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Animal Collective

With their eighth full length Strawberry Jam, Animal Collective solidified its standing among the most innovative thinkers in music today. Taking the #6 spot on Pitchfork’s top albums of 2007, the group’s most cohesive effort to date creates a unified whole from an assortment of dissonant and sometimes chaotic parts. AC’s live show is just as unpredictable, often featuring improvised selections and unreleased songs, and just as dense with layered vocal melodies, frightening screeches and haunting drones.

Jarvis Cocker

Known today as the major creative force behind the British band Pulp, Cocker’s rise to fame was slow. Founded in 1978, the band flitted in and out of success until the single “My Legendary Girlfriend”(from Separations) brought attention from fans and labels alike. Pulp hit their prime with “Common People,” the smash single from Different Class; the album was certified gold in its first week of release and entered the UK charts at #1. After the group disbanded in 2002, Cocker quieted down to work on various side projects and collaborations. His solo debut, Jarvis, appeared in late 2006.

The Hold Steady

The band's 2005 Union Park performance almost killed us with geek-rock greatness; having survived it, there was nothing left to do but ask them back. Gather 'round, drunken gentlemen and your oh-so-patient ladies, it's Craig Finn, Tad Kubler, Frank Nicolay, Bobby Drake, and Galen Polivka, better known as the Hold Steady. By the time of their festival set they'll be fresh off the release of a fourth full-length, Stay Positive.

!!!

The dance-until-your-face-falls-off music of !!! fuses funk, soul, and dance, and their shows explode with energy and enthusiasm. No wonder the Sacramento eight-piece are road warriors, touring relentlessly across the country and the globe. Released in 2007, Myth Takes was the band’s third album, and second for Touch and Go.

Vampire Weekend

Formed at Columbia University in 2006, Vampire Weekend started out like most college bands: playing school functions, house parties and taking pretty much any opportunity they could seize. Now just two years later, the preppy Afro-pop-inspired quartet has done something most college bands don’t: catch on. They’re winning acclaim from the likes of the New York Times—which raved in late ‘07 that “Even without an album, Vampire Weekend have made one of the most impressive debuts of the year”—and recently dropped a self-titled full-length on XL.

Dizzee Rascal

"Dizzee Rascal is on his way to accomplishing what few other British rappers have done: break into the American scene. His album Maths + English mixed influences as varied as rock guitars (on "Sirens") to Bugsy Malone-ish backchat ("Wanna B A G"). And with guest spots from the likes of Arctic Monkeys' Alex Turner and Dirty South legends UGK, Dizzee scored cred on both sides of the pond. Though available stateside only as a download, Maths landed on Pitchfork's top 50 albums of 2007.

Fleet Foxes

The journey of Fleet Foxes began with the childhood friendship of Robin Pecknold and Skyler Skjelset. The two wrote and composed songs for eight years before adding the instrumentation of Nicholas Peterson (drums), Casey Wescott (Keyboards), and Bryn Lumsden (bass). Armed now with a full lineup, Fleet Foxes took their baroque pop stylings to Sub Pop, who recently released the Sun Giant EP; their self-titled full-length is due in June.

Caribou

The brainchild of Dan Snaith, Caribou (née Manitoba) has worked the places between IDM, pop, and (um) folktronica, blurring boundaries and tweaking expectations with each successive disc. Last year's retro-melodic Andorra landed at #30 on Pitchfork's annual best-albums list, but Snaith remains well-loved for 2003's Up in Flames. Describing that platter's enduring charms upon its 2006 re-release, Pitchfork scribe Mark Richardson said its "swirling, wordless vocals, chiming guitars, absurdly huge drum breaks [and] massive climaxes … still work wonders."

Jay Reatard

After doing time with such acts as the Lost Sounds, the Bad Times, the Final Solutions, Angry Angles, and others, Jay Reatard’s back where he started—as a solo artist. A young punk vet, Jay started the Reatards at the age of 15 and within a short time recorded Get Real Stupid [Goner], on which he juggled guitar, vocal duties, and percussive stylings on a bucket. His 2006 release Blood Visions pairs terse, punchy lyrics to a gritty, guitar-driven garage sound that hits you in the face and unapologetically walks away.

