Aimee Mann

Lord knows the characters in Aimee Mann's songs are often hopelessly earthbound by plodding tempos and the singer's trademark painfully honest, closet-sung vocals. But Mann is an appealing live performer, and she has a fantastic catalog of pop songs to draw from—including tunes from the just-released Mental Illness, her first album in five years. She performs here with quirky comic-songster Jonathan Coulton.