OK, you all know the Beastie Boys, some of you may know The Strokes and LCD Soundsystem, but there’s so much more to New York. The city is practically bursting with talent right now. The main source of inspiration seems to be the local crossover scene that merged Punk, Art Rock and Disco in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.

So here are three contemporay bands that are on the verge of breaking through and are well worth discovering, as well as two of the original acts who got the whole thing rolling.

All of the three contemporary bands are from Brooklyn, the former blue collar suburb made famous by John Travolta shimmying to the pizza parlour in Saturday Night Fever. You still get the pizza, but it’s now also home to the hippest bars and hangouts in town.

Top 5 New York Bands You Should Try

1. Vampire Weekend
2. Arthur Russell
3. Liquid Liquid
4. Sharon Jones and The Daptones
5. Jeffrey Lewis

 It’s fast, it’s fun and it’s addictive. Vampire Weekend’s debut album ‘Vampire Weekend’ is full of songs about girls, student life, relationship drama - All sung like the band’s on the verge of a nervous breakdown. Think about the Talking Heads jamming with Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers and you get an idea. Some of my personal favourites are ‘Mansard Roof’, ‘I Stand Corrected’ and ‘Walcott’. Check out the samples or buy the album on CD or vinyl here.

During his lifetime, Arthur Russell has brought together many disparate scenes. A trained cellist, he worked with beat poet Alan Ginsberg, Talking Heads frontman David Byrne and disco DJs Nicky Siano and Larry Levan. One April night in 1975 he recorded the ultimate Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning record with a band that features ex-Modern Lover Ernie Brooks on bass and Rhys Chatham, whose guitar noise inspired generations of punks including Sonic Youth.

The lazy, dreamlike instrumentals are collected on the album ‘First Thought, Best Thought’> To listen to samples or to buy the album on CD, please see here. Russell, who tragically died in 1992, also recorded a number of Punk Funk classics as Dinosaur L and some stone cold Disco anthems as Loose Joints. Watch this space, Tuneraker will certainly tell you more about the man and his music in the future.

Liquid Liquid invented the blueprint that inspired several dance scenes from Manchester’s Hacienda days to the New York sound of LCD Soundsystem. It’s not quite Funk, a lot of New Wave and a teensy bit of Latin. It is a mix that sums up the elements that where around in New ork clubs when the band created their classic recordings between 1980 and 1983.

 The bassline on their song ‘Cavern’ was so popular with hip hop DJs, that rap label Sugarhill Records got their house band to cover it as basis for the Grandmaster Flash & Melle Mel hit single ‘White Lines (Don’t Do It)’. That was back in 83′, long before the days of sampling. Their original EPs have now been compiled into the album ‘In And Out Of Phenomena’. To listen to samples or buy the CD, please click here, for the 3×12″ vinyl version of the album, please see here.

 Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings are the real deal, a soul singer who can hold her own against an entire Gospel choir with a backing band that plays razor sharp and keeps the music from slipping into soul nostalgia mode. If you have a soft spot for slow, scorching soul music, then every tune’s a winner on ‘100 Days 100 Nights’. This Brooklyn outfit know how to take the Soul formula and update it for 2008.

More Stax than Motown, there’s a downhome earthyness to the rhythms and the brass section is tight and prominent. To listen to samples or buy the CD, please see here.

 Jeffrey Lewis is a singer songwriter from Brooklyn who moves from candle-lit, intimate songs to blazing Skate Punk with a flick of his fringe. Together with his brother Jack, Jeffrey penned the neurotic relationship anthem for the laptop generation, ‘Don’t Be Upset’, and the song for all of you who have moved house more than once in their life: ‘Moving’. Both tracks plus the punky ‘Something Good’ and the hilarious ode to indie promotions, ‘Posters’, are on Jeffrey & Jack Lewis’ ‘City & Eastern Songs’ album.

Jeffrey’s latest project is revisiting songs by UK anarcho punk collective Crass. You may remember Crass as quite a serious lot with paranoia seeping out of every one of their records back in the dark 1980s. Jeffrey brings dry sarcasm to these songs and keeps his distance - he’s a singer, not a protagonist. Sung like that, the ‘12 Crass Songs’ he picked actually come to life. Without the ‘they’re all out to get us’ atmosphere of the original recordings, you realise that there is food for thought in Crass’ lyrics. To listen to samples or to buy the CD, please see here.

For more information on Jeffrey’s adventures, check out his site.