Buzz Bands becomes part of Soundboard

Buzz Bands, as the spiffy graphic would imply, is moving. It's now part of SOUNDBOARD, The Times' new group music blog that will feature a lot of people writing about a lot of things, some of them even bands that buzz. To the folks around Los Angeles (and occasionally elsewhere) who followed along with my scribblings the past 15 months, thank you.

Readers, adjust thy bookmarks. Meet SOUNDBOARD.

-- Kevin Bronson

Hazelden checks in -- to Hazelden's name

 

Name yourself after rehab -- they said no, no, no ...

That's what Hazelden is finding. The L.A. rock quartet last week heard from a Minnesota-based law firm representing the prominent drug and alcohol treatment facility Hazelden. Would the band please change its name?

"I'm not sure what we're going to do yet," says front woman Mary Jane Snow, who says the band is named for Hedley Hazelden (1915-2001), a highly decorated World War II airman and test pilot [pictured above, with Hazelden]. Snow says her unsigned band can't afford legal representation. The foursome just released its initial EP.

Seems to me a lot of bands are having trouble with their names recently; it's obvious from the existence of RSI-inducing names like WFANFC and SSLYBY that all the good band names are taken. Afternoons -- the local outfit helmed by members of Irving -- might be looking for a new moniker because of the almost-forgotten Welsh band from a couple decades ago called the Afternoons. The L.A. band Muso recently renamed itslef Les Blanks because of trademark issues. And the Switch switched to Le Switch last year after finding that Switches were a dime a dozen.

We'll see about Hazelden -- for now, Snow says, her band is preparing for Sunday night's big show at the House of Blues Anaheim. The quartet is opening for the New York Dolls.

Other highlights for the weekend, March 7-9

Tonight: Delta Spirit, picking up steam on the strength of its great late-'07 release "Ode to Sunshine," headline the Troubadour, with the Virgins and Port O'Brien (nice album coming May 13) also on the bill. ... Youngsters the Jakes and Billy Boy on Poison head up a big bill at the Roxy. ... Division Day and the A-Sides are at Spaceland. ... Cool Kiwis Die! Die! Die! play the Echo. ... Why? and Yacht play at the Natural History Museum's First Fridays shindig. ... And Rademacher is squeezing into Pehrspace.

Saturday night: Liam Finn and the Heavenly States play at Spaceland, though Pela has had to drop off the bill because of a hand injury sustained by its guitarist. ... The Dodos play the Silverlake Lounge (it's a 4:30 p.m. early show). ... Whispertown 2000 plays El Cid, while LoveLikeFire comes back into town for a show at Bordello that includes Light FM. ... And there's a cool Air Don't Sleep show at Crash Mansion.

Sunday night: Travis Sullivan's Bjorkestra is quite a spectacle -- the band plays Safari Sam's. ... And Big Business is at Spaceland, with the Cops.

The Little Ones bounce back after losing record deal

Talk about a roller-coaster month.

The Little Ones gained a little one in January -- and the Los Angeles quintet lost their record deals in the EMI corporate reorganization. "It was the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows," says singer-guitarist Ed Reyes, who with wife Jenny became parents of a son, Nolan, on Jan. 31. Only a week earlier, the band was told it was being let go from its contracts with EMI imprints Heavenly (in the U.K.) and Astralwerks (in the U.S.).

They're regrouping. Later today, the band will announce a nationwide tour beginning in April with Syracuse, N.Y., sextet Ra Ra Riot -- a jaunt that will coincide with the debut of a new, self-released EP titled "Terry Tales & Fallen Gates."

"It's full circle for us -- we're back to where we were in April 2006 with 'Sing Song,'" Reyes says, referring to the debut EP that helped put the band's upbeat pop on the map.

"Whenever you're rejected by anything in life, it hurts. I'd be lying if I said we weren't disappointed. But it's a new day -- like anything, you have to roll with the punches," Reyes says. "The funny thing is, it never even felt to us like we were signed to a major [label], since both Heavenly and Astralwerks feel like indies."

