 | | Like most bands formed by former music journalists, Saint Etienne were a highly conceptual group. The trio's concept was to fuse the British pop sounds of '60s London with the club/dance rhythms and productions that defined the post-acid house England of the early '90s. |
 | | The New York-based pop group Ivy came together in 1994 when multi-instrumentalist Andy Chase placed an ad in the Village Voice in an attempt to start a band. |
 | | After the breakup of their band Poprace, singer/guitarist Niklas Angergård and his bassist brother Johan joined up with guitarist Joakim Ödlund and formed the Swedish twee-pop trio Acid House Kings in 1991. |
 | | The Scottish ensemble Camera Obscura formed in 1996, when vocalist Tracyanne Campbell, percussionist John Henderson, bassist Gavin Dunbar, and guitarist David Skirving began creating lush indie pop with orchestral flourishes and romantic lyrics. |
 | | A band that takes its name from a French children's television series about a boy and his dog would almost have to be precious, and to be certain, Belle & Sebastian are precious. |
 | | Named in honor of a line of furniture designed by Charles and Ray Eames, the Chicago-based chamber-pop outfit the Aluminum Group was led by brothers John and Frank Navin, longtime staples of the Wicker Park music scene who first surfaced in 1983 as members of the hardcore band Women in Love. |
 | | South Florida pop trio the Postmarks formed in 2004 when Christopher Moll and Jonathan Wilkins, who had collaborated previously in the group See Venus, signed up singer Tim Yehezkely and began recording together. |
 | | Bergen, Norway-based indie pop duo Kings of Convenience teamed singer/guitarist Erik Glambek Bøe and guitarist Erlend Øye. |
 | | Sharing a fondness for sophisticated soul and pop artists like the Smiths, New Order, and Marvin Gaye, vocalist Torquil Campbell and keyboardist Chris Seligman formed Stars in Toronto. |
 | | One of the most pleasing pop groups of the '90s, the Cardigans specialized in sugary confections that would grow annoying very quickly if they weren't backed by solid musicianship and clever arrangements. |
 | | U.K. duo the Boy Least Likely To was one of the freshest and most exciting indie pop groups to surface in the mid-decade. |
 | | El Perro del Mar (The Sea Dog) is the nom de musique of Sarah Assbring, a Swedish pop thrush whose recordings are glorious aural confections that combine Brill Building pop and the influences of Brian Wilson, Burt Bacharach, and Smokey Robinson with lyrics that speak with a sweet, ineffable sadness of the pitfalls of love and life. |
 | | The Magnetic Fields may be a bona fide band, but in most essential respects they are the project of studio wunderkind Stephin Merritt, who writes, produces, and (generally) sings all of the material. |
 | | More apt to cite stately rock paragons Burt Bacharach and Brian Wilson as their inspirations than Derrick May or Aphex Twin, the French duo Air gained inclusion into the late-'90s electronica surge due chiefly to the labels their recordings appeared on, not the actual music they produced. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Jim Noir (real name Alan Roberts) was born in 1982 in Davyhulme, Manchester, the same city that gave birth to Morrissey 23 years before. |
 | | Multi-instrumentalist Greg Kurstin and doe-eyed vocalist Inara George draw upon a fondness for jazz standards and '60s tropicalia to deliver the stylish tones of the Bird and the Bee. |
 | | New York-based singer/songwriter Jenifer Jackson mixes jazzy vocals and blissful pop into reflective, literate songs. |
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 | | One of the many accomplished indie pop bands in Sweden in the 2000s, Gothenberg's Sambassadeur make beautifully wistful, hazy music along the lines of the Go-Betweens, Belle & Sebastian, and the Magnetic Fields -- all of whom the band cites as influences, along with more left-field choices like Wire and France Gall. |
 | | Inspired by film, photography, art, and the climate in its home country of Finland, Husky Rescue was formed by Marko Nyberg in 2002. |
 | | The wonderfully poppy sounds of Swan Dive originate from Nashville: singer/songwriter and guitarist Bill DeMain and vocalist Molly Felder formed the group there in 1993. |
 | | |
 | | Belgium's Claude Maurane was the antithesis of the stereotypical jazz vocalist, eschewing the hard living and hard times so integral to the jazz mythos to celebrate the joys of motherhood and domestic life. |
 | | The Stockholm-based pop collective the Concretes were formed in 1995 by vocalist Victoria Bergsman, guitarist Maria Eriksson, and drummer Lisa Milberg; over the course of three years, they added guitarist Markus, bassist Martin Hansson, organist Per Nystrom, trumpeter Ulrik Karlsson, and vocalist/harmonica player Malte. |
 | | Pop singer Marti Jones first emerged as the frontwoman of the group Color Me Gone before issuing her solo debut Unsophisticated Time -- produced by future husband Don Dixon -- in 1985. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Thea Gilmore was born to Irish parents in 1979. While coming of age in North Aston, Oxfordshire in England, she ignored the new wave reign of the '80s and instead began to seek out her parents' Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell albums. |
