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").

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.

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.

◊ ◊ ◊

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:

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."

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.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

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.

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.

◊ ◊ ◊

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:

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."

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.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

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.

◊ ◊ ◊

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:

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."

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.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

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."

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.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

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.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

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.

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

New music, big residency for hard-working Vacation

When I last saw the Vacation, front man Ben Tegel was climbing all over the furniture at Safari Sam's, giving one of those boozy, sweaty, unhinged performances for which the L.A. quartet became known. That was over a year ago, when Tegel and bandmates were a bit drunk on the euphoria of having been picked up by Rick Rubin's American Recordings.

The Vacation's debut album was re-jiggered and re-released in 2006, the band started to write and play songs for a follow-up, and ... poof. Rubin moved from Warner to Columbia, and the Vacation got lost in all the packing tape. The band's relationship with American ended last autumn.

"They kind of strung us along for a while, but I'm not complaining about it because it's the same story a lot of bands have," Tegel says. "We're just glad to have a clean break.

"It's a weird landscape in music right now."

With their characterisitic swagger, the Vacation aims to paint itself back into that landscape. They have a new album recorded, tentatively titled "Dead Time," and will be posting a downloadable track per week on their MySpace site during their residency at the Viper Room, which begins tonight. Up now: "I Can't Dance With You," and on Friday "---- Talker" will be posted.

The new material reaches further thematically than did their original batch of hollers and rants about street life and various L.A. indulgences. "There's a song about the war in Afghanistan, which nobody talks about anymore," Tegel says. "In fact, I don't know if they're war songs as much as occupation songs."

||| Live: The Vacation play tonight (with Katy Perry, among others) and every Thursday in February at the Viper Room.

Photo by Stephen Albanese

More highlights for Thursday, Feb. 7

Songstress alert: Colbie Caillat plays the House of Blues, and Sara Bareilles joins James Blunt at the Wiltern, but look out for Ceci Bastida (Julieta Venegas' keyboardist), who is performing at Bordello. ... the Kooks' show at the Troubadour is sold out. ... The Entrance Band kicks off a residency at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The Lilys play the Echo. ... And John Ralson and Limbeck do a second night at the Alterknit Lounge

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

Gran Ronde, Minipop and a busy Wednesday of shows

[If you're not going to a show tonight, you must be home with that bug that's been going around. There's plenty to choose from:]

Gran Ronde, the L.A. quartet who's been playing its moody, angular rock around town for over a year now, finally has a couple proper releases on the horizon. This week, its debut EP "On and On" is released, and April 8 is the date for the foursome's full-length, "Secret Rooms." The band celebrates the EP release with a show tonight at Bordello.

Elsewhere:

Minipop, the cool-as-a-January-night dreampop quartet from San Francisco, is back in town. They play Club NME at Spaceland, with Norway's Undgomskulen. ... Beduoin Soundclash plays the Knitting Factory behind its very good album, "Street Gospels," and the Toronto reggae specialists are joined by U.K. newcomers Beat Union. ... The Weather Underground kicks off a Wednesday residency at the Silverlake Lounge supported by a host of stellar locals, including Frankel and Le Switch. ... Willoughby, the brainchild of bassist-around-town Guy Seyffert, brings its charmingly warped folk music to Tangier. ... The Donnas lead a big lineup downtown at the Crash Mansion. ... John Ralston and Limbeck spread their feel-good twang at the Alterknit Lounge. ...  Rising  popsters Biirdie play the Roxy. ...  York, Pa., Halestorm starts  monthlong run of Wednesdays at the Viper Room. ... Los Amigos Invisibles headline the House of Blues. ... And that's just for you guys who are skipping Velvet Revolver at the Wiltern.

Photo of Gran Ronde's Chris Pearson by Kevin Bronson / LAT

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

Robert Francis winning fans, 'One by One'

So serene and meticulous is the indie folk on Robert Francis’ debut album, “One by One,” that it’s hard to picture the clutter in which it was birthed. “I kind of took over my dad’s workroom, and he’s a bit eccentric,” Francis says of the space in his family’s Brentwood home that holds 30,000 vinyl records and stacks of sundry magazines belonging to his father, Robert Commagere, a pianist-composer. “There’s no space to walk, but there is a lot to draw inspiration from.”

