R&B upstart Miguel had an unlikely introduction to music.

“I was actually part of a freak show, had an extra arm -– that’s how I learned to play the guitar. I then worked my way up to tight-rope-walking, then lion-taming,” he said.

OK, so the singer born Miguel Pimentel  has a healthy sense of humor and took the more common approach of discovering music as a youngster.

The 24-year-old singer-songwriter from San Pedro is enjoying his move to the spotlight with his first single, “All I Want Is You” featuring buzzy rapper J. Cole. The single, from his debut album, has peaked at No. 7 on Billboard’s Hot R&B/Hip-Hop chart.

He is especially eager to get his music out there after previously landing a deal as a young teen that  ultimately didn't pan out. After his recordings found their way to Mark Pitts, Jive Label Group’s president of urban music and CEO of Bystorm Entertainment, Pitts signed him in 2007, but not before the newcomer found himself in a holdup with his previous label.

“[Pitts] has been such a champion for me. I went through some legal troubles with the other deal, which is why I’m coming out so late. He stood behind me 100%,” he says. “For him to vouch for me, because he is so respected, it kind of opens people up a bit more to me than they normally would.”

Having Pitts behind him isn’t the only major co-sign he's received this year. Talking backstage late last month, he was prepping for his opening slot on Mary J. Blige’s “Music Saved My Life” tour and already knew his next gig: supporting label mate Usher’s “OMG” tour. It rolls into Los Angeles on Thursday after playing a show near Miguel's hometown Sunday. It’s also a bonus because he has penned tracks for both Usher and Blige.

The boys of 2AM Club can’t help but feel nostalgic. As the six-piece band prepped for a gig at West Hollywood’s House of Blues on the day their debut album, “What Did You Think Was Going to Happen?” hit stores, much of the backstage chatter ventured to their formative days a few blocks from the venue they were set to play.

“The best feeling [is] when you do that full circle. We started here,” the group’s lead singer Marc Griffin said backstage after the sound check. “The first songs were written right here. We wrote those in our apartment right down the street. It’s funny we were living in that dirty ... cockroach apartment and we started writing. We started writing these intense, hopefully sentimental, party records. It feels just like yesterday.”

In reality yesterday was 2007, but life is a bit different from those days of playing the West Coast college scene and bunking together (they joke that the space was so small they had to share cereal with their bug roommates) a few blocks east on Sunset Boulevard. The emerging group -- headed by Griffin and emcee Tyler Cordy -- are having their moment, thanks to their genre-bending fusion of pop, electro, soul, funk, rock and hip-hop.

While most 17-year-olds are enjoying the last days of summer before school begins, Lil Twist is busy cementing himself in a very adult-dominated rap world.

But the Dallas teen (ne: Christopher L. Moore) undoubtedly has the best teacher any fresh-faced rookie could wish for: Lil Wayne, who gave him his first break – not easily, of course – and has taken the young'un under his tattooed wing.

"I opened up for Wayne in Tyler [an hour away from Dallas]. ... I begged his manager [Cortez Bryant], which is my manager now," Twist recalled. "I begged him, and he put me on the stage and I ripped it."

The chance encounter led to an on-the-spot signing with Wayne’s Young Money imprint, the same camp responsible for Drake and Nicki Minaj.

During a break from promoting his first single, "Little Secret," featuring Bow Wow, off of his upcoming debut album, "Don’t Get It Twisted," we caught up with rap’s youngest star. Here are five things you need to know about Lil Twist:

5) He’s the [temporary] voice of Lil Wayne. Before Weezy headed to Rikers Island, he wanted a way to communicate with his fans so Twist taught him Ustream and set up his Twitter. Twist takes the reins of both Wayne’s WeezyThanxYou.com and the @liltunechi Twitter page and posts messages that Wayne dictates to him, including gratitude to the fans who write him while he's in prison.

"That’s my brother. He really took me in. Anything he needs me to do, it’s done. He told me one day to set him up with Twitter, and I did. He started going hard tweeting every day, Ustreaming every day," Twist said. "Then he went in and he still gives me that call from jail with shout-outs to people, and I’ll write it on his Twitter and keep him updated. I look at it like, if I don’t do it, my big brother’s gonna knock me out."

