The Aggrolites, "Reggae Hit L.A." (Hellcat): The "dirty reggae" — the band’s

term — on this SoCal quintet’s third album (and second for the imprint of Epitaph)

isn’t really that gnarly, but it is earthy, sprung from the loam of Lee

"Scratch" Perry and the Meters and funked up enough to get dancefloors

shakin’. The rich grooves laid out by bassist J. Bonner and keyboardist Roger Rivas are

perfect for afternoons at the beach or backyard barbecues, more rocksteady than

breakneck, and an obviously maturing vocalist Jesse Wagner waxes on a man’s place and

duty. It’s no wonder Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong tapped these guys to be his backing

band for his solo project; they keep it very old-school. And very cool.

||| The Aggrolites mark today’s album release with a show tonight at the House of Blues and on Wednesday night at the

Galaxy Concert Theatre.

Also out today and recommended

The Long Blondes, "Someone

to Drive You Home" (Rough Trade). Download &

quot;Once and Never Again"

Dappled Cities, "Granddance"

(Dangerbird). Download "Fire, Fire, Fire" (Loving Hand Remix)

Touts for Tuesday, June 6

Carina Round celebrates the release of her

latest, "Slow Motion Addict," at Cinespace with a show and a screening from

the episodic series of that name. … The CoCo

B’s play the Troubadour. … The Phoenix Foundation, who

played a strong set Monday night as Spaceland, open for the Cliks at the Echo, where Brothers and Sisters also are

on the bill. … And see my previous two posts about those nice Canadians.

Invasion:]

Really, I wasn’t hallucinating: Young

Galaxy’s self-titled debut album, released in April on Arts & Crafts, feels like a good dream,

arriving on a crisp night in the most womblike surroundings and lingering pleasantly

after you’ve woken. Mounting their sweet melodies on otherworldly textures, the band

beckons with boy-girl vocals and measured rhythms, adding up to an almost devious

trance-pop that may very well cause the listener to lose track of his surroundings. Yes,

kind of a bedroom Pink Floyd.

The sextet is the latest project to emerge from the rich Montreal music scene — it’s

led by Stephen Ramsay, the touring guitarist for Stars, and singer Catherine McCandless. On

the opening track, they urge you to "Swing Your Heartache," and whatever that

means, I’ll certainly try.

||| See Young Galaxy perform tonight at Spaceland.

||| Download "Outside the City."

Here’s the video for that song:

Photo of Young Galaxy by Victor Tavares

Hear them, wish them well, and don’t mention the Ottawa Senators.]

The recent broadside

s directed at major labels — including his own — from Trent Reznor certainly

resonate with Jets Overhead. The Nine Inch

Nails frontman said that if he had it his way, he would circumvent "bureaucratic

and clumsy and ignorant" companies and simply release his next album on the

Internet and have fans buy it (digitally or physically) via PayPal — a tack the Canadian

quintet has taken from the beginning.

"We are definitely on the pro-distribution-via-the-Internet boat,"

singer-guitarist Adam Kittredge says, citing the same issues Reznor hit upon, including

building trust with fans. "Even with this current tour push, we’re not going the

hard-copy-in-stores route. We’re just trying to stir up some notice."

The band’s lush, driving rock, the bristling, slightly psychedelic offspring of the

likes of Radiohead and Pink Floyd, has done that, on a small scale. A debut EP three

years ago gained the band a little traction; then last year’s "Bridges" sent a

flurry of fans to its website, where you can download the band’s entire catalog — free,

if you like. Of course, Kittredge and bandmates Antonia Freybe-Smith, Jocelyn Greenwood,

Luke Renshaw and Piers Henwood ask that you make a modest PayPal donation if you like

the music; after all, it does help them pay the bills in Victoria, Canada.

"We get a few donations a day; if there’s something happening, it triggers

more," Kittredge says. "The nice thing is you can track the evolution every

day."

||| See Jets Overhead perform tonight and Wednesday at the Viper Room.

||| Download "Killing

Time" and then visit the website for

more music.

