Born in London, growing up in Greece and moving to Scotland at the age of 10 then going to college at Duke University, it wasn't until singer-songwritier Alexi Murdoch moved to L.A. that his career took off when KCRW host Nic Harcourt began playing his music. His first full-length album "Time Without Consequence" was released in 2006, and his song "Orange Sky" found its way all over television and movies playing on shows like The O.C. and movies like The Garden State.

Norah Rendell talks about latest album from The Outside Track

Wild Nothing is the band from Virginia-born Jack Tatum. Produced entirely in his bedroom, Tatum started with the music before writing lyrics to his Smiths-inspired shoe-gaze songs. While on tour, Tatum brings a long band members to recreate the sounds live.

Purposefully misspelled Minneapolis band the Nightinghales draw heavily from American-inspired, British blues bands like the Rolling Stones, the Kinks, and the also alternatively-spelled Byrds.

Toro y Moi has a tough act to follow on his new album, "Underneath the Pine."

Doomtree MC and Minnesota native Sims dropped his second official full-length release, "Bad Time Zoo," earlier this week, and also

Highlights from the 2010 Rock Bend Folk Festival in St. Peter, MN.

"The King of Limbs" consists of eight strange and understated songs. There are no anthems and no multi-part epics, no nostalgic returns to form and no game-changers. Instead, it's the kind of record that a band their age should and would make: modest in scope, yet unselfconscious, exploratory and wise.

Singer-songwriter Justin Townes Earle--son of Steve Earle, stepson of Alison Moorer, named after Townes van Zandt--might as well be alt-country royalty.