Cass McCombs has as many faces as cities that he's called home. While moving from the Pacific Coast to the east, spending time down south and overseas, and now living in the middle of the country, Cass McCombs has written songs for both the streets and the priests, the seers and the school children, for suburban families and whatever's left of the ivory tower. His most recent album, Catacombs, was released in 2009 on Domino Records.

Following the release of their self-titled debut on Western Vinyl, Here We Go Magic have signed to Secretly Canadian for their follow-up due in 2010. The band spent much of last year touring with Grizzly Bear and the Walkmen before playing the Austin City Limits festival. Lately they've been hard at work recording their self-produced sophomore album in a house in upstate New York, and while the first record was the result of band leader Luke Temple getting creative in his bedroom, this release is a fully fledged team effort.

The 2002 release of "Losing My Edge" ushered in one of the great new talents of the aughts, LCD Soundsystem, aka James Murphy. While also focusing on the running of his label, DFA, Murphy perfected a sound that would come to represent much of the label's output in the following years. The 2007 release of Sound of Silver shot Murphy to the tips of tastemakers' tongues; universally acclaimed, the record featured the minimalist single "All My Friends" and the heart-tugging "Someone Great", indie staples the world over.

Long a key component of the Providence, R.I.-based noise-rock label Load Records, Lightning Bolt's live shows have garnered a lot of talk, with the band often setting up behind the audience and sonically assaulting them as soon as the previous band completes their set. The 2005 album, Hypermagic Mountain, found Lightning Bolt tossing decades' worth of musical history into a wood chipper and coming up with some chewy chainsaw taffy. Their newest album, Earthly Delights, comes after two years of work and has the sound of a 10-piece band.

Modest Mouse formed in 1993 in Issaquah, Wash., and released their first full-length album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone With Nothing to Think About, on the Up label in 1996. With the release of their second album, The Lonesome Crowded West in 1997, the band's status reached new heights with a legion of fans and critical acclaim. In 2000, Modest Mouse were signed to Epic Records and released their third album, The Moon & Antarctica; 2004 brought the release of Modest Mouse's breakthrough, Good News For People Who Love Bad News, which included the hit "Float On" and earned the band two Grammy nominations. Their most recent album, We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank, was released in 2007 and immediately entered the Billboard Top 200 chart at #1, and last summer saw the release of a special eight-song EP, No One's First, And You're Next.

Since coming together over 20 years ago, Pavement released a bunch of EPs and singles and five great albums, then split. Slanted & Enchanted, the classic debut, casts a shadow miles wider than its modest tape width. Stephen Malkmus, Spiral Stairs, Mark Ibold, MC Bob Nastanovitch, and Steve West laid down the follow-up, the hook-heavy Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain with the detached confidence of heirs apparent. Wowee Zowee was a stoned and emotional sprawl that people are still finding new nuances in today. The last two LPs, Brighten the Corners and Terror Twilight, were stately showboats, intelligent, warm and cool. This spring and summer sees the highly anticipated return of Pavement for the first time since their final show at the Brixton Academy in 1999.

The world first encountered the lyrical prowess of Raekwon as a member of the legendary Wu-Tang Clan. In 1995 he gave us his first solo effort, Only Built 4 Cuban Linx..., which has become one of the most highly regarded albums in hip hop. And 2009 was a banner year for Rae with the release of Only Built 4 Cuban Linx... Pt. II; here's hoping he continues to further solidify his place in hip-hop history.

Sleigh Bells are the duo of Derek Miller, formerly of Florida hardcore band Poison the Well, and Alexis Krauss, from teenpop group RubyBlue. The Brooklyn-based group's first recordings, in-the-red synth rave ups with cool, sassy vocals from Krauss, have made them an artist to watch in 2010, attracting praise from critics large and small. Their debut album will be released this year.

