Vampire Weekend

Vampire Weekend is an American indie rock band from New York City, formed in 2006 and signed to XL Recordings. The band released its first album Vampire Weekend in 2008, which produced the singles "Mansard Roof", "A-Punk", "Oxford Comma", and "Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa". The band's most recent album, Contra, was released in 2010.

Members are Ezra Koenig (lead vocals, guitar), Rostam Batmanglij (keyboards, guitar, backing vocals), Chris Tomson (drums, percussion) and Chris Baio (bass guitar, backing vocals)...more

Top Songs

• A-Punk
• M79
• White Sky

Best Album

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Au Revoir Simone

Au Revoir Simone is an indie pop band from Williamsburg, Brooklyn, New York, formed in late 2003. The group is composed of Erika Forster (vocals/keyboard), Annie Hart (vocals/keyboard) and Heather D'Angelo (vocals/drum machine/keyboard). The band's name comes from a line Pee-Wee Herman says to a minor character (named Simone) in Tim Burton's Pee-Wee's Big Adventure.

According to the Web site of the band's European label, the group's musical influences could be "likened to a dutifully mined musical thrift store." Alongside the racks and railings of sometimes mismatched but wholly treasured records occupied by Modest Mouse, Stereolab, the Mountain Goats, Louis Prima, and Pavement, the likes of the Björk, Broadcast, Belle & Sebastian, David Bowie, the Bee Gees, and Billie Holiday also take their place. Erika Forster harbors a love of German label Morr, specifically artists such as Guther, Lali Puna, and Ms. John Soda...more

Top Songs

• Sad Song
• Another likely history
• All or nothing

Best Albums

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Razorlight

Razorlight is an English-Swedish indie rock band formed in 2002. They are primarily known in the U.K., having topped the charts with the 2006 single "America" and its parent self-titled album, their second. The band consists of lead singer and rhythmic guitarist Johnny Borrell, guitarist Björn Ågren, bass guitarist Carl Gustaf Dalemo and drummer David 'Skully' Sullivan Kaplan.

Their debut album, Up All Night, was released on June 28, 2004, reaching number 3 in the UK album charts on 4 July. The critical reception was generally good, receiving good reviews from NME, Q magazine and Billboard, although they were also accused of lack of imagination and unoriginality for allegedly borrowing ideas from other influential bands, notably The Strokes. They appear to polarize opinion. NME wrote that the album: “bristles with passion, energy and, most importantly, amazing songs”, while they were described elsewhere as “nearly everything wrong with rock and roll today”. Their fans, though, embrace the music for its simple melodies and multi-layered, easy-going compositions.

Top Songs

• America
• Golden Touch
• Wire to wire

Best Albums

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Kings of Convenience

Kings of Convenience are an indie folk-pop duo from Bergen, Norway. Consisting of Erlend Øye and Eirik Glambek Bøe, the musical group is known for their delicate tunes, calming voices, and intricate and subtle guitar melodies. Øye and Bøe both compose and sing the songs.

The twosome were signed to the American label Kindercore after appearing in European festivals during the summer of 1999. After a spell living in London in 2001, they released their debut album Quiet Is the New Loud. The album was produced by Coldplay producer Ken Nelson. The album was very successful and even lent its name to a small movement of musicians in the pop underground (including acoustic contemporaries such as Turin Brakes) which took Belle & Sebastian and Simon and Garfunkel as their inspiration and focused on more subtle melodies and messages.

Top Songs

• Misread
• I'd Rather with you
• Know-How (feat Feist)
  

Best Albums

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Angus & Julia Stone

Angus & Julia Stone are a brother-sister duo from Newport on the Northern Beaches of Sydney, Australia. Their mother and father were both musical - they learned many songs from their father's cover band. At very young ages, they were introduced to music by their father who made them join his school band. Julia played the trumpet, Angus the trombone and their older sister, Catherine, the saxophone.

In 2010 they won three ARIA Awards for Album of the year, Best Adult Alternative Album and Single of the year for 'Big Jet Plane' in addition to Artisan Awards for Producer of the Year and Best Cover Art.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, the duo confirmed they were already writings songs for their third album with Angus stating "I want to write stuff that makes me wanna move, more groove-based stuff."


Top Song

1. Just a Boy
2. Big JetPlane
3. Paper Aeroplane

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