Jack's Mannequin w/ Jukebox the Ghost and Allen Stone

After three albums with the Orange County pop-punk institution Something Corporate, heartthrob singer-pianist Andrew McMahon put that group on hiatus to focus on the band that would become his primary musical outlet: Jack's Mannequin, a group that took his emo-leaning songwriting in poppier directions. Something Corporate reunited in 2010 to tour behind a greatest-hits album, but Jack's Mannequin remains McMahon's focus. In the fall, the group released its third album of heart-on-sleeve piano-rock, <i>People and Things</i>. Like the Ben Folds Five before them, the Philadelphia trio Jukebox the Ghost plays a mix of irreverent, quirky piano-pop and sincere ballads, with ample nods to Billy Joel and The Beatles. That's not to say that they're bound by those influences, though. On their hyperactive, hook-a-minute sophomore album, <i>Everything Under the Sun</i>, the trio began to shake those Ben Folds comparisons, dialing up the energy for a peppy set that often plays more like The Dismemberment Plan's <i>Emergency & I</i> than Folds' <i>Rockin' the Suburbs</i>.