Cary Brothers: These are the breaks

It’s Tuesday, one of the biggest days in Cary Brothers’ life, the day his album “Who You

Are” is released, and the singer-songwriter is talking about good fortune. “I hope my

karma is saving itself for the record,” he jokes from his home in L.A., where he is laid

up. “I cracked my ankle doing the video shoot, then I lost the hard drive on the laptop

that does everything for me.”

By the time he hobbles into the Hotel Cafe tonight for his record-release show,

Brothers figures to have some stories to tell, beyond those on his lushly orchestrated

debut. There, amid ringing guitars, crashing cymbals and tinkling pianos, the Nashville

native with the Britpop sensibilities tells his L.A. tales, touching on “a lot of things

that have happened to me since I moved here, all the disastrous relationships,

everything I’ve learned ... like not to date actresses,” he says.

In

Brothers’ case, it’s been as much “where you are” as “Who You Are.”

Ears Wide Open: The Appearance

[Another in a series covering bands playing around L.A.:]


The Appearance aren't exactly

reinventing the wheel; in fact, they're kind of pushing one downhill, waving to the past

10 years of alt-rock bands as they pass. On the Orange County quartet's debut album,

"Lost in Aurora" (released last week by the Adrenaline Music Group),

singer-guitarist Alan Oakes marches bandmates Chad Kulengosky, Justin McCarthy and Jason

Nelson through early Jimmy Eat World and straight to the precipice of contemporary emo,

power chords at full throttle and lovelorn vocals alternately soaring and intertwined.

If you like what you hear on commercial radio, the Appearance may be for you -- producer

Chris Fudurich keeps things nice and crisp, guitarist Kulengosky has the chops, and

Oakes displays a deft enough touch with his wordplay. The Appearance have racked up

impressive MySpace numbers, and it'd be no surprise if those virtual "friends"

turned into real fans.

||| See the Appearance perform

tonight at Red Dragon Studios, 1444 N. Highland (at Sunset). Details on the band's

MySpace page, of course. And Rocket is also

playing.

Here's the video for "Not a Soul":

No need to put the BrakesBrakesBrakes on

It might have been the most productive 10 minutes Eamon Hamilton ever played. The

keyboardist of British Sea Power was

doing an acoustic guitar set in a Brighton, England, pub when two tipsy patrons

approached and offered to play on the songs.

They

were Tom and Alex White, the duo behind Brighton luminaries and onetime Mercury Music

Prize nominees the Electric Soft

Parade. Hamilton was game. "From the first chords, we knew we had something

special. They are just sickeningly talented, those two," Hamilton says.

Now they are doing double duty in BrakesBrakesBrakes, the

Hamilton project that last week released its second album, "The Beatific

Visions." It's a collection of occasionally twangy pop-punk, quick-moving and

catchy and built on Hamilton's agitated yelp. (The first album was released as Brakes,

before Hamilton renamed the quartet to avoid a conflict with a U.S. band called the

Brakes. "We're so good we named ourselves three times," he jokes.)

Like the album, which mixes what Hamilton calls "the great stories and the

heartbroken quality" of country music with fun sendups such as the dance number

"Spring Chicken," the tour that brings the band to L.A. is all in good fun.

Electric Soft Parade is also on the bill, supporting its own new album, "No Need to

Be Downhearted."

Says Hamilton: "Tom and Alex will be drinking a lot of coffee."

||| See BrakesBrakesBrakes, the Electric Soft Parade and Pela

tonight at Club NME at Spaceland.

||| Download the Electric

Soft Parade's "If That's the Case."

||| Download BrakesBrakesBrakes' "Hold Me

in the River."

Here's the video for that song:

Amateurs sound anything but

[We'll play catch-up this week on album releases and reviews. We think ...]

 

Amateurs, "Speak

Easy" (self-released): L.A. quartet Amateurs can't quite decide what they want to

be, except good. Their first album nods to classic rock, folky '70s radio fare, modern

indie titans and maybe even prog rock band or two, if they used strings. Whether you

hear a lot of Wilco or a little Fleetwood Mac, Fairport Convention or the Band, it's the

emotional range that makes Amateurs' an impressive debut. Its melodic bounce, gorgeous

wedding of harmonies with Shannon De Jong's strings and smartly spun vignettes by

singer-guitarist Keith Waggoner give "Speak Easy" a warm, organic sheen. It's

folk-rock that doesn't need to resort to gimmickry or conscious deconstruction.

||| See Amateurs tonight at their album release show at the Scene in Glendale.

Touts

for Tuesday, May 29

It's an album release party for ex-Fur

singer Holly Ramos tonight too -- an early show

at the Hotel Cafe ... Toca celebrates its album

release with a show at the Knitting Factory. ... Icelandic blues-country songstress Lay

Low performs at the Silverlake Lounge. ... And that's in case you're missing the bigger

shows, the Arcade Fire at the Greek and Voxtrot at the El Rey Theatre.

Voxtrot rides out the bumps in the buzz

Voxtrot's Ramesh Srivastava won't even

read this, if he's true to his word. "I'm sick of reading about it on the Internet

already," the singer-songwriter says of his quintet's debut album, released last

week. "People blog and things like that, but ..."

