The Cribs aren’t exactly the new kids in the

post-punk alley. The British trio’s new album, "Men’s Needs, Women’s Needs,

Whatever" is its third, and although its release in the U.S. this week comes via

major label Warner, the Cribs’ spiky music is more spit than shine — impudence with

guitar riffs.

You couldn’t blame the brothers, who emerged from the U.K. indie scene, if they feel as

if they are starting over. "We’ve been to the U.S. before, but never with a record

with proper distribution," says singer-guitarist Ryan Jarman. "We weren’t

worried about signing to a major label — we’re very indie-minded."

The

off-the-hook set by the Jarmans (twins Ryan and Gary, and kid brother Ross) at

Coachella certainly reinforced that, as does the Cribs’ reputation for inflicting

damage, especially on themselves.

Ryan dived across a banquet

table at last year’s NME Awards in collecting the band’s trophy, and for a time he

had a habit of bloodying himself during shows, the result of a slow-to-heal wound

sustained "when I was slapped in the mouth by a microphone," he says.

"We quite like to keep a certain chaos about our live shows," he says.

"I’ve seen a lot of bands where every move is planned."

That would run contrary to the Cribs’ beer-soaked music, which is liable to remind

old-timers of their collection of 7-inch singles, especially the ones that pushed the

era’s boundaries. Their current video for "Men’s Needs"

might even qualify for a shout-along and a raised pint.

The album was produced by Franz Ferdinand frontman Alex Kapranos — "which worked out really well

because it turns out he has a very similar work ethic to ours," Ryan says — and

features a spoken-word contribution by Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo on the anthemic

"Be Safe."

||| Stream "Men’s Needs."

||| The Cribs play a free show at 6 tonight at Amoeba Music in Hollywood. They also perform Tuesday

night at the Troubadour.

◊ ◊ ◊

Johnathan Rice, whose new album

"Further North" (due in September) is going to surprise some folks, plays

tonight at the Echo. … Sonic Youth plays "Daydream Nation," and some other

songs for an encore, at the Greek. … The Bird and the Bee alight at the El Rey

tonight, and Pigeon John drops into the Troubadour. … And the Dwarves rock Safari

Sam’s.

Director Mike Mills ("Thumbsucker") has created

five new videos for songs off the wonderful Blonde Redhead album "23."

There will be a screening of the videos at 8 tonight at the Family bookstore (436 N. Fairfax), and the

program is described thusly:

Poses
Emotions
Disasters at Sea
Burning Crosses
And Rainbows

Here’s the video inspired by the song

"The Dress," which I suspect might be the "Emotions" part of the

program:

Like a lot of songwriters who spent time in the wings of rock bands, Michael

Orendy treaded softly when it came to launching his own music.

“It was just a bedroom recording project and last year when I did my EP it had

actually been done for two years,” Orendy says of “Lullaby for the Passersby,” the album

he released in June under the name Frankel. “I

had a really amazing support system — a number of people just demanded I get it out

there.”

“Lullaby” was not only produced by Raymond Richards at Rancho Park’s Red Rockets

Glare studio but was issued on Richards’ label by that name. It’s the kind of gently

orchestrated pop that will recall a Randy Newman or Harry Nilsson (a contemporary

kindred spirit might be Richard Swift) yet

harbors the subtle textures and atmospherics you might hear on a Grandaddy or Earlimart

record.  There are emotional nuances too, as the songwriter balances his

melancholic musings with sunnier optimism.

Orendy, who had played in noisy local bands Athalia and Meow Meow, has grown Frankel

into a full band to play in clubs — a good thing considering the trepidation he felt as

a solo act in the beginning. “I think it was too many piano recitals as a kid,” he says

with a laugh. “Now I think I have my confidence up to a reasonable level.”

||| Frankel performs tonight at Tangier at next Thursday as part of the Patrick Park residency at Spaceland.

||| Download "New

Authority."

