British rock wunderkind Jake Bugg rippling through the States

It's the kind of hit song that takes on new life in concert, with rowdy, caution-to-the-wind lyrics that spawn boisterous sing-alongs. Now if British rock wunderkind Jake Bugg could only teach American audiences the proper hand salute alluded to in his breakout hit "Two Fingers."

"It's great when everybody starts singing along and all that, but over there they always throw up their fingers the wrong way," Bugg explained with a friendly laugh. "That's cool, though. I got nothing against the peace sign."

England's biggest new rock star at a mere 19, Bugg is actually singing about the backwards-turned two-finger gesture that is his country's answer to flipping the bird. You know, the sort of gesture he would want to make to all the British tabloid photographers who stalked the "new Dylan" singer when he was dating "new Kate Moss" model Cara Delevingne last year.

Bugg's thick Nottingham accent and mannerisms offered an equally sharp dose of Britishness in a phone interview last week from London, where he was resting up at a hotel while waiting to shove off for a U.S. tour that lands Friday at First Avenue.

"It's got PlayStation," he happily reported of his temporary London digs. "I'm basically homeless at this point, but it's all right. I'm getting to see the world instead."

Bugg went from playing a BBC-sponsored new-talent slot at 2011's Glastonbury Festival — back when he was still living with his mum — to an act listed near the top of major festival lineups on both sides of the Atlantic in 2013. In between, his self-titled debut album landed a No. 1 U.K. chart position and earned oodles of critical praise stateside.

While his raw delivery and nasal singing style vaguely recollect a young Bob Dylan, Bugg more accurately draws a line from American rock and English skiffle acts of the 1950s-60s to 1980s-90s Brit-rockers, such as the Smiths and Oasis (whose Noel Gallagher has sung the young lad's praise).

"I wasn't making a statement. I just wanted to get the record out when it was done," he said flatly.

"Shangri La" is named after the renowned beachside studio/house in Malibu, Calif., which Rubin bought a year or two ago from none other than Minneapolis rocker Beej Chaney of the Suburbs.

In the '70s Shangri La played host to Bob Dylan, Eric Clapton and the Band (the kitchen interview scenes in "The Last Waltz" were filmed there). Kanye West also worked there with Rubin on the "Yeezus" album.

"You can't help but think what it was like back in the day when the Band were working there and all that," Bugg said, "but for me, it was really strange and wonderful in a different way.

"Going to Los Angeles to record was a wild thing for me, but then [Shangri La] is way out there and sort of cut off from the rest of the world. After traveling around the world for a year, the peaceful setting of it was really a strange feeling for me personally, in a good way."

"Sometimes you feel you're up against the world," he snarls in the choppy first single, "What Doesn't Kill You," which recounts a violent mugging. In another standout track, "Messed Up Kids," he paints an especially ugly picture of his youth:

"The messed up kids are on the corner with no money / They sell their time, they sell their drugs, they sell their body / And everywhere I see a sea of empty pockets / Beautiful girls with eyes so dark within their sockets."

Pointing to "Two Fingers" as an example of the way he writes, Bugg said, "I wrote that one with my friend, Iain Archer, and he kept asking me what it was like for me growing up. The lyrics were very close to the things I was telling him about."

It was a surprise to him he continued to write along the same lines for the new album.

"I thought with the crazy year I had and everywhere I'd been, I wouldn't write about my hometown again on this record, but obviously that's what came out. I suppose I had a different perspective being away from it. With a place like that, you only miss the people, not the place itself."

"It's harder to misbehave now," he claimed. "The schedule and routine keep you in line, and there are always people around me now who will tell me if I'm doing anything really bad."

At least he still has PlayStation for a vice.

Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658