A seldom discussed reality of the indie-rock life is the day job, since most bands cannot afford to quit work and spend all their time on music. Take The Go! Team, the sextet from Brighton, England, whose debut album, "Thunder, Lightning, Strike," was an instant hit in Britain on release in 2004 and ended up on the shortlist for the coveted Mercury Music Prize. The album later prompted a bidding war among American labels wanting to release it stateside.
"Everyone in the band, including me, had to keep working after The Go! Team formed," says the group's founder and leader Ian Parton over his cell phone from a car somewhere in England.
"We'd fly over to Texas and do South by Southwest festival, then come home and have to go into work the next day."