3OH!3

Click above to watch 3OH!3 share lessons for surviving in the wilderness on their way to perform at Warped Tour

Basically, it was just us going nuts over beats," says Nathaniel Motte, the six-foot-seven-inch beatmaker for Boulder, Colorado, pair 3OH!3 — named after their hometown area code. He's talking about 3OH!3's appearance on this summer's Warped Tour, in which the duo — Motte and rapper-singer Sean Foreman — pumped fists, humped mike stands and performed choreographed dances while purveying a brand of hip-hop Motte describes as "C
line Dion on ice — not the skating ice, the meth ice." 3OH!3's unhinged sets made the pair a hit among performers like Cobra Starship's Gabe Saporta. "I tried to catch their show every day," says Saporta. "I like bands that aren't just crying about their girlfriends."

Indeed, you don't get a lot of heartsick kvetching on 3OH!3's debut, Want. Instead, you get wink-wink rhymes about getting drunk and hanging out with big-titted women, and punch lines like, "Shh, girl, shut your lips/Do the Helen Keller and talk with your hips," from "Don't Trust Me." There are tuneful emo-pop hooks, but most of the time 3OH!3 rely on spastic electro grooves and aggro rapping.

In person, Motte and Foreman don't seem like party boys. They're laid-back dudes who graduated summa cum laude from the University of Colorado. "People think we should be passed out drunk offstage," Motte says. "Our music is just about having fun, so we play [wilder] personas onstage."

Suitably for a genre-mixing band, 3OH!3 have opened for everyone from Snoop Dogg to Sum 41. Already with over 8 million spins on MySpace and a deal with Photo Finish/Atlantic Records, the pair seem surprised by their swift ascent. "Truck drivers and single moms are calling radio stations, like, 'I wanna hear that song about Helen Keller,' " says Motte. "That's dope." CHRISTIAN HOARD

HOME BASE Boulder, Colorado

FOR FANS OF Lil Jon, Spank Rock, Gym Class Heroes, Beastie Boys

SPIN THIS "Photofinnish" features zippy synths, fat-bottomed beats and hilariously aggro "Who Let the Dogs Out"-style chanting. Hear it playing at a drunken house party near you.

Photograph by Sarah Cass/Atlantic Records

Next: Dead Confederate

Check out more Artists to Watch