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 | | Cornish in a Turtleneck was formed in 1997 by Ypsilanti, MI, high school students Tim Schreiber and Eric Oakes, and bassist Juan Garcia joined in 1998. |
 | | Highlighted by ringing guitars and reverbed vocals, the Mary Onettes formed in Jönköping, Sweden in 2000. |
 | | 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. |
 | | A diverse handful of guest appearances and solo singles across 2010 and 2011 situated Jessie Ware in a line of remarkable soul-inspired U. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Luke Buda, Conrad Wedde, and Samuel Flynn Scott are three guys from New Zealand who grew up listening to Pantera, Slayer, and Sepultura and decided to form a band. |
 | | Dungeonesse were formed by the Art Department's Jon Ehrens and Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner to celebrate their mutual love for modern R&B and pop music. |
 | | With drum-n-bass-driven beats existing in uncharted nether-regions of style, The Invisible beat a cerebral blend of art rock, post punk, funk, dance pop, and afrobeat into a thick, but satisfying musical stew. |
 | | The Sunshine Fix was the brainchild of Bill Doss, former member of the Olivia Tremor Control. After the breakup of OTC, the Sunshine Fix showed Doss to be the Paul McCartney to Will Cullen Hart's John Lennon. |
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 | | Horns of Happiness is the exuberant side project of Aaron Deer, whose work with Impossible Shapes and John Wilkes Booze might already be well known to some. |
 | | 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. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Wanting to stand out from all of New York City's post-punk-inspired bands, Brooklyn's Tigercity opted for a blend of new wave, soft rock, and disco, grafting the melodies of Hall&Oates and Scritti Politti on the beats of Chic and Prince and tossing in a little of Roxy Music's effortless cool for good measure. |
 | | Australian producers Ryan Grieve (aka Ryan Sea-mist) and Leo Thomson (aka Leo Holiday) started Hole in the Sky Records as a way to release their own solo records, and after putting out Tame Impala' s debut EP, they teamed up to form a retro-flavored dance project called Canyons. |
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 | | An electro-pop band from Brooklyn, Boy Crisis were a hipster favorite before they'd even signed a recording contract, let alone released a debut album. |
 | | Founded in Athens, GA in 1996, Great Lakes are a psychedelic-tinged indie pop/indie folk band led by songwriter Ben Crum. |
 | | This UK-based hip-hop soul act was formed by Ricky Fabulous (guitar) and DJ Modest (decks), who had been playing live sets on the London club for a number of years before a chance meeting with vocalist Kathrin deBoer prompted them to launch a more song-based project at the start of the new millennium. |
 | | Although chiefly known as the frontman of My Morning Jacket, Jim James played a wider role in indie rock during the early 21st century, appearing on albums by several artists (including Bright Eyes, M. |
 | | Rhye is a low-key collaboration between two well-regarded producers, multi-instrumentalists, and vocalists: Denmark native Robin Braun (aka Robin Hannibal, member of Boom Clap Bachelors, Owusu & Hannibal, Parallel Dance Ensemble, and Quadron) and Canadian Mike Milosh (aka Milosh). |
 | | 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. |
 | | The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal was among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective. |
 | | Formed in Oxford, England, by longtime friends Yannis Philippakis (guitar) and Jack Bevan (drums), along with Andrew Mears on vocals, guitarist Jimmy Smith, and bassist Walter Gervers, Foals -- whose name is a play on the etymology of Philippakis' name -- began as a way to protest against the proggier sounds that were both popular in Oxford and in Philippakis and Bevan's former band, the Edmund Fitzgerald. |
 | | Based in Greensboro, NC, Mercy Mercedes was a five-piece outfit that specialized in an uptempo, frenetic, new wave-y style of pop/rock that quickly won them a great deal of fan support and -- eventually -- an indie record deal. |
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 | | The Bees (known as "A Band of Bees" in America, owing to a rights conflict over their name) started out as the duo of Paul Butler and Aaron Fletcher, both of whom hailed from the Isle of Wight. |
 | | Teen Daze is the moniker of Vancouver, British Columbia, producer Jamison, whose atmospheric synth pieces first gained acclaim when he posted them to his Tumblr account. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Not to be confused with a '70s band of the same name, the Pets are an indie pop quartet from Steinbach, Manitoba, consisting of Chris, Myron, Matt, and Steve. |
 | | Nite Jewel is the alias of Los Angeles musician and multimedia artist Ramona Gonzalez, whose lo-fi, synth-based compositions draw inspiration from dance music -- primarily 1980s freestyle and electronic disco and early-'90s R&B -- filtered through the arty haziness of shoegaze and an experimental D. |
 | | Echo Orbiter formed in Philadelphia in 1996 when brothers Justin Emerle and Colin Emerle recruited Jeremiah Steffen to flesh out some of their songs. |
 | | Vocalist Lana Del Rey makes atmospheric, orchestral, retro-'60s-sounding pop that showcases her torchy image and sensuous singing style. |
 | | Los Angeles natives Steven Scott, Alex Church, and Brian Canning were asked to play an art opening in Los Feliz Village by a mutual friend in early 1998. |
 | | When the rock histories of the 2000s are written, at least one long chapter will have to be devoted to the explosion of the concept of the rock band not as a small, discrete unit with relatively stable personnel, but as an amorphous, free-floating collective that could at times expand to include dozens of people. |
 | | Revealing a sharp songwriting instinct and unfolding a distinct indie rock influence, Secret Machines unveil singular scenarios and refined tunes within the alternative pop/rock scene. |
 | | Featuring two high school sweethearts with a mutual affection for '80s electro-pop, Hexes & Ohs is a Montreal-based duo whose music embraces synthesizers, programmed percussion, and co-ed vocals. |
 | | Yet another branch of the Elephant 6 collective's family tree, the Minders were led by singer/songwriter Martyn Leaper, a British expatriate living in Denver, CO. |
 | | This group's six core members -- guitarist, main singer/songwriter, and producer Josh Babcock; bassist Adam Dobrer; theremin player Lorelei David; pianist Dave Isbister; saxophonist Dave Dunstan; and drummer Mike Evans-- were native Californians, most of whom met each other when they were attending classes at the University of California at Santa Cruz. |
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 | | Named after a 1984 Coil single, How to Destroy Angels features Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor, former West Indian Girl singer (and Reznor's wife) Mariqueen Maandig, and Atticus Ross. |
 | | Not a band per se, the Marbles were essentiallly the alias of singer/songwriter Robert Schneider, better known as the frontman of the frontman of the Apples in Stereo. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The sampling project Adventures in Stereo formed from the ashes of the short-lived 4AD label band Spirea X, which included vocalist Judith Boyle and former Primal Scream member Jim Beattie. |
 | | Hailing from Brooklyn, New York (by way of Boulder, Colorado, where they originally came together in 2006), the avant-pop outfit Chairlift formed for the unusual purpose of crafting music for haunted houses. |
 | | Bay Area indie rock band Desoto Reds is the brainchild of singer/songwriter Alex Sterling. The group began as a duo in the late '90s before expanding to a quartet, and earned local write-ups for their homemade cassette releases. |
 | | The Portland-based duo Helio Sequence is comprised of vocalist/guitarist Brandon Summers and keyboardist/drummer Benjamin Weikel. |
 | | The alias of electronic musician and producer Harley Streten, Flume makes atmospheric R&B and dance-influenced music. |