As part of the separation, the Little Ones were given back the masters for their completed album, "Morning Tide," which originally was due to be released in April. The six songs on the new EP were recorded during the "Morning Tide" sessions but were not slated to be on the album. The band hopes to release it straight to iTunes, with physical copies available at shows.

||| Live: The Little Ones play a headlining date at the Troubadour on May 15, and are at the Glass House the next night with Ra Ra Riot.

||| Download: The intended first single from "Morning Tide," "Ordinary Song," as well as a remix of that song, at the band's MySpace site.

New video from Dengue Fever

Local miscellany: The cinematic quality to Dengue Fever's sound makes it a natural for music videos. Here's the latest from the band's third album, "Venus on Earth." The track is titled "Seeing Hands":

Elsewhere: That sold-out Hot Chip show that was postponed Feb. 4 (at the El Rey) has been rescheduled for April 28 -- and it's at the Mayan. No on-sale date has been announced for the additional tickets yet; tickets for the original show will be honored... Locally famous folkies and Jenny Lewis collaborators the Watson Twins are now aligned with Vanguard Records and have a debut album, "Fire Songs," coming June 24. ... Midnight Movies are back with a new EP, "Nights," out digitally on Tuesday (check out "Should Have Known" on MySpace.

Highlights for tonight, March 6

Local dream-rock quintet Twilight Sleep celebrates the release of its new EP, "Race to the Bottom of the Sea," with a show tonight at the Echo that also features Karin Tatoyan and Restaurant. ... Brooklyn psych-rock quartet My Best Fiend, whose album of tuneful neuroses reminds you of stuff like Pink Floyd and Clinic, plays the first of a two-night stand in L.A. at the Viper Room. (The band is at the Echo on Friday.)  Also teeing it up on the good Viper Room bill tonight: Gran Ronde, Reeve Carney and the Daylights. ... Big goings-on at the Forum, where the Foo Fighters and Against Me! perform. ... The Junior Boys are doing a DJ set at Spaceland, where Troy This is playing. ... The Start kicks off a residency at Crash Mansion. ... And local quartet the Hanks mark the release of their sophomore album, "Distance," with a show at the Knitting Factory.

Full house sees the Duke Spirit deal

Liela Moss can talk the talk. Now her band, the Duke Spirit, has "The Step and the Walk," and the sky might be the limit.

That single, off the British quintet's new album "Neptune," capped a set that made you forget its occasional soft spots on Wednesday night at the Echo, which was more crowded than NME's thesaurus of platitudes. The shoulder-to-shoulder masses witnessed a band that's about one tick short of a 12 o'clock high, as Moss and bandmates dealt lean, foreboding garage rock that harks back to the '80s and '90s Britpop heydays.

It all hinges on Moss, the singer who's as much icy hot as hot-and-bothered. Her pipes have drawn comparison to Patti Smith and Nico and PJ Harvey; maybe there's some more-gutteral Chrissie Hynde in there too, in the phrasing; and somebody in the throng even suggested Christina Amphlett of Divinyls, which ... might not be too far off. Whatever. Moss delivers, even if you feel at times she's trapped between offering herself directly to the crowd and maintaining her veneer of detached cool.

There's a weather-beaten intelligence in Duke Spirit songs such as "Send a Little Love Token," "Into the Fold" and "Cuts Across the Land" (the latter from their 2006 debut) that lesser bands might suffocate in histrionics. On Wednesday, nobody was gasping for air, except maybe the bartenders.

||| Live: The Duke Spirit return to L.A. for a May 13 show at the Troubadour.

||| Stream: "Send a Little Love Token" [login required].

Photo by Kevin Bronson / LAT

Rooney headlines big benefit at the Roxy

The guys in Rooney lost more than a videographer when Brandon Schantz died in December. They lost a friend, whose sensibility and skills helped the L.A.-based quintet's music shine on screen.

Schantz, who died at age 27 from a rare form of lymphoma, will be saluted at the Roxy on Thursday night, when Rooney is joined by Brett Dennen, Lisa Donnelly and others for a benefit performance. Proceeds from the evening will go toward establishing the Brandon Schantz Memorial Endowment in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Texas.

"Brendan was an incredible friend and a very talented producer," says Rooney's manager, Kevin Dobski. "He also had a passion for live music."

