 | | Another example of how influential blogs can be in a band's career, sharp-edged Australian indie rockers Atlas Genius experienced a massive surge in their popularity when their song "Trojans" was featured by the site Neon Gold, resulting in offers from record labels and over 45,000 downloads in the U. |
 | | Los Angeles indie electro unit Capital Cities first came together as a duo of composer/songwriters Ryan Merchant and Sebu Simonian. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | English indie rockers Alt-J, named for the triangle that appears when pressing "Alt" and "J" on a Mac, formed in 2008 under the moniker FILMS. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Australian pop outfit Gold Fields make '80s new wave-influenced dance-pop. Formed in Ballarat, Victoria, Australia in 2010, Gold Fields feature vocalist Mark Robert Fuller, guitarist Vin Andanar, keyboardist Rob Clifton, bassist Luke Peldys, and drummer Ryan D'Sylva. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Previously known as the Concept Store and the Concept, Stockholm's Royal Concept features vocalist/guitarist David Larson, guitarist Filip Bekic, bassist Magnus Robert, and drummer Frans Povel. |
 | | An indie supergroup featuring Spoon's Britt Daniel, New Bomb Turks drummer Sam Brown, and Wolf Parade and Handsome Furs member Dan Boeckner, Divine Fits announced their existence in May 2012 with a 45-second teaser trailer and the news that a full-length album produced by Nick Launay would arrive later that year. |
 | | Spirited, quirky Cincinnati, Ohio-based indie rockers Walk the Moon formed in the late 2000s around the talents of Nicholas Petricca, Kevin Ray, Sean Waugaman, and Eli Maiman. |
 | | Mixing electronic polish with guitar-driven hooks à la Phoenix and the Postal Service, Bangor and Donaghadee, Northern Ireland's Two Door Cinema Club feature singer/guitarist/programmer Alex Trimble, guitarist/singer Sam Halliday, and bassist/singer Kevin Baird. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Brazilian-bred/American-born siblings Erica and Bruce Driscoll compose the sultry indie pop of Astaire. |
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 | | Las Vegas-based indie rockers Imagine Dragons formed in Provo, Utah in 2009. Like their desert-born stadium rock contemporaries the Killers, Imagine Dragons blend engaging, synth-based dance-pop with emotionally charged, Brit-pop-inspired alt-rock. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Genre-crossing outfit the Neighbourhood mix atmospheric indie rock, electronica, and hip-hop beats with melodic R&B-inflected vocals. |
 | | Los Angeles-based electronic musician Robert DeLong mixes dance music with his own singer/songwriter style of craftsmanship. |
 | | Bethany Cosentino was no stranger to the stage when she began working on recordings with bandmate Bobb Bruno under the name Best Coast in 2009. |
 | | After spending several years with the post-punk outfit Sidecar Kisses, vocalist/guitarist Ritzy Bryan and bassist Rhydian Dafydd left the lineup and launched the Joy Formidable, drawing heavily from shoegaze and noisy alt-rock to create their new group's sound. |
 | | Shadowy New York-based chillwave duo MS MR first caught the public's attention with their infectious single "Hurricane," a dark yet sinfully melodic heartbreak anthem that blended the iciness of Phantogram and Bat for Lashes with the commercial grandeur of Adele and Florence and the Machine. |
 | | In 2003, Frenchmen Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau enjoyed international acclaim for the album Dead Cities, Red Seas & Lost Ghosts, a luscious blend of shoegaze aesthetics, ambient pop, and progressive textures. |
 | | Much like Iron & Wine and similar indie outfits, Sea Wolf is the project name of a sole singer/songwriter who drafts in other musicians as the occasion warrants. |
 | | Despite its summery name, Beach House creates music that is dark, dreamy, and alluringly hypnotic. Baltimore residents Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand (the niece of French composer Michel Legrand) formed the duo in 2005, with Legrand's hushed, Nico-like vocals and Scally's delicate instrumentation paving the way for their first batch of songs. |
