Everest

In what amounts to a supergroup of pedigreed young sidemen, the Los Angeles band Everest was assembled in 2006 by singer and multi-instrumentalist Russell Pollard, who sought to play with musician-friends he'd come to know through kicking around the city's music community. Pollard himself had done time with Alaska! and the guys he surrounded himself with -- Jason Soda, Joel Graves, Rob Douglas and Derrick Brown -- were all vets of A-list indies like Sebadoh, Earlimart and Folk Impolsion. They took to writing somber pop songs together and began playing live shows in 2007, earning an instant following. They headed into Elliott Smith's former space at New Monkey Studio for sessions under the direction of Mike Terry, which yielded a warmly received debut, Ghost Notes, in 2008.