Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet.

The Band: Kooley High
The Buzz: Stunning North Carolina hip-hop group makes grand, thumping tracks from sliced-up soul and shards of R&B. It's like every song should be released on 45.
Listen If: You don't care how cold it is outside — to you, it's always summertime. And 1993.
Key Track: "Too Late," the kind of sizzling all-crew scorcher that would have done Arrested Development proud.

The Band: Iran
The Buzz: TV on the Radio's Kyp Malone flexes his pure pop impulses, writing songs with grand, gliding melodies and strange, sinuous choruses.
Listen If: You wish Bowie sounded a bit more like the bands he palled around with.
Key Track: "Airport '79," Iran's "Five Years" rewrite that scrapes up bright acoustic strumming with scabrous swipes of synth.

The Band: Fire on Fire
The Buzz: Maine collective plays sprawling, haunted Appalachian folk, stacking grainy layers of acoustic guitars, mandolins and harmonium for a new spin on old-timey death ballads.
Listen If: Your beard is bigger than most babies, or you have an abiding fascination in ghost stories of the old American West.
Key Track: "Heavy D," which has nothing to do with '80s hip-hop and everything to do with the great existential weight.