Flobots, Busdriver

My American Heart
The five-piece San Diego emo/alternative group My American Heart burst onto the scene with their crunchy debut album, The Meaning in Makeup (Warcon Entertainment), in the fall of 2006. At the time of its release, none of the group members was above the age of 18, but that didn't...

Rookie of the Year
Pop emo outfit Rookie of the Year started as a solo acoustic project in the style of Dashboard Confessional, but quickly turned into a proper band by their second album. Rookie of the Year began in 2004 when Fayetteville, NC, native Ryan Dunson wrote and recorded the solo album Having to Let Go.

Secondhand Serenade
Much like Five for Fighting or Dashboard Confessional both musically and in theory, Secondhand Serenade is a project name for a solo artist, singer/songwriter John Vesely. Raised in the San Francisco Bay Area in a musical family that included his professional jazz musician father...

The Graduate
Not to be confused with the early-'80s ska-influenced new wave outfit of the same name that later morphed into Tears for Fears, the Graduate are an emo band from Springfield, IL. Formed in late 2005 out of the remains of a pair of local bands (Best of Winter and Jack), the Graduate...

PlayRadioPlay!
Dan Hunter, the man behind the electronic pop project Playradioplay!, once told an interviewer that he'd been able to score a contract with a major label because "I had already proven that kids want to hear my music before they even came knocking on my door.