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 | | Formed in 2007 by Ima Robot frontman Alex Ebert after a brief period of existential crisis, the cultish 11-piece indie rock outfit Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros draw their inspiration from the communal musical communities that peppered Southern California (specifically Laurel Canyon) with positive vibrations during the '60s and early '70s. |
 | | After winning the nationwide 2010 battle-of-the-bands competition Musiktilraunir in their native Iceland, six-piece chamber pop group Of Monsters and Men were hailed as "the new Arcade Fire" in Rolling Stone magazine. |
 | | Inspired by folk, rock, country, and bluegrass, the London-based Mumford & Sons feature singer/guitarist/drummer Marcus Mumford, vocalist and banjo/Dobro player Winston Marshall, vocalist/keyboardist Ben Lovett, and vocalist/bassist Ted Dwane. |
 | | Noah and the Whale became a leading light in the British folk scene with the release of 2008's Peaceful, the World Lays Me Down, their popular debut that cracked the U. |
 | | Growing up in Caracas, Venezuela and Los Angeles, Devendra Banhart was always playing music and drawing. |
 | | Singer/songwriter J. Tillman's music paints languid, sadly beautiful portraits of love and life on the margins with the moody depth of Nick Drake and the country-influenced textures of Ryan Adams. |
 | | Though he was born in Hoorn, Netherlands during 1989, Jacco Gardner sounds as if he were alive in 1967 soaking in all the baroque pop and toytown psych that were taking over pop music at the time. |
 | | Alex Ebert kept himself busy during the early 21st century, fronting the power pop band Ima Robot for several years before launching a second group, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros, in 2007. |
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 | | Finding an unlikely middle point between Suicide's hostile, proto-electro punk art noise and the sardonic, pop-friendly sound of the Flaming Lips, MGMT started as electroclash musical terrorists but quickly grew into an eclectic, brainy pop group with psychedelic overtones. |
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 | | Portland, OR-based electro-indie pop duo Baby Monster were formed in the late 2000s around the talents of Danny Sternbaum and Marty Larson. |
 | | New York City indie rock outfit Fires of Rome bring together progressive elements, post-punk angles, electronic pop, and other influences into an energetic sound. |
 | | Indie rock band Lylas was formed by singer/guitarist Kyle Hamlett, bassist Josh Hamlett, drummer Brice Blair, and pedal steel guitarist and banjo player Luke Schneider in Nashville, TN. |
 | | A self-coined "fantasy rock" duo, Brooklyn's Savoir Adore were born of a rather odd recording session in 2007. |
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 | | When the Polyphonic Spree first appeared in 2000, the Dallas symphonic pop group was as much a band as a "happening," in the 1960s sense of the word. |
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 | | Starting out under the head-turning moniker Starfucker, STRFKR are an indie pop/indie electro band comprised of Sexton Blake's Josh Hodges, Junkface's Ryan Bjornstad, and Mr. |
 | | Formed in 2008 by Fresh&Onlys backup singers Grace Cooper and Heidi Alexander, along with drummer Roxy Brodeur of Pillars of Silence, San Francisco-based, lo-fi pop trio the Sandwitches blend world-weary folk, '60s girl group swagger, and infectious, Fleetwood Mac-inspired indie pop into a sound that’s part gothic theater and part front-porch singalong. |
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 | | Named after a seemingly nonsensical word that philosopher William James coined as "the meaning of life" while experimenting with nitrous oxide, Higamos Hogamos, like James, is a stoney and experimental electro duo that blends modern electronic sounds with '70s glam, psychedelia, and Krautrock -- especially Krautrock. |
 | | Stepdad formed in the summer of 2009 in Chicago when roommates Ryan McCarthy and ultramark began working on electro-pop recordings in their apartment. |
 | | Oklahoma’s Colourmusic are a high-concept indie group based around the theory that music is visual, and that chords and notes are represented by hues of color. |
 | | Sunny Los Angeles-based indie pop outfit Family of the Year formed in 2009 around the talents of Welsh brothers Joseph and Sebastian Keefe, Florida native James Buckey, and Orange County, California denizen Christina Schroeter. |
 | | Based out of East London, Dry the River -- who have drawn comparisons to Mumford & Sons, Fleet Foxes, and Noah and the Whale -- was formed as a solo vehicle for Norwegian born singer/songwriter Peter Liddle, who described the band's sound as "folky gospel music played by a post-punk band. |
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 | | Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist James Huggins III (aka James Husband) is a founding member of the Athens, GA-based psychedelic pop combo Great Lakes, as well as a contributing member of several other prominent indie pop bands with ties to the ever-expanding Elephant 6 family tree, including Ladybug Transistor, the Essex Green, Marshmallow Coast, and Of Montreal (the latter of which provided Huggins with his longest tenure). |
 | | Echo Orbiter formed in Philadelphia in 1996 when brothers Justin Emerle and Colin Emerle recruited Jeremiah Steffen to flesh out some of their songs. |
 | | Formed in 2006 by vocalist Nick Ward and guitarist Matt Bishop, Hey Marseilles quickly expanded into an eclectic, seven-piece band. |
 | | Hailing from Copenhagen, Denmark, childhood friends Mathias Sørensen (drums, vocals), Morten Winther Nielsen (guitar, vocals), Christian Rohde Lindinger (bass, vocals), and Niels Kirk (piano, vocals) formed sunshine pop outfit Treefight for Sunlight in 2007. |
 | | One Night Only came together in 2003, initially playing a selection of covers and originals before morphing into a gold-selling British rock band. |
 | | Combining Devendra Banhart's "new weird American" eccentricity, Flaming Lips-influenced electronic bells and whistles, and a Wilco-esque twanginess, These United States create a musical melting pot that blends together a wide array of influences. |
 | | Electro-meets-indie pop purveyors Geographer, comprised of singer/multi-instrumentalist Mike Deni, cellist/electronics player Nathan Blaz, and drummer/singer Brian Ostreicher, formed in San Francisco in 2006. |
 | | The most remarkable thing about the Velvet Underground isn't how many bands have patterned themselves in some way on their music, but how varied and different those bands sound in relation to each other. |
 | | Blue Roses (aka Yorkshire singer/songwriter Laura Groves) began writing songs at the age of 17. Groves is proficient on both guitar and piano, and her fluid vocals, dreamlike imagery, and serpentine melodies have drawn comparisons to everyone from venerated songstresses Joni Mitchell and Kate Bush to highly lauded contemporaries like Joanna Newsom and Bat for Lashes. |
 | | Boats are a bouncy indie rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, fronted by the freakishly high-pitched voice of guitarist Mat Klachefsky. |
 | | The Features are a psychedelic rock outfit that plays fresh, off-kilter pop that sounds like a head-on collision between Ray Davies and Elvis Costello with the Elephan 6 Collective picking up the pieces and putting them back together in the American South. |
 | | Steeped in the musical heritage and folklore so abundant in the northeast of England, Rachel Unthank and her younger sister Becky found a fresh way of presenting the songs, stories, and customs of their home area around Ryton, Newcastle, to a young new audience. |
 | | Los Angeles pop duo Pepper Rabbit-- consisting of multi-instrumentalists Xander Singh and Luc Laurent-- fashion lush, playful soundscapes out of a rich variety of musical sources, from horns and strings to vintage analog synthesizers. |
 | | The Jessica Fletchers' free-spirited, effervescent approach to indie pop, steeped in the influence of psychedelic and bubblegum pop groups of the 1960s (the Monkees, the Association), nods to the Bicycles, Tullycraft, and the Apples in Stereo. |
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