Call it what you want — new rave or nu-rave — but Norwegian electro-rocker Datarock is happy to be playing it, even if the tag,

which originated with the English band the Klaxons,

is cause for a bit of eye-rolling among those who remember the trance-heavy

real raves.

"The term doesn’t make sense," says singer-guitarist Fredrik Saroea, who with

bassist-keyboardist Ketil Mosnes is the driving force behind Datarock. "But the

youth culture needs something new now and then — or about every six weeks."

The current explosion in the indie dance movement — populated by the likes of Hot Chip, Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS), Low-Fi-Fnk and Justice — "is really kind of an

international trend, and it’s a fun thing to be part of because the audience is so

engaged," Saroea says. "Our shows are a bit ravey, but the funny thing is the

term totally re-energized Datarock without us having to change anything."

True, the red-tracksuit-wearing band, whose debut, "Datarock Datarock,"

came out this week on Nettwerk, is still the same outfit that rolls Devo, the Talking

Heads and the Happy Mondays into one big disco ball. Don’t look for the pointed lyrics

of an LCD Soundsystem here; Datarock keeps things campy and playful on songs such as

"I Used to Dance With My Daddy," "Princess" and its latest single

"Fa-Fa-Fa."

And if anybody brings glowsticks to Datarock’s show, they’ll be more fashion statements

than anything. Says Saroea: "Everybody wants to dance and work up a sweat. We’re

just trying to re-create the dance floor."

||| See Datarock perform tonight at the Troubadour.

||| Download "Fa-Fa-Fa" or

stream the whole album here.

Touts for Wednesday, June 13

There’s be an even bigger dance party at the Fonda Theatre, where the aforementioned

Hot Chip headlines tonight (there’s a DJ set later at Star Shoes). … Bodies will be

moving, too, at the Knitting Factory’s front room, where Scissors for Lefty celebrates the release of

"Underhanded Romance." … On the Knitting Factory’s main stage, meanwhile, Zoe and Babasonicos will be bringing it en espanol. … And

White Rabbits (see yesterday’s post)

are at Spaceland.

This has come slowly for Jim Fairchild: his songwriting career, the emergence of his

debut under the moniker All Smiles

and even the warming of friends and fans to that album, "Ten Readings of

Warning."

"I think it’s one of the latent qualities of being a professional musician so

long but not being responsible for composing anything," says the guitarist, who

spent a decade executing the vision of songwriter Jason Lytle in the band Grandaddy. "Things happen when

they’re supposed to happen."

The reflective, sometimes oblique narratives on "Ten Readings" — recorded

in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; and L.A. in 2005 and ‘06 — frequently allude to moving on,

although Fairchild says the album was not specifically about the late-2005 breakup of

Grandaddy. "There’s a whole bunch of notions that you’ve been on this path a long

time, and now the harbingers are singing in your ear that you’re going to have to make a

change," he says. "It’s more about realizing that a certain cycle in your life

has been completed."

He initially had only modest aspirations for his solo project, but All Smiles ended

up being signed to L.A. indie Dangerbird

Records, whose co-founder, singer-songwriter Peter Walker, encouraged Fairchild’s

urge to loose his voice. "There was so much uncertainty," he says. "I had

never sung publicly."

||| Download "Moth in a Cloud of Smoke."

||| See All Smiles open for

Menomena tonight at the Troubadour.

◊ ◊

◊

Touts for Tuesday, June 12

If only I

were 4 or so bodies tonight: Cold War Kids and

the Little Ones get together at the

Echoplex for a benefit for dual causes — the kids’ writing program 826LA and the nonprofit Water Wells for Africa. … LCD Soundsystem finishes a run of three

sold-out nights at the El Rey Theatre. … English rockers the Duke Spirit bring it at Spaceland (with support

from the CoCo B’s. … White Rabbits [see

next post] join Yo Majesty at

Cinespace. … John Doe plays a 7 o’clock

in-store at Amoeba. … And Livesavas

hold forth at the Roxy.

The brain trust of New York sextet White Rabbits,

singer-guitarist Greg Roberts and singer-keyboardist Steve Patterson met when they were

record store clerks in Columbia, Mo. And at times on the band’s debut, "Fort

Nightly," it seems as if they’re trying to cram the whole store into 11 songs.

"We’re all kind of crate-diggers," Roberts says. "We like the idea of

throwing a bunch of stuff together, as long as it has great rhythms."

"Fort Nightly" has that. Underpinned by all manner of island beats,

including ska and calypso, the album takes indie rock to a place where three-part

harmonies collide with dual drummers and tinkling piano mingles with tart guitar riffs.

