The Band: Shrinebuilder
The Buzz: Shrinebuilder may be a relatively new band, but they’re hardly up-and-comers. Comprised of members of metal titans Scott Weinrich of St. Vitus, Al Cisneros of Sleep, the Melvins’ Dale Crover and Scott Kelly of Neurosis, the group binds together the best qualities of its significant legacy, making slow-moving metal that engulfs like a tar pit.
Listen If: You’ve ever waxed rhapsodic about Master of Reality — and especially if you have done so from the passenger seat of a Camaro.
Key Track: Seven-minute sludgefest “Pyramid of the Moon,” a heaving, hulking mass of riffs and groaned bocals that proves definitively that music doesn’t need to be fast to be punishing. (more…)

Who The U.K. synth-pop sensation — it’s scored two Top Five hits in England — consists of striking androgynous singer Elly Jackson and behind-the-scenes beatmaker Ben Langmaid (he refuses to be interviewed or photographed and doesn’t perform live). But Jackson is used to being the center of attention, for her hair — a red, Woody Woodpecker-style pouf — and her piercing voice. Says Jackson, “It’s a massively powerful instrument.”

Sounds Like Inspired by Eighties keyboard-and-vocal groups like the Human League and Yaz, La Roux’s tunes — which the pair cut in Langmaid’s living room — feature staccato synths over pulsing beats and Jackson’s insistent, high-pitched vocals. “I grew up listening to Joni Mitchell,” says Jackson. “But when I started going clubbing, I realized I didn’t want to sit on a chair with a guitar.” (more…)

The Band: Thao with the Get Down Stay Down
The Buzz: She may play the guitar with instruments as unconventional as a toothbrush and a pen, but the songs 25-year-old Virginian Thao Nguyen writes are sweet as honeycombs, as rich in detail as they are sparse in arrangement. And if that’s not appealing enough, she’s offering to write a personal song for a lucky fan to benefit the musicians’ organization CASH.
Listen If: You always wondered what Cat Power might sound like providing guest vocals for late-period Modest Mouse.
Key Track: “Know Better, Learn Faster,” where Nguyn’s surprisingly husky voice grounds a skipping guitar line, making the whole song sound like a giddy playground afternoon. (more…)

Who: Before this rising New York indie-pop quartet played a note together, they had a band name, a MySpace page and some shared tastes: “We loved loud, sort of enthusiastic, life-affirming pop like Yo La Tengo and Smashing Pumpkins,” says frontman and songwriter Kip Berman, “where there’s big guitars and everything’s right in the world.”

Sounds Like: February’s debut disc and the just-released Higher Than the Stars EP are dreamy and shimmery, with plenty of guitar fuzz — a deft update of late-Eighties and Nineties indie-and-alt rock, from 120 Minutes staples like Sonic Youth and the Cure to obscure, strum-heavy acts like Black Tambourine and the Pastels. “Even if things have been done before, it feels novel when you do them yourself,” says Berman. (more…)

Photo: Perou

The Band: Temper Trap
The Buzz: Rock and fashion have always enjoyed a symbiotic relationship, but in the case of the Temper Trap, the connection is more literal: this Australian band met at the Down Under equivalent of Urban Outfitters, ensuring they’d be well-dressed even if success proved elusive.
Listen If: INXS’s “Never Tear Us Apart” was your wedding song — or you want it to be.
Key Track: “Love Lost,” which manages an odd combination of Simply Red and Coldplay, pitting Dougy Mandagi’s emotive vocals against steady, determined guitars — a stirring hybrid of Britpop and soul. (more…)

Who: Michigan singer/multi-instrumentalist/producer whose month-old debut of retro-soul gems, A Strange Arrangement, is earning him fans like Justin Timberlake, Mark Ronson and John Mayer, who ­Tweeted, “Record of the year goes to Mayer Hawthorne,” and then invited the rookie to open for him on New Year’s Eve.

Sounds Like: Hawthorne’s self-produced tunes are an eerily accurate homage to the Motown hit machine: Think Funk Brothers-style grooves, luxuriant harmonies, Holland-Dozier-Holland songwriting chops and sweetly naive vocals that recall Smokey Robinson and the Chi-Lites. “I always tell people, ‘It’s not a soul revival, it’s a good-songwriting revival,’ ” says the 30-year-old. “I try to write timeless material, so hopefully kids will be digging my albums 30 years from now like I’m digging Lamont Dozier right now.” (more…)

The Band: Memory Tapes
The Buzz: Ex-member of overlooked Philly punks Hail Social, Dave Hawk writes eerie, mysterious pop songs long on atmosphere and mood. This is no hipper-than-thou niche act: Hawk was recently contacted about remixing a Michael Jackson song for a posthumous collection.
Listen If: You’re slowly getting into this whole “chillwave” thing, but wish that chilly meant “spooky” as often as it meant “remote.”
Key Track: “Green Knight,” where Hawk’s unnaturally high voice glides over gently burbling percussion and strange, plaintive organs. It’s lovely and unsettling at the same time, like The Police’s “Wrapped Around Your Finger” sung by a choir of ghosts. (more…)

Who: Dead Man’s Bones finds Oscar nominee Ryan Gosling and his friend Zach Shields spinning fireside ghost stories into mesmerizing “Monster Mash” sing-alongs with the help of L.A.’s Silverlake Conservatory Children’s Choir.

