In the wake of Bikini Kill's split during the late 90s, singer-songwriter Kathleen Hanna took little time to get back in the "Riot Grrrl' ring with Julie Ruin, and soon afterwards, Le Tigre. While the former project proved to be a one-off, Le Tigre w…

UK synth-pop band formed in 1998 by Daniel Hunt (keyboards/rhythm box), Reuben Wu (keyboards/rhythm box), Mira Aroyo (b. Bulgaria; vocals/keyboards) and Helena Marnie (vocals/keyboards). Ladytron, who take their name from a Roxy Music track, pay homa…

Few rock acts have started off playing lo-fi pop folk, before transforming into a electronic-based, new wave dance outfit, but the Omaha, Nebraska, USA-based trio, the Faint, is one of the few exceptions. The band was formed during 1994 by Todd Baech…

French postmodernists Air raid every aspect of retro pop music, from the sublime to the ridiculous, in fashioning their sonic bricolage. Everything from Krautrock-inspired electronics to 1960s lounge music is incorporated into the work of Nicolas God…

Formed in 1996, and hailing from Scotland, Belle & Sebastian are a musical collective with a penchant for ellipticism, declining to have their pictures on album covers or in the press, shying away from interviews, and never listing their individual n…

Musically minimalistic and visually outrageous, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs were at the center of the revival of post-punk and garage rock that made New York City a rock & roll hotspot again in the early 2000s. After the success of the Strokes, the trio (led…

Italian twins Amedeo and Simone Pace formed Blonde Redhead in New York City during the early 1990s with Japanese vocalist Kazu Makino. The group's brand of noise-rock earned them an unshakable comparison to Sonic Youth. Although the two groups indee…

This British-French outfit started out in the early 1990s, with a sound that incorporated French-chanteuse vocals, primitive electronics, and Velvet Underground-meets-Neu chugging rhythm. Over the years, they refined their approach immensely, with ec…

b. Merrill Nisker, Canada. This former drama/music teacher first branched out into music as a folk singer with Mermaid Hotel. She began to take a more alternative route with avant-jazz act Fancypants Hoodlum before teaming up with fellow Canadian Jas…

One of the most celebrated new bands of 2004, the Arcade Fire came out of Montreal's vibrant music scene with a melancholic, cinematic sound equally redolent of '80s heroes like the Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen and latter-day orchestral-rockers Mercu…

Although Of Montreal come from Athens, Georgia, USA, the band's sound is unmistakably rooted in the mid-60s psychedelic era of UK pop, with obvious nods to the Beatles and the Kinks. Formed in the mid-90s, Of Montreal have often been compared to othe…

As much an art project as an actual band, Fischerspooner is the brainchild of Casey Spooner and Warren Fischer, two New York City-based multi-media artists. Drawing heavily on 1980s U.K. synth and dance pop, Fischerspooner plays infectious club music…

Pizzicato Five are a union of fashion models and satirists from Japan, started in 1984 by Keitaro Takanami and Yasuharu Konishi (b. 3 February 1959, Japan), two college students obsessed with the Monkees. Konishi was born on the day Buddy Holly, Rich…

April March is actually one Elinore Blake b April 20 1965 and contrary to all appearances she is not a French pixie but a Californian one The first album she bought was Englands Newest Hitmakers by the Rolling Stones but you wouldnt know that from li…

Ex-art students Alex Murray-Leslie (b. 1 September 1970, Sydney, Australia), Melissa Logan (b. New York, USA), Kiki Moorse (b. 23 March 1967, Munich, Germany) merge performance, fine art, graphic design, rock 'n' roll, avant pop, electronica, politic…

Led by Black Francis (AKA Charles Thompson), this Boston band reveled in the raw, loud energy of punk, but harnessed it in service of catchy melodies laced with bizarre lyrics. Their 1989 album, DOOLITTLE, is widely considered to be one of the best a…

Separately, synth player Jimmy Tamborello and singer Ben Gibbard were known for their work in electronica and emo, respectively, with Dntel and Death Cab For Cutie. Together, they became a powerful pop duo, combinining Tamborello's melodic knowhow an…

In the mid-'90s, Olympia, WA's Sleater-Kinney emerged out of the somewhat ghetto-ized Riot Grrl movement to become rather more mainstream figures in the alt-rock world. Throughout their career, their roots have remained firmly set in punk charged wit…

With a name that means new wave in English and bossa nova in Portuguese Nouvelle Vagues moniker neatly sums up the groups concept remaking classic new wave singles with a Brazilian pop twist Nouvelle Vague is the brainchild of French producers Marc C…

Amidst a field overcrowded with teen-pop and nu-metal, Detroit's White Stripes emerged at the tail end of the 1990s as a new hope for gutsy, no-frills rock & roll. Their doggedly minimalist sound--just one guitar and a drum kit--heralded a return to …