Oakland, California based retro rock Shannon and The Clams are a three piece band that combines elements from garage, punk, classic R&B and Motown into their own brand of rock 'n roll. This group, made up of Shannon Shaw, Cody Blanchardand Ian Amberson on drums, stand out due to the raw clarity of the band's influences and edgy subject matter.
For example, the first track from 2011 Sleep Talk, Baby Don't Do It, features a character running through the darkness with a machete that "glints by the light of the moon" that is sung with shades of The Ronettes with a sharp set of measured guitar chords ringing out with the tight precision of a rhythm section - or maybe a lovelorn serial killer.
In an interview with the blog Still In Rock from 2014, the group says they met in 2009 while attending the California College of the Arts.
"We had a class together and thought one another was lame until we saw each others videos in class. We realized we were the only cool freaks in the class and have basically been best friends ever since."
The group has three studio albums to date including: I Wanna Go Home (2009), Sleep Talk (2011) and Dreams in the Rat House (2013).
Shannon And The Clams - You Will Always Bring Me Flowers
- Official Site, Shannon And The Clams
- Facebook, Shannon And The Clams
- Still In Rock, Band Interview
Woods is an interesting three piece band based in Brooklyn, New York since 2005. Their instrumentals are complex and rollicking and Woods even go so far as to have a "tape player" G. Lucas Crane who acts as a DJ, soundman and back up vocalist on stage.
No not Pink Floyd's The Wall or Yes's Tales from Topographic Oceans but concept rock with 500 foot tall monsters being battled by an elusive group of brave superheroes called Daikaiju (pronounced DIE-kai-joo). 
Death is an American metal band founded in 1983 by Chuck Schuldiner in Orlando, FL. Death released seven definitive albums including "Scream Gore Death" and "Spiritual Healing". Their best albums have been re-released in 2011 and have quickly found another generation of fans that have grown tired of slick, over-produced pop masquerading as metal or "hard rock" including Avenged Sevenfold, Incubus, Linkin Park and many other modern "rock" bands.
Explode Into Colors were a three-piece band made up of Claudia Meza on vocals/bass with Lisa Schonberg and Heather Treadway. The trio gained a large following from 2008-2010 in Portland, Oregon by bringing their raucous and energetic sound to upscale venues like the 
There many descriptions of southern California's The Growlers. They enjoy a large audience on national college radio which, God bless it, calls the group everything from folk to psyche rock. The truth seems to be that they incorporate everything in between these two musical polar opposites and make these influences into their own sound.
The unusually gifted and soulful work of Jamie N. Commons has been prominently featured in TV's runaway smash hit show The Walking Dead on the AMC network. His track 
Chrisakes are an Athens, Georgia band. Athens is famous in the south for being the flashpoint for bands like R.E.M., Danger Mouse, Drive-By Truckers, Harvey Milk and Of Montreal. With so much distinctive and good music coming out of one town it's hard to get noticed as a band - unless you are Chrissakes.
The Laurels, formed in 2006, are a very talented and well-rounded alt-rock act from Sydney, Australia. The group made a strong showing at the 5th annual Austin Psych Fest in April in Texas and are currently looking for American distribution. 
Originally slated to be Modest Mouse's debut album, "Sad Sappy Sucker" was shelved for several years until it's eventual release in 2001. This came after the popularity of smash hit album The Moon & Antarctica (3rd Planet, I Came as a Rat, Lives Like Weeds) released in June of 2000. The Moon & Antarctica dwarfed the group's early work on The Lonesome Crowded West (Polar Opposites) released in 1997 and Build Nothing Out Of Something (Never Ending Math Equation) a compilation album of work recorded from 1996 to 1998 that was released in early 2000.
Pussy Wizard is a rock band with an outrageous name led by Jordan Blackmon, Toro Y Moi guitarist, who recently debuted his solo project Pussy Wizard in February of 2012. His new EP "Songs From Last Winter" released in September of 2012 is a more tightly polished album with even more depth - in terms of performance and style.
Anton Newcombe is the leader of the Brian Jonestown Massacre founded in the early 1990s in San Francisco. The band's name "The Brian Jonestown Massacre" is a mash-up of The Rolling Stones' founder and guitarist Brian Jones and the infamous mass cult suicide in Jonestown, Guyana led by Jim Jones in the late 1970's. Combining the two seemingly similar but polar opposite terms reflects a cruel contradiction in American popular culture.
The New York Dolls sucked. They were an "image" band that posed as tranvestites and screamed like angry Bowery Bums yet they sold 10 million records. In 2003, The New York Dolls self-titled album was also named one of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time by Rolling Stone. To top things off, they played a wildly successful reunion show in 2011. And yet, they still sucked.
2012 Rock 'n Roll Hall of Fame inductee Donovan has a dubious reputation as The Pop Star Who Lost An Argument With Bob Dylan - famously documented by cameras backstage in a portion of D.A. Pennebaker's classic 1967 documentary Don't Look Back when Bob Dylan and Donovan surrounded by a hoard of reporters and hangers-on (all in quasi Beat regalia - shades and sandals). After Donovan played a trademarked wistful, chart-topping love song ("To Sing For You") Dylan followed up by playing a wry-faced version "It's All Over Now Baby Blue".
The Pod is the second studio album by Ween, originally released by Shimmy Disc in September of 1991. The Pod was named for the apartment Dean and Gene shared in which all of the album's songs were recorded is the the band's most surreal record.
The title track from Mellow Gold, recorded in 1991 by Bongload Custom Recordings in L.A., introduced the world to Beck Hansen two years later in 1993. An infectious slide guitar driven melody, the single's chorus of "I'm a loser baby, so why don't you kill me," became unavoidable. Beck released Mellow Gold (1994), his Geffen/DGC Records debut, in early 1994 to critical acclaim. The album included the aforementioned single as well as the live staple "Beercan", and showcased Beck's love of all things musical. Elements of folk, punk, blues, noise and hip-hop informed the varied sounds on the album. He also released two independent albums during this period including the melancholy, folk-tinged One Foot In The Grave (K Records) (1994).