Tune in to catch the next wave of local bands

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The past 12 months saw a slew of Las Vegas bands get signed and begin making an impact both locally and nationally.

So who's next? Here are some of my favorite young acts worth keeping an eye on in 2007 and, hopefully, beyond.

SHE TURNED US INTO TREES! ONE MINUTE, BAND MEMBERS ARE PLUCKING AT YOUR HEARTSTRINGS, THE NEXT MINUTE THEY'RE CLAWING THEM FROM YOUR CHEST AND STRANGLING YOU WITH THEM LIKE PIANO WIRE.

This bunch punishes pop-punk for all its sins -- namely, A Simple Plan -- with bipolar freak outs that are melodic and menacing at once.

At times, the band takes its cue from the breathless sugar rush of the Descendents, with fleet, lovelorn pop nuggets and a frontman who channels the sweet, unaffected whimsy of a young Daniel Johnston.

But then it puts the thumbscrews to the genre with blood-letting shrieks and touches of gruff hard-core -- often during the same song.

The result is a sound as exquisitely pained as love itself.

JAMIE PARIS

This gifted, 20-year-old singer-songwriter trades in heartache with a voice so delicate, it sounds as if it were made of porcelain. He pens lonely, magnificently sad songs, often backed only by an acoustic guitar and two decades of longing.

Paris' forthcoming debut is set to be produced by former Red Light School frontman Ian Shane Tyler, an ace songwriter himself, so expect big things -- not that you'd know it from this unassuming young talent.

"I am foolish and temporary," he writes on his MySpace page.

His tunes are anything but.

PERHAPZ

Coming with blue-collar rhymes about being broke and drunk in public, Perhapz is a hard-nosed MC with a chip on his shoulder that far outsizes his bank account.

This is a good thing, because it informs his spare, hardscrabble raps with a hunger and a longing that aches like an empty belly.

A member of the loaded Campfire Music crew, one of the leading lights of the Vegas hip-hop scene, Perhapz rhymes in a steady, hard-eyed drawl, sounding best in austere settings where voice can resonate like gunfire.

"Life ain't nothing nice these days," he announces over a classical guitar lick on "Shot in the Dark (Insufficient Funds)." "Just trying to make it that way."

And he's making progress.

KISSIN HANDS SHAKIN BABIES

In a city defined by gluttony, these dudes offer up a buffet of cast-iron riffs and needle-in-the-red blast beats for self-flagellating types to gorge on.

This city's death-core underground is booming with a slew of rising bands -- Never Ending War, Misericordiam, the Atrocity Complex, to name a few -- joining a scene already loaded with heavy-hitters.

KHSB stands out with an oppressively heavy sound that tempers a doomy crawl with manic grind and some over-the-top drumming that flies by like bullets whizzing past your head.

And the band has a sense of humor, too, so at least you'll go out with a smile on your face.

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