In 2009, Georgia-based unit Manchester Orchestra put out the best rock release of the year with Mean Everything to Nothing. It's a tight, concise record, indebted to classics like Weezer's Pinkerton and Nirvana's In Utero, yet sonically adventurous à la Radiohead's OK Computer. Like many great albums, it went unappreciated...

Approaching two decades as a functioning band (with a few admittedly sketchy years in the beginning), AFI is effectively in punk rock for the long haul. The band ushered a million or so people into its cult through 2003's certified platinum Sing the Sorrow with the help of some catchy...