Genre: Country/Americana
Hometown: Austin, TX

Parts rock, parts country and folk, Mike and the Moonpies play with a soulful tenacity thick enough to damn near cut with a knife. This is good old fashioned, old-school, bar room blues. The quintet titled this year's full-length debut The Real Country—a title they seem to consider a charge to keep. They look the part, too. Front man Mike Harmeier sports a cowboy hat as he growls and drawls his way through a set of cutting country anthems, lead guitarist Catlin Rutherford puffs on a cigarette and pedal steel player Zachary Moulton is a tattooed vision of toughness. The band's stock has risen nationally thanks to a breakthrough session with Daytrotter and subsequent spot on the website's annual Barnstormer tour. "It doesn't matter where we play," says Harmeier. "We're a good dance band. That's what it's all about."

Photo by Photography by Maurice