Sounds Like: Howlin' Wolf's scrawny, bipolar little cousin discovered a fuzzbox. A Pop-Rocks-and-soda cocktail for anyone who's ever wished for a younger, edgier version of Tedeschi Trucks Band.

For Fans Of: Jack White, Ty Segall, Reignwolf

Why You Should Pay Attention: His debut LP, Violent Shiver, isn't out until August 19th, but Booker has already checked off some career milestones more worthy of a road-tested vet: a string of dates opening for Jack White, an appearance on Letterman, and a spot on Lollapalooza. It's an impressive running start coming from someone who hadn't played a live show until the summer of 2012. His ascendance comes totally organically, and from someone who never intended to chase the musical dream – he went to school for journalism and chalks up his newfound success to luck. After playing acoustic shows here and there in his adopted home of New Orleans, he got frustrated with the pace, got a band together and is reluctant to give himself anymore credit than having a rep from ATO Records show up at one of his shows.

He Says: "I was just doing acoustic stuff by myself in New Orleans for empty rooms. But then the music thing started picking up and I just didn't want to play acoustic shows anymore — because you know, acoustic shows are super boring."

Hear For Yourself: The catchy album opener "Violent Shiver" chugs along like a cross-country locomotive complete with whistle blowing whoops from the conductor. By Marielle Anas

Sounds Like: If you've only heard his international smash single "Waves (Robin Schulz Remix)," he might remind you of scratchy-voiced soft rockers like Chris Rea or Michael McDonald. But for years he's been a rapper for whom the closest touchpoint might be DMX's "Slippin'" if performed by a Dutch MC.

For Fans Of: Drake, Ja Rule or maybe Chris Isaak

Why You Should Pay Attention: The "Waves" remix is already Number One in the U.K., Germany, Norway, Sweden and Switzerland. Probz (born Dennis Princewell Stehr) recorded the original in 2013, and the remix took off suddenly and without warning. It's en route to becoming one of the most popular dance records in the world, also charting in Australia and Africa. And while American hip-hop fans have taken few European rappers seriously, Probz has already earned a level of underground success and mainstream cred. He's contributed grungy, emotionally potent choruses to everyone from Joe Budden to Lloyd Banks to C-Bo.

He Says: Probz has overcome his fair share of adversity. In 2010, he was shot in Amsterdam but survived, and "Waves" was a bright light among similarly tragic circumstances. "'Waves' was just something I tried, just a promo song," he says. "Someone gave me a guitar for my birthday, because I was always talking about guitars. It opened my eyes. 'Waves' is the first melody that I taught myself to play on the guitar. Then I lost my house…I was working on a hip-hop album for like three years, when my house burned down and I lost everything. The music that I had on my laptop was the only thing that I had left. That and a box of papers and the jeans that I had on. Then I went on this TV program, I played 'Waves.' Just to see how people would respond to it. I played the song, went outside, smoked a cig, looked on iTunes and it went Number One. That's when I knew things were going to change, because I didn't have anything left."

Hear for Yourself: "Waves" is already starting to pop up in the States; if it does cross over, you won't be able to escape it. Though, if you want to hear his more hip-hop side, hunt down his free 2013 album The Treatment. By David Drake

Sounds Like: Four young men on the verge of a complete breakdown and/or total transcendence; four decades of art-rock refracted into something weird, brilliant and new

For Fans Of: Television, Talking Heads, Sonic Youth

Why You Should Pay Attention: The Montreal band's debut LP, More Than Any Other Day, arrived this spring on Constellation Records, home of forward-looking Canadian acts like Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Do Make Say Think. Since then, it's become a bona fide cult phenomenon. The band's name came from a misunderstanding with drummer Tim Keen, who is Australian. "We were coming up with some really awful band names, and he jokingly suggested that we call the band Art," keyboardist Matt May recalls. "But because of his accent, we thought he said 'Ought.' We were like, 'Ought! That's actually pretty sweet!'"

They Say: Frontman Tim Beeler, 23, often ad-libs Ought's strangely compelling lyrics — like the moment in "Today More Than Any Other Day" where he shouts, ecstatically, "I am prepared to make the decision/Between two percent and whole milk!" Says Beeler, "We were in one of these nasty, $10 rent-a-space rooms that reeked of cigarette smoke. It was the end of August, really hot, and it wasn't the best practice. And then toward the end of the practice the words just came out. It's about that feeling of being in a grocery store or a mall, and having that moment where you're suddenly like, 'Where am I? What is everything doing here? What am I doing here?' It's the feeling of being so alienated from things that your options are either to keel over and die or try and grapple with this feeling."

Hear For Yourself: "Habit" is a slow-burn tour de force. By Simon Vozick-Levinson

Sounds Like: Soul music gone minimalist: All the superfluous bits stripped away and the grooves placed front and center.

For Fans Of: Road-trip mixtapes – full of Sly and The Family Stone, the Delfonics, Al Green and A-sides by lost-to-time R&B acts – that have been slightly warped after sitting out in the sun.