Philadelphia hip-hop duo Chiddy Bang makes sure to warmly greet every fan who trickles down to their merchandise booth.

After a recent opening slot for up-and-comer Mike Posner -- with a packed crowd that included hipsters, preppy college kids and even “Hills” star Audrina Patridge -- the two made themselves readily available to their fans, offering up autographs and thanking them for their support. It’s not like they could go hit the bars nearby as neither are of legal age to drink.

A click of girls ignored the T-shirts and EPs emblazoned with the group’s moniker for the real thing: rapper Chidera “Chiddy” Anamege, who was waiting with a sly grin, and baby faced producer-DJ Xaphoon Jones (née Noah Beresin), who couldn’t hide his boyish charm if you asked him.

Just another night in a year that has been a blur for the 19-year-olds.

It wasn’t long ago that an introduction from a neighbor brought together Anamege and Jones, both freshmen at Drexel University in Philadelphia. Jones was studying music and Anamege, business.

Anamege says with a laugh that from that first introduction, the two just “fell into a groove.”

That “groove” being Jones’ eccentric choice of sampling -- he turns to indie rock just as much as electronic as a source of inspiration – paired with Anamege’s spitfire rhymes.

After playing a sold-out show, it’s customary for most hip-hop artists to retreat to the VIP section of an after party or partake in a bit of debauchery on a tour bus. But not Mike Posner. After shows, he’s usually en route to another city, homework in tow. In the case of a recent sold-out opening slot for Drake in Los Angeles, he had to jet back to North Carolina the next day to pick up his degree in a sea of cap and gown-clad undergrads.

The 22-year-old Southfield, Mich., native is quick to tell you he’s not like any artist on the scene. And he makes for a pretty convincing case.

Once he inked a deal with J Records the summer after his junior year at Duke University (he majored in business and sociology), he did the exact opposite of what would be expected -- he stayed enrolled. He led the same double life as most undergrads: classes during weekdays and working during the weekends. Except as opposed to making smoothies, being a resident adviser or scanning books in the library, he spent his weekends touring the country, often playing in front of sold-out crowds, and no, there wasn’t any beer pong playing on the road.

Like many artists before him, Posner caught the attention of label execs after releasing his debut mixtape, “A Matter of Time” -- which he recorded in his dorm room -- for free on iTunes in 2009. The mixtape rose to the No. 1 slot on iTunesU. After a bidding war with a handful of major labels, the singer, songwriter and producer signed with J Records and went into senior year. With a second mixtape, “One Foot Out the Door” and buzz-worthy singles “Cooler Than Me” and "Drug Dealer Girl” under his belt, Posner is on a quest to dominate pop, and with a raspy voice that brings to mind Macy Gray or Jason Mraz. 

The world, at least the country music-loving part of it, is about to be hearing and seeing a lot more of Laura Bell Bundy, a Kentucky-bred singer and songwriter whose debut album arrives April 13. But unlike a lot of newcomers, Bundy has a wealth of spotlight time already to her credit.

I had lunch with Bundy today at her hotel in Beverly Hills while she was in town for some promotional activities leading up to the release of “Achin’ and Shakin’.”  It’s an ambitious -- especially for a debut -- effort split into the titular two portions: The first's half made up of moody ballads laced with lots of Southern soul, while the other's a mini romance-novel-in-song loosely tracing the course of a woman who gives the boot to a cheating partner (in her current single and video “Giddy on Up”), goes through the heartbreak, rebound and discovery of a new object for her affections.

She’s slated to sing “Giddy on Up” during the Academy of Country Music Awards show in Las Vegas on April 18, a featured slot she finds doubly ironic. Not only is it rare for a debut artist -- one who isn’t even a nominee -- to be tapped as a performer at any of the major awards ceremonies, but it’s also the polar opposite of her experience at the Tony Awards.

Bundy was a Tony nominee a couple of years ago for her starring role in the Broadway production of   “Legally Blonde: The Musical,” in which she spent nearly two years doing eight performances a week in New York City. (She's also been in productions of "Wicked," "Hairspray" and "Ruthless!") At that time, the Tony committee still had a rule that performances only were granted to actors from shows that were in the running for awards, and that year, “Legally Blonde” itself wasn’t, even though its star was.

