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Who: A Los Angeles-based art-folk quintet who broke out big at last year’s South by Southwest and are poised to make an even bigger splash when they rock a marathon nine gigs in three days this week at the fest. After SXSW, the group heads out on their first major headlining tour, with stops at Coachella in April. “We were just on our first headlining tour in Europe and we were nervous that no one would come out to see us,” says bassist Andy Hamm. “But there were a lot of people at all the shows and they were totally great.”

Sound: Sprawling, gorgeous indie pop that mixes Fleet Foxes’ penchant for multi-part harmonies with jittery, post-punk guitars and grooves. “Wide Eyes” is a reverb-dunked anthem that almost sounds like Simon and Garfunkel fronting a Britpop band. And the bouncy, sprawling rocker “Airplanes” is singer Kelcey Ayer’s tribute to his grandfather, a former airplane pilot who passed away before Ayer was born. “Everyone thinks that track is about some girl that Kelcey misses a lot but it’s definitely not the case,” says Hamm. “It’s about an old man.”

Vital Stats:

• Local Natives’ debut is titled Gorilla Manor after the house where all the bandmates lived and recorded in L.A. — imagine an indie-rock version of Entourage. “We wanted to pay homage to living together and writing together every day,” says Hamm. “But then the other side is that it’s still five dudes living together, having house parties or getting into arguments about who has to take the trash out.” So which Local Native is the sloppiest? “[Singer-guitarist] Taylor [Rice] is the dirtiest,” says Hamm. “Most of the time we’re like, ‘Taylor, you didn’t clean up your shit again!’ ”

• After doing a performance for Daytrotter, which is based in Rock Island, Illinois, Local Natives have made made fans out of folks in the heartland. While visiting rural Illinois, the band performed a series of shows in farmers’ barns, which they dubbed “barnstormings.” Turns out, they’re the perfect place to put on an indie-rock gig. “We played this one eight-sided barn that was all reverb-y — it was such a great experience,” says Hamm. “And all these folks came out from I don’t know where — but they reacted well I thought.”

•On Gorilla Manor, Local Natives offer up a killer version of the Talking Heads’ classic “Warning Sign,” expanding David Byrne’s jagged art-rock into a breathtaking anthem worthy of a church choir. “We were trying to take it to a new level,” says Hamm. “We wanted it to be something that had a Local Natives style to it, but we still wanted to be respectful to the Talking Heads.”

Get It Now: Watch the band’s video for “Airplanes” at the top of the post.

Who: Pastoral rockers from Denton, Texas, who first broke through with their 2006 track “Roscoe,” on which the group’s classic-rock-loving frontman Tim Smith sang about life in the 1800s. “I don’t do too well in the present,” he says. “Not that old times were better, but I’m more romantic about the past.”

Sounds Like: The band’s latest disc, The Courage of Others, has a sound influenced by 1960s British acts like Fairport Convention and Pentangle, with Jethro Tull-style flutes and references to maidens and merchant ships.

Vital Stats:

• Smith was a John Coltrane devotee until he reluctantly picked up Radiohead’s OK Computer while at the North Texas College of Music. “I didn’t want to listen to it, because of the name,” he says. “I thought, ‘What’s this, some kind of radio-pop music?’ ”

• Before Midlake embraced chiming guitars and meticulous harmonies, the group was a jazz-funk act. Smith ditched his sax when he joined up with the Texas group, which featured current bandmembers Eric Pulido and Eric Nichelson (guitar), McKenzie Smith (drums) and Paul Alexander (bass).

• Like fellow bearded strummers Fleet Foxes and Bon Iver, Midlake recall CSNY and Fleetwood Mac. “You want your music to be ask great as those acts,” says Smith, “But I shouldn’t compare my work with everything that’s ever been done. I mean, you can only do so much before you die.”

Get It Now: Watch the band’s trailer for The Courage of Others up top.

Who: The Shins’ singer-guitarist James Mercer and producer extraordinaire Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), who’ve taken time off from their usual gigs to team for a new self-titled disc of left-field psych-pop. (Read the RS review here.)