Schantz worked on the band's videos for the songs "I Should Have Been After You" and "Are You Afraid," as well as a behind-the-scenes promotional video. "Brandon and I shared office space, after he started doing some things for the band the guys really liked the way they turned out and just kind of took to him," Dobski says. "Even after he was diagnosed [in March 2007] and had surgery to remove a tumor [in October], he kept coming to work."

The show begins at 7 p.m., and tickets are $25.

Photo by Autumn DeWilde

Highlights for Wednesday, March 5

The Duke Spirit, with a possible breakthrough album "Neptune" coming out in the U.S. on April 8, plays the Echo tonight. ...  Howlin Rain, joined by the Moon Upstairs, performs at Spaceland. ... The Autumns show off their new material at the Knitting Factory. ... And a great bill at the Silverlake Lounge includes Hello Dragon, the Black Kites and the Hard to Get (celebrating the release of "This Is the New Business Plan").

The Police add second Hollywood Bowl show

The Police, with Elvis Costello and the Imposters, have added a second show at the Hollywood Bowl. With the bill's May 27 date sold out, the added show will go off on May 28. Tickets ($304.50, $154.50, $99.50 and $54.50) go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday.

It'll make for a busy week for veteran rock acts at the Bowl -- the Police/Costello on Tuesday and Wednesday, R.E.M. (which does not appear on th Bowl's calendar but is listed on the band's tour itinerary) on Thursday, May 29, and the Cure on Saturday, May 31.

New Earlimart album due July 1

Earlimart's announcement this morning on its MySpace website couldn't have come as more of a surprise -- the band has a new album finished and slated for release on July 1.

"It's done, in the can and delivered," front man Aaron Espinoza says of "Hymn & Her," which will be released on Majordomo (an imprint of Shout! Factory) less than a year after the group's first album for that imprint, last August's "Mentor Tormentor." "We just want to be relentless, keep making stuff."

"Mentor Tormentor" was more than two years in the making, but after touring behind that record Espinoza got together with principal collaborator Ariana Murray. "I told her, 'It's just you and me, we're going to get an engineer, reserve the studio and record 10 songs.' ... We didn't want to do the whole wait-three-years-to-make-another-record thing," he says.

The engineer was versatile multi-instrumentalist Andrew Lynch, who also plays keyboards and brass on the album, the band's sixth. "He's a talented dude," Espinoza says. "We're lucky to have him."

No new songs posted yet, but I'll let you know.

Photo of Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray by Darrin Noble

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Another local note: Silversun Pickups debuted their new, Joaquin Phoenix-directed video for "Little Lover's So Polite" on MTV2. You can check it out here. Update: Here it is:

Crystal Castles postpones Roxy gig

[Apologies for the protracted silence, folks. Been away on a family matter, complicated by a run-in with Mother Nature, but thankfully people like Classical Geek Theatre can clue me in on what I missed. I now attempt to lurch back into action:]

An injury sustained by singer Alice Glass has forced the postponement of eight show by Crystal Castles, including Sunday's gig at the Roxy. The Toronto disco-noise duo hope to be back in time for their gigs at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin starting March 14. Glass suffered two cracked ribs in an auto accident, Pitchfork reported.

The Roxy will be silent on Sunday night. It was initially reported in Crystal Castles' press release that local noise specialists Health, their tourmates, would play as scheduled, but a spokesperson for the venue said the show will be postponed entirely and rescheduled later, possibly in June.

Highlights for Tuesday, March 4

Had I not been otherwise occupied, I would have found time to sing the praises of the new album, titled "Get Awkward," by Be Your Own Pet. Punky and delicious, I say. And the Nashville quartet is opening for the Raveonettes tonight at the El Rey. ... The Mountain Goats kick off a two-night stand at the Troubadour. ... Jim Bianco's release party for the very good "Sing" is tonight at the Hotel Cafe -- and as a bonus, Nyles Lannon, Daniel Ahearn and Everest (acoustic) are also playing. ... Working for a Nuclear Free City rocks Cinespace. ... And the Vacation are on the bill at the Silverlake Lounge.

Photo of Crystal Castles by Stuart Pillinger

Mezzanine Owls making some sweet noise

Mezzanine Owls might have the most passive-aggressive sound around.

