) - “Everything Will Be Alright” has a definite “The Cure” sound.
I came into this thread to mention the Pogues. I first heard of them on the message board, and managed to Tivo “If I Should Fall From Grace With God” when it came on Sundance. Instant fan. It was enough to get me away from Miles Davis for a year or so. I’ve since gotten back into jazz, but I still listen to the Pogues every day.
I still can’t figure out how I missed them when they first came out.
Värttinä — Finnish folk rock with four (now three) women singers in tight harmonies backed by expert instrumental players. Their music is complex, earthy, challenging, sexy, and very female. Some of their sounds are deeply mysterious and put me in mind of female shamans 20,000 years ago.
Stellamara — Sonja Drakulich forms the core of this group that draws upon medieval Judaeo-Spanish music as much as Middle Eastern and Balkan/Hungarian music, blending these all into a very rich and alluring musical adventure. The source styles of music all blend together well. I was just reading about them at allmusic.com and saw that Drakulich is a linguist like me, no wonder I like them. 
Blind Melon “Soup” (the album has grown on me the last few years)
It rare if I don’t throw on the Urge at least once a day.