Who: Cleveland-born singer-songwriter whose second record of hushed folk-rock, Simple Times, topped the iTunes album chart after he rocked the lesbian wedding of 2008: Ellen DeGeneres invited the 34-year-old to serenade her and Portia de Rossi at the pair’s August nuptials (Ellen then aired a clip on her show). “I played a few songs, then stuck around for some vegan red-velvet cake,” says Radin, who struck up a friendship with DeGeneres after sitting next to her at a dinner party. Now his first single, the John Mayer-esque “I’d Rather Be With You” is getting radio play. “Aside from my mom,” says Radin, whose CD was produced by Elliott Smith collaborator Rob Schnapf, “Ellen’s been the biggest supporter of my career.”

Back Story: A onetime aspiring screenwriter, Radin penned his first song after splitting with girlfriend Schuyler Fisk (Sissy Spacek’s daughter) in 2004.

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Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Her Space Holiday
The Buzz: One time depressive folkie brightens up, crafting forward-falling guitar pop songs that are as charming as they are simple.
Listen If: You miss the days when Weezer was a little less self-aware.
Key Track: "The Heartbreak Moment," where shoo-wop backing vocals glide between a steady strum and shuffling backbeat.

The Band: All the Saints
The Buzz: Based in the Bible Belt, All the Saints use echo-drenched, cataclysmic guitars as accompaniment to their prophecies of doom.
Listen If: You've got any part of the Book of Revelation tattooed on your body.
Key Track: "Regal Regalia," which opens like black metal but settles simply for black, a hailstorm of guitars hammering Titus Brown's woe-is-me vocals.

The Band: Dreamend
The Buzz: Dusky, druggy and myserious, Dreamend make heavy-lidded psych-folk designed to score late nights in open fields.
Listen If: All of your dreams contain black lights and lava lamps.
Key Track: "The Tulip Staircase," whose gaga title belies the surreal psych-out inside.

In Rolling Stone's recent review of Lou Reed's Berlin: Live at St. Ann's Warehouse, Barry Walters writes, "The Kurt Weill-like class commentary of 'Men of Good Fortune' gains severity: Guitarist Steve Hunter embodies privilege with flashy heroics, and Reed represents unskilled labor via blunt six-string bursts." The album is out digitally now via iTunes and drops on disc November 4th, but we've got a freebie download of that very track for you right now. Plus, check the next issue for an interview with Reed, and click below for David Fricke's review of the Brooklyn show that's documented on the new album.

"Men of Good Fortune" [right click and select "save as"]

• Lou Reed Plays Berlin in Brooklyn

• The Immortals - The Velvet Underground By Julian Casablancas

• All Lou Reed Album Reviews

The Pretenders' latest album, Break Up the Concrete hits stores tomorrow, but we've got the whole record for you to hear right now. Click below to listen to each of the record's 11 tracks, and check out our Q&A with Chrissie Hynde and behind-the-scenes footage of the band's "Boots of Chinese Plastic" music video.

• Behind the scenes of the Pretenders' "Boots of Chinese Plastic" music video

• Q&A: Chrissie Hynde on Opening a Vegan Restaurant and Her Rootsy New Record

Sorry! The free stream of the album has expired.

Who: Electro-pop artist Sam Sparro, a soulful, Aussie-American vocalist whose hit single “Black & Gold,” soared to Number Two on the U.K. singles chart, and made it into the Top 10 in Ireland, Australia and Turkey.

Sounds Like: If Daft Punk took off their helmets and turned up the "emotion" setting on their vocoders. Sparro draws from a pool of funk/soul influences ­— "Prince and Chaka Khan and the Gap Band, Parliament, things like that," he explains — and ‘80s electro à la New Order to create a distinctive 21st century sound. "I wanted to be in amongst the contemporary music that I like at the moment, which is a lot of stuff like Hot Chip and Cut Copy and French electro stuff like Justice."

Vital Stats:

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Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Kiss Me at the Gate
The Buzz: Spry, female-fronted indie band craft sugary, breakneck songs with big hooks.
Listen If: You can name the last three Juliana Hatfield records or often find yourself arguing that the second Belly album is underrated.
Key Track: "Come On," where pouty vocalist Claire Cormany begs "Come on, come on, the water's warm / And I don't want to swim alone" as guitars turn dizzying loop-de-loops behind her.

The Band: Cause Co-Motion
The Buzz: Wound-up New York noiseniks bang out 90-second pop hits, swaddled in so much echo it sounds like the Television Personalities at the bottom of a well.
Listen If: You think most indie bands are far too polished, and gravitate toward what could best be defined as "nursery school chic."
Key Track: "Who's Gonna Care?", where a spindly guitar lick twitches and kicks over a heart-attack drum beat.

The Band: Desolation Wildnerness
The Buzz: Call them Cause Co-Motion's gloomier older brother: Olympia band creeps and croons across hypnotic, dreamlike guitar-pop.
Listen If: You've got a thing for trances, or for playing Jesus & Mary Chain records at the wrong speed.
Key Track: "And All the Boys Looked," a gorgeous lullaby where pillows of echoey guitar cradle Nicolaas Zwart's distant vocals.