Something for Rockets, Low Vs Diamond and Shapes of Racecars play the Viper

Room tonight as Indie 103.1 (KDLD-FM) marks the three-year anniversary of "Check

One … Two" nights at the Sunset Strip venue. The station and its

local-band-touting DJ Mark Sovel

(aka Mr. Shovel) have done more to promote the L.A. music scene in the past three years

than any single entity. Tip of the cap.

||| By the way, the station’s website has the

Midnight Movies’ song "Souvenirs" available as its "Indie

Recommends" download.

Touts for Monday, June 4

Phantom Planet plays its second straight

Monday at the Roxy. … And then there are loads of free shows: Thailand’s residency at the

Silverlake Lounge (tonight with the CoCo

B’s), the Deadly Syndrome’s

residency at the Echo, Burning

Brides’ residency at the Echo and the Monolators at the Scene.

A cover version of the Who’s "My Generation" entered the British Top 40

chart at No. 26 last week, and that might be worth a news flash itself except that the

artists performing the, er, oldie, are the

Zimmers, perhaps the most elderly

band on the planet.

The group, 40 members strong, was formed for a BBC

documentary and features lead singer Alf Carreta, 90, as well as celebrity centenarian

Buster Martin — whose obscene

gesture punctuates the end of the video. That’s more than 3,000 years of talent in that

video, kids.

Proceeds from downloads of the song will benefit

charitable causes. The Zimmers are scheduled to appear on "The Tonight Show With

Jay Leno" on Tuesday. Rock it. 

The Phoenix Foundation, the amiable rock sextet out of New Zealand, are back in

town tonight for a show at Spaceland (where the frenetically good-natured Deadly Syndrome kicks off its June

residency). The last time these Kiwis were through they won over a Spaceland crowd with

their slightly bent, faintly folk and wildly atmospheric rock, and this time they’re

touring with a bigger purpose.

The Foundation’s "Horsepower" was

picked up by fledgling label Young American

Recordings and will be released Tuesday. If a bit uneven, the record is ultimately

plenty of fun — think Grandaddy, without the Modesto psychosis. The band also scored

the Miramax romantic comedy "Eagle Vs.

Shark" (see website for L.A. screenings).

|||

Download "Sister Risk."

The band’s video for "Going Fishing" (there is a newer version

with scenes from the movie spliced in, but I like this one better) got my week off to a

good start. Hope it does the same for you:

[Full disclosure: As you know if you read the material in the rail at right, this

blogger has a weekly (unpaid) show on Little Radio. But I dig badminton too.]

It’s summer camp, without a patch of grass or a can of bug spray in sight.

Little Radio on Sunday kicks off its weekly

"camp" — an afternoon of food and drink, games and rock ‘n’ roll that brings

out the inner child in hundreds of indie kids (ahem, and adults). There is all manner of

activities, from water slides, wading pools, ping-pong, badminton, bouncy rooms and a

jousting competition. Consumptive types can enjoy barbecue and drinks (a $5 donation is

asked of those imbibing), as well as a weekly triumvirate of rock bands.

The Western States Motel,

the Pity Party and headliners the Willowz play this week; next week, it’s

Brothers & Sisters, the Little Ones and the Raveonettes. The festivities take place at

the Little Radio warehouse (1218 Long Beach Ave. in downtown L.A.) and its adjacent

parking lot. Sounds like fun for everybody, except the cleanup crew.

◊ ◊ ◊

Meanwhile, the Los Feliz Village

Street Fair runs from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m. along Vermont Avenue, featuring food,

artisan booths, children’s activities and two stages of live music. Until June, an L.A. trio with a Keane/Coldplay

sensibility, headlines at 6:45 p.m. Sunday; Shapes of Racecars and Sarah Kelly are also among the performers.

Check the link for the full lineup.

Beats yard work.

Photos: Top, the water slide at last year’s Little Radio Summer Camp; above, Until

June.

◊ ◊ ◊

Touts for Saturday, June 2

Louis XIV, working on its sophomore album, will be playing a bunch of new music

at the Roxy. … Maroon 5 headline the Troubadour. … And the High Strung rock

Spaceland.