“I was the only one in my category who didn’t get to perform,” the 28-year-old singer said between bites of a Caesar salad. “That was the last year they had that rule. CBS does the ACM Awards and they also do the Tony Awards -- I wonder if they’ll remember that?”

 

WARPAINT

In the ghostly " Billie Holiday," the L.A. quartet Warpaint floats an elegiac version of the Mary Wells hit "My Guy" between narcotic, name-spelling mantras in honor of the grand jazz dame. It's one of the hypnotic, unexpected strokes that got Emily Kokal, Theresa Wayman, Jenny Lee Lindberg and recently added drummer Stella Mozgawa signed to Rough Trade Records, which will release Warpaint's debut full-length in summer 2010.

The band's six-song EP "Exquisite Corpse," which arrived this fall from local visionaries Manimal Vinyl, was mixed by former Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, who might seem an unlikely mentor at first. But as much as the Chili Peppers built tranced-out temples with their roiling funk, Warpaint aims to do the same but with a different set of arrows in their quiver.

Combining the dense, shadowy mood of some early Cure with the sonic drift of Mazzy Star and Cat Power's more hazy vocal work, Warpaint occupies a challenging space where the mood can vary from deep woods come-down to fierce primal ritual. It hits an especially sweet spot live, where the ladies sometimes swap instruments or hone in on those spine-tingling harmonies. In February, they'll tour with Akron/Family and they'll also perform at SXSW in March.

The biggest challenge for the band as they grow beyond the loving arms of L.A. hipsterdom will be expanding their palette without losing the haunting aura of their sound.

-- Margaret Wappler

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Photo: Lauren Dukoff

 

JYPSI

How do you harness a band that sings and plays like the Carter Family -- if the pioneering country group had emerged in the Summer of Love rather than at the tail end of the Jazz Age? That's a puzzle a lot of music-biz types in Nashville have been trying to solve for a few years since Jypsi, the group comprising siblings Lillie Mae, Scarlett, Amber-Dawn and Frank Rische, set up camp and promptly tossed aside the country-music rule book at freewheeling marathon gigs at Layla's Bluegrass Inn downtown.

The outside world is catching on: A new track, "Lipstick," turned up recently on ABC's "Desperate Housewives." And audiences from Music City residents to those at the Stagecoach Country Music Festival in Indio seem to have little trouble connecting with the group's sizzling mix of country, folk, bluegrass and rock.

For their major-label debut, due sometime in 2010, the quartet has hooked up with Taylor Swift's co-producer, Nathan Chapman. Perhaps that's a sign that Jypsi's a-star-is-born lead singer, Lillie Mae, who is two years younger than the woman who currently holds the keys to the pop-country kingdom, will succeed her as crossover queen?

-- Randy Lewis 

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Photo:  Scarlett, Lillie Mae, Amber-Dawn and Frank Rische. Credit: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

 

THE SOFT PACK

Locals via San Diego, the Soft Pack makes fast, scrappy music full of guitar riffs that ricochet between low-fi recklessness and sunny euphoria. On the band's upcoming self-titled debut album, the musicians tackle plenty of standard topics, with songs about girls, break-ups and the like delivered with punchy, punk-inspired zest.

Then there's the casual track or two about seceding from the union. "Ride the legislation," singer Matt Lamkin briefly shouts on "Pull Out," a frisky, cymbal-heavy number in which California becomes its own country.

Yet the Soft Pack -- the band abandoned its original name, the Muslims, after the musicians grew tired of deflecting questions about the meaning of the moniker -- never really comes across as angry. And who can blame them? Southern California is a swell place to live, and our garage-rockers aren't ashamed of embracing the comforts of khaki shorts or shooting music videos at the beach.

After a string of independent releases, the group's self-titled effort for Kemado Records is scheduled to land Feb. 2. "Go take a chance / Find out what it means," Lamkin challenges listeners in the album's opening cut before shouting, "Army, Navy, Air Force and Marines!"

Maybe the band does have some combat in its blood. Or perhaps Lamkin just has a fondness for rhymes.

-- Todd Martens 

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Photo: Matty McLoughlin, from left, Matt Lamkin, Dave Lantzman, Brian Hill. Credit: Steve Gullick

 
KE$HA

Like many L.A. musicians, the singer Ke$ha survived her lean early years in the city by snacking on the free food offered during happy hour at Echo Park's myriad dive bars. But the singer's situation was rather different than many of her struggling peers. She was scavenging at the same time her voice was all over the radio -- she sang the chorus hook of Flo Rida's "Right Round," one of the biggest pop singles of 2009.