 | | A mix of queer politics, explicit sexuality, symphonic indie pop, and theatrical spectacle that borders on the religious, Toronto's the Hidden Cameras are the brainchild of singer/songwriter/guitarist Joel Gibb. |
 | | Any written dispatch on Souad Massi is apt to turn up the words "Algerian singer/songwriter" before the reader can grasp that cultural strings have little to do with her appeal. |
 | | Combining an inclination for melodic '60s pop with an art rock aesthetic borrowed from Krautrock bands like Faust and Neu!, Stereolab were one of the most influential alternative bands of the '90s. |
 | | Electronic pop trio Entre Rios (Between Rivers) is songwriter Sebastian Carreras, programmer Gabriel Lucena, and vocalist Isol. |
 | | With their combination of electronic pop and sixties sunshine pop/rock, Call and Response's cheerful harmonies and good-time fun reflect the happier side of their native California. |
 | | The Australian indie pop ensemble Architecture in Helsinki hail from Fitzroy, Melbourne, and have counted multi-instrumentalists Cameron Bird, James Cecil, Gus Franklin, Isobel Knowles, Jamie Mildren, Sam Perry, Tara Shackell, and Kellie Sutherland among their ranks. |
 | | If that mythical "tall and tan and young and lovely" girl from Ipanema fronted an indie pop band, it would sound something -- or maybe exactly -- like New York City's Mosquitos. |
 | | Le Concorde is the second group name adopted by singer/songwriter Stephen Becker, following his previous one, Post Office. |
 | | Taking their name from a word meaning a drunken serenade, the trio Shivaree is led fronted by Ambrosia Parsley. |
 | | Space age pop collagists Broadcast formed in Birmingham, England, in 1995; comprised of vocalist Trish Keenan, guitarist Tim Felton, bassist James Cargill, keyboardist Roj Stevens, and drummer Steve Perkins, the quintet came together out of a shared affection for the psychedelic cult band the United States of America, a primary influence on their subsequent work as a group. |
 | | Singer Xavier Boyer and bassist Pedro Resende formed the Parisian pop combo Tahiti 80 in 1993 as students at the University of Rouen, bonding on the strength of their shared affinity for the music of the British Invasion era. |
 | | The men behind the European downtempo outfit Zero 7 -- producers Henry Binns and Sam Hardaker -- launched their careers in the music industry as tea boys at a London recording studio. |
 | | Cinematic pop duo Dusty Trails teamed former Luscious Jackson keyboardist Vivian Trimble and onetime Breeders bassist Josephine Wiggs. |
 | | Although born in Nebraska, singer/songwriter Josh Rouse moved to various cities throughout his childhood and subsequent musical career, driven at first by his father's military career and later by his desire to take inspiration from different environments. |
 | | When she isn't exploring the intersection between jazz, tropicalia, and indie pop with the Bird and the Bee, vocalist Inara George enjoys a solo career as a talented singer/songwriter. |
 | | Named in honor of a passage from Pauline Reage's infamous novel The Story of O, the melancholy Trembling Blue Stars heralded the return of singer/songwriter Robert Wratten, best known as the frontman of the British indie pop band the Field Mice. |
 | | The acid-pop singer/songwriter born Leslie Phillips earned the nonsensical nickname "Sam" as a child; only when she was recording her debut album did she finally hear of the other, more renowned Sam Phillips and learn of his legacy as the founder of Sun Records, the label which launched the careers of Elvis Presley and Jerry Lee Lewis. |
 | | Although the High Llamas are nominally a group, they're pretty much the brainchild of singer and guitarist Sean O'Hagan. |
 | | Kori Gardner (keyboard/vocals) and Jason Hammel (drums/vocals) were both playing guitar and singing in the Kansas music metropolis of Lawrence before forming the Mates of State in 1997. |
 | | By the time Sondre Lerche had released his major-label debut (2002's critically acclaimed Faces Down), the 19-year-old Norwegian wunderkind was already a veteran of the music industry. |
 | | Their sound veering from post-grunge balladry to funk and ambient breakbeat to Madchester acid house, the Beta Band emerged on the British scene as (nominally) a pop group with few similarities to any other act going. |
 | | Formed in 1999 around the talents of Nick Krgovich and Larissa Loyva, eclectic Canadian indie rock collective P:ano utilize their multi-instrumental prowess to create lo-fi orchestral pop. |
 | | Mixing synth pop, shoegaze, and indie pop into a sound all their own, Ladytron formed in mid-1999. Keyboardists/programmers Daniel Hunt and Reuben Wu settled in Liverpool after a spate of traveling and DJ work in Japan. |
 | | Reaching the national spotlight at the end of 2002, pianist Vienna Teng had been an important part of the California singer/songwriter scene for a few years before then. |
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