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 | | 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. |
 | | Singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist K Ishibashi was born in Seattle, Washington but spent his formative years on the East Coast, where he honed his skills as a touring violinist for the likes of Sondre Lerche, Regina Spektor, and, later, Of Montreal. |
 | | Swedish electro-pop duo Icona Pop feature best friends Aino Jawo and Caroline Hjelt. The group first came to notice with the 2010 Kitsuné single "Manners," which was sampled on Chiddy Bang's 2011 song "Mind Your Manners"; the song reached number 19 on Billboard's Heatseekers chart and appeared on the hip-hop duo's debut album, Breakfast. |
 | | Formed in 2008 by singer/songwriter/guitarist Tim Bruns and mandolin player Michael Morter, Denver, Colorado-based indie folk-rock outfit Churchill expanded to a sextet by the time of the group's 2009 live debut, fleshing out Bruns' rustic, Americana-tinged tales of love, life, and loss with cello, piano, bass, and drums. |
 | | Indie pop quartet San Cisco were formed during 2009 in the city of Freemantle in Western Australia. The bandmembers -- guitarist/vocalist Jordi Davieson, drummer/vocalist Scarlett Stevens, bassist Nick Gardner, and drummer Josh Biondillo -- met during high school. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Playing smart but simple rock that harks back to ‘60s garage, ‘70s punk, and ‘80s college rock, the Soft Pack feature vocalist/guitarist Matt Lamkin, guitarist Matty McLoughlin, bassist Dave Lantzman, and drummer Brian Hill. |
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 | | An enticing blend of indie pop hooks and crisp electronic beats in the style first perfected by Saint Etienne's Foxbase Alpha, Little Dragon are a showcase for Swedish-Japanese singer Yukimi Nagano, a mainstay of the European downtempo and lounge scenes. |
 | | Fronted by dynamic lead singer Chloe Chaidez, the Los Angeles-based four-piece Kitten make '80s post-punk-influenced dance-rock. |
 | | Stepdad formed in the summer of 2009 in Chicago when roommates Ryan McCarthy and ultramark began working on electro-pop recordings in their apartment. |
 | | With a swooping, baby-voiced singing style, Grimes (the alias of Vancouver native Claire Boucher) crafts a haunting brand of lo-fi dance music that fits stylistically within the goth-electronic umbrella coined "witch house" or "grave wave. |
 | | 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. |
 | | The Sound of Arrows are a Swedish indie pop duo whose danceable, click-blippity computerized sweetness nods to the Legends, Ice Cream Shout, and Vapnet. |
 | | Although formed in sunny California during the early 2000s, Shiny Toy Guns' music flaunts a sleek, '80s-influenced combination of synth-pop and electro-clash. |
 | | The chilly electro-pop project of Corin Roddick and Megan James, Purity Ring began when the two were in Canadian indie rock act Gobble Gobble (which later became Born Gold). |
 | | British indie rock trio the Wombats make driving guitar post-punk and electronic-influenced pop. Formed in Liverpool in 2003 while the members were all attending the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, the Wombats feature vocalist/guitarist Matthew Murphy, drummer Dan Haggis, and Norwegian-born bassist Tord Øverland-Knudsen. |
 | | 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. |
 | | Vocalist Lana Del Rey makes atmospheric, orchestral, retro-'60s-sounding pop that showcases her torchy image and sensuous singing style. |
 | | Rambunctious Danish indie rockers New Politics formed in the late 2000s around the talents of vocalist David Boyd, guitarist/vocalist/keyboard player Søren H, and drummer Poul Amaliel. |
 | | New Jersey's hazy indie rockers Real Estate feature Titus Andronicus' Martin Courtney, Etienne Duguay (who also records as Predator Vision), Alex Bleeker, and Matthew Mondanile, also of Ducktails. |
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 | | 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. |