"We were both working with (producer) Dr. Luke and it was an accident I was even on it," said the young San Fernando Valley native, born Kesha Sebert. "I never made any money off it, that's why I put the dollar sign in my name as a joke. But I was happy being in that bar with two dollars in change wearing clothes I found in the garbage surrounded by people who love me."

Ke$ha should soon be able to treat her friends to a few rounds of PBR. Her fast-rising single "TiK ToK," a rapturously dumb electro-pop banger that makes Katy Perry sound like PJ Harvey, catalogs an epic post-party hangover where Jack Daniels is the best mouthwash.

Her debut album, "Animal," which already is a top-5 iTunes album as a pre-order to its Jan. 5 release, tackles the evergreen topics of stalking boys who don't like her and whether rad boots are preferable to male company. It also showcases some surprising pipes under all that Auto-Tune.

It's all part of a master plan, she says -- winning equal rights for women to abuse boys in songs the way dudes have done for decades.

"I'm just talking about men the way they've talked about women for years," she said. "If you listen to LMFAO, it's all about how women are pieces of meat. I find that stuff funny, so I want to do it back to them."

-- August Brown 

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Photo: RCA Music Group

 

THE LIVING SISTERS

"Dreamy" isn't a word that crops up a lot in pop music today, but it might be the best descriptor for this L.A. indie supergroup of sorts, a sweet adventure in harmony between jazz-pop singer Eleni Mandell, Lavender Diamond front woman Becky Stark and the Bird and the Bee's Inara George.

They've been working together sporadically for about three years now, ever since Mandell told Stark of her wish to create a group focusing on harmony singing, after which the pair brought in George, the daughter of Little Feat founder Lowell George, as a third collaborator on the project.

Their debut album, "Love to Live," is due March 30 on the folk-rooted Vanguard Records label. It's an utterly charming introduction, one that strikes an effervescent middle ground between the earthy country style of the Louvin Brothers and the silky vintage pop of the likes of the Andrews Sisters and the Mills Brothers.

As the trio showed recently at their short but impressive set at Walt Disney Concert Hall alongside Brian Wilson and Dave Alvin, they also know their way around '50s doo-wop, gospel and sexy contemporary pop.

"There's something about us three singing harmony," Mandell says, "that is almost like religion." Amen to that.

-- Randy Lewis 

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Photo:  Becky Stark, from left, Inara George and Eleni Mandell. Credit: Vanguard Records

 

DUM DUM GIRLS

Dum Dum Girls offer plenty of warnings to any would-be listeners, at least if one is to judge by the songs available on the act’s MySpace page. The band's choice of covers -- the Rolling Stones' "Play With Fire" and GG Allin's "Don't Talk to Me" -- aren't the most open-armed of songs, and the group cements its don't-mess-with-us strut with an original titled "Jail La La."

Led by Kristin Gundred (a.k.a. Dee Dee), the L.A.-based band taps an old-fashioned sort of rebellion, one where a leather jacket and black tights are enough to signal outsider status. Sleazy, scruffy and fast, Dum Dum Girls will release its debut, "I Will Be," on March 30 via Seattle's Sub Pop.

Containing 11 songs and running just under 30 minutes, the album was produced by Richard Gottehrer, who shares a songwriting credit on the '60s hit "My Boyfriend's Back." That's no coincidence.

With a name that references songs from Iggy Pop and underground heroes the Vaselines, Dum Dum Girls has a sound that falls somewhere in between the early punk of the former and the slacker haze of the latter. Melodies take shape out of a gloomy guitar drone, as if they just sort of accidentally happen, and Gundred's vocals stay behind the beat and buried under the riffs.

It's a matter-of-fact, deadpan delivery, and when the backing harmonies kick in, Gundren sounds as if she's channeling the ghosts of girl groups past.

-- Todd Martens 

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Faces to watch 2010: Ke$ha

Faces to watch 2010: The Soft Pack

Faces of 2010: Entertainment (film, music, TV, new media)

Photo: Lauren Dukoff