Titus Andronicus

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No Age

Formed from the remnants of noise-rockers the Wives, No Age rose from through LA’s art-skate-punk scene to status as much-buzzed band of the moment. Randy Randall (drums and vocals) and Dean Sprunt (guitar) got together just two years ago; last year Fat Cat issued Weirdo Rippers, an acclaimed compilation of five earlier EPs. Into songs that rarely crack the three-minute mark, No Age packs intensity, grit, and noise-pop punch. Their Sub Pop debut, Nouns, is released in May.

Atlas Sound

Deerhunter frontman Bradford Cox's solo project is a natural outgrowth of the distorted pop for which his main gig gained notice. Eschewing Deerhunter’s traditional rock instrumentation, Atlas Sound spans a wide range of sonics on the debut Let the Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel. Cox infuses elements of minimal techno and house music with layers of reverbed guitars and looped percussion, arranging his filtered vocals through a dreamy soundscape of ambient compositions. The result is a series of pure pop tunes wrapped in lush, fluid acoustics.

Extra Golden

The mix of Kenyan Benga music and American rock that is Extra Golden started out as a leisurely exchange of compositions by Ian Eagleson, Alex Minoff and Otieno Jagwasi in the summer of 2004. After hashing out some ideas and adding drummer Onyango Wuod Omari, the band headed to a Nairobi club with a few mics, a laptop and a mixer. Three hours later they had completed nearly all of Ok-Oyot System—but the disc didn’t see the light of day until two years later, following Jagwasi’s death from liver disease. Since then Extra Golden has added Benga star Opiyo Bilongo to its lineup, made a name with dynamic live shows and released a second album, Hera Ma Nono.

Fuck Buttons

Combining dronescapes with subtle melodies, tribal beats and distorted vocals, Benjamin John Power and Andrew Hung fracture pretty backdrops with outbursts of tumultuous clamor. Live, the duo elaborates on the repetitive elements of its debut disc Street Horrrsing that moved Pitchfork to write that “Fuck Buttons stick religiously to simple ideas, but mix them in surprising ways.”

Elf Power

Elephant 6 alums and Athens, Ga., natives, Elf Power meshes a slew of strings with psych guitar and the homemade, mellotron-like tape organ on their eighth LP, In a Cave, which the Village Voice termed "an affirmation of the bells-and-whistles-within-worlds recordings" on which Elf Power and its E6 compatriots made their bones. With the Apples in Stereo and A Hawk and a Hacksaw also on the festival bill, E6 followers will see three of the collective's bands in action in Union Park.

The Ruby Suns

The psychedelic indie-pop of the Ruby Suns is in large part attributable to the restless lifestyle of singer-songwriter-bandleader Ryan McPhun. A veteran of the Tokey Tones and the Brunettes, the New Zealand-based McPhun draws influence from his ventures across the globe, integrating world music with the indie strains of his native California. The Ruby Suns released Sea Lion on Sub Pop in 2008.

Icy Demons

An experimental venture of Man Man's Christopher Powell and Bablicon's Griffin Rodriguez, Icy Demons express their explorative spirit through traditional instrumentation and electronics to create an air of absurdity within the recognizable contours of traditional song structure. Nodding in sound and spirit to open-minded forerunners from the Soft Machine to Can, the band's catalog includes Fight Back (2004), Tears of a Clone (2006), and last year's Miami Ice.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw

The brainchild of percussionist Jeremy Barnes (ex-Neutral Milk Hotel), A Hawk and a Hacksaw released its self-titled debut in 2004. Barnes played all the instruments on that disc but managed to explore a century of American music in its sonic influences; for the follow-up Darkness at Noon, he added trumpet, tuba, and violin, mingling Americana with Eastern European strains. Now featuring Barnes and violinist Heather Trost, A Hawk and A Hacksaw's latest release is The Way the Wind Blows.

Boban i Marko Markovic Orkestar

Although the roots of trumpeter and bandleader Boban Markovic are in Serbia's Vladicin Han region—the heartland of gypsy brass—his band's international touring and contributions to the blazing soundtracks of the films of Emir Kusturica (Underground) have earned worldwide renown. With a sound that blends traditional Balkan music with jazz, Latin and pop inflections, the Boban Markovic Orkestar enlivens a genre steeped in tradition and history.