Because the Detroit duo composed of Joshua Epstein and Daniel Zott – better known as Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. (no, that’s not a typo) – are clad in brightly colored NASCAR racing suits and strapped-in to cardboard race cars, its music would presumably be loud, fast, and silly.  But to the delight of music tastemakers, its easy-breezy, tropical textures and uncluttered instrumentation make Dale Earnhardt Jr. Jr. psychedelic indie pop (not a la Pink Floyd) that is perfect to sip a fabulous umbrella-ed drink.

LISTEN TO: Spiro Agnew – Desert of the Real

Sonically, San Francisco-based Spiro Agnew is somewhere in-between the fuzzed-out guitar noise rock of The Jesus and Mary Chain and the synth-pop of New Order, a hybrid between reverb-heavy music and electronica.  Over the course of 2010, songwriter Alex Musto recorded its debut album “OH What Model Citizens We Be,” a mediation on love, politics, and the fiction in between.  After gigging at SXSW, SOTR caught up with Musto via e-mail:

Brooklyn-based trio, Bear In Heaven unfolds the sonic fabric of genres with their cinematic danceable, drone music in their sophomore LP, Beast Rest Fourth Mouth.  As if in a parallel universe, Bear In Heaven defies gravity by masterfully manipulating prog rock, psychedelica, and Kautrack while somehow maintaining a pop sensibility.  They have been compared to the legendary Genesis and Pink Floyd and to the more contemporary M83 and Animal Collective.

The Dodos are a freak-folk trio from San Francisco that are notorious not only for their breakthrough Animal Collective-inspired song, “Fools” from Visiter, featured in a Miller Chill ad but also for their innovative approach to their music.

With “Kites” from their newest release Animal Shapes EP featured in a Twitter ad, the Baroque-rock-meets-synth-pop-with folky-vocals sound of Geographer has won over music-loving hearts everywhere.  SOTR spoke with frontman Mike Deni about Geographer’s sonic journey from naming the band to their current goings-on.

SOTR:  Why did you choose the name “Geographer?”