Shlohmo plays release show Friday, premieres 'Seriously'

Music blogging has become akin to prospect scouting in minor league baseball.  Even Pitchfork, the online magazine generally regarded as the era's preeminent tastemaker, begat Altered Zones, the Baseball America of music blogs, a compendium of largely anonymous and outré bedroom musicians.

So Shlohmo was something of a blue chip recruit when he debuted last year with his "Shlohmoshun Deluxe." Released by local imprint Friends of Friends and tabbed for one of the prestigious slots on a Low End Theory podcast, West L.A.-raised Henry Laufer vaulted to the top of those myopic lists that music writers make about "ones to watch."

It showed plenty of promise, but often came off exactly as what is was: a record from a gifted 19-year-old art school student who was just learning how to make music. All the intangibles, but lacking the craft of a veteran.