Click to listen to Foster the People's Torches

Like their super-obvious influence MGMT, this L.A. trio bridge disco elation and psych-pop escapism to take a "hipster"-identified sound onto the radio. Their hit single even has the word "kids" in the chorus: "Pumped Up Kicks" floats lyrics about a happy school shooter in on a slinky groove, misty guitar flange and delicious astral-wimp vocals. The rest of their debut is genre-­juggling, bedroom-dance-floor magic cut with moody-boy lyrics (on the Bee Gees-worthy "Helena Beat," Mark Foster sings about taking "a sip of something poison" to escape "the prison I was living in"). It's derivative, sure, but the results pack more decadent kicks than a night out in John Travolta's Seventies pants.

Band to Watch: Foster the People's Pumped-up Psych-Pop

Gallery: Random Notes, Rock's Hottest Photos

“All Along the Watchtower”

Jimi Hendrix got hold of Bob Dylan's early John Wesley Harding tapes and in late 1967 recorded a version of "All Along the Watchtower" with the Experience in London. Dissatisfied with that first development, Hendrix brought those tapes with him to New York in early 1968 when he began work on Electric Ladyland. Eddie Kramer, Hendrix's engineer at the time, told Rolling Stone that Hendrix "was still looked upon by his basically white audience as the mammoth black guitar hero. There was a constant fight within him to expand himself." Hendrix's successful take on Dylan's work has long been recognized by the songwriter. "I liked Jimi Hendrix's record of this and ever since he died I've been doing it that way," Dylan wrote in the liner notes to his Biograph box set. "Strange how when I sing it, I always feel it's a tribute to him in some kind of way."