Bands to Look Out for in 2010

January 5th, 2010    Posted in Emerging Artists

I thought I’d kick off the new year right by first filling you in about some of the bands who are expected to have pretty big breakouts this year. There’s certainly no shortage this year of indie pop and rock bands specializing in electronica and synthesizers, and acoustic instrumentation and experimentation.

If you’re into the whole “electro/indie/blippy/dance/pop” type of thing, familiarize yourself with names like The xx, Neon Indian, Avi Buffalo, Free Energy, Two Door Cinema Club, Ellie Goulding, Holiday Shores, We Have Band, Marina and the Diamonds, Flashguns, Cold Cave, Warpaint, Penguin Prison, Toro y Moi, Delphic, Wild Beasts, Chew Lips, Woodhands, French Horn Rebellion and Samuel and the Dragon.

If you’re into this new generation of folk bands and singers and songwriters (dubbed indie-folk) make sure you know names like Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Cory Chisel and the Wandering Sons, Local Natives, Vandaveer, Owen Pallett (formerly known as Final Fantasy), Twilight Hotel, The Deep Dark Woods, Dan Mangan, Sharon Van Etten, Jeremy Lister, Goldhawks and The Damnwells. As you can see (and may know), these two styles of music have been quite popular over the past several years, but I like to think that there’s never enough of these bands.

Don’t worry though, if those styles aren’t your cup of tea. There’s something for everyone. If you like things loud, you’ll want to check out these bands who dabble in garage rock, metal, punk rock, noise rock and straight up rock and roll: Japandroids, The Soft Pack, The Chapman Family, King Charles, Swanton Bombs, Revocation, Best Coast, Glass Ghost, Evan Voytas, Calories, Internet Forever and Screaming Females will please your ears, while fans of surf rock will love The Drums, Dinosaur Feathers, Real Estate and Surfer Blood, and fans of hip hop, rap and DJs will be into J. Cole, Gavin Castleton and Shad. There’s even a couple bands who just have a little bit of everything, like The Belleville Outfit, who mix together gypsy swing, jazz and Americana, while Sting’s daughter mixes up reggae and ska in the band I Blame Coco.

If you can’t find something you don’t like, don’t worry. It’s still the first week of 2010 and it looks to be like another amazing year in music.