But it's a double-edged sword. Those same writers who heaped praise on Voxtrot's

three EPs and its merry Anglophilic sensibilities — accelerating the buzz that made the

Austin, Texas, group a national phenomenon — have reacted quizzically, or

critically, to the more thoughtful and textured "Voxtrot." Yes, the nods

to Britpop and the likes of the Smiths, and Belle and Sebastian are still there, but

what happened to the party?

"I don't know what the album would have had to sound like to live up to the

buzz," Srivastava says. "I do feel like there's too much emphasis on the

concept that a band is not a band until they put out an album."

Voxtrot has been a band since 2002, when the frontman got together with boyhood

friends Mitch Calvert (guitar), Jason Chronis (bass), Jared Van Fleet (keyboards) and

Matt Simon (drums). The band's infancy was interrupted by Srivastava's studies, first in

Boston, then in Glasgow, Scotland. The three EPs were recorded when he was home on

holiday — that's where the party was.

"I finally came back to do the band full force ... and I kind of went insane for

a while," Srivastava says of that period, during which he dealt with the death of a

grandmother. In the end, though, he is proud of the range displayed on the final

product. "Nothing really encapsulated us up until now."

And what's

in the capsule? "Voxtrot" roots itself in the heart-on-sleeve territory of

Britpop bands big and small; the album's swoon-worthiness will depend entirely on your

threshold for sincerity. Voxtrot's fans, rest assured, have already checked their

cynicism at the door.

||| See Voxtrot perform tonight (with

Sound Team and Au Revoir Simone) at the El Rey Theatre.

||| Download Voxtrot's "Kid

Gloves."

||| Download a spacey Sound Team remix: "Born to

Please" (Bill Mix).

||| Download Au Revoir Simone's

"Through the

Backyards."

||| Aw, heck, for old time's sake, download

the Field Mice's &quot

;Five Moments."

Photo of Voxtrot, from left, Jared Van Fleet, Jason Chronis, Matt Simon, Ramesh

Srivastava and Mitch Calvert, by Rebecca Miller.

Plans this weekend? I bet

The posters say "The Autumns vs. The Sugarplastic" -- and as those L.A.

bands' co-residency ends tonight at the Spaceland, I'd have to say it's a tie. The

Autumns' dense guitars have taken on almost a post-rock feel in their new material; the

Sugarplastic's tightly wound, eclectic pop still wields plenty of bite. It was an odd

pairing for a co-residency, but thte night I attended the crowd did not turn over too

much.

LoveLikeFire ends its residency

tonight too, at El Cid. The San Francisco quartet has a stage presence that might exceed

its interest musically right now, but a hook or two could change that, and the band

certainly has attracted devotees to its dark, urgent churn. Certainly, the downloadable

"A Million Pieces" is worth a buck, if you visit their MySpace page.

Elsewhere Friday, May 25

Uncle Monk, the bluegrass band

featuring Tommy Ramone on

vocals, plays the Knitting Factory. ... Mike

Stinson and I See Hawks in L.A. bring their

signature twang to the Scene Bar in Glendale. ... Soul singer Chrisopher Blue brings his acoustic

stylings to Tangier. ... Hello

Stranger, Nous Non Plus and the Pity Party bring the party to Safari

Sam's. ... And Santa Cruz punks Good

Riddance play their final show at the El Rey Theatre.

Touts

for Saturday, May 26

The Topanga Days festival starts a

three-day run -- plenty of talent on it diverse lineup, from Veruca Salt
and Minibar on Saturday to to John Doe (with special gust Pamela Des Barres) and the Sin

City All Stars on Sunday to the Young Dubliners on Sunday. Lineup here. ...

Meanwhile, Saturday, Something for

Rockets, Bedtime for Toys and Glacier Hiking make for a strong night

at the Scene.

Touts for Sunday, May 27

Tussle headlines the Echo in what promises to promises

to be a dancy night. Or you could stay in, pour yourself a drink and watch their video

for "Second

Guessing."

Touts for Monday, May 28

Phantom Planet, supported by Emma Burgess, plays the Roxy. (Phantom

Planet returns for a June 4 engagement there too.) ... At Indie 103.1's night at the

Viper Room, Nico Vega, the Gray Kid and the Ringers perform. And the eastside May

residencies end on this holiday night -- Gliss

at Spaceland, Bodies of Water at

the Echo and the all-star lineup doing business as the High Society at the Silverlake

Lounge. ... Have a lovely weekend.

Photo of Gliss's Marty Klingman

performing at Spaceland.

Blonde Redhead, Ben Harper among the talent at Sunset Junction

A deep lineup of music is shaping up for the annual Sunset Junction Street Fair, the carnival/food

fair/rock festival that takes over Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake on Aug. 18 and

19.

Some major headliners for Sunday are still to be announced -- watch for a big name to be

dropped July 16 -- but the Saturday roster for the rock-oriented Bates Stage is

formidable, with the night ending with sets by New York shoegazers Blonde Redhead and the pride of Claremont, Ben Harper.

Blonde Redhead, fresh off an

appearance at Coachella and the release of their

seventh (and I'll join those who are saying, best) album, "23," has always had

a stong L.A. following, owing to the strong presence of bands with similar

sensibilities. One of those, Autolux, will precede the

New Yorkers on the Bates Stages on Friday night. Is that enough wall-of-sound for you,

kids?

