Pop music: Things are warming up

This may be the most frigid time of the year in the music business, or what's left of it. But even with the pop music calendar at a dead-of-winter standstill, there's much to look forward to in the local music scene.

Rolling Stone recently dubbed the Philadelphia scene the nation's hottest, and its sounds are rich and varied, from pop to hip-hop to rock to some uncategorizable amalgamations.

We figured we'd take a look at some of the acts from which great things are expected - eight for '08.

Man Man. The last thing Ryan Kattner wants is to "sound too granola." He fronts the Philadelphia band Man Man, whose third album, Rabbit Habits, comes out on Anti- on April 8. Even so, he describes the band's music - which uses pots, pans and sousaphones along with more conventional instruments to create a cacophonous carnival of sound - as "organic." Natural, flowing.

"It's not like we say: 'OK, let's combine Beach Boys harmonies with Kraut-rock drums and some Klaus Nomi operatic vocals,' " says Kattner, whose stage name is Honus Honus. "We're just writing these songs, and they turn out that way."

Kattner calls Rabbit Habits - a reference to fuzzy bunnies eating their young - "our pop album." The CD's 13 bouncy songs affirm that assessment, albeit in an unconventional way.

Kattner was talking by phone from Austin, Texas, where he's staying at his father's house between tours with Man Man. The band spent most of 2007 on the road with Modest Mouse and will head out as headliners in March.

"Right now, my Philadelphia address is a U-Haul storage locker," he said. He's been priced out of his Bella Vista apartment, a small irony since it was Philadelphia's stature as the cheapest major city on the East Coast that drew the Army brat to Philadelphia 11 years ago (and has fueled the city's scene throughout the decade).

"I can't imagine starting the band anywhere else," Kattner says. "It's like there's something in the water. Any place that can breed Sun Ra and Hall & Oates. . . . I also love the Philly attitude: 'I don't like you, I'm not going to pretend to like you. I'm just going to do what I do.' "

Kattner enjoys being in a hard-to-pigeonhole band, whose music gained exposure last year with the theme song to the Showtime series Weeds and on a Nike commercial starring The Office's Rainn Wilson and the U.S. women's soccer team. He's amused that Man Man's Wikipedia entry struggles to define the band, resorting to the phrases "Viking vaudeville" and "punk-wop."

Santogold. Yes, we know that Santi White, who used to lead the Philadelphia ska-punk band Stiffed and has been reborn as Santogold, now resides in Brooklyn. But we're still claiming the Mount Airy-raised daughter of the late Ron White, a longtime adviser to Mayor John Street, as our own.

That's partly because White, an industry secret since she ghostwrote the 2001 rock-soul album How I Do by Philadelphia's Res, is poised to get her just deserts. (Her skills are also apparent on "Outta My Head [Ay Ya Ya]" the terrific new Ashlee Simpson single she cowrote.)

It's also because her reincarnation as an electro-pop siren - she's on the cover of tastemaking magazine Fader - came with the help of Philadelphians like Amanda Blank and Diplo (see below).

"I was doing my new-wave, punk-rock and dub thing, and I started mixing it up with these progressive electronic producers," White said in December. Santogold, her self-titled debut, comes out in April.

The YMD. When Bryan Poerner and Rick Mitchell got together as the Yah Mos Def - before pressure from rapper Mos Def persuaded them to change their name - the blueprint was simple.

"It was basically using old hard-core punk beats and rapping over them," Mitchell says. "The idea," Poerner chimes in, "was to see how many plays on those two worlds we could work in. That was our shtick."

The blueprint has gotten looser now that the Center City duo are set for the spring release of the hilarious Excuse Me, This Is the Yah Mos Def on Princeton's My Pal God records. The sampled riffs come from the likes of Bikini Kill and Minor Threat. The lyrics, delivered in adenoidal voices that recall the Beastie Boys, boast that the YMD "have more birds than Jeffrey Lurie" and reference the 1985 bombing of the MOVE house in West Philadelphia. The YMC play the Barbary on Feb. 29.

