Spoon, Dinosaur Jr., Spiritualized, M. Ward, Boris, Extra Golden, Raekwon, Cut Copy, F~~k Buttons, Les Savy Fav, Health, The App

Dinosaur Jr.
Dinosaur Jr. were largely responsible for returning lead guitar to indie rock and, along with their peers the Pixies, they injected late-'80s alternative rock with monumental levels of pure guitar noise.

Spiritualized
Formed from the ashes of the trance-rockers Spacemen 3, singer/guitarist Jason Pierce's group Spiritualized did not break away from his prior band's trademark hypnotic minimalism; instead, they perfected it.

Spoon
Hailing from Austin, TX, Spoon originated in 1994 as a collaboration between Britt Daniel (vocals/guitar) and Jim Eno (drums) and a rotating cast of supporting players. Their hybrid of indie and punk resulted in a number of Sonic Youth and Pixies comparisons after their 1996 debut album, Telephono.

Raekwon
Raekwon may not have achieved the solo stardom of his fellow Wu-Tang Clan mates Method Man or Ol' Dirty Bastard, but along with Genius/GZA and frequent partner Ghostface Killah, he's done some of the most inventive, critically acclaimed work outside the confines of the group.

Ghostface Killah
As one of the original members of the seminal '90s rap crew the Wu-Tang Clan, Ghostface Killah (aka Tony Starks) made an impact before he released his debut album, Ironman, late in 1996.

The Apples in Stereo
Sunny pop band the Apples in Stereo were one of the leading lights of the Elephant 6 Recording Company collective, a coterie of like-minded, lo-fi indie groups -- including the Olivia Tremor Control, Neutral Milk Hotel, and Secret Square -- who shared musicians, ideas, and sensibilities.

Les Savy Fav
Having met in 1995 while attending art college in Rhode Island, Tim Harrington (vocals), Seth Jabber (guitar), Syd Butler (bass) and Gibb Slife (guitar) got together to form Les Savy Fav out of their additional musical interests in Nation of Ulysses, Fugazi, Sunny Day Real Estate...

Boris
Japanese cult favorite sludge/doom rock trio Boris takes their name from a song on grunge godfathers the Melvins' Bullhead album. They also have a lot in common with the Melvins musically, including a fondness for heavily down-tuned guitar/bass tones and exceedingly slow tempos.

M. Ward
After a six-year stint with the trio Rodriguez, M. Ward began sketching out songs deeply rooted in the classic traditions of American country-folk. Rodriguez's home was in San Luis Obispo, CA, and they eventually recorded Swing Like a Metronome with Granddaddy's Jason Lytle.

Mahjongg
Mahjongg combine the edgy timber of electronics, the ironic wit and melodic sense of indie rock, and the rhythmic abandon of funk and Afro-beat and fuse them into a smart, dance-friendly sound that's made them one of the more talked-about acts on the bustling Chicago music scene.

Cut Copy
Australian indie electronic trio Cut Copy take many of their cues from contemporaries like Air, Daft Punk, and LCD Soundsystem, but with a distinctly pop sensibility that draws on classic AM radio pop singles from the 1970s and '80s, with elements of vintage disco and synth pop that...

Times New Viking
Much like '90s indie darlings Guided By Voices, Times New Viking are a noisy, lo-fi indie rock band from Ohio who made the leap from the long-running indie Siltbreeze Records to the higher profile Matador label.

Extra Golden
A cross-continental collaboration, Extra Golden began with Ian Eagleson's documentation of the Benga music of Kenya and Nairobi for his doctoral thesis. Starting in 2000, Eagleson was assisted in his work by Kenyan musician Otieno Jagwasi, who played in a band with drummer Onyango...

The Dodos
Originally formed in 2006 as Dodobird by multi-instrumentalist Meric Long, unpredictable San Francisco indie rock duo the Dodos acquired their new moniker with the arrival of Logan Kroeber, a fellow West Coast artist whose penchant for experimental drumming and progressive metal...

Health
Stemming from a D.I.Y. noise scene based around the downtown L.A. art space The Smell, Health make mathy indie rock with tribal drums, squealing guitars, asymmetrical basslines, and a homemade guitar pedal/microphone called a Zoothorn.

Dirty Projectors

Bon Iver
Justin Vernon began recording under the nom de band Bon Iver following the breakup of DeYarmond Edison, an indie folk group similar in tone and manner to Iron & Wine, Little Wings and, to a certain extent, Bonnie "Prince" Billy.

F**k Buttons
The Bristol, England-based experimental duo F**k Buttons -- Andrew Hung and Benjamin John Power -- formed in late 2004 and signed to the ATP label, releasing the "Bright Tomorrow" b/w "Little Bloody Shoulder" 7" single during the fall of 2007, with live dates...

King Khan & The Shrines
Were it biologically possible for George Clinton and Sun Ra to procreate, King Khan could be their seed. His backing Shrines feature the percussion of soul legend Ron Streeter (who backed Curtis Mayfield, Stevie Wonder, and others) and horns from Simon Wojan (Cloudland Canyon), “Germany’s...

El Guincho
Born Pablo Díaz-Reixa in the Canary Islands, the Spanish-owned archipelago off the coast of Northwestern Africa, El Guincho found indie blog fame in early 2008, shortly after the release of his album Alegranza (which came out in December of the previous year), which coincided nicely...

High Places
One of many boy/girl indie electro duos formed in 2006, Rob Barber and Mary Pearson of Brooklyn's High Places approach recording with creative abandon, experimenting with offbeat production techniques like random microphone positioning, pitch shifting, delays, and saturated blankets...

Occidental Brothers Dance Band International
A collective of Chicago-scene veterans and acclaimed African musicians (including former members of the legendary Western Diamonds), the Occidental Brothers blend indie rock and jazz with the West African stylings of soukous, highlife, and rumba and sing in both English and the Ghanaian dialect Twi.