The Mekons are a band originally from England that was formed in 1977. From the time of their debut album, "The Quality of Mercy Is Not Strnen", the Mekons wielded trebly guitars and shouted vocals over semi-funky rhythms tracks.

Pat Donohue is no stranger to public radio listeners all across the country as the ace guitarist of the Guy's All Star Shoe Band on A Prairie Home Companion. He's also from Minnesota, based in St. Paul, and can be seen with various combinations of musicians around the area.

The band were originally known as British Air Power and one of their four songs in their demo package was called British Sea Power. They were signed to Rough Trade Records in 2001 and released several singles before releasing their debut CD, "The Decline Of British Sea Power" in 2003.

Bell X1 was formed from the remnants of Juniper in 1999. Their most successful year to date was documented with the CD/DVD set "Tour de Flock" in June of 2007, the first release on the band's newly established Bellyup Records label.

In March of 2008, former Pavement front man Stephen Malkmus released his fourth studio album with The Jicks entitled, "Real Emotional Trash."

It's been 25 years since Boiled In Lead started playing music in the Twin Cities area. Over the years, the band has released several records, seen bars and nightclubs come and go (and crash and burn) and has had a few personnel changes too.

The Portland, Oregon sextet that have been together since 2000, Blitzen Trapper are lo-fi folky garage rockers. Those adjectives weren't just picked out of a hat. Blitzen Trapper grab influences from The Grateful Dead, Olivia Tremor Control, and Frank Zappa while playing in a scene that spawned The Decemberists, The Shins, and Elliott Smith. Their third self-released album, "Wild Mountain Nation" was released in 2007.

As one of the founding members of the Los Angeles punk band X, John Doe was one of the most influential figures in American alternative rock during the early '80s, but when he launched a solo career in the early '90s, he decided to pursue a rootsy, country-rock direction instead of continuing with punk. X's latter-day albums exhibited a rockabilly and country influence, but it wasn't until Doe's 1990 debut, Meet John Doe, that he recorded a pure country album.

Born and raised in Neptune City, NJ, singer-songwriter Nicole Atkins lived up and down the east coast before settling in New York to write her debut album about her hometown. Atkins was approached by friend and now band-mate Dan Chen in 2005 to start a new band, The Sea, based on the songs Atkins had on her MySpace page.

Tokyo Police Club is a group of four friends from Newmarket Ontario who picked up instruments and formed a band in their senior year of high school. Their debut EP A Lesson In Crime was written up everywhere from indie blogs to Rolling Stone who gushed it had, "seven first-rate mod-punk party starters." Elephant Shell, the debut full-length, is due at the end of April.