Usually one gets a feel of a band's vibe from their name. Frightened Rabbit is not one of those bands. 

Singer-guitarist Scott Hutchison played solo gigs when he was starting out, and came up with Frightened Rabbit because it was a nickname his mum gave him when he was a shy kid in Selkirk, Scotland. When the band began playing together they didn’t bother finding a new name.

The Glaswegian outfit has some of the most creatively-named albums around (The Midnight Organ Fight, The Winter Of Mixed Drinks, Pedestrian Verse, Painting Of A Panic Attack...), great songs, and some pretty entertaining videos:

Bias Alert: one of my favourite bands. 

Now that we have that out of the way, These New Puritans are one of those hybrid bands that, while you can pick out influences left right and centre, those influences merge together to become something pretty damn good. 

​They take their name from a combination of the song "New Puritan" by The Fall and a reference to the New Puritans literary movement of the early 2000s. The movement was said to have been inspired by the Dogme 95 film movement.

​The a-little-more-than-one-hour-east-of-London-England group was originally conceived by twins Jack and George Barnett and are almost uncategorizable. Their music has been known to incorporate, along with run-of the mill guitars, bass, drums etc.: six-foot Japanese Taiko drums, brass and woodwind ensembles, a children's choir, vibraphonists, Foley recording techniques (including a melon with cream crackers attached struck by a hammer, used to simulate the sound of a human head being smashed)  and a katana (samurai sword - listen at 3:28 in the song below)! 

Great band name, mind-blowing music. 

I first heard of First Aid Kit during a night-owl session working on the Faux Rawk site. They were appearing on Letterman, and due to his having the best taste in music for an older fogie, I tuned in. 

Even if their music was a load of dung, the band name is cool enough (I'm still amazed it hadn't been taken before) to give them at least a modicum of respect. The fact that they're a couple of Swedish gals doing some of the best country music this side of the Ozarks makes them the complete package. 

When Klara Söderberg began to write music, she decided to go under a pseudonym and came up with First Aid Kit via a simple flip-through of an English dictionary. Big sis Johanna was brought into the fold and they've been supernova ever since. 

And if you're not a country fan, they also pull off a pretty solid Black Sabbath impression.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra is the classic case of your typical mega-talented, one-man-band New Zealander/Kiwi coming up with a tasty track, which gets enough buzz that said Kiwi becomes the darling of Pitchfork and gets a recording deal. Upon realizing he needs an actual band, he then naturally recruits a trio of Americans to complete the group.

The Kiwi, Ruban Nielson, released the track "Ffunny Ffrends" on his anonymous Bandcamp profile on May 17, 2010, and within a day, the song had received significant coverage from independent music blogs such as Pitchfork. Although there's no sexy/legendary origin for Unknown Mortal Orchestra name, this mind-blowing vid should at least temporarily distract you from that minor detail...