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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. |
 | | Myracle Brah is the solo power pop project of singer, guitarist, and songwriter Andy Bopp, who also fronts Interscope recording artists Love Nut. |
 | | The Japanese trio Shonen Knife has made major fans out of alt-rock's elite (Sonic Youth, Nirvana, and Redd Kross, among others) and built a solid, worldwide cult following with their Ramones meets the Beatles brand of sticky sweet punk-pop. |
 | | The brainchild of singer/guitarist Kevin Barnes, Of Montreal was among the second wave of bands to emerge from the sprawling Elephant 6 collective. |
 | | Singer/songwriter Paul Quinn spent the early part of his music career in Scotland playing with various bands, including Jesus Monroe and the infamous pre-Teenage Fanclub outfit the Boy Hairdressers. |
 | | The folky indie pop band Stornoway take their name from a town in Scotland's Outer Hebrides, but the group hails from Oxford, England. |
 | | Swedish pop trio Eggstone were formed in the city of Malmö in 1986 by singer/bassist Per Sunding, guitarist Patrik Bartosch, and drummer Maurits Carlsson; following years of steady touring and a handful of demos, in 1991 the group issued its debut single, "Bubblebed," soon after teaming with producer Tore Johansson to record the EP Shooting Time. |
 | | Named in honor of Krzysztof Komeda, the late jazz musican/film composer best known for his work with Roman Polanski and Ingmar Bergman, the Swedish kitsch-pop outfit Komeda originated in 1991 as the pit band for a Buster Keaton festival. |
 | | Comprised of multi-instrumentalists Dhani Harrison (son of late Beatle George Harrison) and Oliver Hecks, London-based duo thenewno2 (pronounced "the new number two") successfully blend the late-period experimental pop of the Fab Four with the ambient electronics of Brian Eno and the layered beats of Massive Attack. |
 | | Melodic pop duo Jonny feature the talents of Teenage Fanclub guitarist/vocalist Norman Blake and former Gorky's Zygotic Mynci guitarist/vocalist Euros Childs, whose musical kinship stretches back to a Teenage Fanclub/Gorky's tour in 1997. |
 | | Els Pets are one of the few surviving bands from the short-lived early-'90s phenomenon known as rock català, or Catalan rock. |
 | | Though they're based in Berlin, the witty pop group Stereo Total draw bandmembers and musical influences from across Europe. |
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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. |
 | | 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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 | | With a look that falls somewhere between Adam Ant and Prince and a sound that blends glam rock, psychedelic folk, and indie pop, London-based singer/songwriter Charles Costa began writing music at the age of 17. |
 | | A leading light of the short-lived C-86/anorak movement of the mid-'80s, the BMX Bandits stood at the epicenter of the Scottish pop music scene for over a decade; however, despite helping launch the careers of talents ranging from Teenage Fanclub and Eugenius to the Soup Dragons and Superstar, the group itself never grew beyond the confines of a fervent cult following. |
 | | Originally known as the Hoosier Complex, the Hoosiers began attracting an audience with their tuneful, vintage-minded indie pop in 2007. |
 | | Self is largely the project of Matt Mahaffey, a Murfreesboro, TN-based singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist who began writing songs at age four and was a professional drummer at 12. |
 | | An energetic blend of rock, hip-hop, and dance-pop made Junior Senior a U.K. darling in the early 2000s, but the duo's collective heart remained ensconced in Jutland -- the band's homeland in the western peninsula of Denmark. |
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 | | Jeppe "Senior" Laursen was one-half of over the top Danish pop duo Junior Senior -- the latter half, to be precise; he was the tall gay counterpart to pint-sized straight man Jesper "Junior" Mortensen. |
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 | | Celebrating a bratty, tongue-in-cheek viewpoint and a spunky indie punk style similar to Art Brut while applying an assortment of instruments akin to Architecture in Helsinki, the seven-piece group Los Campesinos! (a Spanish name that roughly translates to "the Peasants") formed in 2006 in Cardiff, Wales. |
 | | New Jersey's Stereosoul is a four-piece power pop ensemble that specializes in sunny alternative rock, AM gold, and British Invasion knowhow. |
 | | A self-coined "fantasy rock" duo, Brooklyn's Savoir Adore were born of a rather odd recording session in 2007. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Taking inspiration from big-name acts like the Beatles, the Who, Led Zeppelin, Stevie Wonder, the Bee Gees, and Prince (to spout just a few), the aptly named Under the Influence of Giants emerged from southern California in the early 2000s. |
 | | Although they only lasted for two albums, Vancouver, British Columbia-based indie power-poppers Zumpano were a fresh and unpretentious act whose mixture of '60s soft pop influences and hard-candy guitar rock made them a pivotal part of the Sub Pop label's image change from early '90s grunge central to a poppier and more eclectic imprint. |
 | | Slowly building momentum since 1999, the band MIA (originally "Me in Affairs," but eventually only used in acronym form) formed in 1997 with the meeting of two musical pairs (separately, Mieze Katz/Andy Penn and Robert Schütze/Ingo Puls) and the addition of a stray drummer. |
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 | | Influenced by such classic mod rock groups as the Who and the Kinks, Canadian band Novillero play their own brand of guitar- and keyboard-driven melodic pop. |
 | | Cut from the same colorful cloth as upbeat indie pop contemporaries like Fun., Jukebox the Ghost, Walk the Moon, and Imagine Dragons, Youngblood Hawke, named after a 1961 Herman Wouk novel based on the life of Thomas Wolfe, was formed in 2011 by former members of new wave revivalists Iglu and Hartly. |
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 | | The Pooh Sticks were rock's most inside joke, a monumental yet affectionate prank on the very mythology of pop music itself. |
 | | Josh Alper and Glenn Donaldson, both members of the psychedelic indie group the Skygreen Leopards, teamed up in the summer of 2009 to work on a series of lo-fi recordings as the Art Museums. |
 | | 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. |
 | | LadybiRdS actually started life back in 2005 when Tyler Pursel and Teeter Sperber were touring and recording with short-lived indie/fun group Ley Royal Scam. |
 | | Le Concorde is the second group name adopted by singer/songwriter Stephen Becker, following his previous one, Post Office. |
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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. |