Front man Jack Burnside sings woundedly, tossing around snippets of imagery that could have come from a dog-eared journal, while trading twitchy, fuzzed-out guitar lines with Jonathan Zeitlin. Atop the churning rhythms laid out by bassist Dan Horne and drummer Pauline Mu, the results can be otherworldly. “It’s not like you make a conscious choice — you sing it the way it feels to you,” Burnside says. “Sometimes it becomes its own reality.”

That concept plays out in the song/metaphor “Snow Globe,” an insular three minutes of fury off the L.A. quartet’s new EP. The release, a vinyl 7-inch with a four-song digital download (on a new imprint, Jaxart, spun off the local Rock Insider blog), follows last year’s Owls debut, “Slingshot Echoes.” Both were recorded in Athens, Ga., with Andy LeMaster (the man behind Now It’s Overhead who also has collaborated with Bright Eyes and Azure Ray, among others). “We tried to be true to what we sound like live,” Burnside says. "

The Owls' local shows have proven enough of a hoot to win them won fans among the shoegaze-pop followers of bands such as the Jesus and Mary Chain and Ride, as well as a fan or two closer to home. Burnside’s mother weighed in after a recent show: “She said we sounded apocalyptic,” he says. “How cool is that?”

||| Live: Mezzanine Owls play the Echo tonight with Eagle & Talon, Frankel and the Mae Shi.

||| Download: "Snow Globe."

Photo by Timothy Norris

Other highlights for tonight, Feb. 28

The Walkmen and the Delta Spirit perform as part of the indie rock series at the Orange County Performing Artscenter's Samueli Theatre. ... Taken by Trees (ex-Concretes singer Victoria Bergsman) plays the Roxy. ... British Sea Power winds up its two-night L.A. stand with a show at Spaceland. ... The Vacation finishes up its residency at the Viper Room, with Run Run Run also playing .. And Tulsa, along with What Made Milwaukee Famous, plays the Silverlake Lounge.

Moby hits Silver Lake (and I won't, for a while)

It's not a secret show, but it is kinda stealth. The Little Death NYC plays at El Cid on Friday night. That's a quartet featuring Moby on guitar/bass. Tickets are $15 at the door.

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Color me on vacation a few days. Back sometime next week.

||| For myriad things musical, check in with The Times' Soundboard blog.

||| For a nice rundown of local activities, check in with You Set the Scene and Radio Free Silver Lake. And maybe LA Underground and Rock Insider too. Not to mention L.A. Record. Perhaps even Oh My Rockness and Inflight at Night ... and, for dessert, Passion of the Weiss and Aquarium Drunkard.

In the meantime, dear world:

Hazelden breathes some life into 'Deadstock Rock'

You don’t just hear a lot of the 1990s in the music of L.A. quartet Hazelden, you hear a lot of singer Mary Jane Snow’s ambition. As one of the few kids from her self-described “white-trash Minnesota neighborhood” to attend college, she lived in Chicago, London and San Francisco before taking up songwriting in earnest, inspired by this decade’s rock revival, informed by heroes such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins and maybe even channeling a little “Celebrity Skin”-era Hole.

“It was about the time you started to hear the Strokes or the Vines on the radio,” she says. “I thought, ‘Oh, this is what I want to do.’”

She came to L.A. to do it, first playing open mike nights before falling in with bassist Joshua Wayne, guitarist Travis Garrecht and drummer Pete Vasquez, who on Hazelden’s debut EP “Deadstock Rock” help give Snow’s sometimes-foreboding anthems and given them a snarling, soaring edge — as evidenced on the track “To Live and Die in L.A.”

“I was nervous about putting [her first batch of songs] out, because I knew people would say, ‘Oh, this is Hole,’” Snow says. “But the guys have taken what I wrote and made it this new thing. ... This is an imposing town to play in, because there’s a million bands, but I think we have something unique. I’m not Jimi Hendrix, I’m not Janis Joplin, but I have confidence in my ability as a singer-songwriter.”

||| Live: Hazelden plays its EP release show on Friday at Bordello in downtown L.A. (scheduled to be the late set).

||| Download: "To Live and Die in L.A."