Annie Clark's recorded debut as St. Vincent, Marry Me, gave immediate notice that a dizzying new talent had emerged from the flatlands of Texas. In 2007, Clark capped a year of international touring by winning the Plug Awards' Female Artist of the Year. For her beguiling and sophisticated sophomore album, Actor, Clark developed an idiosyncratic writing process, immersing herself in some of her favorite films-- Badlands, Pierrot le Fou, The Wizard of Oz, Stardust Memories, Sleeping Beauty-- and beginning each song as a secret film score, then slowly giving it independence as its structure and lyrics came fully into focus. If Marry Me served as the world's introduction to Annie Clark, Actor may prove to be her coronation.

Broken Social Scene are a Canadian collective who have released three brilliant full-length LPs. Their members include some of Canada's finest musicians, including Kevin Drew, Brendan Canning, Justin Peroff, Feist, Emily Haines and Jimmy Shaw of Metric, Amy Millan and Torquil Campbell of Stars, and many more. Mixing swirling psychedelics, sing-along vocals, fuzzed-out guitar fireworks, and an all-around amazing time, Broken Social Scene have become one of independent music's most exciting and innovative bands. Their highly anticipated new full-length, Forgiveness Rock Record, is out May 4th, 2010.

NYC-native El-P, a groundbreaking lyricist, virtuosic producer, label founder, A&R maverick, and underground icon, has been a major force in independent music for more than a decade. With the release of the first Company Flow 12" "Juvenile Techniques" at age 17, he's been blazing trails ever since, introducing some of the most important hip-hop music of this era. As founder, producer, and main MC of indie heroes Company Flow, El-P quickly made a name for himself with fearlessly visionary production, profound lyricism, and an uncompromising ethic. Though his label, Def Jux, has recenly closed, it was once seen as the pre-eminent indie hip-hop label, releasing albums by some of the genre's brightest lights, including Aesop Rock, RJD2, Cannibal Ox, and Cage.

Instinctively nomadic and musically inquisitive, Panda Bear (Noah Lennox) currently resides in Lisbon, Portugal, and rarely is seen performing as Panda Bear. At the turn of the millennium, he congregated in New York with his recently-convened brethren (Avey Tare, Geologist, and Deakin) to form Animal Collective. As a teenager in his hometown of Baltimore, Panda Bear created his first solo record, the long out-of-print, first (and last) album on his and Deakin's Soccer Star Records. Never sticking with any particular sound, Panda's range goes from the quiet humble jams of Young Prayer to the swirling, electronic pop of the widely lauded and beloved Person Pitch.

Jon Spencer and his Blues Explosion are known for their fiery showmanship, and the band has received critical acclaim for their bold and confrontational performances. Comprised of singer-guitarist Jon Spencer (formerly the frontman of Pussy Galore), guitarist Judah Bauer, and drummer Russell Simins, and formed in 1990 in New York, the band's combined experience includes time spent with the Rolling Stones, Stevie Wonder, Tom Petty, Bob Dylan, and many other rock pioneers. Throughout their career releasing albums and performing across the world, the band has drawn a cult following attracted to the their singular blues-punk-inspired noisy sound.

Formed in 2005 in Glen Rock, New Jersey, Titus Andronicus, recorded their first EP that summer at Marcata Recording. Ranging from three to 11 members, the band is now comprised of five individuals. They take their name from a Shakespearean tragedy, not, as many believe, from some sort of killer robot from the future. They like to scream and carry on at excessive volume, write fast songs, and never sing about love, only hate. Titus Andronicus have no hope for the future and believe only in nothingness. Everyone in Titus Andronicus was born to die. Titus Andronicus crave your approval but will settle for your utter disdain. The Monitor, their new album, is out March 9th, 2010 on XL Recordings.

A seed planted in the Southern U.S. years ago (all members hail from Georgia or Alabama), Bear In Heaven began as the musical arm of Jon Philpot in 1998. Time eventually brought in a slew of players that grew the sound and guided the group to morph from a 6-to-5-to-4-piece, where the band eventually found a sonic stride unlike any in their history. Within four walls in Brooklyn, Jon Philpot, Adam Wills, Sadek Bazaara, and Joe Stickney mined the democracy of their collaboration, creating their acclaimed second album, Beast Rest Forth Mouth (think "East West North South"). It was a conscious product of the four compass points, of the four makers, and of the inevitable confusion that manifests from that crossroad mentality.

