Santa Cruz-based Sound Tribe Sector Nine (STS9) have always done things a little differently. (See: once touring according to the Mayan calendar and later, inviting artists of all kinds -- painters, writers, flower-arrangers -- onstage with them.) A favorite act at festivals like Bonnaroo and Rothbury, the instrumental trance-rock band's latest album, 'Peaceblaster,' is their most accessible album yet. "It's our Polaroid of America right now," bassist Dave Murphy tells Spinner. "It's a beautiful place. We live a peaceful lifestyle here, but there's also a real dark underbelly to it. It's reflected in the name, in the music, in the message and we felt like we really hit home this time."

And yet, 'Peaceblaster' might be the last CD the band ever releases. By traditional means, anyway. "For one, music has moved into a day and age when people are going to quit listening on CD players, so therefore the CD is an obsolete product if you will," Murphy explains. Additionally, for a band so environmentally conscious, it makes no sense to use all the resources it takes "to put out a CD and manufacture all that product to put out there when people aren't really buying that medium anymore."

Despite their best album sales yet with a No. 10 spot on the Billboard Electronic chart, the disc actually charted highest on iTunes (No. 2 for Electronic). Guess the band that once toured according to the Mayan calendar is actually right, although we're still pretty confident that the world will continue to exist after 2012.