DeVotchKa's music is part of a trend that includes artists like Andrew Bird, Beirut and Calexico seemingly sprung from an alternate reality in which the British Invasion never reached American shores and yet the alternative movement flourished anyway.

"Born into the world wearing neon sunglasses and a pair of hi-tops, Jake Sullivan was raised on casio keyboards and cartoons." So begins an autobiographical segment on electronic, guitar and synth-shredding, face-melting local one-man band BadNRad. BadNRad has been thumping a keytar-sized dent in the Minneapolis music scene over the past year, culminating in a showcase at First Avenue's Best New Bands of 2010.

Emerging from Los Angeles' growing indie-soul scene, Fitz & the Tantrums began as the one-man project of Michael Fitzpatrick, but has now expanded into a seven-piece band. Fitzpatrck--"Fitz" for short--plays the church organ and shares vocal duties with singer Noelle Scaggs.

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."