The Band: Tempo No Tempo
The Buzz: A nervy, worked-up band from San Francisco, Tempo No Tempo have been kicking around for nearly four years now, getting steadily better while remaining stubbornly under the radar. Their latest EP should change all that: blending hurtling dance rhythms with jabbing, elbowing post-punk guitars, the group takes a literal approach to the notion of “panic at the disco.”
Listen If: Dancing stresses you out a little, and you want your music to reflect that anxiety.
Key Track: The terrifically severe “Kilometer,” where the clanging guitars feel like a starting bell, setting the song’s tense quiver in motion. Vocalist Tyler McCauley coos, “I could never wait for you,” and it’s true — no sooner does are the words out of his mouth than he vanishes, leaving us dead in the middle of a guitar solo that whips around as wildly as a cut power line. (more…)

The Band: Bang Bang Eche
The Buzz: New Zealand outfit fronted by one T’Nealle Worsley makes raw, riotous, ice-cold synth rock sharp enough to cut stale bread.
Listen If: You’re a DJ at a German nightclub looking for new tracks to power a long night.
Key Track: The raucous “4 to the Floor,” which is whipped around by a hyperactive guitar and Worsley’s stern vocal recitation. (more…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)

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…)