The sensation that you are witnessing chaos is only momentary.

Roberts, Patterson, singer-guitarist Alex Even, bassist Adam Russell and drummers

Matt Clark and Jamie Levinson find themselves gaining some

critical praise and a lot of attention — so much that White Rabbits continued with

tour plans even after headliners Mystery

Jets had to cancel because of visa problems.

"It almost seems like a parody," Roberts says of the band’s dates this week

in L.A., which are likely to attract record label scouts. "We have to stay grounded

and do the best we can."

||| White Rabbits perform tonight at Cinespace and Wednesday night at Club NME at

Spaceland.

||| Download "Kid on My

Shoulders."

Not only did local quintet Radars to

the Sky deliver a scorching opening set Saturday night at the Troubadour, they might

have induced labor. Well, let’s just say the band’s expectant parents wouldn’t have

minded.

The loudest cheer of the night came when singer-guitarist Andrew Spitser’s wife Kate

(the group’s former keyboardist) joined Radars onstage to provide vocals on "I

Might" and "Long Walk Home." After all, Saturday was her due date, and,

well, she was big. "I wore black because it’s slimming," she joked.

Andrew said when Radars were offered the opening slot for the Airborne Toxic Event, he

approached the topic with his wife gingerly: "Honey, the good news is that we have

a chance to play the Troubadour," Andrew told her. "The bad news is that it’s

on your due date." Added Radars’ front man: "What are you gonna do?"

||| Download "Long Walk Home" from the band’s MySpace site.

Photo of Kate and Andrew Spitser by Kevin Bronson / LAT.

The Little Radio Summer Camp resumes this

weekend at the Internet station’s downtown warehouse after an eventful first week.

During last week’s festivities — the free "summer camp" includes live sets

from three bands, plus games and adults-playing-like-kids activities in the adjacent

parking lot — some computers, cell phones and keys were stolen from the premises.

So this week Summer Camp is no longer free — there’s a $10 cover for fun in the

sun and sets by the Raveonettes, the Little Ones and Brothers & Sisters.

And apparently the perpetrator of last week’s theft has been caught. Little Radio’s blog outed him

today.

Elsewhere this weekend

On

Saturday: Wax Tailor, right, whom Jeff

Weiss caught up with in Thursday’s Calend

ar Weekend section, holds forth at the Echo. … The Airborne Toxic Event joins

Radars to the Sky and the Happy Hollows at the Troubadour. …

On Sunday: So much dancing — LCD Soundsystem starts the first of

three sold-out nights at the El Rey Theatre, and CSS brings the party to the Fonda Theatre.

… And on a mellower note, the One AM

Radio and Mia Doi Todd are among the

performers joined by the Dublab DJs for a night of

music at Tangiers.

All weekend: The LA Pride festival in West Hollywood has quite a batch

of good music on its main stage both days. On Saturday, the acts include Anne Magnuson,

the Start, Bitter:Sweet, Josie Cotton, Berlin and Joan Jett & the Blackhearts. On

Sunday, the lineup features, among others, the Dollyrots, the Randies and Girl in a

Coma.

Happy weekend. Here’s the video for CSS’s "Let’s Make Love and

Listen to Death From Above":

Day has been up and down, but never divided. The L.A. quartet self-released

"Beartrap Island" last year to favorable reviews, simmered through a residency

at Spaceland and thought they caught a break earlier this year when a start-up label

announced plans to re-release the album. But the start-up label never started up.

Now Division Day has signed to L.A. independent label Eenie Meenie, home to the likes of Great Northern, Irving and Goldenboy. "Beartrap Island"

is scheduled to get a proper release in September.

||| Download "Lights Out."

||| See Division Day on June 16 at the Avalon (opening for the Fratellis) and June 22 at Safari Sam’s (headlining the going-away party for

Echo Park’s Sea Level Records).

Touts for Friday, June 8

Say you don’t have tickets

to Moz at the

Bowl, hmm … Ima Robot and Los Abandoned lead the party at the House

of Blues. … Hearts of Palm U.K.

perform at El Cid. … Black Light

Burns play the El Rey. … Bryan Scary

and the Shredding Tears perform at Safari Sam’s. …  Big Stone City rocks the Gig. … And the Raveonettes (as a duo) join forces with Midnight Movies at the Echo.

If you graded

rock bands on audience participation, the Kaiser Chiefs would have aced their show

Thursday night at the Henry Fonda Theatre. Singer Ricky Wilson beckoned, pleaded and

cajoled, and the obedient masses clapped, waved and sang along to the Leeds quintet’s

pogo-worthy numbers as an ostentatious light show kept up with the band’s leviathan

choruses.

