Hot Warped Tour acts to watch for (or just those with clever names)

The bands (mostly)

Anti-Flag Anti-Flag's a little like that four-eyed wallflower in high school who sat alone in the cafeteria and mumbled things like, "You'll all be sorry some day." So imagine that same angry, aloof little dude got a mohawk and an electric guitar and realized he was actually pissed off at the government, not the football team. Yeah, that's Anti-Flag.

Autopilot Off Emo metal-lite, for when you want the real flavor of emo metal, but not the calories.

Bad Religion The original Ph.D.s of punk, Bad Religion melds politics, buzzsaw guitars and big words that'll have you reaching for your pocket Webster's in the pit.

Bouncing Souls This New Jersey crew marks its musical terrority with straightforward punk with surprisingly earnest songs about ex-girlfriends, BMX bikes and '80s movies. Mess with the bull, get the horns.

Breakdance Vietnam Breakdance Vietnam doesn't actually breakdance, which is a shame because it would be cool to watch full-figured punk screamer Brent Vann--a former tattoo artist--do the dizzy run or the why-glide.

The Casualties Perhaps no band in punk history has had a more appropriate name than the Casualties, who fell victim to grunge's flannel stampede when they debuted in the early '90s. But unlike hair metal, the Casualties survived, and now their throwback chugga-chugga is all the rage.

Coheed and Cambria Man your own jackhammer! Man your battle stations! Coheed and Cambria is a New York-based prog-rock quartet that writes songs about a pair of love-struck space warriors named--you guessed it--Coheed and Cambria. The couple actually died in 2002's The Second Stage Turbine Blade, but their son Claudio (also the name of the band's frizzy-haired frontman) has since taken up his parents' sword.

Dynamite Boy These Texas pop-punkers are known for their relentless touring schedule. Hey, what's that noise? No way. They're playing in your living room right now!

The Early November Dude, ain'tcha gonna plug that guitar in? Nope. Post-hardcore outfit Early November is known more for lilt than loudness, with its debut album Room's Too Cold garnering widespread critical props.

The F-Ups Most of the F-Ups are only 18, which is probably the reason why this Minnesota punk quartet decided to censor itself and only imply an f-bomb with its name.

Flogging Molly The luck of the Irish meets punk rock punch in this freewheeling outfit. Part Pogues, part pogo--all McWonderful O' Funtime.

From First to Last In a world where emo makes us want to vomit-o, From First to Last looks to reinvigorate the genre with sophisticated songcraft and lyrics about emotional turmoil you can't possibly understand.

Go Betty Go Sharp-toothed pop-punk made of up grrls, or womyn, or ryot chixx or whatever they're calling themselves these days.

Guttermouth Think NOFX if they dropped out of junior high and became frozen in a state of suspended adolescence.

IMA Robot IMA Robot is so tragically hip that the band almost couldn't be from anywhere but L.A. Check the mullets, the mustaches, the designer thrift; they're the perfect complement to IMA Robot's angular post-pop (kind of like a beach-party version of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs).

Juliette and the Licks Not to be confused with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Juliette and the Licks is a Joan Jett-inspired rock band fronted by none other than Hollywood whackjob actress Juliette Lewis. The music is more or less forgettable, but Lewis is a bona fide femme fatale, screaming curses and high-kicking in a spandex bodysuit.

Letter Kills It's hard to imagine a letter actually killing anyone, unless it was a really big cell phone bill or covered in anthrax. Either way, Letter Kills is cool--so cool, in fact, that it made last year's Warped Tour without a single album to its credit.

My Chemical Romance My Chemical Romance might be sad, but don't expect the band to don black eyeliner and flop over in a state of morbid catatonia. It's too busy singing militant anti-love anthems like "Honey, This Mirror Isn't Big Enough for the Two of Us" and "Thank You for the Venom."

New Found Glory Far be it from us to accuse any band of being juvenile, but New Found Glory has released five albums in as many years and lead singer Jordan Pundik still seems to be hung up on whether or not some girl is going to come to his show. FYI, Pundik: She's 30 now, and she doesn't like pop punk anymore.

NOFX Is irony still officially dead or was it revived? We can't remember. Regardless, NOFX is still pumping out its trademark smart-ass lyrics set to punk chops. Call it wiseacre-core. On second thought, don't.

The Q There aren't many bands that can get away with naming themselves after a letter of the alphabet, but The Q pulls it off with denim jackets and a whole catalog of sing-along melodicore choruses. Yeah, they're kind of pretty boy-ish, but they can make one helluva racket when they want to.

The Red West Based on its name, the Red West should probably be an alt-country band--something like Wilco or Holopaw or the Handsome Family--but lead singer Jayson Belts actually sounds a lot more like Sting than Jeff Tweedy on the band's Atlantic Records debut.

Scherzer In a rare public appearance, these metal giants from the tiny village of Grohlsburg, Germany, bring their soul-crushing comb-over-core to the States. Utterly terrifying--and yet not to be missed.

The Sounds A lot of people have compared the Sounds to Blondie because both bands play power pop and have a pretty blond vocalist, but the Sounds are Swedish and they probably don't know all the words to "Heart of Glass."

Story of the Year "Until the Day I Die," Story of the Year's lead single off last year's Page Avenue, is the kind of fist-pumping, chest-thumping, head-bumping punk anthem that every band would trade its drummer's left arm--sorry, Def Leppard--for. And to think, the band used to go by the name Big Blue Monkey.

The Vandals After 20-plus years, these O.C. veterans are still cramming pop-punk tunes with more gross, lowbrow humor than a Wal-Mart office party.

Yellowcard If you think pop punk lived and died with Green Day, um, you were right. Nonetheless, Yellowcard, sporting the first punk violin player in recent memory, takes the form to catchy new heights. (Or depths.)