Freddie Gibbs is the true definition of a street survivor. Raised on Gary, Indiana's east side, Gibbs lived the hard life first-hand in a run-down industrial community plagued with vice and ignored by the establishment. Inspired by rappers like UGK, the Geto Boys, and 2Pac, Gibbs started rhyming about his life and the issues facing urban youth in Gary and the countless other impoverished cities just like it. His desire to rep the Midwest and his city led Gibbs to start recording mixtapes and pushing them online as well as the streets, where he quickly began garnering fans drawn to his original style, diverse flows, and deeply personal lyrics about his experience as a young black man growing up below the poverty line in a forgotten American city.

From Chicago, the Smith Westerns released their self-titled debut, a hook-heavy, pop-soaked, glam rock masterpiece, in 2009. The band has spent the past year taking their swagger-filled show on the road, supporting the likes of Girls and Los Campesinos! With so much future still ahead of them, and a band hard at work crafting their sophomore release, it's certain that this is only the beginning for the Smith Westerns.

The L.A.-bred "Ambassador of Funk," Dâm-Funk (nÈ Damon Riddick), knows better than most people that "funk" doesn't apply only to the music, but is an overall ethos, a world vision that one can ascribe to, and an indoctrination famously aligned with P-Funk. "It's a lifestyle-- it's being 'free' at all times," says Dâm. And maybe it's his voice that exudes the funk; a sort of cool, tempered, melodic wispiness. Whatever it is, it seems as though the spiritual form of funk has manifested itself on Dâm's physical body. Dâm crystallizes a distinct moment in the musical timeline, an era of buzzy synths and excoriating boogie, and he still harkens to the traditional methods of that time to record his music. His debut album, Toeachizown, is out now on Stones Throw Records.

Christopher Owens and J.R. White were meant to find each other-- sincere rock'n'roll soul mates in the age of irony. Just as the Velvets crackled with New York City electricity and the Smiths' songs came soaked in Manchester drizzle, so the music of Girls captures the mind-bent and sun-brushed outlook of life in San Francisco. You'll detect 50s surf-pop, 60s psychedelia and 80s shoegaze at play here-- the West Coast-by-way-of-somewhere-else-- but ultimately San Francisco washes over this music. Album is a song cycle about the various characters and desires that color Christopher and J.R.'s lives.

Allá (AyÍ-ya) Es tiempo para la revolucion. The sound defining a revolution, Chicago's Allá is the mark of a new revolution in psychedelic pop music. Allá is the vision of producer Jorge Ledezma, his brother Angel Ledezma, and chanteuse Lupe Martinez. This trio became increasingly interested in creating a sound that took inspiration from, and paid homage to, their Mexican heritage, and through that Allá emerged. With the release of their debut album, Es Tiempo, on the Crammed Discs imprint, Allá is poised to bring their sonic manifesto to the world.

CAVE is Rock. CAVE plays music inspired by visuals, travel, tones and space. Improvisation is a key part of writing for CAVE. CAVE uses drums, guitars, electric organ and analog synthesizers for all instrumentation. With the release of last years Psychic Psummer on Important Records, CAVE toured the US and Europe with great response and success, building the live set stronger and tighter with each tour. This years first release for CAVE is the PURE MOODS 12" EP on Drag City. CAVE plans on touring throughout the year heading back over to Europe this coming fall.

Big Boi has had an activist spirit since Southernplayalisticadillacmuzik, the 1994 debut by OutKast, who became the most successful rap group of all time with six multi-platinum albums. Songs like "Git Up, Git Out" [ft. Goodie Mob]-- which earnestly urges young men to believe in themselves and better their lives-- resonated with people across the world. After Speakerboxxx, which won two Grammy's and sold 11 million copies as a double album alongside OutKast partner André 3000's The Love Below, Big Boi transformed into his new alter-ego and began recording his second solo album, Sir Lucious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty.

