Ani Cordero created and fronted a new bilingual indie-rock band in Tucson, Arizona in early 1999. She borrowed members of Tucson’s Calexico and Giant Sand and called the group by her Puerto Rican family name, Cordero.

Dirty Sweet is: • Ryan Koontz: Vocals • Nathan Beale: Guitar, Vocals • Chris Mendez-Vanacore: Drums, Vocals • Christian Schinelli: Bass • Eli Wulfmeier: Guitar

Sparhusen is: Olf Nystrom: keyboards, vocals, drums Gert Foresberg: guitars, salmon flute, vocals Berget Kattson: vocals, baby making

Indie rock band formed in 2004 in Seattle by Ben Bridwell and Matt Brooke. Joe Arnone joined the band in February 2006. They are currently signed to Sub Pop Records. In 2009, Ludwig Boss (a member of the Swedish band Ray Wonder) joined the band.

The FemBots have set off in yet another direction while in many ways returning to their beginnings. Born out of improvisation and experimentation, Calling Out (2008) sees the FemBots once more stretching themselves musically to produce an album that is daring yet accessible.

Chromeo is P-Thugg and Dave 1: best friends since their adolescence, virtuoso musicians, walking hip hop encyclopedias, and the only successful Arab/Jew partnership since the dawn of human culture.

Christa Mae was given an old guitar, back in the formative years of junior high school, by her older brother, Dave. It was so big she had to lay it across her lap like a pedal steel in order to play it. In the years since Christa and her guitar have grown into each other.

The Happy Hollows are a raucous three piece indie-rock band from Los Angeles that plays fast and irreverent noise-pop. The group is fronted by Sarah Negahdari (vocals/guitar) and held together by the rhythm section of Charlie Mahoney (bass/vocals) and Chris Hernandez (drums/vocals).

The Henry Clay People formed in 2002 as Vallejo by Knife. After some lineup changes they officially changed their name to The Henry Clay People in 2005, after which they’ve played hundreds of shows, have toured the United States multiple times, and have performed at Lollapalooza, SXSW, Austin City Limits Festival, and Sasquatch Music Festival.

If “up and coming” weren’t a way to capture your yearning for the latest independent artist then I would say Michelle Armstrong is anything but….with over 90 songs written and two released albums she is more of  a shooting star than a rising one.