By the way, Blonde Redhead is inviting fans to remix "Signs Along

the Path" -- you can download the parts here.

|||

Download the title track from Blonde Redhead's album, "23."

As always, local talent abounds on the Sunset Junction stages. Leading up to Autolux

on Saturday are Division Day, the Pity Party, the Parson Red Heads, the Culver City Dub Collective, the Broken West and Sea Wolf. The Sunday afternoon lineup includes

Eskimohunter (Spaceland's July

residents), the Movies, the Airborne Toxic Event and the Aggrolites.

On Saturday, Morris Day & the Time and Deniece Williams anchor the bill on

the Edgecliffe Stage, where Millie Jackson

and a major act TBA close out the festivities on Sunday. And on the Sanborn Stage, the

Breakestra and Jesse de la Pena are among the highlights on

Saturday; Rocky Dawuni and Chebi Sabbah perform there on Sunday.

Photo of Blonde Redhead by Sebastian Mlynarski. Photo of Ben Harper from

www.benharper.net.

Ears Wide Open: Kissing Cousins

[One in a series tipping you to bands playing around town:]

Over three EPs for Orange County-based Velvet Blue Music, Kissing Cousins are happily all over the map -- dispensing infectious girl-pop, slightly bent balladry and spiky anthems with schoolgirl enthusiam and postgradute aplomb. It's never too serious, though -- at a recent show at the Echo, they also dispensed cotton candy. Drummer Beth, singer-guitarist Heather, bassist Rhea and keyboardist-flutist Kara all go by their first names only; maybe by the time they make a full-length, we'll get the whole story.

||| See: Kissing Cousins perform tonight (as part of a Tribute to the Doors) at Safari Sam's, Monday at the Detroit Bar and June 1 at Mr. T's Bowl.

||| Download:

"One Eyed Woman"

◊ ◊ ◊

Touts for

Thursday, May 24

The Clientele perform at the Knitting Factory. ... Division Day, the Western States Motel and the Mae Shi play Spaceland. ... The Shys and Lemon Sun play the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.... Bloodcat Love and Children Collide are on the bill at the Echo. ... The Valley Arena rock the Silverlake Lounge. ... Clutch and Year Long Disaster start a two-night run at the Roxy.

Brother Ali’s different experience

Brother Ali doesn't believe his rising

prominence in the hip-hop world represents a victory for the underground over the

mainstream. "A lot of people don't feel represented by what's in the mainstream

because they feel the mainstream is terrible and it's holding them back," the

Minneapolis rapper says. "I don't necessarily feel that way. But maybe people do

want voices that are a little closer to where they're coming from."

It's called Everyman appeal, and Brother Ali exudes plenty of it. An albino Muslim

who overcame a hardscrabble upbringing, Ali mines his personal experiences on "The

Undisputed Truth," his second album for Rhymesayers Entertainment. The breakup of

his marriage, being homeless, life as a single dad, his working-class frustration with

the government -- all are fodder for his deft flow and wordplay, which got a warm

reception during an

afternoon set last month at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival.

It's a deeper -- and, thanks to the soulful backdrop by producer Ant (Atmosphere),

more tuneful -- excursion into a world Ali first shared with listeners in the song

"Forest Whitiker," off 2003's "Shadows on the Sun." "I listed a

lot of personal stuff, a lot of details, but that's the song people respect," Ali

says. "It shows you don't have to have the exact same experience as somebody to

relate to what they're doing."

||| See Brother Ali, with DJ BK One, host Toki Wright and Chicago

rapper Psalm One, tonight at the Troubadour.

||| Download "Truth

Is" and "Original

King."

Photo of Brother Ali at Coachella (Kevin Bronson/LAT)

Touts for Wednesday, May 23

The Monolators and Castledoor play the Echo. ... Great Northern and Sara Lov hold forth downtown at Bordello. ...

And Amy Raasch and Anya Marina are on the bill at the Hotel

Cafe. ... And the Electric Soft

Parade (who will also be at Spaceland next Wednesday) are at Boardner's tonight for

Club Moscow.

Smashing Pumpkins open with a bang in Paris

Videos from the Smashing

Pumpkins show tonight at the Grand Rex in Paris -- the band's first show since 2000

-- are already all over YouTube. And even if none is of particularly good quality, it's

amusing to hear people sing along

to "Today" with a French accent.

The show, in front of 2,200,

is already the subject of some spirited debate all over the Internet -- and that figures

to escalate throughout their European dates -- but most of it boils down to one issue:

Do fans accept that Billy Corgan and Jimmy Chamberlin and their hired musicians are

calling themselves the Pumpkins? Or are the Pumpkins without James and D'Arcy not the

Pumpkins at all?

Please discuss. I continue to spend time with

"Zeitgeist" and try to decide for myself.

One thing for sure: The

Grand Rex crowd got its money's worth. Corgan, Chamberlin, bassist Ginger Reyes,

guitarist Jeff Schroeder and keyboardist Lisa Harriton played for three hours.

