Rademacher survives the commute, releases ‘Stunts’

In many ways, Rademacher could have

only called its debut album "Stunts."

After all, the indie-rock quartet is all about maneuvers. Frontman Malcolm Sosa's

real name is Mike Mancillas (he assumed the alter ego of his collegiate doppelganger,

who had a defter touch with coeds). And the band lives in Fresno, "although we just

thought we'd tell everyone we live in L.A.," considering how often Rademacher has

gigged here, says Sosa, all too familiar with the three-hour-plus commute from the

Central Valley.

Then there is the music -- wry, Pavement-inspired ditties that send Sosa's shout-sung

vocals catapulting over barbed-wire guitar licks and acrobatic keyboard lines. The

self-released album, which follows three uneven EPs, was produced by one of Fresno's

finer exports, Earlimart's Aaron Espinoza,

at the Ship studio in Eagle Rock.

If "Stunts' " razor-sharp attitude and jittery paranoia feel familiar, Sosa

confesses his love for "the really early Earlimart sound, when they thought they

were a punk band," as well as "Under the Western Freeway," the first

album by Modesto's Grandaddy ("just the spookiness of it").

The track "If U Got Some Magic" embodies it best: "It doesn't matter

whether it's concrete or abstract," Sosa says of his wordplay. "I just try to

keep it passionate but surreal."

||| Live: Rademacher's record-release show is tonight at the

Echo.

||| Download: "If U Got Some

Magic."