CocoRosie

For many years, the only thing the Cassady sisters -- better known as CocoRosie -- had in common was a shared Bohemian upbringing. Their childhood was spent traipsing from state to state with their teacher/artist mother during the school year and from reservation to reservation with their Cherokee father, a Waldorf teacher and shaman, in the summer. The sisters didn't get along, and after Sierra went to boarding school at 14, they didn't see each other for 10 years. During that estrangement, Bianca quietly began writing songs, while her big sister moved to France to study opera at the Paris Conservatory. One day in 2003, Bianca, who had been living in Brooklyn until she took off to travel the world, showed up at Sierra's Paris apartment. The reunited sisters shut themselves in Sierra's bathroom, which had the best acoustics, and began composing and recording their first album, La Maison de Mon Reve. That recording, which is every bit as delicate and ethereal as its title, established CocoRosie's incandescent electro-folk-hop sound, got them a deal with Tough & Go (which released the album in 2004), and led to gigs with indie luminaries like Devendra Banhart, Ratatat, and Antony and the Johnsons.