Major Lazer is a Jamaican commando who lost his arm in the secret Zombie War of 1984. The U.S. military rescued him and repurposed experimental lazers as prosthetic limbs, employing him as a renegade soldier under the watch of the MI5 and CIA. Under his cover of a dancehall night club owner from Trinidad, he enlisted the help of long-time allies and uber-producers, Diplo (Philadelphia-based DJ and producer Wesley Pentz) and Switch (British producer and DJ, Dave Taylor), to produce his first LP. The product of this collaboration is Guns Don't Kill People-- Lazers Do, which draws from the rich dancehall tradition of Jamaica, the futuristic dance-floor-killing aesthetic of Diplo and Switch, and contributions from some of the biggest names in dancehall today.

Victoria Legrand and Alex Scally first fused their respective musical creativity in 2005, releasing their self-titled debut in 2006 and the second LP, Devotion, in 2007. In 2009 the band headed to upstate New York to record with Chris Coady at Dreamland Studios. After a solid month in solitude in the church-cum-studio compound, they emerged with their Sub Pop debut, Teen Dream-- an album with a physicality, warmth, and deeper intimacy than their previous releases, and one that has deservedly brought them to the attention of a whole new realm of listeners and fans. Beach House played the Pitchfork Music Festival two years ago, and the festival is thrilled to see their return.

In 2008, the Tallest Man on Earth released Shallow Grave, an album of Kristian Matsson's commanding vocals set to acoustic guitar or banjo, recorded at his home in Dalarna, Sweden. Although the album was released on the Swedish label Gravitation without the help of widespread distribution, the story of the Tallest Man on Earth spread far and wide through word of mouth. The Wild Hunt, his newest LP, picks up where Shallow Grave left off, but it isn't just another folk album; this is acoustic rock'n'roll from a man with a story to tell.

West Palm Beach's Surfer Blood, while still in their early 20s, have penned an album's worth of catchy, summery songs that even the most hook-laden power pop band would be jealous of. Meeting at an after party for Miami's Ultra Festival, the band used the remainder of their scholarship money to purchase equipment and start the recording process in their dorm room at Florida Atlantic University. The result is their debut album, Astro Coast, released in January 2010 by Kanine Records. Their first single, "Swim", with its deliciously deafening swaths of reverb and feedback, comes across like early Orange Juice covering every song on Weezer's Blue Album at once.

Real Estate, the New Jersey quartet of Martin Courtney IV, Matthew Mondanile III (Ducktails/Predator Vision), Etienne Pierre Duguay, and Alex Bleeker, cut the sleeves short and the pop smooth to shade you from the midday heat. Martin Courtney's songwriting has a way of wrapping up the immediacy of youth with the ennui of age for the perfect hue of bittersweet bliss. Add Mondanile's shimmering guitar strains full of equal parts sea foam and beer foam, the boardwalk clatter of Duguay's drums, and Bleeker's staccato low end, and the perfect afternoon is just a lawn chair and boom box away.

An elusive project from composer Alan Palomo, Neon Indian delivers equal parts synthetic nostalgia, dreampop lullabies, and grinding guitar noise to create something eerier than the sum of its parts. The initial batch of tracks on debut LP Psychic Chasms were the result of field recordings, record samples, a collection of bizarre synth sounds. This music orbits around the themes of drug induced heartbreak, weary afternoons, and lost chances, and provides a lush soundtrack to the deadbeat exploits of teenage ennui.

Barcelona's Delorean have gradually moved away from the punk scene and are now ready to embrace the kind of club music that a pop band would play. In May 2009, Delorean released the Ayrton Senna EP which, along with its track "Seasun", was awarded Best New Music on Pitchfork, while NME, the Fader, the Guardian, XLR8R and ABC News also gave excellent reviews. Delorean are currently working on a new full length, Subiza, recorded by Hans Krüger and mixed by Chris Coady (!!!, Telepathe, Gang Gang Dance). Upon its release, they'll be hitting the road to bring their infectious music to the world.

WHY? is a trio of Cincinnati-born men who fiddle with skins, strings, bells and microphones. Singer Yoni Wolf got his start recording bad poems and sloppy beats on the family synagogue's 4-track, and in junior high he discovered hip-hop. Yoni's brother Josiah played drums at worship service as a kid, became a band geek as a teen, and fell in love with Thelonious Monk in college. Doug McDiarmid was raised by two French teachers and taught piano while in kindergarten. Their wildest dreams were achieved when they relocated to Oakland to make pop-inflected psychedelic folk-hop as WHY?. Their newest album, Eskimo Snow, was released in 2009 on Anticon.