Why You Should Pay Attention: This Baltimore duo garnered notice from hip-hop heads when their glittery disco jam "Face 2 Face" was included on the soundtrack to Our Vinyl Weighs A Ton, the documentary about storied California indie label Stones Throw. Peanut Butter Wolf, who founded Stones Throw in 1996, is a fan of the pair's throwback style and his label will release Silk Rhodes's debut full-length, which is full of skeletal, yet precise homages to soul's early-Seventies glory days. An official single is on the way next month.

They Say: "We were on tour together doing separate projects. At some point in the Southwest – Arizona, probably – we started turning our car into an impromptu recording setup," says members Sasha Winn and Michael Collins, collaborating via e-mail. "It was very minimal, lending itself to vocal processing, looping and longform meditative music [that we worked on] while crossing through the desert. After that tour we kind of just started living together in Baltimore, and continued to make music that way wherever we went. The responses we got around the city, as we picked up friends and strangers and would make songs for the people who happened to be on the street, were pretty amazing. The car, which was a '97 Honda CRV, had pretty busted speakers. Using pitch-shifting, we got a sound that was very bass-heavy and attracted some incredible sidewalk audiences."

Hear for Yourself: Handclaps and harmonies help "Face 2 Face" float along like it's the soundtrack for a roller rink on a cloud. By Maura Johnston

Sounds Like: If Kris Kristofferson and Loretta Lynn had a baby; raised her on Motown, Leslie Gore, and the Clash; then let her join an all-girl hotrod gang at 15 (not that she would have asked permission.)

For Fans Of: Neko Case, Lydia Loveless, Holly Golightly

Why You Should Pay Attention: Country may be cracking the mainstream these days, but Music Row this woman is not. Lane arrived in Nashville in to make her first record, 2011's Walk of Shame, for LA's IAMSOUND. She worked odd jobs to survive – photo assistant for onetime chief Rolling Stone photog Mark Seliger, stunt driver in Miranda Lambert's "Fastest Girl In Town" video (she was too fast, they asked her to slow down, please) and pop-up vintage store owner. Then Lane met Dan Auerbach. "I was like, hey, what's up, wanna make my record?" she says. "Luckily Dan was like, come over, lets talk. We wrote a track that day." The Black Keys frontman produced her second album, All or Nothin', which came out this summer, and she spent May on the road with the Old 97's before circling the country on her first headlining tour. Says Auerbach, "She knows where songs are supposed to go instinctually. That's stuff you can't teach people."

She Says: "I've called myself the first lady of outlaw country. I don't want to lump myself in with Willy and Waylon, it's just that people have this impression that what's on Music Row is all that's going on in Nashville. I'm part of this other world. In the Seventies, there was a group of men that weren't adhering to the rules of pop country – they were doing cocaine and misbehaving. I smoke too much weed, but I don't really drink. I'm not misbehaving that bad. I just don't make the shit that's on country radio."

Hear For Yourself: Lane cast, styled and produced the video for All or Nothin's first single, "Right Time," wherein she plays a girlfriend-saving superhero of sorts. By Elisabeth Garber-Paul

Sounds Like: Kicking it with the homies, and then journaling about it afterwards

For Fans Of: Ciara, Jhené Aiko, Solange

Why You Should Pay Attention: The 21-year-old Tinashe is part of an Internet-savvy generation whose creativity eludes classification. She trained as a dancer and a child actress, appearing in movies like The Polar Express and Akeelah and the Bee. She performed in the Stunners, a teen-pop quintet that toured with Justin Bieber. When the Stunners broke up, she built a production studio and garlanded mixtapes with gauzy production and lovelorn, introspective lyrics. This year she dropped her breakthrough single, "2 On," which cracked the Top 40 of the pop charts. Produced by DJ Mustard, "2 On" is redolent of mainstream R&B in 2014, with Mustard's signature West Coast beats and Tinashe's lyrics of getting faded with her clique "when the drink be way too strong." Tinashe plans to incorporate all her "colors," from the urban pop of "2 On" to her indie R&B projects, on her September debut Aquarius. Collaborators range from blog darlings Ryan Hemsworth, Clams Casino and Dev Hynes to rap heavyweights Future, Schoolboy Q and A$AP Rocky. "I never want to be stuck in a box," she says.

She Says: "When I was 18, I took it upon myself to create a home studio. I bought a bunch of equipment, a camera and microphones. That was when I started teaching myself how to record and mix my own stuff. I wrote and recorded it all there in my room. I used ProTools I started filming my own music videos and editing those as well, and then putting them online. I used Pro Tools. I edit my videos in Final Cut Pro. I produce beats with Logic." Who taught her to do all this stuff? "YouTube!" she answers.

Hear For Yourself: Watch the antics that ensue when Tinashe gets "2 On," including Beyoncé-worthy dance routines By Mosi Reeves