'Nataline' tribute song benefits Sarkisyan family

Presidential candidate John Edwards wasn't the only person moved by the story of Nataline Sarkisyan, the 17-year-old from Northridge who died in December of complications from leukemia and whose family's battles with its insurance carrier became headline news. Two local musicians, producer/beatmaker/lyricist ailment (Tony Barkodarian) and rapper/lyricist eye2eye (Mike Chakrian), were touched too.

"We didn't know Nataline personally, but I grew up in the same area and the whole story hit very close to home," says Barkodarian, a Northridge native who now lives in Glendale. "The best catchphrase I heard was 'murder by spreadsheet' -- that's exactly what it was."

After Sarkisyan's death, Chakrian posted some lyrics on MySpace, and upon seeing them Barkodarian was inspired to write a beat. The pair got together and recorded a song, "Nataline," and have made it available for download. Proceeds from the download ($1.99) go to the Sarkisyan family.

Learn more and download "Nataline" here.

Highlights for tonight, Feb. 20

Shane Alexander's album release show goes off tonight at the Troubadour. ... Halestorm rocks the Viper Room. ... And the Minor Canon and the Snow perform at Club NME at Spaceland.

A Cursive Memory: the sound of youthful fun

A Cursive Memory are four kids from the San Pedro area who are having a boatload of fun. That's the best way to describe "Changes," their album that was released today on Vagrant. Reminds me of the O.C. band Hellogoodbye. The band's album release show is tonight at Chain Reaction. Their video for "Everything" shows what happens when they mix it up in Tinseltown:

A Cursive Memory - EVERYTHING

Highlights for Tuesday, Feb. 19

My immediate impression of "Alone Feels Like a Hotel Room," new from the Kris Special, is that the L.A. trio has a tank full of Americana and the pedal to the metal. Anne Pointer's vocals sound like a slightly less syrupy Jenny Lewis, and this record (which has producer Raymond Richards' fingerprints on it) has some killer lap and pedal steel. Cool stuff. The record release show is tonight at the Echo (with the Harpeth Trace also playing) .... Everest leads a nice trio of local bands for Radio Free Silver Lake's show at boardner's in Hollywood. ... In the bigger rooms, the Hives and the Donnas rock the Wiltern; and Keren Ann, Dean & Britta and Sara Lov are at the El Rey.

||| More music coverage on The Times' new staff blog SOUNDBOARD.

Ears Wide Open: Jim Bianco, Shane Alexander, James Combs

[Be still your indie-rock hearts for a minute -- this local-music installment groups three veterans of the L.A. scene with new albums, hosts of collaborators and upcoming shows:]

Jim Bianco

One of the originals on the Hotel Cafe scene, Jim Bianco comes as close as anybody I've heard to filling the long shadow of Randy Newman. On his third album, "Sing" (March 4, Hotel Cafe Records), Bianco's nifty horn-, accordion- and piano-flavored arrangements and (occasionally) smilingly bawdy vignettes are as fit for smoky dives as swanky lounges. And the singer's vaguely Waits-ian rasp is made for couplets like "To hell with the devil / I'm sellin' my soul to you," not to mention elastic enough to sell piano ballads ("Painkiller") and groovy excursions ("If Your Mama Knew," which sprinkles in "Rhapsody in Blue"). "Sing," the Brooklyn native's third album, is the first release on a new label spun off the Cahuenga Boulevard venue and includes cameos by Gary Jules and Cary Brothers.

||| Live: Bianco plays his album-release show at the Hotel Cafe on March 4, and a free in-store at Amoeba Music at 7 p.m. March 5. He also performs on the Hotel Cafe Tour (March 8 at the House of Blues Anaheim and April 12 at the Music Box @ Fonda).

||| Download: "I Got a Thing for You". Check out the video for the song here.

