Let us all thank Thievery Corporation for songs like "Lebanese Blond" (you know, that weird one from the "Garden State" soundtrack) that imbue our mundane lives with a faraway exoticism when played on our iPods as we catch the bus for work or clip our toenails over the edge of the toilet bowl. The acid-jazz duo infuses electronic grooves with bossanova, jazz, tabla and myriad other influences, and has worked with/remixed everyone from David Byrne to Norah Jones to Femi Kuti. The result is a neo-jazz-cum-electronic genre with a lounge aesthetic, aka something that makes waiting in line for the next available teller a whole lot cooler. (Amanda Nyren)