Nouveau Riche. This rap-pop band is fronted by Dice Raw - the MC born Karl Jenkins, best known as part of the Roots crew - and Minneapolis-transplant singer Nikki Jean. They played their first gig at the Kimmel Center opening for the Roots, TV on the Radio, and Deerhoof. Their sound, part trip-hop/part hard rock, doesn't fit any "urban" music stereotype.

They quickly make converts, however, with their whisper-to-a-scream live shows and the craftsmanship evident in the songs on the EP The Long Tail (available for free download at www.myspace.com/nouveauricheband). A new EP is due next month, and a full-length by year's end. They play Silk City, with TuPhace, on Feb. 12.

The Swimmers. Swimmers singer Steve Yutzy-Burkey, a Lancaster native who lives in Northern Liberties, used to lead an excellent roots-rock band called One Star Hotel. With the Swimmers - named after a John Cheever short story that became a Burt Lancaster movie - Yutzy-Burkey has brought his wife, keyboardist Krista Yutzy-Burkey, into the band and blossomed as a writer of bright, harmony-happy pop songs like "Heaven." Last year, the Swimmers played a memorable four-week residency at the Khyber, and earned themselves a deal with Drexel's Mad Dragon label, which will release their debut album Fighting Trees March 4.

Diplo. The DJ-producer born Wesley Pentz may have the busiest year of anybody on this list. Last week, as saws buzzed at the North Philadelphia headquarters of his Mad Decent label, located in a former funeral-monument showroom now affectionately known as the Diplo Mausoleum, he ran through a list of projects by Mad Decent artists such as Brazilian baile funk band Bonde do Role, Baltimore club-music producer DJ Blaqstarr, and West Philadelphia's DJ Sega.

The jack of all trades - probably best known for collaborating with his ex-girlfriend M.I.A. on songs like "Paper Planes" - is also putting the finishing touches on a Brazilian music movie called Favela on Blast that dazzles even as a work in progress. He's got a solo album coming with vocal tracks from artists as varied as Cat Power and rapper Bun B, and a reggae dancehall album with British DJ Switch. And, oh yeah, he's spinning on the MySpace tour as the opening act for Justice, at the Electric Factory March 10.

Spank Rock and Amanda Blank. We're cheating, since putting these two together really brings our total to nine. But these two often-dirty-mouthed rappers who specialize in 120-beat-per-minute party music are virtually inseparable, anyway. Last month both turned up on stage with M.I.A.; both will have albums out on the Downtown label. For Spank Rock, the nom de rap of Naeem Juwan, the bespectacled MC born in Baltimore, it'll be his second, after 2006's YoYoYoYoYo. For Blank, who plays in the lewd and goofy indie band Sweatheart, it'll be her debut.

Cheers Elephant. The influence of the Kinks comes to the fore in Cheers Elephant, a Philadelphia-area foursome whose members live in West Chester, Downingtown and the city. The band bends fanciful folk and playful psychedelic shadings to their British Invasion predilections, and they're sing-along showmen on stage. They're halfway through a four-week Tuesday-night residency at the Khyber, where they'll be joined by the promising Bucks County band Drink Up Buttercup, beginning this week.

Beyond these eight, local clubs are chock-full of up-and-coming worthies. Among them are the hip-hop soul revue Black Landlord and the bewitching ambient-pop trio Ravens and Vultures, featuring sisters Chetana and Darshana Borah.

And there's the freak folk (phreak pholk?) circle around Espers guitarist Greg Weeks. On Tuesday, his Language of Stone label will release the debut disc of Ex Reverie, the solo project of Gillian Chadwick, guitarist for the Fishtown prog-rock band Golden Ball.

In April, Schwenksville's Park the Van label will put out Red by Pepi Ginsberg, a former-Philadelphian singer-songwriter. Her album was produced by Scott McMicken of Dr. Dog, the West Philadelphia band that will also have a new CD this year. As will their labelmates the Teeth.

One of the most promising acts to watch is TuPhace, the West Philadelphia rapper-songwriter also known as Mike Taylor. He tore up a packed house at Silk City this month and returns with his band on Feb. 12.

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