It's an age-old story -- a Galactic Empire crumbles, and so soon does the economy of a universe. I mean, it was great and everything that the Rebel Alliance blew up the second Death Star (big ups to iCarly's biological father, Nien Nunb), but after all that action, how does a Jedi go back to being just a regular ol' dude trying to get by? And how does he or she pay those bills? We all be the droids N-Star's looking for, amirite?!

In this week's Phoenix we hype 11 local bands you should know in 2011.

While the feature includes tasty tidbits like each band's bio, next show around town, and individual live video links, we decided to save a handful of mp3s for our beloved On The Download readership.

Below are downloadable tracks from five of our selections -- Banditas, Stereo Telescope, Doomstar!, RIBS, and cover darlings Night Fruit, photographed above by Kelly Davidson -- so load these hott jams onto your iPod and welcome the new sound of the New Year.