Not since Elvis Costello has any artist combined pop ferocity and magnetism with such challenging words. The standard rule is bitter and thoughtful = slow and delicate, but when artists escape that equation-when they recognize that smart people have blood in their veins too-they are justly hailed by their grateful minions in the press, like so:

Big money says Zee Avi’s new self-titled CD will be available in Starbucks before you can say Accessibility Meets Post-Colonial Hip. Lucky for us, this won’t be one of those Putumayo ‘It sounded good in the store’ purchases.

At the great Americana Legends Fried Chicken & George Dickel Potluck Party in our minds, while Jack White desperately slaps on sunscreen and J.D. Wilkes hits on your underage cousin, The Devil Makes Three will stand by the bucket of Lone Star, making snarky comments and quietly enjoying the day.

The exclamation point at the end of Telekinesis’ self-titled debut may be a bit over the top, but if any band has earned itself an exclamation point, Telekinesis certainly has. Seattleite Michael Benjamin Lerner (the power behind Telekinesis’ power pop) makes music that’s straightforward and familiar—if not especially challenging—and with its hooks, perfect chord progressions, harmonies and hand clap-ready rhythms, Telekinesis! is one of the strongest power-pop debuts in years.

Sixto Diaz Rodriguez recorded two albums in the early ’70s that went nowhere and when he was subsequently dropped from his label (Sussex), he returned to Detroit and gave up his career in music. Little did he know, but both albums grew in popularity in South Africa and Australia. This fact was discovered by Rodriguez’s oldest daughter when she stumbled on a pair of websites run by a South African fan searching for the missing singer. Rodriguez’s career was revitalized by the discovery although he still never caught in his home country where Cold Fact and its follow-up Coming From Reality remained virtually unheard.

One month after Woodstock and after more than ten years of not being on the music charts, Little Richard took the stage at Varsity Stadium in Toronto determined to light the crowd on fire. Dressed in a mirrored shirt, a 30-pound gold chain, silver bell bottoms, and sporting a ridiculously tall pompadour wig, he opens his set with “Blueberry Hill” and “Lucille,” relatively tame in comparison of what was to come.

Along with Motown, Stax Records defined an era of soul music in the ‘60s and ‘70s. And from the parents who lived with and loved the sound of Stax came children who would sample and appropriate the breaks into loops that would become the foundation of hip-hop. This compilation collects the original Stax hits that spawned so many hip-hop classics.

Fox seems to be attempting to lick Arrested Development fans’ old wounds with the underwhelming Sit Down, Shut Up. The live-action/animation comedy, reshuffled from a hit live-action Australian sitcom, is untidily sandwiched between The Simpsons and Family Guy.

Mark Millar is quickly becoming a pop culture institution (if he wasn’t already there). The creator behind such controversial projects as Kick-Ass, Wanted, War Heroes, Marvel’s Civil War, Ultimates, and Superman: Red Son raises some more eyebrows with American Jesus. Chosen was originally published in 2004 by Dark Horse, but this is a new trade paperback collection from Image Comics. Compared to something like Preacher, it’s a fairly tame pre-apocalyptic tale, seen through the eyes of the pubescent Jodie Christianson (the initials are a dead giveaway).