It’s but one reason the sepia-toned tunes on “One by One” (nominated for the Shortlist Music Prize) feel wise beyond Francis’ years. His upbringing is another — family friend Ry Cooder gave him his first guitar; John Frusciante gave him lessons; he remembers stealing onstage at age 8 with Harry Dean Stanton and band at the Mint; his sister Juliette Commagere fronts the L.A. band Hello Stranger.

“There was never anything else I saw myself doing but making music,” says Francis, 20. But while he waxes poetic on the likes of John Hiatt and Steve Earle — and can’t wait to hear the new Levon Helm album — Francis’ own creative juices only started to flow after some uneven times. He dropped out of high school “and just stayed at home and partied a lot,” before eventually spending six months sequestered in the room tweaking the album.

“It was tedious,” he says, “but there were times I got that feeling that, yes, this is why I wrote it.”

Francis has assembled a live band including Graham Lathrop (pedal steel, vocals), Kati O’Toole (keyboards, banjo, vocals), Wylie Gelber (bass), Kevin Crooks (guitar, organ, mandolin) and Paul Hurd drums) for his residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Live: Francis plays free shows every Monday in February at the Silverlake Lounge.

||| Download: "Love for Me."

Photo by Julia Brokaw

Highlights for Monday, Feb. 4

A couple of other nice cover-charge-free residencies kick off -- notably, the Pity Party (who've been working on new music) at Spaceland, and the Henry Clay People (with a new EP due soon) at the Echo. ... Rickie Lee Jones begins her run of Monday shows at the Echoplex. ... At the normally local-oriented Indie 103.1 show at the Viper Room, the hard-to-pronounce but easy-on-the-ears Norwegian trio Ungdomskulen will join a bill of L.A. bands that includes the Icarus Line. ... And at the Scene in Glendale, Jim Evens of Helen Stellar will play as his side project Jim, Son of James.

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.

Crash Mansion celebrates with the Bravery, Switches

The early buzz on the new venue Crash Mansion has been mixed. The downtown venue has been up and running for a while, playing host to some lively club nights and the occasional live show and, recently, trying to overcome the black eye it received when a patron was gunned down in a nearby parking lot in early January.

On Saturday night, the 1,200-capacity club -- the kid sister of the hot NYC venue Crash Mansion -- will put on its best face for its grand opening, featuring the Bravery and U.K. newcomers Switches. The headliner is a known commodity here, having played plenty of L.A. shows since "The Sun and the Moon" invaded the airwaves. Switches' debut "Lay Down the Law" comes out March 18 (Interscope). If you're looking for swagger and energy, it could be your party-starter; if you're looking for originality, move on. Switches borrow heavily from the likes of Queen and ELO (is it just me, or is "Drama Queen" [on their MySpace] just a reworked "Don't Bring Me Down"?) and seem to delight in it. Is there such a thing as background glam?

Anyway, it will be interesting to see what Crash Mansion (being booked by ex-Key Club talent buyer Roger LeBlanc) can bring to the table. Judging from the faux-historical murals inside and the doorman who seems to enjoy having a line (even when the music has started and the club is less than a quarter full, as I experienced in December), it could be a slice of Sunset Strip coming downtown. If you like that sort of thing.

Highlights for the weekend, Feb. 1-2-3

For those who remember "Reality Bites" fondly -- and those who rightfully used "Stay (I Missed You)" as an entree to her music -- Lisa Loeb is playing two in-store performances this weekend to support the release of "The Purple Tape," her 1992 recording that is coming out on CD (with expanded packaging) for the first time. She'll play acoustic at 7 tonight at the Barnes and Noble in the Grove and at 7 p.m. Saturday at Borders in Torrance (3700 Torrance Blvd.)

Also tonight: Autolux and Heath bring the noise at the El Rey, while Matt Costa (with the Delta Spirit in tow) plays the first of two sold-out nights at the Troubadour. ... A-Trak and Kid Sister party among the artifacts at the Natural History Museum. ... Indie-poppers Biirdie headline Spaceland. ... Bodies of Water and Castanets perform at Club Underground at the Echo.

Saturday: The Aquabats perform at the benefit for cancer-stricken Tony Carbone of Bikeride. It's at the Glass House. ... Sherwood and the Matches play a MySpace Records show at the Knitting Factory. ... Mere Mortals and the Black Kites play Spaceland, while the Deadly Syndrome (explosive as usual on Thursday at Spaceland) plays the Scene in Glendale.

Sunday: Hungarian rockers the Moog play Safari Sam's, and the Tartans anchor the bill at the Scene.