Kudos to 3 for making pop music you can feel good about. In this age of Britney Spears and boy groups, pop has gotten a bad rap, but remember the '80s, when everyone listened to Michael Jackson and no one was ashamed to admit it? 3 does, and their sound owes far more to late Motown and 1980's pop than to anything going on today. Lead singer Joe Eppard takes his cues from Stevie Wonder and Prince, occasionally springboarding into Michael-esque falsetto, while splitting his time between guitar wizardry and vocal acrobatics.

3 are not perfect – Eppard fails to give more than the barest hints of his own incomparable finger-style skills, and "Wrong Side of the Road" sounds like it is straight out of the Rick Springfield catalogue – but at their best, as on the guitar-drenched space-rock epic "The Emerald Undertow," they come damn close. It's pop all right, but pop of the most rarefied kind: Bush with a Ph.D. Check out their show at Don Hill's on Monday, September 27th, 8 pm or at Arlene Grocery on November 8th.

Even if you haven't heard of Basement Jaxx by now, you've probably heard them – at least, if you've been anywhere near a club, rave, or college dorm in the past five years. Mixmasters Simon Ratcliffe and Felix Buxton – could you guess that they're British? – have been throwing together their blend of "New York house with London club attitude" for that long, and earning copious accolades for it. "Basement Jaxx have raised the benchmark for others to follow," according to Mixer (whose name apparently refers to its way with metaphors), and Spin named their debut, Remedy, number 45 of the 90 top albums of the decade. Remedy takes as its starting point the conventions of techno – vocoder voices, video-game sound effects, and that ubiquitous mm-CHIK percussion – but it builds upon and, in its better moments, transcends those conventions, as in the reggae-ragga fusion of "Jump n' Shout." The end result is music that demands attentive appreciation almost as much as dance-floor abandon. Basement Jaxx can be found on-line at www.astralwerks.com.

Great jam bands – the Grateful Dead, Phish, the Allman Brothers – inspire more loyalty in their fans than just about any other musical acts. They also motivate their fans to form their own groups, lesser, certainly, but very often pretty darn good. Brother Chameleon is one such band. Their sound comprises shades of just about any jam band you can think of, playing or retired – the Bare Naked Ladies, the Dave Matthews Band, Steely Dan – but at the core of it is a funk-rock groove not unlike Phish's. Like Phish, their vocal melodies are occasionally more ambitious than their singing is capable; at times, singer/guitarist Mike Witwicki sounds like Rob from Matchbox 20 in the throes of puberty. Fortunately, most jam-band fans don't care much, adoring Trey and Jerry all the more for their imperfect voices. Doubtless Brother Chameleon would deprecate S•Gadea, insisting it's a poor reflection of their live sound; nevertheless, it offers a promising glimpse of this up-and-coming foursome. Their website is www.brotherchameleon.com.

If you think that lyrics are more than just the stuff you have to sit through to get to the solo, you may be a college rock fan. If that's the case, Channeling Owen is worth your while to check out. Furry Bright Green Shoes offers no deafening squeals of feedback or inarticulate screaming to obscure the vocals (or in place of them). Heck, it's almost as though they wanted you to listen to the words, as though they thought them up in advance and maybe even committed them to paper. These guys are no "...pain/...rain/...love you... above you" hacks. Like Elvis Costello or R.E.M., their songs are irreverent, wry, and thoughtful, whether they're spouting individualist philosophy ("Sedative") or lamenting love gone bad ("Vomit Badge"). The music itself is solid, even interesting at times – the lineup includes a full-time cellist – but nothing fancy; rather it's a vehicle for this series of bittersweet stories and meditations. For more on Owen, go to www.channelingowen.com.

From their grainy band-photo-album cover and punk-era name to lead singer Matt Starr's Flying V guitar, the Flames want their act to evoke memories of a bygone era. Their sound defies the complex taxonomy of modern rock; it's a throwback to the days before rock took itself seriously, before genre distinctions fractured the music world into dozens or warring city-states. It's honest-to-God rock 'n' roll, the sound of juvenile rebellion: Steppenwolf-inspired motorcycle tunes ("Real Cool Bad Guy") and nonsensical teenage anthems a la the Kinks or the Who ("Lover"). The Flames share Weezer's sense of humor as well as their campy American Graffiti mentality; "I Cheated on You" is the hilarious first-person account of a nerd's revenge. Fast. Easy. Cheap. is available at www.joetown.com or www.amazon.com.

