Cults

Not to be confused with The Cult (or any other hard-rocking outfit, as the headbanging cover of their debut album so artfully suggests), indie-popsters Cults prefer their rock 'n' roll retro, in the fuzzed-out vein of guy-gal pairs like The Raveonettes and The Kills. The duo of Brian Oblivion and Madeline Follin had a fairly rapid rise to blogosphere fame after posting a few of their songs online; Columbia soon came knocking, and the release of first official single "Go Outside" further heightened the buzz. The NYU film students quickly put their full focus on music, and Cults' self-titled debut album appeared in the summer of 2011.