The setlist, forgoing the quotation marks around song names: United States, Today,

Stand Inside Your Love, Orchid, Doomsday Clock, Home, Hummer, Starz, Tarantula, Bullet,

Gossamer, God and Country, 33, Rocket, Winterlong, To Sheila, Glass and the Ghost

Children, Cherub Rock, 1979, Tonight, Neverlost, That's the Way, Disarm, Zero, Untitled,

Shame, Silverf---, Annie Dog, Muzzle.   

Pop Levi aims to become L.A.’s favorite Liverpudlian

[This item was published in the Calendar Weekend section last Thursday, but for

those of you who never get ink on your fingertips -- and I know you're out there -- here

it is again:]


If anybody is amazed by the sleight-of-hand that yielded the music on Pop Levi’s debut, “The Return to Form Black

Magick Party,” it’s the artist himself. “I knew a song was finished when I said to

myself, ‘I can’t believe it hasn’t already been written,’” the L.A.-based

singer-guitarist says. “At times I felt I was watching songs come true.”

The

album, a saw-toothed blitz of psych, pop, blues and glam, was recorded in Levi’s native

Liverpool, before he and his quartet took up residence on the West Coast. Both the music

and the presentation are updates on ’60s mod — “Post-mod,” Levi says humorously, “also

known as ‘flunk.’”

It’s a classic cut-and-paste of classic rock influences,

from Dylan to Hendrix to Bolan, catchy and more than a little bit audacious. But if the

first outing from the ex-Ladytron bassist seems bold, wait till you hear what he has in

store for his sophomore effort.

“I want to make the first R&B record by a

Caucasian four-piece from Liverpool,” he says, detailing plans to record later this year

in Hollywood. “I want to make a crucial dance record that sounds leagues from what any

indie rocker would make — I want it to sound like the noise coming from those BMWs

cruising down Hollywood Boulevard on a summer night.”

Photo of Pop Levi

performing at Coachella by Kevin Bronson / LAT.

||| See Pop

Levi open for Mando Diao tonight at the Troubadour.

||| Watch the video for "Sugar Assault Me Now":

And speaking of Mando Diao (I think that translates to "cool garage rock played

by cute Swedish boys"), here's their video for "Long Before Rock 'n'

Roll":

Exclusive: Seven weeks of Prince in Hollywood?

Hollywood

will be raining purple this summer, if current plans hold up.

Prince is expected to announce a seven-week

residency at the historic Roosevelt Hotel that will include a heaping helping of music,

dining and VIP guests, sources say. The stint is contingent on final approval of the

contracts, which could come as early as this week. The string of shows is scheduled to

start in mid-June, about a week after the 49th birthday of the man born Prince Rogers

Nelson.

What the plans call for: On seven Friday nights starting June 15, the Roosevelt will

close off its lobby at 9 p.m. Then, at 11:30 in the Blossom Room in front of 250 seated

guests and an undetermined number of standing-room-only patrons, Prince (joined each

week by special guests) will give a two-hour performance. At 2 a.m., Prince's private

chef will take over the kitchen of the Roosevelt's Dakota restaurant, which will morph

into an after-hours dinner club. As part of a jazz ensemble, Prince will entertain

diners until 4 a.m.

Nobody's going to be asking where afterparty is, that's for sure. Ticket information

might be available this week -- suffice to say these tickets will not be cheap. A

one-off performance given by Prince last year at the Roosevelt attracted a star-studded

crowd.

Prince last week was announced as part of a pricey concert series this summer in the

Hamptons. And just two weeks ago, in announcing 21 dates this summer in London, Prince

said he was taking some

time off to study the Bible.

Prince will be staying at the Roosevelt all

summer as he and his band rehearse for their tour.

Photo: Prince, during his January performance at the Super Bowl (Associated

Press).

Warlocks back in the studio; new album due in fall

Their relationship with Mute over, the

Warlocks --  a slimmer, trimmer version of the band that once numbered eight

members -- are back in the studio working on the follow-up to 2005's disappointing

"Surgery." There's no music to be shared yet, but frontman Bobby Hecksher is

tentatively titling the album (due this fall on Tee Pee Records) "Heavy Deavy Skull

Lover."

Rod Cervera is working with Hecksher to produce. The psych-rock band is now a

quartet, with Jennifer Fraser on bass and the two-pronged drumming assault of Jason

Anchondo and Robert Mustachio.

"Dreamy, layered guitars, far-out and heavy -- hence, the title," Hecksher

says through his publicist, adding he took a year off to write and "deal with the

hassles of life. ... I only wanted to work with a few people, meaning a smaller band.

It's just where I'm at right now."

Photo: Grant Peterson

Ears Wide Open: Bodies of Water

[Another in an occasional series covering artists playing around Los

Angeles:]

"There's so much joie de ... something," a

friend said to me during a recent set by L.A.'s Bodies of Water, the Monday night

residents this month at the Echo. Indeed, something.

Summoning an

energy maybe only a D-cell battery short of the Arcade Fire or Polyphonic Spree, Bodies of Water

are certainly not lacking for bodies. The group's core -- the husband-and-wife team of

David (guitar) and Meredith (organ) Metcalf, Jessie Conklin (drums) and Kyle Gladden

(bass) -- swells to 10 members live, including three horn players, a violist, another guitarist and another

drummer.

Sometimes you wonder if there are enough microphones to go around;

since almost everybody sings, the exuberant noise on Bodies' debut album, "Ears

Will Pop & Eyes Will Blink" (due July 24), escalates into a band sing-along.