Touts for Sunday, June 3

Pretty

Girls Make Graves plays the Troubadour. … The One AM Radio performs at Tangiers.

[Here’s a Friday afternoon volley to close out a week of not-enough-blog-posts,

those "current mood" icons — this song’s for you …]

Chris Garneau and directors Daniel Stessen and Dori Oskowitz

nailed it with "Relief." That’s all I can say. The song and the video

transported me back to the period in the late-1970s when I had this character’s very

job; it remains the only job I’ve been dismissed from (knock on counter). Something

about too many broken dishes and having my cassette player turned up too loud in the

kitchen.

The Brooklyn-based songwriter’s "Music for Tourists" is

out now Absolutely Kosher Records, and he plays the Hotel Cafe tonight.

Also tonight

Speaking of sad, local guys the Colour

have announced they are calling it quits and that this tour — shows tonight at the Roxy

and Saturday at the Alley in Fullerton — will be their last. From the band’s MySpace

page:

We are writing to share with you a major decision we have come

to as a band. After much thought and deliberation, we have come to a decision to end our

four-year journey as The Colour. This decision was spawned by an overwhelming desire to

turn a new page in our lives. We have poured our hearts and souls into this band, but

have realized that it is time to move on. It has been an amazing journey. We have met

some wonderful people and had so many nights that we will never forget. It has been a

real honor and blessing to perform and interact with such amazing fans. You guys have

been the life and blood of this band. Without you, this band would not have been able to

accomplish the things we did. Words cannot express the impact you had on our lives. To

clear up any confusion, there are no problems with us relationally. We are still best

friends who live together. We are simply ready to move on. We will be performing a few

final shows and it would be amazing to celebrate with each of you one last time. We

promise to play long and historic sets.

And also

tonight

Courtney Love

will do a guest spot with Linda Perry at the

House of Blues. … The Black Angels, who

drenched the Wiltern in sheets of psychedelic guitar when they opened for Black Rebel

Motorcycle Club last month, and Vietnam rock the

Troubadour. … Autloux and Deerhoof play it loud at the Natural History Museum tonight; should be

interesting. … The Mother Truckers play

Safari Sam’s.

[Please check back in the morning for some weekend

suggestions.]

[Correspondent Charlie Amter, subbing for your under-the-weather host, files this

report from Thursday’s night’s packed show at the El Rey Theatre:]

Ivy

League-educated men in their 30s still like to rock, and Craig Finn is their point man.

The Hold Steady front man proved a deft

master of ceremonies Thursday, owning the El Rey’s stage as an axe-wielding front man

and Midwest storyteller extraordinaire. The Brooklyn-based (via Minneapolis) band kicked

things off with “Stuck Between Stations” off of their critically lauded 2006 disc

"Boys and Girls in America." 

Finn, looking not unlike a

bearded, bespectacled and crazed street preacher on crystal meth, immediately commenced

gesticulating wildly in time with the music. The crowd, probably 75% of them men, ate it

up and sang along. With very little prodding, Finn had nearly the entire front section

of the El Rey (the show was sold out and had been for weeks prior to their sole L.A.

engagement) clapping in time with the music — hands over their head. One guy

stage-dove.

But Hold Steady fans are a heady (or perhaps just drunk?)

bunch.  Listening to the Hold Steady is a lot like reading a book — but it’s

topical and immediate and resonant, with Finn’s uncanny ear for nailing hipster

idiomatic expressions put to a soundtrack of late 1980s/early 1990s rock in the Afghan

Whigs/Soul Asylum vein. And just because Finn can name-drop Tennyson on a track (see

“Chillout Tent”) doesn’t mean his posse can’t party.  I’d be willing to bet the bar

receipts at the El Rey were higher than at any show so far this year.

Earlier this year, NPR said the Hold Steady "might just be the best bar band in

America." You wondered, after Thursday night, why the writer even bothered with the

"might."

||| Download a live version of "Stuc

k Between Stations."