 | | Yim Yames is the thinly veiled alias of Jim James, the guitar-playing frontman of My Morning Jacket. |
 | | Starting in the late ‘90s and throughout the 2000s and 2010s, My Morning Jacket expanded on their rock and country roots, embracing everything from neo-psychedelia to funk, prog, and reggae in their sonic experimentation. |
 | | The Lumineers, a folk-rock trio out of Denver, Colorado, deliver an acoustic-based Americana sound that touches a lot of stylistic bases, from folk to gospel to heartland rock and the narrative end of country, all with interesting rhythmic twists and turns. |
 | | The Avett Brothers' music has roots in traditional folk and bluegrass, but also captures the high spirits and no-boundaries attitude of rock & roll -- which is appropriate, since rock is where Scott Avett and Seth Avett first cut their teeth as musicians. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Penning songs that are offbeat in narrative, but literate and emotionally revealing, and performing them in a soulful, idiosyncratic style that reveals both strength and fragility, Cat Power was one of the most acclaimed singer/songwriters to emerge from the 1990s indie rock scene, a one of a kind artist unafraid to reveal her inner self in her music and follow her muse in a variety of different directions. |
 | | Monsters of Folk were formed around the talents of indie rock giants Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis (Bright Eyes), M. |
 | | Kevin Parker (vocals/guitar) and Dominic Simper (bass) formed Tame Impala as 13 year olds in Perth in 1999, sticking to bedroom recordings until 2007, when Jay Watson joined them on drums and backing vocals. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Emerging in 2004 with a blend of woodsy midtempo rock and reverb-laden vocals, Band of Horses gained an audience in their native Northwest before Everything All the Time made them indie rock darlings. |
 | | Chaz Bundick started making bedroom recordings under the name Toro y Moi in his native Columbia, South Carolina in 2001. |
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 | | Grizzly Bear began as a home recording project for Boston-bred experimentalist Edward Droste, the son of an elementary school teacher, who laid the groundwork for the band's otherworldly debut album on a small hand-held tape recorder while holed up for 15 months in his Greenpoint, Brooklyn, apartment. |
 | | Atmospheric English indie pop group the xx formed in London in 2008 around the talents of Romy Madley Croft, Oliver Sim, Baria Qureshi, and Jamie Smith, when the bandmembers were still in high school. |
 | | The Boston, Massachusetts-based Passion Pit began as a one-man project of singer and songwriter Michael Angelakos to produce a Valentine's Day gift for his girlfriend. |
 | | Formed in 2008, Local Natives craft their dramatic and eclectic brand of indie rock from their home base in Los Angeles, California. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Wilco rose from the ashes of the seminal roots rock band Uncle Tupelo, which disbanded in 1994. While Jay Farrar, one of the group's two singer/songwriters, went on to form Son Volt, his ex-partner Jeff Tweedy established Wilco along with the remaining members of Tupelo's final incarnation, which included drummer Ken Coomer as well as part-time bandmates John Stirratt (bass) and Max Johnston (mandolin, banjo, fiddle, and lap steel). |
 | | Foxygen is the bicoastal classic rock-leaning experimental pop project of multi-instrumentalists Sam France and Jonathan Rado. |
 | | Brother-and-sister duo Wild Belle make folk-, dance-, reggae-, and psychedelic rock-tinged indie pop. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Highlighted by ringing guitars and reverbed vocals, the Mary Onettes formed in Jönköping, Sweden in 2000. |
 | | A self-coined "fantasy rock" duo, Brooklyn's Savoir Adore were born of a rather odd recording session in 2007. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Twenty One Pilots is a pop duo formed in 2009 by high school friends Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun. The pair built an enormous regional following across Ohio and the midwest, spurned on by constant energetic touring as well as shrewd use of interactive social media and reaching out to fans on a grassroots level. |
 | | Radiohead were one of the few alternative bands of the early '90s to draw heavily from the grandiose arena rock that characterized U2's early albums. |
 | | 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. |
 | | A diverse handful of guest appearances and solo singles across 2010 and 2011 situated Jessie Ware in a line of remarkable soul-inspired U. |
 | | Portland, Oregon-based singer/songwriter M. Ward (born Matthew Stephen Ward) grew up listening to gospel and country, two genres that figure prominently in his breezy, West Coast take on Americana. |
 | | Seattle's Fleet Foxes are led by vocalist/guitarist Robin Pecknold, who fashioned his band's earthy, harmony-rich sound in honor of such perennial '60s artists as Bob Dylan, Neil Young, the Zombies, and the Beach Boys. |
 | | 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. |
 | | A classic guitar pop group almost nine years in the making, Albuquerque, New Mexico's the Shins began in 1997 as the side project of singer/songwriter and guitarist James Mercer's primary band, Flake. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Although this psychedelic art pop quartet formed in Dalston, London at the end of 2008, they had met earlier in the decade at the Edinburgh College of Art. |
 | | Describing their sound as "Upper West Side Soweto," New York City's Vampire Weekend mix preppy, well-read indie rock with joyful, Afro-pop-inspired melodies and rhythms. |
 | | Yo La Tengo are in many respects the quintessential critics' band: in addition to their adventurous eclecticism, defiant independence, and restless creative ambition -- three qualities that virtually guarantee music press acclaim -- the group's frontman, Ira Kaplan, even tenured as a rock scribe prior to finding success as a performer. |
 | | Although formed during the post-punk revival of the late '90s, the National took inspiration from a wider set of influences, including country-rock, Americana, indie rock, and Brit-pop. |
 | | Dirty Projectors are the project of Dave Longstreth, a former Yale student who left college to become one of the most prolific and unique indie singer/songwriters of the early 2000s. |
 | | Vocalist Lana Del Rey makes atmospheric, orchestral, retro-'60s-sounding pop that showcases her torchy image and sensuous singing style. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Ben Gibbard is a singer/songwriter best known as frontman for Pacific Northwestern indie rockers Death Cab for Cutie. |
 | | 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). |
 | | Indie rock singer/songwriter Jason Lytle made his solo album debut in 2009, following a decade-long recording career as the frontman of Grandaddy. |
 | | 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. |
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 | | Lord Huron began as a solo project by Michigan-born/Los Angeles-based musician Ben Schneider in the spring of 2010. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Taking a cue from the expansive, indie folk spell casting of bands like Fleet Foxes, Mumford and Sons, Lost in the Trees, and the Decemberists, Chesapeake, Virginia-based collective the Last Bison blends rootsy, atmospheric Americana with classically infused chamber pop. |
 | | Before launching his career as an acoustic singer/songwriter, Ben Howard grew up in South Devon, England, where his mother’s collection of folk records helped instill a love for Joni Mitchell, Donovan, and Richie Havens. |
 | | The nameless lineup that became Atoms for Peace made its public debut at Los Angeles, California's Echoplex on October 2, 2009. |
