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.

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. 

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.

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

"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.

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.

[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.

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.

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?

Read Full Story

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 their Monday night residencies. … Midnight Movies plays an in-store at

Amoeba. … And London’s Apartment joins

locals the Grand Marquee and others

at Indie 103.1’s Viper Room show.