Though these Dubliners somewhat amusingly claim to merge rock (or rather, whatever wimpy music silly Irish people erroneously classify as rock) with “hip hop lyrical flow,” their self-titled Phonogenic catapulted up to No. 19 on the Heatseekers chart last week; the £6.99 iTunes price listed on their MySpace page was presumably not a major factor, but every little thing counts. Clearly they are following in Celtic soul-brother footsteps previously laid down by Thin Lizzy and Black 47 and House of Pain and people like that. “Think U2 versus Timbaland, Van Morrison remixed by Teddy Riley,” their bio on MySpace says, and their fans contribute comments written in cryptic Dublin hip-hop lingo: “Alri lads wats d story??,” goes one. “Was doin me business midterm test d oda day nd der was a question on break-even analises r sumfin nd wen i just saw breakeven ur song was n me head n i cudn concintrate, twas gas, i distracted nearly every1 else 2, am auctaly listening ta breakeven now lol!” MORE »

You can tell that ohGr is an extremely creative and artistic band because of the presence of a capital letter in the middle of its name instead of at the beginning, sort of like t.A.T.u.; also, one band member is named cEvin Key, which makes the band seem even more creative and artistic. ohGr’s new Devils in My Details (SPV) tumbles to No. 147 on Billboard’s Heatseekers chart a week after entering at No. 18 (and spending a week at No. 9 on the Electronic album chart); one MySpace friend calls it “a bit darker and ominous than the other ohGr albums,” suggesting those earlier ones were perhaps all happy and sunshiney. MORE »

“In this world of ever evolving genres, sounds and trends, the word phenomenon is rarely if ever used,” Deadmau5’s bio unreliably asserts. Except in the case of, uh, this clearly phenomenal fellow, whose new album on Ultra, randomly titled Random Album Title, entered the Heatseekers chart at No. 65 last week, then dropped off this week. (His Clockwork EP did debut on Hot Singles Sales at No. 17 in its stead, though.) Very informative explanation of his music, from his Wiki page: “Deadmau5 (pronounced ‘Dead mouse’, birth name Joel Zimmerman) is a Progressive house and Electro house musician and DJ from Toronto, Canada. His extensive discography includes tracks such as ‘Arguru’ and ‘Not Exactly.’” Got that? You may call him Mau5y, you may call him Zimmy, but you’re gonna have to serve somebody. MORE »

“Avril Lavigne crossed with Melissa Etheridge a Psycho Bitch?,” asked an intriguing headline at antimusic.com a few months back; unfortunately, this referred to no particular psycho-bitchy activities accomplished by this extremely blonde pop-singing 21-year-old Dublin pop-singer’s daughter, but a mere song title. But Lesley Roy is still young, so don’t write her off yet. Her $7.99-on-iTunes Jive debut album Unbeautiful debuted at No. 128 on Heatseekers this week, a month or so after it officially hit stores. The title ballad, meanwhile, racked up its eighth week on the Pop 100 chart, where it’s now at No. 71; back in June, her comparatively less boring “I’m Gone, I’m Going” did just about equally well at the same format, reportedly after being played on The Hills. MORE »

Each week, dozens of songs and albums from up-and-coming (or just plain unknown) bands debut on the world’s music charts. Some of these bands will never be heard from again; some may become the next little thing. That’s why we have Chuck Eddy exploring the world beyond the Billboard 200, where he’ll look for diamonds in the MySpace rough. This week, his roster of up-and-comers includes some gentle Scripture rock, a new animated guise for some of the Gorillaz, the Talladega Nights fan at left, and a former Dial MTV staple who’s back in a newer, rougher guise. MORE »