The sprawling arrangements and intertwined vocals give Bodies' gospel-folk a proggy feel

-- not to mention the notion that you're just one tent short of a revival.

More cowbell.

||| See: Bodies of Water plays free shows

the next two Mondays at the Echo -- supported

tonight by the like-minded Parson

Redheads, who, we think, still hold the record for most musicians on the Echo

stage.

||| Download: "These Are the Eyes."

The Sea and Cake: crossing into L.A.

[Here's an excerpt from Casey Dolan's weekly Downloads column, which you can find

here:]

The Sea and Cake, "Crossing

Line": An odd piece of musical magic from Chicago’s venerable band, “Crossing Line”

is from the new album “Everybody” — the Sea and Cake’s first release in four years. Sam

Prekop’s half-asleep, funky white-boy vocals are a perfect juxtaposition with the

low-budget distorted guitars, and listen to Eric Claridge’s wonderfully in-the-pocket

bass. It’s hard to make out what Prekop is singing about, but the subtle, organic music

more than makes up for the obscured lyrics. It’s a casual groove for a summer afternoon.

Down

load.

||| See the Sea and Cake perform Saturday and Sunday at the Troubadour.

Photo by Jim Newberry.

The formula for Mickey Avalon’s star quality

Mickey Avalon reminds me of the troubled

kid in my 6th-grade class whose profane outbursts drained you of any sympathy you had

for the kid's hardscrabble background. You just wanted him to shut up.

These

days, if you take those outbursts, color them with an emotional biography, add a few humdrum beats

and stir in whatever substances are floating around the Sunset Strip, you have a rap

star -- which is what Avalon proved to be Thursday night at the sold-out Key Club.

Soldiering through a set the night after he was hospitalized for an undisclosed ailment

("Thank God for pain-killing medication," he said), Avalon thrilled a largely

female (and also largely medicated) crowd with his seamy urban tales. It might have been

tepid for anybody silly enough to be sober, if not for a clever set design and some

onstage dancers/role players. Yes, folks, this song is about streetwalkers -- see the

streetwalkers?

The show -- which ended with a bunch of people from the crowd

joining Avalon onstage to dance to "Jane Fonda" -- flagged only when Avalon

was joined by opening act Andre Legacy and Dirt Nasty. Their own 45-minute set of

misogynous, amateurish coke rap ranked somewhere below the lowest common denominator, as

they covered vital topics such as oral sex, bestiality and cocaine. A pity our jails are

so overcrowded.

Photo by Jason Fisher

◊ ◊ ◊

A bit

later, at the Roxy, Whitestarr was

holding forth, playing some new stuff that will appear on an album to be released later

this summer. Hit the MySpace page to hear a pretty cool classic-rocker, "Beautiful

Thing."

◊ ◊ ◊

Touts for Friday, May 18

The Submarines perform with the Section Quartet at the Echo. ... Mezzanine Owls and Eskimohunter join LoveLikeFire for the San Francisco band's

residency at El Cid. ... The Germs rock Safari

Sam's. ... And the Autumns and the Sugarplastic continue their run of Friday

nights at Spaceland. 

Sea Level Records to close

Sea Level Records, the independent

outlet that in 5 1/2 years had become a locus for Los Angeles' Eastside music scene,

will close June 30, owner Todd Clifford said. "It's not so much competition as the

fact I want my life back," said Clifford, 32, who runs the store, at 1716 Sunset

Blvd. in Echo Park, with the help of just one part-time employee. "Yes, it's been a

struggle. But each year has been better than the last. It just got to be too much for

me."

The 88’s commercial prospects brighten

For several years, power-poppers the 88

were catchy with everyone in Los Angeles except the record industry. Their jaunty songs

and dapper stage presence made them club favorites, and it seemed when I first saw them

more than three years ago (and then tabbed them in my annual local-music review

"Homegrown and Happening" in 2005) that eventually somebody would

notice.

Music supervisors did, mining the 88's catalogue more than 30 times

over the past several years for music to use in television shows and commercials.

"The fact that we've had so many [placements] is amazing," keyboardist Adam

Merrin says.

The band's good fortune continued with this week's announcement

it has signed to Island Def Jam records, home

to Fall Out Boy, the Killers and the Bravery. The 88's third album is planned for early

2008, and the band already has recorded three songs with producer Kenny "Babyface" Edmonds.

"I'm still surprised by the whole thing," Merrin says, "because

the type of music we play is not what you hear on the radio ... although we always

thought it was accessible enough."

Some say that television shows and

commericals are the new radio -- if so, the 88 is doing on the right wavelength. The

band's latest coup was having "Coming Home" used in a Sears commercial -- the

minute-long spot is almost entirely music, until the end.

And Merrin is

understandly enthused about working with Edmonds: "The great thing is, he didn't

change us. We're still able to sound like the 88 -- it's just sonically bigger."

Here's the video for "Hide Another Mistake," from 2005's "Over

and Over":

After the jump, just for grins, read my take on the 88 in September 2005:

Shout Out Louds rebound

Swedish quintet the Shout Out Louds have

landed on independent Merge Records after failing to survive the purge following the

Capitol merger. The band's sophomore album, "Our Ill Wills," will land Sept.

