We Barbarians invade Silver Lake

[Random notes from recent club outings:]

They've changed their color, and maybe even their stripe. We Barbarians, a trio featuring former members of the classic rock-leaning quintet the Colour, played just their second show Monday night at the Silverlake Lounge (opening for this month's residents, Aushua). The Long Beach-based threesome of David Quon, Derek Huele and Nathan Warkentin laid out a half-hour set of tight, churning indie rock, impressing almost everybody in the room (including their buddies Cold War Kids). Next outing: Oct. 9 at the Derby.

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Silversun Pickups are using a break in their touring schedule to begin writing material for a follow-up to 2006's album "Carnavas." So far, only a couple songs have begun to take shape -- the titles, tentatively, are "The Royal We" (intended to have a heavy string presence) and "There's No Secrets This Year." SSPU, which plays a sold-out show at the Wiltern on Oct. 20, hopes to record the new album in the first quarter of 2008.

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And Division Day's record-release show for "Beartrap Island" on Tuesday at the Echo was a pretty joyous affair, and front man Rohner Stegnitz reacted in good humor to a website review that accused the quartet of nicking the chords from Bowie's "Space Oddity" for the DD song "Colorguard." He even slipped the lyric "Ground control to Major Tom" into the middle of "Colorguard."

Touts for Wednesday, Oct. 3

Gruff Rhys (Super Furry Animals) performs at the Jensen Rec Center in Echo Park, while down the street at the Echo, Datarock headlines and is supported by Honeycut and Foreign Born. ... Driveblind plays the Viper Room. ... Portishead's former DJ Andy Smith rocks the Roxy.

Photos: Top, We Barbarians at the Silverlake Lounge; inset, Division Day at the Echo (by Kevin Bronson / LAT)