Great Non Mainstream Music

Brazil is an Indiana rock band. Although the band eschews labels and are often categorized with the punk and post-hardcore music scenes, that is mostly due to association. The music itself is more akin to progressive rock with indie rock roots. The line-up as of 2006 release is Jonathon Newby, Nicholas Newby, Aaron Smith, Eric Johnson, James Sefchek, and Philip Williams. They are known for complex song arrangements and intellectual subject matter, and cite influences as diverse as Pink Floyd, Queen, and The Cure. Brazil have released two full length albums and two EPs.

Dredg (commonly typeset as dredg) is an American progressive/alternative rock band formed in 1993 in Los Gatos, California. The band consists of vocalist Gavin Hayes, guitarist Mark Engles, bassist Drew Roulette and drummer Dino Campanella. With Hayes and Roulette enjoying art as a hobby, the band has consistently incorporated art, and painting in particular, into their albums and concerts.

The band established themselves in the indie scene with their 1998 release of the concept album Leitmotif, landing them a deal with Interscope Records. Dredg released El Cielo in 2002, Catch Without Arms in 2005, and The Pariah, the Parrot, the Delusion in 2009.

Fair to Midland is an American art rock band formed in 1998. They are currently signed to Serj Tankian's Serjical Strike label. According to the band's official website, their name comes from "...an old Texan play on the term fair to middling'."'' The group has released three albums and an EP. The band has toured with such bands as Serj Tankian, Dir en grey, Flyleaf, Wednesday 13, As I Lay Dying, Chevelle, and 10 Years.

The Mars Volta is a Grammy Award-winning American progressive rock group formed in 2001 by guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López and vocalist Cedric Bixler-Zavala. The band incorporate various influences including punk rock, jazz fusion, funk and Latin/Salsa into their sound. They are known for their energetic and improvisational live shows, as well as their concept-based studio albums. In 2009, the band won a Grammy in the "Best Hard Rock Performance" category for the song "Wax Simulacra." They were named rock music's "Best Prog-Rock Band" of 2008 by Rolling Stone magazine.

Mercury Rev is an American rock music group, formed in the mid 1980s in Buffalo, New York. Original personnel were David Baker (vocals), Jonathan Donahue (vocals, guitars), Sean Mackowiak, a.k.a. "Grasshopper" (guitars, clarinet), Suzanne Thorpe (flute), Dave Fridmann (bass) and Jimy Chambers (drums).

With their early records, Mercury Rev offered experimental, psychedelic rock, which gradually shifted to a melodic, ornate sound. Mercury Rev is often compared to The Flaming Lips, and in fact have close ties: Soon after the band's formation, Donahue also joined the Flaming Lips as second guitarist and appeared on two of their albums. Furthermore, since the 1990 album In a Priest Driven Ambulance, Dave Fridmann has co-produced every Flaming Lips studio album to date except 1993's Transmissions from the Satellite Heart.

Despite considerable critical acclaim, their early releases never gave Mercury Rev more than cult popularity, though they appeared on the smaller second stage at some 1993 Lollapalooza stops. Baker left after their second record, Boces (1993), citing musical and personal disputes; he later recorded an album as Shady. With his departure, the darker, more experimental and less accessible features of their music began to disappear.

The band's first post-Baker album, See You on the Other Side (1995), found them in transition, and the 1998 release of the acclaimed Deserters Songs (which featured appearances by Garth Hudson and Levon Helm of The Band) made Mercury Rev unexpected pop stars. In the UK, NME Magazine made Deserter's Songs their Album of the Year. Donahues earnest, high-pitched vocals and concentration on relatively concise, melodic songs gave the band's material an entirely new feel and much increased popularity (Deserters Songs spawned three UK top 40 singles).

All Is Dream was issued in 2001. It managed a UK top 20 single, "The Dark is Rising," which

reached #16 in the UK Top 40.

Mercury Revs much-anticipated The Secret Migration was released on January 24, 2005. This was followed up in 2006 by a compilation album called Category: The Essential Mercury Rev: Stillness Breathes 1991-2006 - and the film soundtrack album Hello Blackbird. More recently, the band released a pair of albums on September 29, 2008: Snowflake Midnight, and a free MP3 album of instrumentals, Strange Attractor.

Minus the Bear is an indie rock band from Seattle, Washington. The band features current and former members of Botch, Kill Sadie, and Sharks Keep Moving. Their sound is a combination of Pele-esque guitar-taps and electronics, with sophisticated time signature composition. It's said the name "Minus the Bear" comes from an inside joke among the band members, referring to the 80's TV show B. J. and the Bear.

Modest Mouse is an American indie rock band formed in 1993 in the Seattle suburb of Issaquah, Washington by singer/lyricist/guitarist Isaac Brock, drummer Jeremiah Green, and bassist Eric Judy. Since their 1996 debut album, This Is a Long Drive for Someone with Nothing to Think About, their lineup has centered around Brock, Green and Judy. Guitarist Johnny Marr (formerly of The Smiths) joined the band in May 2006, along with percussionist Joe Plummer (formerly of the Black Heart Procession) and multi-instrumentalist Tom Peloso, to work on the album We Were Dead Before the Ship Even Sank. Guitarist Jim Fairchild joined the band in February of 2009.

The band has attained significant mainstream success since being signed to Sony's Epic Records in 2001 and have been one of the leading bands in the commercialization of indie rock, beginning with The Moon & Antarctica and Good News for People Who Love Bad News, which have been certified gold and platinum by the RIAA respectively. They have gone on to sell over three million records since. Elements of Modest Mouse's early sound have been likened to or inspired by that of Pixies and numerous other alternative rock and space rock bands. Their name is derived from a passage from the Virginia Woolf story "The Mark on the Wall" which reads, "I wish I could hit upon a pleasant track of thought, a track indirectly reflecting credit upon myself, for those are the pleasantest thoughts, and very frequent even in the minds of modest, mouse-coloured people, who believe genuinely that they dislike to hear their own praises."The Mark On The Wall by Virginia Woolf - Read Print

Murder by Death is an American four-piece rock band from Bloomington, Indiana. Their name is derived from the 1976 Robert Moore film of the same name.Biography at allmusic.com

The Music are an alternative rock band from Kippax, Leeds, comprising Robert Harvey (vocals, guitar), Adam Nutter (lead guitar), Stuart Coleman (bass) and Phil Jordan (drums). To date, the band have released three studio albums.

Portugal. The Man is an American band from Wasilla, Alaska, and based in Portland, Oregon, made up of former members of the band Anatomy of a Ghost. The group was but is no longer signed to Fearless Records. They now have their own imprint label called Approaching AIRballoons through indie label Equal Vision Records. They have a new album to be released on July 21, 2009 titled "The Satanic Satanist".