Travis, other tasty weekend tidbits

Tickets still remained as of this morning for KCRW-FM's "A Sounds Eclectic Evening," the annual shindig celebrating and featuring some of the artists the station helped launch. With the Shins, Lily Allen and Rodrigo y Gabriela being joined by L.A. luminaries Cold War Kids, Bitter:Sweet and the Breakestra, the lineup at Gibson Amphitheatre already looks pretty formidable.

Now a source tells me KCRW's secret guests tonight will be Scotland's fine purveyors of Britpop, Travis. The band has a new album, "The Boy With No Name," due May 8, and local dates April 28 at Coachella and April 29 at the Fonda Theatre.

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The Vans Warped Tour threw its kickoff party on Friday night at the Key Club, with founder Kevin Lyman doing a little chest-beating about how his venture gets by with "no headliners" and "headliners are not what this tour is all about -- this is where you come to see one or two bands and you go home liking four or five others."

Headliners are in the ears of the beholder, I guess. Bad Religion and Coheed and Cambria join the likes of Meg and Dia, Circa Survive, New Found Glory and Bleed Dream among bands who will play the whole tour. Playing some dates: Pennywise, Yellowcard, Underoath, Fishbone, Hawthorne Heights and host of others.

But you almost spit out a mouthful of your $4-per-bottle water when Lyman in one moment said, "this tour is all about the music," and then introduced a cachascanista from Lucha Libre. Turns out one of the sideshows at this year's Warped will be Mexican wrestling.

"Last year people said I pitted the punk rockers agains the Christian rockers," Lyman joked. "Now I'll just throw everybody in the ring."

The tour begins and ends in Southern California. Dates: June 29 in Pomona, June 30 in Ventura and Aug. 25 at the Home Depot Center.

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Local indie rockers the Switch, whom I've been meaning to write about for a while (and whom Radio Free Silver Lake did) announced via MySpace on Friday that one of the 20 or so other unsigned bands who use the name "The Switch" served them with legal papers to cease using the name. Rather than bother contesting it, the L.A. outfit, will change its name -- and they''re asking for suggestions. Yes, the Switchback and the Switchbacks are already taken. (The Switch play Tuesday at the Scene in Glendale.)

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Touts for Saturday, April 14: The Appleseed Cast visit the El Rey Theatre. ... Three like-minded (celebratory), but not necessarily like-sounding, indie acts plays Spaceland -- the Parson Redheads, the Happy Hollows, the Deadly Syndrome. ... And the Ponys rock the Echo.

And Sunday, April 15: Country music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin plays an in-store at 2 p.m. at Amoeba Music. ... And Great Glass Elevator is among the bands playing a benefit for St. Jude's Children's Hospital at the Knitting Factory.