Sounds Like: Spooky psychedelia with a British Invasion flavor. Burton outfits Mercer’s beautiful melodies and with analog-synth swooshes, slo-mo kick drums and horn breaks. The mellow punch of “Vaporize” features zippy organ and rolling snare, and Mercer goes for a T-Pained falsetto on the catchy, electro-kicky “The Ghost Inside.”

Vital Stats:

• Recording sessions for Broken Bells resembled a budding bromance. Mercer moved into Burton’s L.A. bachelor pad, and they’d go to the movies, listen to records (Love, the Zombies), drink at dive bars and talk about relationships and life. “We definitely had separate rooms,” Burton tells RS.

• One of the main reasons the two musicians linked up was a search for fun. Mercer says he wondered, ” ‘Do I still have the curiosity and enthusiasm’ ” to be the sole songwriter and frontman for the Shins. Burton felt less like a collaborator than a hired gun on projects with Gorillaz and Beck. With Broken Bells, “I was free to express any idea I had,” the producer says.

• Both Mercer and Burton say they’re focusing on Broken Bells right now, but the status of their day jobs seems a little up in the air. “There’s been no discussion” of another Gnarls Barkley LP, Burton says, and Mercer notes, “I’ll probably, you know, find the time at some point” to make another Shins record.

Who: Nigerian-German artist whose raspy voice, deft rapping and soulful grooves helped her land a Euro club hit with “Heartbeat” last year. Her skills have made fans of Lenny Kravitz and the Roots, who backed her at a New York show.

Sounds Like: Nneka’s U.S. debut Concrete Jungle pits hip-hop beats and Afro-funk grooves against lyrics about racism, colonial powers and slavery. On the roots-reggae cut “Africans” she sings “We use the same hatreds to oppress our own brothers.” “Heartbeat” is a pulsing tribal-funk anthem that doubles as a plea for the world not to ignore Africa’s problems.

Vital Stats:

• Nneka, 29, grew up listening to her dad’s Fela Kuti records in Warri, Nigeria, where “there was a lot of corruption and poverty.” As a result, she’s always been drawn to social-conscience music rather than love songs. “I like songs with a message,” she says. “I’m conscious about making change in this world.”

• At 19, she moved to Hamburg, Germany, to study anthropology and started rapping at open-mike nights. “I wasn’t courageous enough to sing,” she said. “But the German mentality was different than what I was used to, and I felt isolated. Singing became my therapy.”

• This summer Nneka will hit the road with the revamped Lilith Fair alongside artists like Mary J. Blige, Sheryl Crow and Tegan and Sara. “I’m bringing the African vibe, man,” she says.

Get It Now: Check out Nneka’s video for “Heartbeat” up top and more from Concrete Jungle on her MySpace.

Who: Christofer Drew, a 19-year-old Missouri native whose lovelorn tracks, soft, high voice (and Pete Wentz-style skinny jeans) are making underage girls swoon. He was signed by Warner Bros. after being discovered on MySpace and releasing three EPs, and his first disc What Is Love? debuted at Number 24 on the Top 200.

Sounds Like: The tunes on Drew’s full-length (which he cut with producer Butch Walker) blend emo and folk into airy, heartbroken acoustic tracks like “Jane Doe” (where he crushes on pretty waitresses) and “Can’t Stand It” (where he gushes about girls who are “superduper cute”).

Vital Stats:

• Drew’s original aspirations weren’t musical, but athletic: his dad was grooming him to be a tennis pro, but a shoulder injury made him focus on the Bob Dylan tunes his father taught him on guitar. At 14 he wrote his first song after his best friend ditched him for a girl.

• Another heartbreak — his girlfriend cheated on him — set off a rough patch for Drew. He dropped out of high school, got kicked out of his parents’ house and road-tripped across the Midwest playing coffee shops and churches where “There were, like, 20 kids at each show. But I’d make $50 — enough for gas to the next place.”

• Drew says he recently got into Taoism after reading The Tao of Pooh, and he strives to live the simple life. “I like to go to Waffle House and read, drink coffee and smoke cigarettes all day,” he says. “I’m trying to be artistic.”

Get It Now: Click up top to watch Never Shout Never’s video for “What Is Love?”

