2001 was a good year for Radiohead clones. Muse released their second album, Origin of Symmetry, to the fanfare of British rock critics. Coldplay finally attained mainstream success in the United States. And Travis cemented their international popularity with the Nigel Godrich-produced The Invisible Band. Meanwhile, in Denton, Texas (about as far away from Oxford as you can get), five jazz students at the University of North Texas released an EP under the name Midlake….

During last year’s DAM!fest, I had some time to kill between shows one night and headed over to DC9 to catch some of the ridiculous bill that had bands like De Novo Dahl, Bound Stems and Bishop Allen all playing the same night. I got there right as the first band, Pela, were starting their set. I had read the name on a few different music blogs but wasn’t familiar with their music at…