11 in the U.S. -- pretty catchy stuff, if the first single, "Tonight I Have to

Leave It" is any indication. Here's the video:

Ears Wide Open: Hearts of Palm U.K.

[One in an occasional series covering artists playing around Los

Angeles:]



Hearts of Palm U.K. aren't from the

U.K. at all, of course, and singer-keyboardist-guitarist Erica Elektra guards the the

story behind the "U.K." in their name like a state secret. It's no secret what

Echo Park-based Elektra and band mate Ambi-D are doing -- twee pop with honeyed vocals, tart

lyrics and twitchy beats. It might remind you of the likes of Talulah Gosh, Lali Puna or Look Blue Go

Purple. Elektra claims to have once been electrocuted in the basement of her New

York City apartment; now that's current.

||| Download: &qu

ot;I Flow."

||| Hear: The band on Kill Radio at 11 a.m. today.

|||

See: The band performs tonight at the Silverlake Lounge.

Touts

for Thursday, May 17

Fujiya & Miyagi [see yesterday's post],

with the CoCo B's opening, play the Echo.

... Ozma rocks the Troubadour. ... The Hectors bring it at the Alterknit

Lounge. ... And Mickey Avalon has gone

and sold out the Key Club.

Fujiya & Miyagi, revisiting

Fujiya & Miyagi, three guys

from Brighton, England, who make some of the wittiest dance music you'll hear, are

coming back to L.A. (this blog reviewed their March show here

and their album here).

They play the Echo on Thursday night.

I talked to lyricist David Best for

this week's Buzz Bands print column, and, noting that his subject matter on the album

"Transparent Things" ranged whimsically from body parts to office machines to

sneakers, asked what he'll do for an encore.

"I'm trying to find a few

new topics," he said with a laugh. "I think on the next album there's songs

about an obscure British singer, pterodactyls and ... well, there might be something

about body parts too." Should be fun.

Here's the band's new video for

"Ankle Injuries":

Touts for Wednesday, May 16

MSTRKRFT rocks BPM magazine's party at the Roxy. ...

And Patrick Wolf brings his eclectic pop to

the Troubadour.

Next time, Kennedy, tell me in time for Mother’s Day

Nobody who

remembers the halcyon days -- like Kennedy,

wearing a fur coat and very little underneath, being pushed to the stage in a wheelchair

by female hangers-on before a set at Spaceland -- will be surprised that the Silver Lake

performer has become something of a darling on YouTube. His video for "Your

Mama" -- which, regrettably, did not come to my attention in time for Mother's Day

-- has gotten an obscene number of plays the past few days.

The digital-only single is released today on Cordless Recordings, and the full-length

"Kennedy for President" is due later this summer. Those who have witnessed his

campaigning many times over the years will no doubt want to join his party.

Here's the lightweight but fun "Your Mama":

Touts for

Tuesday, May 15

Great Northern headlines the Echo to

celebrate the release of its debut album "Trading Twilight for Daylight." ...

In Waves headlines at Spaceland. ... The Ruby

Tuesday night at the Key Club offers up hotshot

youngsters the Shys, the Tender Box and Astra Heights. ... Ex-Helicopter

Helicopter principals Chris Zerby and Julie Chadwick have nice new music as Hello Dragon, performing at the

Silverlake Lounge. ... The Low Stars begin a

residency at the Hotel Cafe. ... The Meat

Puppets reconvene at the Troubadour ... Lily Allen's show at the El Rey is sold

out. 

Smashing Pumpkins: small sampling, big sound

Drove around Hollywood on Saturday night with the car windows rattling, trying to

obey all the speed limits and avoid those rolling stops at intersections. It was hard,

what with the Smashing Pumpkins

"Zeitgeist" on the stereo.

Like a lot

of folks who spent the '90s immersed in the Pumpkins' cathartic bliss, I've been curious

about what this incarnation of the band would offer. The album (due July 10) was made by

the only two Pumpkins originals involved in the project, singer-guitarist Billy Corgan

and drummer Jimmy Chamberlin, along with two producers with long resumes, Roy Thomas

Baker and Terry Date. Southern Californians Jeff Schroeder (guitar) and Ginger Reyes

(bass) are filling out the lineup for the live shows, which begin May 22 in Paris.

My four-song taste included the songs "Tarantula" (the first single),

"Doomsday Clock," "Starz" and "That's the Way (My Love

Is)." Impressions? It sounded monstrous, like an army of these kid metal-core bands

that try to knock you off your feet with bottom-heavy blasts. Corgan's snarl has aged

well. Chamberlin sounded like three Chamberlins, if you can imagine that. Yet I never

felt during any of the songs that they were trying to be anything but the Smashing

Pumpkins. Bring it on, I say.

That's all I'll say, based on one listen.

The Pumpkins did announce two residencies yesterday, a nine-show stint starting June

23 at the Orange Peel in Asheville, N.C., and an eight-show run at the Fillmore in San

Francisco starting July 22. Full tour dates here. The Asheville dates follow 13

European shows, a couple of which will indeed feature ex-Scorpions guitarist Uli Jon Roth.

By the way, tickets go on sale May 20 for the Asheville (Orange Peel site or Ticketweb) and San Francisco (Ticketmaster or Live Nation) shows. They will be sold on the web

only.