Hailing from Palm Beach County, Florida, Gone Mad toss a musical salad consisting mainly of Metallica-esque fuzz-metal and Korn-ish hardcore rap, with a dash of extremely tongue-in-cheek neo-swing that's sure to make Big Bad Voodoo Daddy blush. The diverse lyrical themes include anger ("Knuckledragger"), contempt ("Another Fool"), recrimination ("Bored Games"), and guilt ("Wreckognize"). It's no Disney movie. J.C. Dwyer's drumming will be familiar to fans of West Palm Beach rockers Raped Ape (who later changed their name, God knows why). Visit Gone Mad online at www.gonemad.com.

Randy Mason may be playing at an auspicious moment for women in rock, but she seems like a throwback to another age: the late '70s and early '80s, when Deborah Harry, Heart, and Stevie Nicks walked the land. Indeed, Mason evokes Nicks not only in her vocal timbre and songwriting style, but also in her imagery and lyrical themes – mysticism, magic, nature, and dreams. Halfway, Through Night is a brief (approx. 18 minutes) set of light, melodic folk rock for the VH1 crowd. It's for sale at Amazon.com.

With lightweight, feel-good kiddie pop back in full force, it's important for us rock fans to keep in mind that there are still plenty of things to feel bad about. Long Walks... is born of the same millennial angst that informed the movie Strange Days, a dark, discordant alt-rock album in the same vein as Nirvana and Soundgarden. Guitarist Jimmy Jacobs exhibits a healthy dose of Led Zeppelin influence – as befits one who wields a Les Paul – experimenting with Middle Eastern and Indian scales and open tunings, and drummer Chris Tatalias enhances the effect by picking up a tabla on "Universe." Matt's Altar serves as a reminder of why the '90s were The Decade When Despair Made Us Feel Like Singing. The disc is available at www.joetown.com or www.amazon.com.

Soccer, comedy, etiquette – let's face it, the British are just better than us at some things. Chief among them may be blues-based rock 'n' roll, and Moke are the latest evidence of that. Any hard rock group with a blues backbone and a dredlocked lead singer is sure to provoke mention of Living Colour and Lenny Kravitz – apt enough comparisons, in this case – but this South London foursome can be better likened to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Although the precise ingredients vary somewhat, Moke use more or less the recipe perfected by the Chili Peppers: a soulful vocalist, a generous dollop of hip-hop influence, and a pleasing balance between electric and acoustic modalities. Moke's brand of eclecticism involves less funk and more reggae and ska than does the Chili Peppers', but like their Los Angeleno counterparts, they can follow up skater thrash a la Faith No More ("Another Weekend") with authentic country blues Robert Johnson would be proud of ("Mislaid the Key"). For more of Moke, go to www.ultimatummusic.com.

In the early 1980s, Run DMC and the Beastie Boys planted the seeds of the union between hip-hop and metal. Fifteen years later, that union has matured into the fastest growing and most influential movement in popular music. Fronted by Burn veteran Chaka Malik, Orange 9mm is one of the lesser known but more influential groups to explore the territory where rap meets hardcore. Pretend I'm Human is sure to find a wide audience with Korn and Limp Bizkit fans looking for something a little fresher, especially considering the label's aggressive on-line marketing campaign. (You can download the single "When You Lie" for free at mp3.com) The guitar lines are convoluted, the samples are space age and trippy, and Malik's rapping is above average, especially if you're a fan of internal rhyme and existentialism. The band's website is www.orange9mm.com.

There's no question that Stroke 9 are pure pop; one only needs witness the insidious "word plus number" formula of their name – popularized by Matchbox 20, Eve 6, Blink 182, and others. Smarter than Fastball, more energetic than the Bodeans, Stroke 9 have what it takes to make it big: namely, two good-looking vocalist/guitarists; a hip, cleaned-up Gen-Xer look; a familiar yet recognizable sound replete with hooks; and some high-level attention. (Looking to use a real San Francisco band, Ron Howard cast them as a punked-up version of themselves in Ed TV.) Listen for their first single, the extremely catchy love-revenge song "Little Black Backpack," currently saturating the airwaves. Go to www.stroke9.com for more details.