Dig new sounds? Then listen up

A few days ago, Times pop music critic Ann Powers selected three faces to watch in the new year: Melinda Doolittle, Lady Gaga and Relentless 7, the buzzworthy band from the esteemed Ben Harper. In Wednesday’s Calendar section, Times staff writer August Brown highlighted a group of local artists who enjoyed a terrific 2008 and are poised for more success in the coming year.

But given the number of promising acts likely to generate attention in 2009, the pop staff writers have chosen eight additional up-and-coming performers of whom readers should take note. Chances are you’ll be hearing much more about these musicians.

Theresa Andersson

This exuberant singer-songwriter embodies several trends at once. She’s Swedish -- though she lives in New Orleans -- and her singing has that warm but clean Scandinavian quality. She plays multiple instruments like fellow one-woman-bands Kaki King and Emily Wells. Her songs are heartfelt, dusky little fables representing a strong feminine viewpoint -- and yes, they’ve been featured on “Grey’s Anatomy.” But Andersson is more than the sum of her parts. Her quirkiness and fearless eye for detail stand out.

Check her out at a Hotel Cafe residency this month or pick up her album “Hummingbird, Go!” which features guest appearances by fellow Scandinavian Ane Brun and New Orleans producer and composer Allen Toussaint.

-- Ann Powers

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Marco Benevento

Long a cult favorite on the East Coast jam-band/avant-jazz circuit, 31-year-old keyboardist and “sound sculptor” Benevento has been building a following nationwide for his jaw-dropping improvisational skills, a no-genres-barred approach and a globe-trotting touring schedule. His first studio release, the spacey yet approachable “Invisible Baby,” landed Benevento’s trio at the 2008 JVC Jazz Festival, and there’s no limit to where his next album, “Me Not Me” (due Feb. 3), will take him.

Centered on Benevento’s shape-shifting acoustic piano and backed by an adventurous rhythm section of Matt Chamberlain and Reed Mathis, the record boasts deconstructed reinterpretations of indie favorites such as My Morning Jacket, Beck and Deerhoof while flirting with straight-ahead jazz on original compositions like the lovely “Mephisto.”

Seemingly incapable of resisting an unexplored musical direction, Benevento can, essentially, do just about anything, which makes him exactly the kind of force that deserves notice in contemporary jazz.

-- Chris Barton

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VV Brown

This will sound familiar: A young British soul singer with a penchant for retro sounds is tipped by the UK press as the next big thing. But VV Brown is a long way removed from the smoky nightclub vibe of Amy Winehouse or the torch songs of Duffy. Just check her debut single, “Crying Blood,” an amped-up doo-wop dance floor anthem. Surf-rock guitars slide around video game bloops, and Brown stomps all over the cut’s big beats with a wallop of spunk.

A former session singer and songwriter, Brown is ready to seize the spotlight with a swarm of high-energy pop songs. Need more evidence? Sample “Everybody,” with its hand-clap groove, teasing piano and no-nonsense vocals. When all is said and done, Brown delivers something her retro UK peers have thus far lacked: pure, whimsical fun.

Her debut album, “Traveling Like the Light,” is planned for a March release on Island Records in Britain.

-- Todd Martens

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K’naan

Though it’s popular in Europe, African hip-hop has not yet found its footing in America beyond the elegant gangsterisms of the Senegalese-born, New Jersey-based singer Akon. This year, a Canadian might be the one to break the intercontinental barrier.

Kaynaan Warsame was born to one of Somalia’s most prominent artistic families in 1978 and grew up in Mogadishu as that city was torn apart by civil war. Immigrating to Toronto with his family as a teen, he soon turned to rap as a way to articulate his experience.

His light-stepping but tough rhyming style is infused with the rhythms of his homeland, and his subject matter is both political and playfully personal.

K’naan’s 2005 debut album, “The Dusty Foot Philosopher,” won a Juno (the Canadian Grammy) for best rap album; next month A&M;/Octone Records will release “Troubadour,” which was mostly recorded at Bob Marley’s Tuff Gong Studio with help from guests such as Damian Marley, Mos Def and Maroon 5’s Adam Levine.

If Kenya’s favorite son, Barack Obama, could win the hearts of America, why not this sharp-witted Somali stylist?

-- Ann Powers

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Mapei

The missing chip between Santogold, Kid Sister and Rye Rye falls into place at last. The Rhode Island-born Mapei got her start rapping at basement parties in Sweden, where she lived for years, and further schooled herself in the gay clubs of her current home in New York. The result? Super-kooky culture jamming on “Roxanne Shante’s Smile.” In smooth deadpan, she references Woody Allen, “Poetic Justice,” Cabbage Patch Kids, Pabst Blue Ribbon and Hooked on Phonics. Spank Rock and Ghostface Killah are fans, as well as Timbuktu, one of Sweden’s biggest hip-hop acts.

Downtown Records will release Mapei’s debut sometime in the fall. And we’re keeping our fingers crossed for more West Coast dates on the heels of her hot showcase in December at the Avalon.

-- Margaret Wappler

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Jay Rock

Rap music is increasingly a Southern man’s game, but 2009 might see L.A.’s return to prominence on national urban airwaves, thanks to Dr. Dre’s highly anticipated and long-in-the-works release, “Detox.”

But one up-and-comer might steal just a bit of the spotlight away from Dre, Snoop and the Game next year: Watts’ Jay Rock.

Warner Music has high hopes for the 23-year-old rapper, who is a known quantity in South Los Angeles via a series of self-released mix-tapes and YouTube videos of localized underground anthems. His single “All My Life [Ghetto]” features chart-topping guest Lil Wayne, and executives are hopeful a collaboration with Ne-Yo on Rock’s spring debut, “Follow Me Home,” will break the Nickerson Gardens resident nationwide this year.

-- Charlie Amter

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Randy Weeks

Formerly with L.A.-based Americana group Lonesome Strangers, Randy Weeks has to be doing something right -- Lucinda Williams not only covered his song “Can’t Let Go” on her breakthrough album, “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road,” it’s become a cornerstone of her live shows. On his solo collection, “Going My Way,” coming Feb. 24, Weeks puts together a batch of consistently evocative, witty lyrics that he sings in a distinctively wry Lou-Reed-meets-Willie-Nelson voice. His country roots are strong enough that he’s cranked out the instant honky-tonk classic “The One Who Wore My Ring,” yet, like Peter Case, he also obviously knows his Lennon-McCartney songbook well enough to come up with the pure-pop bounce of “That’s What I’d Do.”

His recent move from L.A. to Austin, Texas, led to the album being produced by Texas Americana ace Will Sexton and probably at least partially explains the juicy New Orleans funk they’ve brought to “I Think You Think.” That song and “I Couldn’t Make It” showcase his love for engaging wordplay.

-- Randy Lewis

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Wild Light

There’s one major downside to Wild Light’s debut single, the classic rock singalong “California on My Mind.” With its joyously gratuitous use of obscenities, any opportunities to hear the song outside of the anything-goes world of the Internet will be severely limited. But who needs radio play? Wild Light already has performed at the Hollywood Bowl with cult faves LCD Soundsystem and has a 29-city winter tour lined up with indie rockers Tapes ‘N Tapes.

The act will release its Rob Schnapf-produced debut album, “Adult Nights,” on March 3 via Columbia Records-affiliated StarTime International/ Almost Gold Records.

-- Todd Martens

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ann.powers@latimes.com

charlie.amter@latimes.com

chris.barton@latimes.com

randy.lewis@latimes.com

todd.martens@latimes.com

margaret.wappler@latimes.com