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…

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…

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…

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…

The Australian indie pop octet Architecture in Helsinki hails from Fitzroy Melbourne and counts multi-instrumentalists Cameron Bird James Cecil Gus Franklin Isobel Knowles Jamie Mildren Sam Perry Tara Shackell and Kellie Sutherland among its ranks Th…

Hailing from Portland, Oregon, the Decemberists burst onto the indie-rock scene in the early 2000s, weaving complex, literary narratives (courtesy of singer/songwriter Colin Meloy) through layers of chiming, acoustic-based folk-rock. Meloy's literary…

Americana-via-the-Pleiades chanteuse Joanna Newsom is a key figure of the early-2000s "freak folk" scene based around Devendra Banhart and various other new-fangled flower children. A limited vocalist with a nevertheless fearless sense of melody, she…

Indie rockers with a sound that pays homage to classic power pop and New Wave, the Canadian band the New Pornographers made a major impact with their 2000 debut album, MASS ROMANTIC. Something of an indie supergroup, the band includes members of Zump…

Yet another promising Canadian indie rock band Montreal-via-British Columbias Unicorns began in the late 90s when high-school friends Nick Neil Diamonds and Alden Ginger began crafting their roundabout lo-fi but distinctly catchy music Cheap keyboard…