The Band: Ragen Fykes
The Buzz: She describes herself as “Dolly Parton meets Kool Moe Dee,” but even that description sells her short; Fykes has a sweet, mystic alto, the kind that curls up like cigarette smoke and floats calmly and curiously over warm funk grooves. Her collaboration with Portland producer Ohmega Watts under the moniker M64 (scientific lingo for the collision of two galaixes in outer space) pushes worn-out neo-soul bravely forward — call it 30th Century R&B.
Listen If: You’re tired of waiting for Erykah Badu to deliver that sequel to New AmErykah.
Key Track: The M64 track “Helium,” where Watt’s humid funk production serves as the perfect counter to Fykes’ airborne vocals.

The Band: Hawthorne Headhunters
The Buzz: Tri-coastal trio of Stoney Rock (a.k.a. Black Spade) Ced No and Proh Mic write bloodshot tracks in the same spirit at the Mizell Brothers and David Axelrod, (mostly) shunning vocals in favor of 700 ton funk grooves that are all laid-back Cadillac cruising. (more…)

Who: Bred in one of the country’s strongest DIY punk communities, the New Brunswick, New Jersey-based trio Screaming Females have actually got only one shrieking lady. Her name is Marissa Paternoster, and she is 2009’s answer to Sleater-Kinney’s 2006 breakup, using her throaty pipes and serious chops to channel that trio’s femme-shredder legacy to a new generation. The band’s pint-size leader — whose signature stage attire includes a mandarin Sergeant Pepper-style dress and a bowl haircut covering her eyes — is known for ripping until her fingers bleed.

Sounds Like: Screaming Females’ third full-length and first-ever label release Power Move is packed with fuzzy riffs and gritty, epic solos layered over Mike Rickenbacker’s disciplined bass lines, with drummer Jarrett Dougherty’s fierce beats pushing it all forward. The LP gets poppy on “Bell” and psychedelic on “Skull,” but Paternoster’s core influences (”I listen to Sleater-Kinney and the Pixies”) shine through.

Vital Stats:

• Over the past four years, Screaming Females have played over 300 self-booked shows. Opening slots with Throwing Muses and Dinosaur Jr. in recent months have primed the band for their summertime gig: a 13-date run opening up for the Dead Weather in July. (more…)

Photo by David Horvitz
The Band: Sunset Rubdown
The Buzz: A side project of Spencer Krug from the equally buzzy Canadian indie rock band Wolf Parade, Sunset Rubdown write weird, wobbly rock songs that turn classic rock inside-out, writing big, guitar-driven songs full of yelps and hollers.
Listen If: You’re tired of waiting for the new Arcade Fire record, or you have a thing for vocalists who sound perched on the verge of a nervous breakdown.
Key Track: “Idiot Heart,” a taut and tense number built around a tidy guitar strum and Krug’s woebegotten vocals

The Band: Target Market
The Buzz: Illinois indie rock outfit blend searching, earnest melodies (we did say “indie rock,” remember?) with insistent guitars and buzzing synthesizers. (more…)

Who: A Providence, Rhode Island quartet of scruffy, hard-partying pals whose wild roots rock is far more world-weary than their ages suggest (nobody in the band is over 23).

Sounds Like: New album Born on Flag Day is stocked with dark songs for tough times — ragged Chuck Berry grooves and punk-country riffs are topped by frontman John Joseph McCauley III’s Winston-stained howls about alcoholics, gold-digging women and poverty-stricken couples who can’t foot their bills.

Vital Stats

• The group’s 2007 and raucous live shows have earned them fans like Jenny Lewis and NBC’s Brian Williams, who interviewed them for the debut of his online music-chat show BriTunes. “That was weird,” McCauley admits. “But he was a cool guy.” (more…)

The Band: Foreign Born
The Buzz: Their name is a misnomer unless you consider L.A. “foreign” (and, hey, there’s plenty of reason to), but this quartet has been steadily refining their sound since they formed in 2003. And if music doesn’t work out, they could have an estimable second career as video bloggers. Their personal wordpress? YouTube city. Seriously. You could burn like 6 hours on there. We know.
Listen If: You’re looking for a version of the Walkmen with a bit more grandeur and grandiosity, or are looking to get a jump on the next Vampire Weekend.
Key Track: “Early Warning,” where pinging highlife guitars justify the band’s moniker — it’s like if King Sunny Ade suddenly shucked the whole “stylistic pioneer” schtick and decided instead to write a great, reeling indie rock anthem.

