[Guest blogger August Brown has a snake in his boots.]

After last

weekend’s messy collision of Hollywood hipsterati and the soul-crushing heat of

Coachella, Stagecoach is looking to be infinitely more laidback, if a bit heavier on the

taxidermy. Big initial differences:

1.) Everyone is sitting down. The inclusion of lawn chairs on Stagecoach’s

acceptable-items-list (second-amendmenters do not like being told to leave dangerous

objects at home) mean that most folks have a safe place to park their tuchuses and

bucket-sized margaritas.This will probably change as the like of Kenny Chesney (who we

hear inspires more mayhem than our Rage boys) and Alan Jackson take the Mane Stage

(witty!). But until then, the Polo Grounds feel more like spring break in Panama City than the

art-and-sun-damaged fashion runway of Coachella.

2.) The crowd is, much, much older (think 40s) and as of 2:45 p.m. or so, families

bedecked in matching Stetsons seem to be the target demographic (along with some

priceless kids-in-profane-motorcycle-shirts whose pictures probably aren’t safe for

posting). It’s an eclectic bill today though, with some sexy L.A. alt-country,

tejano-influenced folk and loosey-goosey jam bands still to come, and we’re curious to

see what scruffy stragglers might have made it out for both weekends. Either way, the

crowd is friendly and seems really happy to have a whole weekend of collective

hell-raising ahead of them. Except for this cow in the VIP tent, who has likely seen

better days than this one.

Stay tuned this weekend while faithful correspondent

August Brown blogs live from the inaugural Stagecoach festival in Indio. Some of

country music’s heavy hitters will be on hand, and we’ll have reviews and photos here,

as well as August’s reports on this blog.

The music is pretty hard on the ears, kind of a flailing

attempt at dance-party relevance. But the album cover (that’s the original at right) is

even harder on the eyes — so Perry Farrell’s Satellite Party revised it. Stereogum has a

compare-and-contrast. I’m not sure, but this would not have passed muster in the

Photoshop classes I slogged through years ago. This does, however, guarantee that the

album will chart. Here.

Nice to see

this week that Earlimart officially

announced release plans for "Mentor Tormentor," the long-awaited follow-up to

2004’s "Treble & Tremble." It’ll land Aug. 21 on the band’s own label,

Majordomo Records, and while I am still in disbelief that independent labels passed on

putting out this record (or did not offer deals that were to the band’s liking), it will

be great to have the music out there.

I’m not sure whether the burned CD the

band gave me is the final sequence, but my impression after repeated spins is that

"Mentor Tormentor" is the most tightly focused of the quartet’s five albums,

work that seems at once solitary and inviting. Cathartic anthems for the introverted.

No tour dates planned right now (Earlimart’s show at the Echoplex the night

before Coachella started was awesome, according to reports), but the cool kids at

Pitchfork still have tracks from the new album up, including "Everybody Knows Everybody."

Touts for tonight

Duelling great indie rock shows on Sunset Boulevard tonight, with San Francisco’s LoveLikeFire kicking off a Friday night

residency at El Cid. The quartet has a bunch of songs on its website for download, and a

couple more here. England’s Apartment (who shone at a Musexpo showcase earlier this week) joins them, as

well as L.A. melody makers Lemon Sun (you

can download "Stranger" there) … Meanwhile, at the Echoplex, an ASCAP- and

Filter-sponsored night of music in conjunction with the Silverlake Film

Festival. Yes, the show is open to badge-holders only. But the good news is you can

buy a one-day pass for $15 (box office, 4475 Sunset Drive) — a paltry price to see the

four bands in the lineup: Sea Wolf, the Little Ones, the Bird and the Bee and Dengue Fever.

||| Watch

the video for Apartment’s "Pressures."

Westiders get a taste of indie folk tonight when Chicago ex-pat Tim Rutli assembles

Califone for a show at the Malibu Performing Arts

Center. It’ll be an interesting setting for the the band’s rustic sounds, captured

nicely on last year’s album "Roots & Crowns."

||| Download "3-L

egged Animals" or the video for it here.

Also tonight

Car company-sponsored Fall Out Boy

(at the Honda Center) and for-$45-you-can-join-our-fanclub Velvet Revolver (at the Avalon) will pack in

fans of the Big Rawk, while Midnight

Movies (behind its new album "Lion the Girl" plays the Glass House in

Pomona.

Isaac Lekach’s ministrations as a melody fiend were on

full display in his old band, Poulain, a project that never scored any hits except those

that found the sweet spot of a few Los Angeles pop fans. Now his fixation has become Acute—the name of Lekach’s new four-piece

founded with ex-Ozma drummer Patrick Edwards.

“There were a whole slew of songs I wrote after Poulain fizzled out,” Lekach says,

“and they came in spurts. . . .  There would be nothing, and then I would be going

to bed and start humming a melody.”

Much of that material composes “Arms

Around a Stranger,” Acute’s debut album, released this week on Help Records. The songs

boast lavish orchestration—strings, horns, backing vocals (including a cameo by the Like’s Z Berg), pedal steel and

Wurlitzer—that gives the record a cinematic quality.

The arrangements come courtesy of Jason “The Professor” Borger, who will join Kekach,

Edwards and bassist Matt Herman when Acute celebrates the release with a show tonight at

the Silverlake Lounge. Borger lent his skills to the project after being recommended by

producer Dave Trumfio.

“Most of the music we like has those types of flourishes. Dave came up with a name

for it, ‘orch-pop.’ But what is a genre, anyway?” Lekach says. “We don’t wear our hair a

certain way or wear eyeliner—not that there’s anything wrong with that—we just write

good pop songs with catchy melodies.”

Acute will be touring with Jesse Malin this summer (including June 20 at the

Troubadour).

Set times have been announced for this weekend’s inaugural Stagecoach Festival.

The layout for the two-day country music event at the Empire Polo Grounds will be the

same — only the names of the stages and tents have changed. Hey, there’s even a

"Mane Stage," get it?

Here’s who’s playing,

and when.