The Exies rage against … Paris?

I'm not a huge fan of the Exies' competent

but ultimately fairly ordinary hard rock, but you have to tip your cap to them for their

stealth-promotion. A bulletin this morning announces that the L.A. band is taking up the

case against Paris Hilton, lending the Exies' MySpace site to the "Send Paris

to Jail" campaign. Supporters of Hilton, of course, have started an online petition

beseeching Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to pardon the heiress, who was sentenced to 45

days in jail for driving with a license that had been suspended due to a previous DUI

arrest. The Exies have joined in with the throngs doing a counter-petition.

Exies singer-guitarist Scott Stevens, from the press release:

“Paris is nothing more than a glorified internet-porn star who has gotten a

free ride from the media. She has absolutely no discernible talent other than that of

self-promotion, and shouldn’t receive privileged treatment in this case, in which she’s

quite obviously broken the law and deserves to serve the punishment she’s been sentenced

to."

Not to doubt the band's convictions one bit, but,

speaking of self-promotion, did we mention that the Exies have a new album out? (Today's

press release didn't, by the way.) It's called "A Modern Way of Living With the

Truth."

OK, so I fell for it. Here's the band's video for

"Different Than You":

The Exies - Different Than You

Gotta latté love for Starbucks artists

"Where you gonna be / when your ship comes in?" Nanda Zipp asks in the

opening verse of "Small Boat."

Well, at work, that's where. At least, that's the way it was for Mario Esquivel,

Zipp's co-songwriter in the band Folkloriate.

The twangy L.A. band's small boat landed, in a manner of speaking, at the Starbucks in

Silver Lake, where Esquivel is assistant manager. Esquivel, Folkloriate's bassist,

answered the call when the coffee giant invited employees to submit original

recordings  for a compilation album.

And "Small Boat" landed on "Off the Clock Vol. 1: Music From Up &

Coming Starbucks Artists," which was released last month on Starbucks

Entertainment's Hear Music imprint.

"It's something we're very proud of," says Esquivel, who with Zipp is

working on a full-length album they hope to have finished this summer. "It's very

exciting to be on a compilation with that kind of distribution."

No kidding. "Off the Clock," a mocha-worthy mix of largely pop, folk and

jazz numbers selected from about 800 submissions, is available at any of the bazillion

Starbucks locations.

Also on the compilation is 20-year-old Moorpark College student Carly Escoto, a now-locally-

famous barista at a Starbucks in Thousand Oaks who contributed "Stay for

Good," a nifty little guitar ballad.

Photo: Esquivel, left, and Zipp of Folkloriate (Starbucks Entertainment)

◊ ◊ ◊

Touts for Monday, May 14

RJD2 (whom we talked to for Thursday's Buzz Bands print column) tees it up a the Henry Fonda Theatre. ... Nice folk show

at the Troubadour -- the Damnwells and Ari Hest are playing. ... Gliss (Spaceland), Bodies of Water (the Echo), the High Society (Silverlake Lounge) and Richard Bivens & Foreign Press

(Detroit Bar) continue their May residencies. ...  Sky Parade plays the Viper Room. ... And Colorforms perform at Bordello.

Modest Mouse show moved to Gibson Amphitheatre

Another show has been moved from the Greek

Theatre to the Gibson

Amphitheatre in the aftermath of the Griffith Park fire -- Modest Mouse's date on Sunday with openers

Man Man and Love As Laughter. Tickets need to be exchanged at the box office, which

opens at 5 p.m., so patrons are advised to arrive early.

New albums: Lavender Diamond, Great Northern

[I am severely lagging when it comes to reviews. Here's a taste of what's been

filling my ears:]

Top shelf

Lavender Diamond, "Imagine Our

Love" (Matador, May 8): You have to be pretty cynical to dislike Becky Stark, who

might be as close as we've got to a real-live flower child in 2007. Or maybe she just

channels hippiedom so effectively that her musical persona is some form of performance

art. Whatever, it works. Her voice -- comparisons to Karen Carpenter and other long-ago

pop heroines are appropriate -- teeters between innocence and enlightenment, the siren

of a cherub whose directness cuts through all our coarseness and rationalizations.

Backed ably by guitarist Jeff Rosenberg, keyboardist Steve Gregoropoulos and drummer Ron

Rege, Jr., Stark calls upon us to open our hearts, embrace nature, be honest, have hope

and, well, darn it, just love. 

||| Hear "Open Your Heart" from the album and "You

Broke My Heart" from the "Cavalry of Light" EP here.

See Lavender Diamond perform a free in-store at 7 tonight at Amoeba

Music.

Great

Northern, "Trading Twilight for Daylight" (Eenie

Meenie, May 15): The brushstrokes are pretty fine on the long-awaited debut from this

Silver Lake quartet -- carefully layered guitars, keyboards and strings, entwined

boy-girl vocals from Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte and bold rhythms from drummer Davey

Latter and bassist Ashley Dzerigian all adding up to a melancholic majesty that makes

you wonder what on earth has them so bummed out. It's pretty, though artfully

constructed, and pretty easy to lose yourself in its sweep and swells. 

    

||| Download "The Middle."

See Great Northern perform Tuesday at the Echo (free).