Sounds like: The Arcade Fire, Tom Waits and the cast of Sesame Street performing a Kurt Weill musical. Gosling and Shields wanted to collaborate with kids from the start and cite the Langley Schools Music Project’s Innocence and Despair and Nancy Dupree’s Ghetto Reality — two affecting and endearing recordings of untrained grade schoolers singing — as inspiration. “When we first wrote the songs, all the vocals were for the children’s choir to sing,” Shields tells Rolling Stone. “We were never going to sing on the record. But when we were working out the parts for them, we started singing and decided to make it into a duo between us and the kids.” (more…)

Photo: myspace.com/basiamyspace

The Band: Basia Bulat
The Buzz: Canadian singer-songwriter returns with a second record that’s even stronger than her debut Oh, My Darling, applying her gently wavering voice to stark, dramatic folk songs.
Listen If: You still rep hard for 10,000 Maniacs’ In My Tribe.
Key Track: The harrowing “Gold Rush,” where Bulat sings like an old West widow, bemoaning her fate over taut bursts of violin and rollicking rhythms. (more…)

Who: Band of Skulls, a British trio whose shit-kicking, bare-bones brand of gritty rock & roll earned them a spot on the hugely anticipated soundtrack to the next Twilight movie, New Moon.

Sounds Like: White Stripes fans will dig Band of Skulls’ swampy, heavily blues-influenced jams, especially the psychedelic stomp of “Light of the Morning” and the hard-charging “I Know What I Am.” But these guys aren’t just blues-rock formalists: they occasionally veer into complex prog-rock territory on tracks like the sprawling, appropriately-titled “Impossible.” “That song was definitely a breakthrough for us,” says singer-guitarist Russell Marsden. “We realized we can make a wider, more epic version of our sound. [Drummer] Matt [Hayward] came up with the guitar hook, this lovely and complex finger-picking pattern. But I just dumbed it down.” (more…)

The Band: Jemina Pearl
The Buzz: Ex-lead vocalist of art punkers Be Your Own Pet, Pearl is now primed to give Paramore a run for their money. With a solo release on the Thurston Moore-run Ecstatic Peace label due this month (and an appearance with Moore on Gossip Girl last year), Pearl’s harried, hooky punk combines the snap of yesteryear with a canny pop sheen.
Listen If: You have a soft spot for Avril Lavigne and Kelly Clarkson, but also know who the X-Ray Spex are.
Key Track: The hyperactive heartbeats, where Pearl’s bratty sneer opens with “It’s not all the cocaine” and proceeds to describe the strange palpitations of a romantic crush over hotrodding guitars. (more…)

Who: A crew of country roots-rockers led by 27-year-old Cory Chisel, a Wisconsin-based singer-songwriter who croons like Nebraska-era Springsteen, dresses like a Deadwood extra and recorded his first EP in his family’s Minnesota cabin.

Sounds Like: Chisel’s Death Won’t Send a Letter is filled with woozy gospel organs and broadly strummed acoustic guitars, and a few famous faces — Brendan Benson co-wrote first single “Born Again,” and his Raconteurs bandmates Little Jack Lawrence and Patrick Keeler guest, along with My Morning Jacket’s Carl Broemel. (more…)

The Band: Miike Snow
The Buzz: Grammy-winning Swedish producers Bloodshy and Avant (who made Britney Spears’ “Toxic” rock) team up with Brooklyn vocalist Andrew Wyatt to write subtle, low-wattage electro-pop that sparkles and hums.
Listen If: You like J.U.S.T.I.C.E. and Simian Mobile Disco, but wish they’d slow down and catch their breath every once in a while.
Key Track: The soaring, soulful “Burial,” which imagines TV on the Radio as an electro outfit, indulging every last one of their R&B inclinations. (more…)

Who: Washed Out is the one-man dream-pop project from Ernest Greene, a 26-year-old Southerner who lives in the low-key town of Perry, Georgia. “It’s as rural as you can get,” says Greene. “Not much goes on around here.”

Sounds Like: Greene crafts impossibly gorgeous pop that mixes up woozy synthesizers, droney shoegaze textures and funky, sometimes danceable beats. Greene has only released one 12-inch and a cassette on small independent labels but he’s already getting solid buzz in the music blogosphere, thanks to killer tunes like “You’ll See It,” which evokes French synth-pop group M83 and “Feel It All Around,” which features soaring, angelic vocal chorales. (Cool fact: Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould is a big fan and was spinning Washed Out tracks during his DJ set at this year’s All Tomorrow’s Parties festival).

For the most part, it’s almost impossible to understand what Greene is singing about — and that’s just the way he likes it. “I’m getting more confident in putting my vocals up front,” he says. “Maybe in the future you’ll be able to understand what I’m saying. I’m going more for an atmospheric vibe in my songs. And I really don’t want to ruin the illusions people may create for themselves.” (more…)

The Band: Washed Out
The Buzz: This entry should really be called “The Phrase.” ‘Chillwave,” people. Learn it, memorize, and forget it in a week when everyone decides they hate it. Like all ridiculous genre tags, ‘Chillwave’ is tough to define — just think of it as mellow, cooled-out, laid-back beach music. Most of it involves synthesizers. South Carolina’s Washed Out are total chillwave. But don’t hate them because their genre tag sucks.
Listen If: You play your old OMD records at half-speed, or you burn off afternoons recording synth-pop songs on a busted 4-track. Or you’re not put off by the phrase “chillwave.”
Key Track: The fantastically mystic “Feel it All Around,” a strange vapor of a song, loose and langorous and, well, chill. (more…)