 | | Lights first cracked the Canadian charts in May 2008, when the debut single "Drive My Soul" introduced her synthesis of youthful, sellable alt rock and contemporary synth pop. |
 | | At the age of 15, Daisy Coburn began making headlines as the electro-pop chanteuse behind Daisy Dares You, a collaborative project with songwriter Matthew Marston. |
 | | Owl City is the musical brainchild of Adam Young, who launched the project in 2007 while living at his parents' home in Owatonna, Minnesota. |
 | | Founded in Klagenfurt, Austria in 1991, the band Naked Lunch (obviously named after the William S. Burroughs novel) originally consisted of vocalist/guitarist Oliver Welter, bassist Georg Timber-Trattnig, and drummer Peter Hornbogner, and Welter has remained a mainstay of the group throughout its various incarnations. |
 | | Modern rock outfit Small Mercies formed in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia in the early 2000s. Early demos garnered the band a deal with manager John Woodruff (Savage Garden) who eventually brought them to the attention of Sony BMG who signed the band. |
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 | | Scandinavian pop singer Bertine Zetlitz is a well known artist in Europe who makes catchy disco-influenced dance-pop with a slightly dark, ironic edge. |
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 | | Leicester, U.K., band White Star Magic take their cues from the original Madchester bands such as Happy Mondays and Primal Scream as well as the swagger of Oasis and the electronic-fused rock of Kasabian. |
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 | | No More Kings is essentially the creation of singer/songwriter Pete Mitchell. A native of Providence, RI, Mitchell moved around a lot as a child thanks to his Air Force father. |
 | | Parallel or 90 Degrees was formed in the year 1996 by Andy Tillison Diskdrive and Sam Baine. Those two members form the core of the group and have released five albums and a live video. |
 | | Channeling the explosive, exciting knob-noodling of '70s electronic innovators like Can and dropping it into a 2000s electro context, Soft Circle earned heaps of praise for its entrancing experiments. |
 | | The Mr. T Experience came out of the same Berkeley/East Bay Gilman Street punk rock scene that eventually spawned Green Day, but they are often left out of the history of this scene, or at least they rarely fit prominently into the punk rock genealogy. |
 | | Prior to releasing their first single in 2007, the London-based band Ghosts had gone by the name of Polanski and released a handful of small-pressing singles. |
 | | Montreal, Canada's Kosmos was born out of semi-weekly Krautrock-listening parties including Voivod drummer Michel "Away" Langevin, Tricky Woo keyboardist Alex Crow, Paradise guitarist Jetphil, and Grim Skunk bassist Vincent Peake -- all of them normally busy enough with their other bands. |
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 | | The slick, freewheeling pop/rock of the Love Willows is crafted by former teen pop vocalist Hope Partlow and singer/songwriter Ryan Wilson. |
 | | Formed in early 2005 while most members were still in high school, Orlando, FL, emo rock quintet Between the Trees had its start with vocalist/guitarist Ryan Kirkland and brothers Josh and Jeremy Butler on drums and bass respectively. |
 | | Although the bandmembers hail from all over the country, Attaloss formed when singer Danny Aguiluz, guitarist Chris Johansen, bassist Lorenzo Perea, and drummer Dakota Clark met up after moving to Los Angeles, California to follow their respective dreams of rock & roll stardom. |
 | | Hailing from Kansas City, MO, the Republic Tigers spike their lushly orchestrated indie rock with organic and synthetic elements. |
 | | An offshoot of Minneapolis, Minnesota's prolific Gayngs collective, electro-pop outfit Poliça features singer Channy Leanagh and producer Ryan Olson as its core members. |
 | | Swedish pop trio Nom de Guerre spin power pop and disco into a heady cocktail of danceable indie rock that brings to mind the heydays of Madness, ELO, and Squeeze. |
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 | | A sensitive alt-rocker similar to the likes of Patrick Nuo and Train, Lukas Hilbert was a regular on the German Top 20 charts in the early 2000s, with hits like "Was Ich An Dir Mag" and "Kommt Meine Liebe Nicht Bei Dir An. |
 | | Swiss pop artist and model Patrick Nuo claimed fame in Switzerland and Germany with breezy alt-rock songs reminiscent of those put out by American artists like Train and Maroon 5. |
 | | Daniel Tashian(vocals, guitar) was already an established solo artist when he enlisted the help of producer/keyboardist Jason Lehning to fashion the '70s-inspired classic pop/rock of the Silver Seas. |
 | | The lineup of the Los Angeles-based indie pop quartet that dog. represented the flowering of a second generation of musical luminaries: singer/guitarist Anna Waronker was the daughter of famed producer and Warner Bros. |
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 | | The roots of Houston, Texas' atmospheric pop project Drowner began in 2008, when multi-instrumentalist Darren Emanuel began experimenting with guitar effects and textures that went beyond the music he was making with his band at the time, Swimming In. |
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 | | The three members of L.A.'s Twintwelve came together because of their love of pop/rock, especially when it's heavy on the pop. |
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 | | Friends for 16 years and running, Orenda Fink (Azure Ray, Art in Manila) and Scalpelist (aka Cedric Lemoyne of Remy Zero) teamed up in their hometown of Birmingham, AL, to make music under the name O+S. |
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 | | Pink Playground is a Houston, Texas-based duo that references ‘80s shoegaze and noise pop in their music. |
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 | | Named for the Latvian goddess of light, Toronto's Austra feature singer/keyboardist Katie Stelmanis, drummer Maya Postepski, and bassist Dorian Wolf. |
 | | Blending a visual style influenced by European cabaret of the 1930s with music that's a spirited gumbo of pop, punk, metal, and ska, Vincent Black Shadow is one of the more unusual acts to emerge from Vancouver's pop music scene in the new millennium. |
 | | Hospitality are a Brooklyn-based indie pop outfit featuring songwriter and vocalist Amber Papini, Nathan Michel (who, at the time of joining the band, had several solo albums out on labels like Tigerbeat 6 and Tomlab), and Brian Betancourt. |
 | | Formed in the early '80s in the north of London, the Rapiers gained much influence and credibility for a sound that resembled classic Merseybeat rock & roll in the vein of Cliff Richard and his backing group the Shadows. |
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 | | With the hiatus of pop-punk superstars blink-182 in full effect by the fall of 2005, singer/guitarist Tom DeLonge revealed the formation of his new band -- one he'd already been working with for six months -- called Angels & Airwaves. |
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 | | Falling somewhere in between Regina Spektor, Björk, and Imogen Heap, Louisiana-raised, Austin, Texas-based singer/songwriter Lindsay Rae Spurlock honed her chops decoding complex time signatures while playing and singing with a progressive rock band in college, but it was her knack for crafting perfectly seasoned pop confections that would eventually land her a sizable audience. |
 | | A Chicago-based outfit specializing in '80s-tinged pop/rock, Lacona takes its sonic cues from the Cure, the Cars, and Radiohead. |
 | | Cousins Gabe Archer and Cameron Nicklaus formed the Pale, an indie pop/rock band from Bellingham, WA, in 1994. |
 | | Retro-minded Brooklyn club act Body Language take ‘80s soul and electro and deliver it with a futuristic slant, much like Deee-Lite, Chromeo, or Jamiroquai. |
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