The Animal Collective won over a sizable audience in the mid 2000s despite its seemingly inaccessible brand of fractured, experimental folk. Although the Brooklyn-based Collective's music isn't exactly mainstream and can, at times, be quite difficult…

In the first half of the 2000s, Canadian bands like Godspeed You Black Emperor, Arcade Fire, and the Stills began taking the indie-rock world by storm. While they didn't break through to the mainstream, Broken Social Scene nevertheless joined those r…

One of the key artists of the folktronica movement, Kieran Hebden, aka Four Tet, mixes samples of jazz, acoustic, and psychedelic music with mid-tempo techno and hip-hop beats to create a uniquely warm and organic form of electronica. 2003's ROUNDS i…

Although they describe their modus operandi as prosaically as "We do one layer of keyboards, then another, then another', French artists Anthony Gonzalez and Nicolas Fromageau create a music that is momentous and epic enough to suggest otherworldly, …

Successful Scottish house production duo comprising Craig Morrison and Graeme Reedie, who first met in Milngavie, Scotland and became friends through their shared interest in punk. They formed a band, Dead City Radio but soon discovered dance music a…

Playing smartly crafted indie-pop that is instantly accessible yet defies easy categorization, Brooklyn, NY's Clap Your Hands Say Yeah took the music world by storm in 2005 on the strength of a single self-released album. Seemingly overnight, the ban…

b. California, USA. Indie pop singer-songwriter and guitarist McCombs is joined in the studio and live by a fine backing band, featuring Trevor Shimizu (bass, and contributor of the photographs that appear on McCombs' releases), Natalie Conn (keyboar…

Born to Panamanian parents in Los Angeles in 1979 E Nathaniel Dawkins aka Aloe Blacc first began playing trumpet in elementary school an instrument he continued throughout high school There he also independently released Imaginary Friends produced by…

She was born Leslie Feist in Calgary in the mid-70s but goes by her surname when it comes to making music for a living The Jhay-inspired songstress got her start playing in a high-school punk band called Placebo not to be confused with the UK modern …

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…

Seemingly every year since 1963, a singer-songwriter is heralded as "the next Dylan." It's a tough title to live up to, but since his 2000 debut, singer/songerwriter Sufjan Stevens has certainly traveled the musical highways of Dylan's Old Weird Amer…

By turns cuddly and chaotic San Franciscos Deerhoof mixes noise sugary melodies and an experimental spirit into sweetly challenging and utterly distinctive music The group began as the brainchild of guitarist Rob Fisk and drummerkeyboardist Greg Saun…

Beck Hansen, the quintessential California slacker, came up among the lo-fi ranks, pushing a blend of country blues, Dylan-inspired wordplay, punk, and hip-hop. His straight-out-of-the-gate 1994 smash, "Loser," made him a star seemingly overnight. Su…

Better known perhaps for his work in bands like the Postal Service and Dntel James Figurine or Jimmy Tamborello was inspired to create his own techno-pop solo album while on tour through Germany Enlisting vocal help from Erlend ye and Jenny Lewis amo…

Canadian indie pop combo Wolf Parade formed in 2003 in Montreal where their first show was opening for Arcade Fire From there Dan Boeckner Spencer Krug Hadji Bakara and Arlen Thompson recorded and self-released a four-song EP and followed that with a…