Julie Plug

San Francisco's Julie Plug unabashedly show their love of English pop without being outright derivative or resorting to faux-Englishness themselves. Washes of swirling guitars make a steady stream of colorful noise as cocky, unfettered John Squire-like leads twist and turn. The key points are Des de Leon's vocals, which manage to be confident and pretty without being overly cute. They offer up resonating pop tracks that should make anyone who's ever spent too much time reading the NME remember why they did.