Photo by Bethany Dwyer



Shane Alexander

The frontman of the longtime L.A. band Damone -- before they sold the name to these people -- Shane Alexander has stretched out incrementally on each of three solo albums, and his latest, "The Sky Below" (out today on BuddhaLand Records) muscles up considerably. Alexander, whose vocals might remind you the Gin Blossoms' Robin Wilson (or a couple other '90s radio mainstays), remains an effective acoustic troubadour (especially on the title track), but with the help of backing players Chad Crawford, Charlie Paxson, Billy Mohler and Kim Bullard, he has created a catchy slice of meticulously produced mid-tempo rock.

||| Live: Alexander (co-billed with the bluesy Chris Pierce) plays the Troubadour on Wednesday.

||| Stream: "Amsterdam" here.

Photo: viakarlo@snapglamstudios.com

James Combs

James Combs gets a lot of mileage out choked notes, sprightly orchestration and a sprinkling of synths on his third album, "To Know You Is to Save You." His filmy vocals are best when paired with collaborators Kelly De Martino and Erin Shawn Hawkins, but even alone they are ripe for his wry storytelling, amplified by a host of backing players that includes Nik Freitas (whose own album, "Sun Down," is coming April 8). These are the tunes of vivid, waking dreams, and, every so often, realization.

||| Live: Combs, joined by Wisely and Buddy, plays El Cid on Friday.

||| Download: "Oh Me."

Filtered thoughts on Presidents' Day

I suppose it was inevitable that the Presidents of the United States of America would resurface this year. Could've sworn these guys broke up about 1998, but the bio tells me they've been back it full-time since 2004. Now comes the news that they have a new album "These Are the Good Times People" (what newspapers have they been reading?) due March 11 and they have re-teamed with "Weird Al" Yankovic for the video to its first single "Mixed Up S.O.B.," which you can hear here.

I mention this to note the strange whims of remembering the 1990s. PUSA sold millions of albums (4.5 million of their debut), and yet when the e-mail landed about their upcoming album, I could not remember a single one of their songs. The disposable nature of pop-punk? Possibly. The disposable nature of PUSA's pop-punk? Probably.

On the other hand, the news landed last week about another rock radio mainstay of that era, the newly reformed Filter. Richard Patrick and gang are back after five years ("Anthems for the Damned," due in May), and as soon as I saw the band's name in the subject field, "Hey Man, Nice Shot" lodged itself in my brain and simply would not go away for three days.

The big debuts by PUSA and Filter both came out in 1995, and each remains on my shelf at home. But only one remains in the inventory of my brain. Happens to you too? Please share (and, yes, take potshots at my musical tastes in 1995 all you want ...)

||| Live: PUSA plays March 19 at the House of Blues Anaheim and March 21 at the Roxy.

||| Live: Filter (no new songs on their MySpace yet) has no L.A.-area dates scheduled yet, but they're at the Casbah in San Diego on March 2.

Photo of Richard Patrick by Andrew Pinter

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 18

Dengue Fever headlines the Indie 103.1 night at the Viper Room. ... Film School plays the warm-up slot for the Pity Party's Spaceland residency. ... Robert Francis continues his Silverlake Lounge residency with guests Dawes (members of now-defunct Simon Dawes). ... Casket Salesmen and four other bands bring the rock at a free show at the Troubadour. ... And at the Echo, the Henry Clay People toast producer David Newton (who helmed their "Working Part Time" EP) by welcoming three other Newton-produced local bands onto the bill -- the Happy Hollows, Kissing Tigers and Death to Anders.

Incoming: The Duke Spirit, the Raveonettes, British Sea Power

[In a decade long ago and far, far away, the 1990s, I used to shell out import prices for British bands I'd get excited about. Their releases always predated the U.S. distribution of their albums, and on many occasions I Just Couldn't Wait. Now that I receive music in advance, those mail-order companies don't get as much of my paycheck. But this installment of from-the-hip blurbs about new albums features three bands I'd have opened the wallet for (even at $23.49 on Amazon):]

     

The Duke Spirit, "Neptune" (April 8, Shangri-La; Feb. 12 in the U.K.): Talk about a voice -- I'll see your Feist and two photogenic MySpace songstresses and raise you Liela Moss. Her foreboding delivery seems to come from down here, imploring you care very deeply about her slightly bent diary entries. Take the pluck from the best couple tracks of quintet's nice debut, "Cuts Across the Land," and imagine that over a full album, and you have a band U.S. audiences ought to heed. The Duke Spirit haven't had much luck in America, but a strong tour and a little support for "Neptune" (which was recorded in Joshua Tree) could change that.

||| Live: The Duke Spirit play the Echo on March 5.

||| Stream the album here.

