30) Peaches
How one makes the career leap from schoolmarm to Moses-bearded electrodiva is beyond us, but we're not going to look a gift horse in the crotch. Ms. Merrill Nisker's nom de pêche is a gender-fucking apostle from a distant future where a man is a lady, a bro is a pro, and everyone wears sarongs. We also love her for imparting the soundest, most succinct break-up advice in pop history. Fuck the pain away indeed. — Cyriaque Lamar |
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29) Erika Wennerstrom
The Heartless Bastards' third album, The Mountain, must be the most aptly-named in rock history. Erika Wennerstrom's voice is a mountain, a blues-inflected cascade both world-weary and demure. It's amused, warm, and wet all at the same time. Her look is unassuming — the sandy hair and easy smile say Sarah Plain and Tall more than vixen — but when she sings barn-burners like "Into the Open" and "Brazen", Wennerstrom demands you get down on your knees. — J.C. |
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28) Fiona Apple
Fiona Apple McAfee Maggart's first video, for the single "Criminal", pretty much covered the entire sexual spectrum; lust, shame, pleasure, discomfort, fondness, excitement, fear, envy, awe. Name it. The song itself is heart wrenching, a dirge about lover's (or survivor's) guilt that is, nevertheless, slinky and sexy as hell. But the problem with "Criminal" is how it overshadows Apple's maturation into a far more potent woman. We turn you to "Fast as You Can" and "Window" to find the Fiona Apple who controls the dance floor with her piercing eyes and wit. — J.C. |
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27) Santigold
Santi White used to be known as Santogold, until a jewelry huckster/sci-fi auteur of the selfsame name threatened to sue the zebra pleather Spanx off of her. Whatever, director of "the science-fiction space-wrassling movie comedy Blood Circus" — this gold by any other name would shine just as bright. Blessed with the hooks of Ric Ocasek and the fashion acumen of a young Roxanne Shanté, Ms. White is the rock'n'roll prom queen of a John Hughes movie that exists only in the happiest corners of our heads. — C.L. |
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26) Patti Smith
Beat poetess and godmother of art rock, Smith was and is the hipster's alternative to feelgood '70s AOR and the disco that followed. No natural beauty, her anger and angst cathected to the libidos of a generation of intellectuals seeking social change by buying albums and reading. — Jack M.
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