Brooklyn-via-Ohio quintet The National have been peddling their slow-burning, epically emotional brand of indie-rock to growing acclaim for the last decade.

When he traded a Johnson 9.9 outboard motor for a beat up Gibson 12 string back in 1979, Charlie Parr unknowingly and unofficially began a career as a world-class practitioner of traditional folk and Piedmont-style blues - though you'll never get him to admit it.

Whether it's the fact that they are a ten-piece band or it's their distinctive blend of neo-soul and funk, the '70s-influenced style of Milwaukee's Kings Go Forth hits you like a wall of sound.

Chris Koza has collaborated with fellow Twin Cities musicians Peter Sieve, Luke Anderson, and Linnea Mohn to create the new four-piece Rogue Valley.

Band of Horses latest album, Infinite Arms carries a cohesive blend of indie-rock with some alternative country.

How do you follow up writing a rock opera for your first album? And not just a rock opera that existed solely as a recording, but one that you spent countless hours over three years in taking from just an idea to an album and then finally to a fully realized stage show incorporating puppetry, film, dance and a cast of 15.

With his acoustic guitar, Josh Ritter has let loose folk sounds that have often been compared to the likes of Leonard Cohen and Bob Dylan.

Paper Tiger's new album Made Like Us marks the second time that the producer has released something under his own name.

The Heavy's first single - "That Kind of Man" - from their 2007 debut album "Great Vengeance and Furious Fire" was an instant hit around The Current. So much so that we invited the band to play The Current's stage at the 2008 South By Southwest Musical Festival.

Having received their namesake from either a Tina Turner song or a boat that sank, Private Dancer is a party rock barge in their own right.