Watch: Video for "The Step and the Walk":

The Raveonettes, "Lust, Lust, Lust" (Feb. 19, Vice; Nov. 12, 2007, in the U.K.): It's as if everything Sune Rose Wagner and Sharin Foo tried to align on their first to albums has suddenly coalesced. Fuzzy, dark, simmering, shimmering and nodding to decades-ago girl groups and surf guitar outfits, "Lust(x3)" is like a churning ocean in the waning light. When they played as a duo last summer at the Little Radio warehouse downtown, I had no inkling some these songs would end up so fully formed.

||| Live: The Raveonettes have dates March 1 at the Glass House, March 2 at the Detroit Bar and March 4 at the El Rey Theatre.

||| Download: "Dead Sound."

British Sea Power, "Do You Like Rock Music?" (Feb. 12, Rough Trade): You hear the Brighton quartet wrestling with the big issues on this album, and the title's question feels almost like a challenge. Listening is like riding a beast; BSP's unvarnished, delightfully meandering anthems sound larger than life. Bring on foliage and military uniforms, lads, we're prepared to salute.

||| Live: British Sea Power plays Feb. 27 at the Echo and Feb. 28 at Spaceland.

"No Lucifer" by British Sea Power

Politicking for Grand Ole Party

There’s no need to practice partisan politics to endorse Grand Ole Party, especially if you like your rock raw and soulful. The San Diego-based trio, which released its debut album “Humanimals” on Super Tuesday, dispenses its retro blues like indefatigable campaigners, with singing drummer Kristin Gundred belting it out as if Grace Slick and Tina Turner never happened.

“I’m more drawn to things that are really intense; that’s probably why I sing the way I do,” she says. “And in front of this band, that’s certainly the way it comes out.”

Gundred, guitarist John Paul Labno and bassist Mike Krechnyak met at UC Santa Cruz, jammed for a while in San Francisco and settled in San Diego before catching the attention of Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennett, who, to continue the voting theme, also fronts the Elected — and who produced “Humanimals.”

The album was released on DH Records, the imprint launched by 3D Management honcho Dave Holmes (Coldplay, Interpol). (Side note: DH also has released an EP by Magnetic Morning, a collaboration between Interpol's Sam Fogarino and Swervedriver's Adam Franklin.)

“Our approach was that we like records, we like tube amps, we like the older versions of sounds,” Gundred says. Their throwback results more closely approximate GOP’s live shows, which they honed on a tour supporting Rilo Kiley and which will get a true test in April, when the trio plays Coachella. “I’m familiar with it,” Gundred says of the festival experience (she has performed with Rilo Kiley as a backup singer). “But at the same time, it wasn’t my band. I’ll probably write my lyrics on my damn hand I’ll be so nervous."

||| Live: Grand Ole Party performs tonight at Club Underground at the Echo.

||| Download: "Look Out Young Son."

Photo by Pamela Littky

Highlights for Friday, Feb. 15

Emery plays to a sold-out room tonight at the Troubadour. ... Siouxsie headlines the Music Box @ Fonda. ... At the Echoplex, St. Vincent headlines, and Foreign Born (who will play some material they are working on for their sophomore album) opens. ... Carina Round plays a full-band show at the Hotel Cafe (Emma Burgess and Seneca Hawk are also on the bill). ... The Binges go off at Spaceland (opening for cover band AC/DShe). ... And Paper Thin Walls plays at the Scene in Glendale.

Mika flashbacks, and other midweek notes ...

[Emptying the notebook from a busy week of music ...]

Color me disappointed in having missed the Mika spectacular Monday at the Wiltern. Yes, I fall distinctly on the "hater" side of this Europop phenomenon -- his cringe-worthy exuberance reminds me of every girl in my high school who ran for class president. He seems to acknowledge and even play to his detractors too, as Mikael Wood's excellent review of the show pointed out.

