Standing firmly on the middle ground between the quirky, staccato attack of Modest Mouse and the spirited, arena-ready roar of Arcade Fire, Los Angeles-based indie rock outfit Grouplove came to fruition in the late 2000s around the talents of Hannah Hooper, Christian Zucconi, Sean Gadd, Ryan Rabin, and Andrew Wessen. New Yorkers Hooper and Zucconi, through sheer kismet, forged a friendship with the latter three members while attending an art residency in Greece on the island of Crete. Before returning to their myriad homelands, the future quintet members began hashing out plans to meet up again and put some of the music they had been working on to tape, resulting in whirlwind trips to Rabin’s Los Angeles studio, where the five friends decided to make their relationship official. Grouplove’s eponymous debut EP was released by Canvasback in 2010. While touring alongside Florence + the Machine early the following year, Grouplove managed to finalize plans for their full-length album, Never Trust a Happy Song, which appeared later that fall. ~ James Christopher Monger