Also

recommended

Maximo

Park, "Our Earthly Pleasures" (Warp, May 8): Like their first

album and its single "Apply Some pressure," the latest batch of catchy,

angular pop from this English quintet seems to be in a big hurry to get somewhere. Like

my CD player.

Patrick

Wolf, "The Magic Position" (Low Altitude, May 1): The third album

from this 24-year-old Londoner is never boring, a wild ride of fractured pop with

kitchen-sink instrumentation in seemingly ADD-addled arrangements.

Midnight Movies, "Lion the

Girl" (New Line, April 24): It's all about atmospherics on the Los Angeles band's

second album, and first as a quartet. Gena Olivier's soaring vocals fold into her mates'

shadowy psychedelia, recalling a droney Curve. 

Sea Wolf, "Get to the River Before

It Runs Too Low" EP (Dangerbird, May 8): Gorgeous folk-pop and storytelling from

L.A.'s Alex Church -- autumn seems too long a wait for his full-length debut.

McKennitt, Keane shows moved to Gibson

Because of the Griffith Park fire, concerts scheduled for tonight and Friday at the

Greek Theatre have been moved to the Gibson Amphitheatre.

Harpist-vocalist Loreena McKennitt was slated

to play the Greek tonight, and the British pop band Keane, with locals Rocca DeLuca and the Burden as openers, on

Friday. Tickets will need to be exchanged at the Gibson box office, so patrons are

advised to arrive early.

No word yet on whether Sunday's show at the Greek featuring Modest Mouse will be moved.

BRMC’s Robert Levon Been on ‘Baby 81′

There's a house in Silver Lake that holds a bit of history for Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.

It was home to the stealth antenna used by a certain Internet radio station back in the days it

was broadcasting on a pirated FM frequency. It was the trio's de facto dressing room

when BRMC headlined the Sunset Junction Street

Fair one block away. And it was the scene of a couple crimes -- a car theft, and a

burglary that hit singer/bassist/keyboardist Robert Levon Been right where it hurt.

"The place got broken into while we were in the middle of recording; they took

my camera, computer, and worst of all my backpack with my lyric books," Been says.

"We were supposed to record vocals on [the song] 'American X,' and I went in to

sing it empty-handed, feeling like the song was stolen right out from under us.

"So I just turned out the lights and sang a bunch of stream-of-consciousness

stuff. A lot of it was awful, but a lot of it was great. It somehow became more of a

poem than when I wrote it."

"American X," which clocks in at longer than 9 minutes, represents the epic

sprawl on the otherwise tightly wound "Baby 81," BRMC's new album. Released

May 1, the album moves the trio back toward its darker, Jesus and Mary Chain-informed

roots, this time more crackling and churning than droning. Gone are the strummy

meditations and folky ministrations of 2005's "Howl," a detour into Americana

that won the band some critical acclaim but prompted BRMC's early fans to wonder:

Whatever happened to my rock 'n' roll?

The Little Ones, and other Monday musings

The Little Ones are still one

of this city's strongest musical happy pills, but, as a set Friday night showed, it's

hard to maintain that peak level of exuberance when you're doing it night after night,

tour after tour.

The L.A.

quintet -- "Rhymin' Simon on steroids" is how I described them last year, and

it still applies -- played an ASCAP- and Filter-sponsored music night on Friday tied to

the Silverlake Film Festival. The stuff from their "Sing Song" EP still

sounded crisp, and their new songs were upbeat and catchy too. But after having spent

the early part of this year doing some rigorous touring, the Little Ones weren't quite

as unhinged as they were when their EP was first released and Astralwerks (in the U.S.)

and Heavenly (in the U.K.) swooped in to sign the band.

Are the Little Ones still as happy as their music? "That's a good

question," frontman Edward Reyes says. "We're excited. ... Remember, we just

looked at that EP as our calling card -- we just wanted to get some shows with

it."

Their as-yet-untitled debut album is recorded and due in January, Reyes says.

"It's turning out great," he adds. "Right now we have a whole track

devoted to laughing."

||| Download Little Ones' songs from their Daytrotter session here.

◊ ◊ ◊

Passion of the Weiss has a

play-by-play of Britney Spears' Houses of Blues appearance (I will not call it a

performance). He even has some empathy.

◊ ◊ ◊

Ran into an employee of a recently merged record company who was enthused about

having adopted a puppy. Cute thing ... so what did you name him? "Andy

Slater."

◊ ◊ ◊

"So how

was Coachella?" That was the most-asked

question last week. I told inquiring minds that it was a three-day weekend of

once-in-a-lifetime experiences, and even as they were unfolding I knew I was missing

others. Wish the festival could have just hesitated a few times each day and let me

catch up.

The inconsiderate hipsters at Anthem, who throw their Coachella party during the day

while the music is going on, tell me I missed something else too -- a mask-less Thomas

Bangalter from Daft Punk [face obscured] spinning the LCD Soundsystem track "Daft

Punk Is Playing at My House." Not that anybody recognized him. But a cool party

nonetheless.

Daft Punk turned up on the turntables a couple nights later at the Echo too. Not that

anybody recognized them.

Touts for tonight

Gliss (Spaceland), the High Society (Silverlake Lounge), Bodies of Water (Echo) and Richard Bivens & Foreign Press

(Detroit Bar) start