The Kooks

Taking their name from a David Bowie track on Hunky Dory, which in turn was a word the Dame was using to describe his infant son, The Kooks risked accusations of cute posing before even playing a note. Not to worry, though; these four Brits from the Brighton Institute of Modern Music proved perfectly capable of living up to their influences. Their finely tuned pop songwriting abilities, all jangly guitars and sing-along lyrics, were immediately apparent with their debut single "Naive," which singer Luke Pritchard claims to have written when he was 16. This hit helped their debut long player, 2006's Inside In/Inside Out, to achieve triple platinum in the UK, with sellout shows following in the US. In 2007 they announced that their pending second album would be produced by Tony Hoffer.