The Band: Lightning Dust
The Buzz: A side project of Amber Webber and Josh Wells from stoner rock band Black Mountain, Lightning Dust makes music for witches to cast spells by, fierce and sudden as flashes of lightning. How Webber musters such a mighty level of vibrato is anybody’s guess. (more…)

Who: A Brooklyn-based quintet who broke out at this year’s SXSW on the strength of their free debut EP The Infinite Fucking Cross who have since gone on to open for Cold War Kids and MGMT. Bummed with their jobs working as ringtone designers, Will Roan and Simon O’Connor initially formed Amazing Baby as something to do after hours. “We would just sit around getting really wasted and work on songs,” says Roan. “We didn’t think we’d be very popular.”

Sounds Like: On their stunning debut album Rewild (out this month), Amazing Baby deliver tunes that are at times thoroughly vintage and refreshingly futuristic: “The Narwhal” sounds like Led Zeppelin at their druggiest and most mystical; “Invisible Place” soars and swoops like Pink Floyd’s “Echoes” and “Kankra” builds into such an anthemic frenzy, you’ll be oozing serotonin for days. The crew also have a wonky sense of humor, especially on tunes like the scuzzed-out jam “Smoke Bros,” which features stoner-appropriate ruminations like “She protects her animals/ We are starving cannibals.” “We’re all like super emotional screwed up dudes,” says Roan. “It’s not all about raging songs — we’ve got a pretty strong sense of musical aesthetics, even if our lyrics are totally ridiculous sometimes.”

Vital Stats:

• Amazing Baby are part of Brooklyn’s crew of neo-psychedelic bands, which also includes MGMT and Chairlift. In fact, O’Connor used to room with MGMT’s Ben Goldwasser at Wesleyan. “We’ve all slept with the same girls,” says Roan. (more…)

The Band: Mica Paris
The Buzz: In truth, “the buzz” should have been happening years ago — Paris had her first hit in 1988, and has had a song written especially for her by Prince. Thing is, that all of those hits have been in the U.K., and Paris never successfully made the jump across the pond. Here’s hoping that changes; her latest album, Born Again, is a masterpiece of modern R&B, alternately slick and soulful, recalling Aretha and Mary J with equal effortlessness.
Listen If: You haven’t given up on the idea of  R&B revival, or you’d take Lady Soul over Lady Gaga any day of the week.
Key Track: The desperately ecstatic “Baby Come Back,” where Paris pines for a lost lover over a bass groove and horn chart reminiscent of vintage Motown.

The Band: The Morning After Girls
The Buzz: Australian ex-pats now living in NYC, the Morning After Girls recall prime-era shoegaze outfits like Ride (whose Mark Gardener made a guest appearance one one of the group’s early EPs). (more…)

Who: Dirty Projectors, a Brooklyn five-piece led by mastermind David Longstreth whose unusual blend of blues and punk has captured the attention of David Byrne, Björk and TV on the Radio.

Sound Like: The band’s latest album Bitte Orca mixes soul-inflected vocal harmonies, jagged art-rock guitar and Timbaland-like rhythms. Aging hipster’s gripe “Stillness Is the Move” sounds like Talking Heads by way of Destiny’s Child.

Vital Stats:

• Longstreth began the Dirty Projectors while studying classical greats like Stravinsky and Wagner in college. His art-rock obsession didn’t mix well with student life. “What I hated about school was this reverence for the rules,” he says. (more…)

Photo:Furniss/WireImage

The Band: The Noisettes
The Buzz: London band fronted by the awesomely named Shingai Shoniwa temper Motown melodies with indie rock sensibilities, crafting sweeping, soulful numbers with just the right measure of guitar snarl. Their cover of the Killers’ “When You Were Young” should be hunted down immediately.
Listen If: In your record collection, the Supremes come right after Superchunk.
Key Track: Never Forget You,” a sassy soul two-stepper that starts small and cannonballs into a grizzled, gritty chorus, lit up by Shoniwa’s rye whiskey vocals.

The Band: Pocahaunted
The Buzz: We’ll cop — what originally got us was the punny name. But close listening was not disappointed: this is haunted house music, full of inhuman howls and stark, skeletal guitars. The duo recently played live for a classroom of third graders. So in about 20 years, there should be 30 or so very happy therapists. (more…)

Who: A Brooklyn chamber-pop quartet who hunkered down in a worn-down church to record their gorgeous third album Veckatimest. After a surprise hit in 2006’s “Knife” and a stint as Radiohead’s opening band in 2008, Grizzly Bear’s growing popularity was confirmed this week when Veckatimest debuted at Number Eight on the sales chart.