Even if you find it overly strident, the quadruplicated refrain of "Ruby"

is impossible to get out of your brain, the same way the shout-alongs of the Kaiser

Chiefs’ previous big singles, "I Predict a Riot" and "Oh My God,"

echoed through your morning hangover like the notion you should have cut yourself off

one drink sooner.

All good fun, thanks to Nick Baines’ blaring synths and

Nick Hodgson’s frantic drumming, even if it falls far short of the "art rock"

or "post-punk" labels the Chiefs advertise. The Leeds lads muster neither the

cinema and drama of Editors, nor the

edge and wit of the Futureheads, nor the

humor and intellect of Art Brut. In fact, you

could consider them the Lite beer version of Art Brut. Do art schools have keggers? This

is your house band.

||| Stream music from the Kaiser Chiefs’ latest,

"Yours Truly, Angry Mob" at their MySpace page. And even if you’ve heard

the song a million times on radio, the video for "Ruby" makes for decent

eye candy.

Photo of Ricky Wilson at Coachella by Frazer

Harrison/Getty Images.

Our fondness for the Airborne

Toxic Event, the L.A. five-piece with the obscure name and the viola player, has

been well-docum

ented. The quintet is back in town this week after touring England behind the

release of their single on upstart label Square Records there. Also just released: the

band’s video, directed by Jason Wishnow, for "Does This Mean You’re Moving

On?" Here it is:

||| The Airbone Toxic Event opens for the Kaiser Chiefs tonight at the Fonda Theatre.

Then, on Saturday night, the band plays the Troubadour with the Happy Hollows and Radars to the Sky.

Touts for Thursday, June 7

Let’s Go Sailing, who recently toured with

Elvis Perkins, breezes into the Troubadour to celebrate the proper release of "The

Chaos in Order" (originally self-released last year). … Castledoor leads a strong bill at the

Silverlake Lounge. … Mice

Parade plays the Echo. … And Orange County piano-poppers Melee play the Roxy.

[Back-to-back posts this morning on bands playing on the same bill tonight at the

Troubadour:]

Michael Bauer acknowledges his move from St. Louis to Los Angeles two years ago

influenced his music. Not that he’s writing paeans to palm trees, or waxing on the

glitterati — the pulsing, seething music on "Smiles & Handshakes," the

debut of his three-piece the

Front, knows no geography.

"It was

more just the scene, the community, the people who introduced me to other kinds of

music…. It helped me make what I was doing become more palatable," says the

Front’s frontman. "Before, I was just kind of listening to Radiohead’s ‘Kid A’ all

the time, thinking that the way to stay interesting was to play dissonant

chords."

The emotional dissonance remains, along with the kind of guitar squalor you’d expect

from a band that gets compared to Fugazi. It’s an agit-rock earful, and Bauer, with

bandmates Kelly Kutasy (drums) and Nico Woolley (bass), credits the studio wizardry of

Mathias Schneeberger (Twilight Singers, Queens of the Stone Age, Great Northern) for

bringing it all together.

"He was a magician," Bauer says. "We’d step out of the studio for

lunch and when we got back there’d be Rhodes piano and another guitar track. We’re

pleased everything worked out so quickly."

||| The Front play tonight at the Troubadour with Mezzanine Owls, Sunday Drivers and the Dodos.

||| Visit the band’s MySpace

page to download "Social Bat."

The chemistry that the members of Sunday Drivers felt when they first got

together manifests itself in the L.A. trio’s churning synth-rock — though not

necessarily in the day-to-day details of running a rock band.

"From the

beginning there was kind of an intuitive agreement about what the band would sound

like," singer-guitarist Brady Erickson says. "Oh, we’ll bicker about what time

to rehearse and things like that, but nobody ever says, ‘No, this is the direction we

should be taking.’ "

The path laid out on Sunday Drivers’ new

"Archetypes" EP is ’80s-influenced and seemingly radio-ready — maybe the

Bravery if you thought they meant it, or a sportier, compact version of the Killers.

Harrison met Marisa Dupuis on a double date ("Not a very rock ‘n’ roll way to

meet," he says with a laugh) and had attended art school (Otis) with drummer Bryan

Zaebst.

"I come from kind of a punk perspective, Marisa is a fan of

jangly indie pop and Bryan is all about big drums and big rhythms," Harrison says.

"We’ve jelled really well."

Prior to last month’s release of the

EP, Erickson also finished up work on the video for "Endless Summer." Here it

is:

||| Sunday Drivers open for the Front tonight at the Troubadour.

Photo of Zaebst, left, Erickson and Dupuis by Clayton Glen.