Combine the sophisticated chill of a New York City winter with the girlish, laid-back romance of California in the summertime, and you get Best Coast, the latest musical endeavor by the self-described "weird girl" Bethany Cosentino. Quickly garnering praise from critics and listeners with the single "Sun Was High (So Was I)", Cosentino was approached by UK-based label Blackest Rainbow, who released her now sold-out tape Where the Boys Are. In the works are two new 7"s, one being released by San Diego-based Art Fag Recordings and the other the debut release from brand-new Brooklyn label Group Tightener.

Critics have fallen over themselves trying to coin a term for what Perry, Georgia's Ernest Greene has done over the course of just a few releases; audiences have crammed themselves into venues to see his scarce live performances. Existing in a dream-state haze of slowed-down R&B, synth and distortion loops, notions of pop, treated vocals, and deep vibes, his music presents both a challenge to and against the current moment of cultural acceleration. Nabbing the best of Arthur Russell and Ariel Pink, he exists as a singular force, making collages out of collages until the source material is beyond obliterated.

Emerging from the rooftops of Chicago in 2007, Netherfriends are that bastard-psych-pop-catchy as hell band that you've been searching for. Recently appearing on indie label Emergency Umbrella, their debut six-song EP, Calling You Out, fuses heavily layered arrangements with group sing-a-longs, spare pianos, synths, glockenspiels, and other hard-to-place but familiar sounds. Netherfriends features Shawn Rosenblatt (vocals, guitar, keys, samples, and drums), a freshly minted college graduate of music composition. At the moment, he perfoms live with various individuals.

Sharon Van Etten is a Jersey-born, Tennessee-raised, Brooklyn-based singer/songwriter. She grew up playing anything put in front of her-- from piano to violin-- and later joined every choir she could. After being cast in every musical she auditioned for as a teenager, she decided to write her own songs but didn't start performing live until she moved back to the East Coast. There she found her own voice and a grass-roots style, releasing her first official album, Because I Was in Love, in 2009 on Language of Stone.

LFormed in 2007 by acclaimed singer-songwriter, playwright, author, and onetime piano troubadour Sonny Smith, Sonny & the Sunsets have featured a revolving-door lineup that became permanent with Kelley Stoltz, Tahlia Harbour, and Ryan Browne. Their busted beach-pop songs recall doo wop’s otherworldly despair, the kitchen-sink savoir-faire of the Raincoats, a dose of goofball humor, and the positive spirit of the Modern Lovers' Jonathan Richman. Their debut LP, Tomorrow is Alright, hits on everything from sly VU-like observations to the bedlam of Holy Modal Rounders. All the while, Sonny’s pen is soaked with an EC comics sense of storytelling, touching equally on the macabre, the absurd, the humorous, and above all, the entertaining.

The wild-eyed, baby-faced, long-haired Philadelphian Kurt Vile has spent the past 12 years climbing up on stages to deliver to breathless crowds from five to 500 a string of bona-fide hits that transcend genre or some passing aesthetic trend. He's remained a step outside any scene that's tried to claim him. Whether performing solo or backed by a first class American rock band called the Violators, he's dextrous and confident on the neck of an acoustic or electric, both relaxed and full of life at the microphone.

Minneapolis cult rockers Hockey Night split up a couple of years back, and for a time, mainmen Scott Wells and Paul Sprangers continued to operate under that moniker. They altered their musical orientation, got signed to DFA, and recorded an album with LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy playing bass and manning the mixing desk, and Pat Mahoney on drums. The resulting LP, Stuck on Nothing, is immediately accessible and crowd-pleasing, while sounding very un-DFA. Their high-fidelity, guitar-heavy and totally unironic AM-rock sound evokes classic touchstones from Tom Petty to Thin Lizzy.