Sounds Like: Led by singer Ed Droste and singer-guitarist Daniel Rossen, who both share co-writing duties, Veckatimest is a lush mix of Beach Boys melodies, complex arrangements, ornate art rock and swooning pop hooks. “We learned how to edit ourselves on this album,” Droste says. “But I still hope that on the 20th or 30th listen you’ll discover something new. (more…)

The Band: Brajo
The Buzz: Orlando rapper falls somewhere to the left of Lil Wayne, with a relaxed, groggy flow and a penchant for verbal puns.
Listen If: You’re looking for an MC who knows how to split the difference between old school soul samples and new school blip-hop.
Key Track: You can conveniently preview his whole new mixtape on his MySpace, but we’d suggest starting out with “Through to You,” where Brajo lays his ragged croak over a sped-up chipmunk soul sample — it’s the kind of song that should be booming out of every drop-top this summer.

The Band: Avi Buffalo
The Buzz: Long Beach band perfects the midwest sound, writing campfire folk ballads that are as engaging as they are eccentric. (more…)

Who: Aussie indie-pop duo Kate Cooper and Damon Cox, whose tunes snagged them opening spots on 2008 tours by Tegan and Sara and Death Cab for Cutie. The pair — whose debut, Rearrange Beds, came out in March — met as employees at their local record store in Brisbane. “We used to close up the store and practice,” says Cooper, 29. “Damon would drop me off after work and joke, ‘We’re in Cincinnati tonight. Tomorrow we’re in Boston!’ He was just talking shit, but now it’s actually happening.”

Sounds like: A hooky heartbreak manifesto, with fuzzed-out riffs, snarling beats and clever shout-outs to ’90s alt-rock. “Like that good Hole album, I can live through this,” Cooper convinces herself on “Camp Out.” She wrote the confessional tune following the breakup of an intense relationship. “It was fun, but it was brutal,” she says. “I’m since in contact with the person and it’s all right, but I’m pretty sure they’re like, ‘I’m never dating a songwriter again!’ ” (more…)

Personal & the Pizzas

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet to find the ones you need to hear now.

The Band: Lacrosse
The Buzz: You cannot stop Sweden. Adorable, boy/girl vocals bound over banging piano and bouncing percussion.
Listen If: You do not want to stop Sweden. Sticky-sweet and irresistible, Lacrosse are a straight shot of summertime pop.
Key Track: “We Are Kids,” a breathless shot of energy tied up by a big, silvery riff.

The Band: Personal & the Pizzas
The Buzz: Crust-Punk Pizza! Personal & Co write gutter-dwelling punk songs with lyrics about, um, pizza.
Listen If: You love the Ramones, have outgrown Weird Al, and your sense of humor is twisted as Little Caeser’s crazy bread. (more…)

Who: Wide-eyed Brooklyn pixie St. Vincent, a.k.a. Annie Clark, who sings like an angel but shreds like a monster on her second album, Actor.

Sounds Like: “You know when music is so elegant it sounds like the clouds are parting and feathers are falling from the sky?” Clark tells Rolling Stone. “I’d juxtapose that with something really gross.” For example, on the opening technicolor ballad “The Strangers,” Clark adds a high-hat that comes in just behind the beat to make the song sound seasick. Whether shredding on a guitar with a wall of feedback or letting her choirgirl voice carry the song, St. Vincent’s music is always seemingly on the verge of ecstasy or disintegration.

Vital Stats:

• While writing Actor, Clark would stay up all night watching Disney films like Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast in her Brooklyn apartment and dream up orchestral scores for her favorite scenes, only to distort them with her black humor lyrics and “intentional” mistakes to give the songs their caustic feel. (more…)

Every week, Hype Monitor wades through the most buzzed-about bands all across the Internet to find the ones you need to hear now.

The Band: Blank Dogs
The Buzz: Joy Division stuck in a tape deck: New York band crafts weird, warbly new wave songs, spaced-out and singular.
Listen If: You’re not looking for the post-punk revival, but the post-punk reconstruction, where elements of the original sound are vastly and weirdly reconfigured.
Key Track: “No Compass,” a thick slab of off-kilter new wave smeared with thick synths and supported by spindly guitars.

The Band: Bowerbirds
The Buzz: North Carolina band brings full-on spooky folk songs, the sound of a million miner’s ghosts moaning in the 1880s countryside.
Listen If: You never quite grew out of campfire ghost stories. (more…)