The Fratellis

Thank goodness for the Fratellis. Just as the bright! new! shiny! light that seemed to emanate from Franz Ferdinand started to fade a bit, their fellow Glaswegians (that's people from Glasgow -- who knew?) raced across the Atlantic to save us from a future without brilliant Scottish indie rock. And brilliant they are, with their soused, saucy, and, dare we say, lovable country-punk garage rock.

Adopting that classic coy rocker ploy, the boys in the band have all taken the same last name, but Jon (vocals/guitar), Mince (drums/vocals), and Barry Fratelli (bass) are not, of course, brothers. In fact, one pervasive rumor is that they named themselves after the dirty, rotten bad guy family from The Goonies, but the band swears that Fratelli is merely Barry's original last name. Along with this charming lore, a self-titled EP and a handful of hot singles carried the Fratellis from their inception in 2005 to their burgeoning fame of 2007, when their full-length debut, Costello Music, wa came out. Oh, and an iPod commercial featuring their tune "Flathead" probably helped, too.