Cities

Although they only formed in late 2004, Cities can already count Clap Your Hands Say Yeah, Thunderbirds Are Now! and We Are Scientists as tour buddies. Still, the Chapel Hill, North Carolina, group's self-titled 2006 Yep Roc debut belies the band members' punk, hardcore and even classically trained backgrounds — thanks to a churning rhythm section, guitar progressions that flit dangerously about the edges of cliffs, and singer Josh Nowlan, who wails like a less-android-genius Thom Yorke. They aren't quite a dancier, more aggressive version of Radiohead just yet, but Cities are well on their way to staking a permanent position on the modern-music map.