My Chemical Romance + Neon Trees + The Architects

Pop is the new punk, My Chemical Romance frontman Gerard Way decided before the band headed into the studio to cut a follow-up to 2006's platinum-selling The Black Parade. You can hear the effects of Way's realization all over Danger Days: The True Lives of the Fabulous Killjoys, a good-versus-evil concept record set in the year 2019, which depicts its futuristic setting with fuzzed-out keyboard riffs and throbbing man-machine beats. Utah alt-rockers Neon Trees got bumped up to the big leagues a couple of years ago, having been plucked by the Killers to open an American tour—now, they get My Chemical Romance honors.