But more than one faithful Buzz Bands correspondent who attended found it as entertaining for the audience dynamic as the wildly choreographed stage show. Here was the reaction of the pal who sent the above photos:

The crowd would have followed him off a cliff if he asked them to. There were three O.C.-type college girls with homemade "I" "Heart" and "Mika" on their T-shirts, and they always walked around in order, so they would read "I Heart Mika." I was floored by the number of straight guys in the audience -- guys who did not come with girls. Not hipster metro straight, but baggy jeans, sweater, baseball cap and glasses straight. The performance was totally solid, completely charming, with tons of energy -- even with the multiple extended intros to songs while the set changed. There was a puppet, snow, a giant inflatable doll, plush costumes, costume changes, characters, dancers -- if Peaches got a lobotomy, tons of money and was forced to watch children’s programming all day, this show would be the result.

So take that, haters.

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Also missed a moment at the Echoplex on Monday night: Bone Thugs-n-Harmony did a cameo with Rickie Lee Jones.  I simply need to be in three places at once.

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Local tidbits: The Front plays its final show tonight at the Prospector in Long Beach. There's a note about the band's breakup here.  That brings to three the number of band breakups I've heard about recently -- the nice fellows in the Prix and Simon Dawes, respectively, also have called it quits.

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Happy Valentine's Day: On Tuesday, the Greg Kurstin/Inara George force known as the Bird and the Bee released a digital-only, Feb. 14-themed EP called "One Too Many Hearts." I'm not one for V-Day mush, but the four-song effort is pretty sublime. Did you forget flowers, guys? Head to iTunes.

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Happy Mondays guitarist Kav has been around town DJing, and now he's assembled a full band (including some collaboration with Black Rebel Motorcycle Club) to play his own music. The full-band version of Kav debuts Sunday night at the Whisky; he's playing stripped-down on Feb. 25 at the Troubadour.

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Things: Electrelane has remixed the Little One's single "Ordinary Song" and you can download it here. ... Styrofoam has remixed Cassettes Won't Listen's "Paper Float." ... Moby has a downloadable from his new album at RCRD LBL -- right this way. ... Taken by Trees, a.k.a. Victoria Bergsman from the Concretes and a Peter, Bjorn and John collaborator, plays the Roxy on Feb. 28, and here's her song "Lost and Found." ... Rock Insider, via GorillavsBear, has the scoop on Radiohead remixes here -- as well as an item on Wallpaper signing to local imprint Eenie Meenie (complete with download). ... And speaking of V-Day sounds, here's something from Daedelus (from the recent release "Live at Low End Theory" on the AlphaPup imprint): "Now's the Time."

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Spaceland celebrates its 13th year with a March 2 show featuring 13 bands for $13. All the performers will be alumni of the venue's Monday night residencies over the years -- that's a formidable cast. Confirmed so far: The Tyde, the Vacation, Oliver Future, the Blood Arm, Run Run Run, 400 Blows and the Movies. I have a hunch there might be a big-name surprise or two in store, but it's just a hunch ...

Feist headlining Hollywood Bowl on July 20

Easy as "1 2 3 4" -- Feist, the 31-year-old Canadian torch singer and Grammy nominee for best new artist, will be coming to the Hollywood Bowl for a headlining gig on July 20.  The Toronto native's striking chamber pop will be counterposed that evening by the stirring soul stylings of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings. There's no on-sale date for tickets yet, and a third artist is likely to be added to the show.

The Bowl's pop/rock offerings are shaping up for the summer. Earlier this morning, a May 27 show featuring the Police and Elvis Costello and the Imposters was announced (tickets on sale Feb. 24). Mary J Blige and Jay-Z have an April 16 show; the Cure are scheduled for May 31; Sgt. Pepper's Revisited with Cheap Trick goes off June 20; Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers play on June 25; Gilbert Gil and Devendra Banhart team up on June 29; Gnarls Barkley parties on July 27; and UB40 pays a visit on Aug. 3.

Update: It's not on the Bowl's website yet, but it's on the band's: R.E.M. is playing the Bowl on May 29. And it should be pointed out that the Feist, Gil/Banhart, Barkley and UB40 shows are part of KCRW-FM's World Music series.

Photo of Feist playing KROQ-FM's Almost Acoustic Christmas show by Lawrence K. Ho / LAT