Local Natives make soaring, sky-scraping harmonies, dreamy orchestral melodies, and throbbing tribal beats that bash their way into your soul. Drawing a line from the vocal stylings of Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young and the Zombies through the more esoteric edges of post-punk and Afrobeat, this California five piece has crafted a brand of indie rock all their own. For Local Natives, everything is a collaboration, from songwriting duties to their self-produced artwork. Named after a place where the band lived together in Orange County, their debut album, Gorilla Manor, features twelve sumptuous slices of dappled California sunlight and beguiling percussive rhythms.

It's almost 10 years since they first started making music together, but at the start of a new decade, Liars (Angus Andrew, Aaron Hemphill, and Julian Gross) find themselves in the unlikely position of being art-rock elder statesmen. Defiantly unconventional, Liars consistently push boundaries, exploring texture, sound, and structure, and challenging themselves and their fans. Having traversed through five shape-shifting records, from their 2001 debut, They Threw Us All in a Trench and Stuck a Monument on Top, to their newest offering, the dense art-pop thrill of Sisterworld, playing it safe is something that Liars will never do.

Robyn is bona fide pop star, a pint-sized atom bomb dispensing wisdom in three-minute modernist pop bulletins. Born to a theater-director father and actress mother in Stockholm, Sweden, Robyn has always been surrounded by art, and from her 1997 single "Show Me Love" to her bold move to buy out her BMG record contract and start her own label, Konichiwa Records, she's always done things her way. She collaborated with the Knife on the piercingly honest single "Who's That Girl", and since paired with Klas Åhlund of Teddybears for the sparse "Be Mine". What Robyn really represents is the story of one ass-kicking little blonde woman who blasted through industry B.S. to make startling, profound, honest pop music all of her own.

Canadian combo Wolf Parade were formed in 2003 in Montreal by Dan Boeckner (Handsome Furs), Spencer Krug (Sunset Rubdown), Dante DeCaro, and Arlen Thompson. On the strength of two self-released EPs, they gained the attention of Modest Mouse songwriter Isaac Brock, at that time working as an A&R rep for Sub Pop Records, who released their 2005 debut full-length, Apologies to the Queen Mary. 2008's At Mount Zoomer was a more expansive record with a more cohesive and collaborative sound. The band recently announced their third record, Expo 86, to be released this summer.

Hannibal Buress is a stand up comedian and television writer from Chicago. He current resides in New York City and writes for Saturday Night Live. He's appeared on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, Comics Unleashed with Byron Allen, and Comedy Central’s Live at Gotham. He was recently featured in The Awkward Comedy Show special on Comedy Central. He isn't really awkward though. Sometimes he is.

Wyatt Cenac is an American stand-up comedian, actor, and writer. He currently lives in New York and is a correspondent and writer for "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart". Prior to this, Cenac lived in L.A. where he spent three seasons as a writer on "King of the Hill" and performed stand up at shows including "Comedy Death Ray" and "The Tomorrow Show". He's performed at Upright Citizens Brigade and Improv Olympic, and starred in the film Medicine for Melancholy.

Michael English Showalter is an American comedian, writer, actor, and director who currently lives in New York. He was a founding member of sketch comedy troupe the State, which aired on MTV for three years, and a member of comedy trio Stella, later starring in their Comedy Central series along with Michael Ian Black and David Wain. He co-wrote, co-produced, and starred in the cult comedy Wet Hot American Summer, and also co-created and starred in the Comedy Central series "Michael and Michael Have Issues" with long-time collaborator Michael Ian Black. His stand-up comedy record, Sandwiches & Cats, was released in 2007 on JDub Records. He is currently on the faculty at NYU Graduate Film School and teaches screenwriting at the People’s Improv Theater.

Brooklyn resident Eugene Mirman is a world-renowned comedian who has been a cornerstone of the New York alternative comedy scene for the last decade. He's appeared on various television programs, including his own half-hour special on Comedy Central, recurring roles on HBO's "Flight of the Conchords" and Adult Swim's "Delocated", as well as made performances on Conan O'Brien, Carson Daly, Aqua Teen Hunger Force, Home Movies, Lucy, Daughter of the Devil and more. Mirman has had a book published by Harper Collins Perennial and released three albums, the last two on Sub Pop.