Photo: Neil Thomas Douglas
The Band: We Were Promised Jetpacks
The Buzz: Coy and charming Scots write demure and charging indie rock songs, full of passion and promise
Listen If: You’re buttoned-up on the outside but pleading and aching on the inside
Key Track: “Roll Up Your Sleeves,” whose taut, tight strum slowly evolves into a yelping, yearning chorus

The Band: Georgia Anne Muldrow
The Buzz: Neo-soul chanteuse summons mystic visions from the beyond
Listen If: You still have black lights and incense and a fondness for free-form R&B
Key Track: The awesomely elastic “Mr. President,” where Muldrow’s cracked voice decries governmental corruption over a chugging funk backdrop

The Band: The Strange Boys
The Buzz: New York cut-ups play falling-apart garage songs, with minimal skill and a wicked sense of humor
Listen If: You wish the New York Dolls were just a tad less professional
Key Track: The shambling “Woe is You and Me,” which serves as a kind of theme song/statement-of-purpose for the band’s damaged rock songs

Who: Irish trio the Script traces its roots to the late ’90s, when then late-teenagers Danny O’Donoghue (keys and vocals) and Mark Sheehan (guitar) made a pilgrimage to America to work as session musicians and studio hands. They returned to their native Dublin and hooked up with drummer Glen Power in 2005. Their circuitous route to budding rock stardom will culminate with two huge gigs in July: opening for Paul McCartney at New York’s Citi Field and for U2 at Dublin’s Croke Park.

Sounds Like: A pristine pop-rock act with a decided modern R&B streak, the Script call to mind a more wistful Maroon 5 or a funkier Coldplay. While their eponymous 2008 debut album is full of sunny, addictive melodies, it also has a palpable air of melancholy. Recorded during a tumultuous time in the bandmembers’ family lives (O’Donoghue lost his father and Sheehan his mother during the making of The Script), songs like “Breakeven” feature maudlin couplets like, “Still alive, but I’m barely breathing/Just prayed to a God that I don’t believe in,” sung over twinkling guitars and buoyant drums.

Vital Stats:

• Growing up in Ireland in the blast radius of England’s Britpop explosion, O’Donoghue and Sheehan found themselves more interested in the seductive rhythms of soul and hip-hop than the lad-rock that was then in vogue. “We had to stay up late to catch any of the hip-hop and R&B videos on MTV — that was the only time we could see them,” says O’Donoghue. “Ireland has a very vibrant music scene, but at the time it was mostly rock & roll. We left home to come to America at 17 because there weren’t that many options for musicians who were into what we were into.”

• From 1999 and 2003, O’Donoghue and Sheehan worked in the U.S., orbiting around R&B studio sessions run by producers such as Rodney Jerkins and Teddy Riley. “Through some friends, I met Rodney Jerkins. He had me play some guitar over a track that he was working on. I sort of forgot about it, but after a while he called me in and played it back for me and it wound up being ‘Turntable’ by TLC. It was the tribute song to Lisa ‘Left Eye’ Lopez,” recalls O’Donoghue. A brief audition for Riley saw them come across another up-and-coming duo. “After Mark and I were done playing he wound up handing us a tape with some beats on it that said, ‘Neptunes.’ ” Hanging out in the background of Jerkins and Riley’s sessions taught the Irish songwriters valuable lessons, too: “We realized that we wanted to be the judge, jury and executioner of our own work.”

• While the recording of their debut was a heartbreaking time in the lives of the bandmates, you get the feeling someone is watching over the Script. They’re set to have one of the more dizzying months a young band could ever hope for. “When something like a Paul McCartney gig gets tossed in your lap it can be a very frightening thing, especially considering how nostalgic that day will be,” says O’Donoghue, referencing McCartney’s choice of the new home of the New York Mets, 44 years after the Beatles’ historic concert at the old Mets stomping grounds, Shea Stadium. To prepare for the McCartney and U2 shows, the Script have been racking up the large-capacity gigs on their own, “We’ve played to over 600,000 people by now, with festivals and everything. So we’re getting more comfortable playing to huge crowds.” Not that they’re complaining, “You can’t really dream of this stuff. Each day is amazing,” enthuses O’Donoghue. “I’m in the studio, rehearsing for one concert with Paul McCartney at a baseball stadium and one opening for U2 at Croke Park, the national stadium of Ireland. I keep having to pinch myself.”

Get It Now: The Script is out now — watch their new video for “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved,” above.