[Colleague Geoff Boucher files this memo from Tuesday night’s show at the Hotel

Cafe:]

The barefoot singer with the sunny smile and little black dress took the stage at the

Hotel Cafe on Tuesday night, did a little shimmy

and then explained that she would be strapless on the night.

"It’s my

prom, I’m strapless, I hate straps," the willowy London native explained, referring

to both her dress and her guitar. It was a cheeky moment, the first of many: The singer

said she wouldn’t play a note until she got a stool of proper height; she asked an

audience member if he was looking up her dress, and then wished him luck; she introduced

a song that was about her ex-boyfriend’s dead mother and, after a perfectly timed beat,

she flashed a sly grin and told the crowd, "As you can see, I’m

devastated."

As far as stage charisma, there was probably no better act anyhere in town on Tuesday

than one Amelia Fiona J. Driver, whom you may

know better by her nickname, Minnie. The Oscar-nominated actress is hardly a dilettante

in music — she was in a band that had a deal with Island Records well before she became

familiar to film fans in "Circle of Friends" or "Good Will Hunting."

But her movie-star shine was a big part of the show on Tuesday. It was a big night for

Driver, too. Her second album, "Seastories," arrived in stores earlier in the

day and it was generating considerable positive buzz, and not just for the contributions

by Ryan Adams and Liz Phair.

And how was the music? Driver is clearly a

confident performer and a songwriter with a style both evocative and economical. Her new

songs, especially "Stars and Satellites" and "King Without a Queen,"

benefitted from a tightly knit band, and their stirring show-closing number, the ominous

and electrifed country song "Cold Dark River," suggests that Driver somehow

found a bit of Memphis while on the shores of the Thames.

Touts

for Wednesday, July 18

The Polyphonic Spree are many. Jesca Hoop is but one. But they are the 1-2

punch tonight at the El Rey Theatre. The Spree’s new album "The Fragile Army"

did nothing to win me over to the band’s army of supporters, all of whom seem to think

it’s, well, polyphonic. They do have an eight-minute mash-up using using music from all

11 songs available for download on their website. Interesting. Meanwhile, Hoop’s album

"Kismet" isn’t out until Sept. 18 and I’ve heard some raves already. … Die! Die! Die! might be one of those

annoying bands with punctuation marks in the middle of their name, but they’ve been

rocking it on Wednesdays this month at the Silverlake Lounge. … Brooklyn punks X27 celebrate the release of "Antilove"

tonight at Safari Sam’s. … And Lavender

Diamond headlines the Echo.

And for all you hitmakers out there, I leave

you with this.

There should be a healthy number of shoegazer fans who will genuflect and show up

tonight at the Echo to check out Adam

Franklin. He’s the former front man of Creation Records staple Swervedriver, and eight years after

that band called it quits  he has a new album "Bolts of Melody" (released

in June) — which incorporates touches of his band’s old noise into a psychedelic and

folk-rock stew.

||| Download &q

uot;Seize the Day."

Touts for Tuesday, July 17

There’s new music from locals Mighty Six Ninety (and one song

on the MySpace site is free); they’re on the bill tonight at the Key Club with this

month’s residents, the newly reconstituted Maxeen. … It should be a crowded house for Crowded House at the Troubadour. … And with

Spoon and the Watson Twins scheduled to play Cinespace, there should be a long line of

hope-I-get-ins along Hollywood Boulevard. … The Eastern Conference

Champions show [read below] is now at the Silverlake Lounge, with Vampire Weekend also playing. … And

Minnie Driver (yes, she can play and sing as

well as act) celebrates the release of "Seastories" with a show at the Hotel

Cafe.

Don’t believe me about Minnie Driver? Stream the album here.

[One in a series highlighting new music by

Los Angeles bands:]

On its first album two years ago, the Prix gave us a collection of

two-days-away-from-a-razor power pop that displayed quite a bit of muscle and maybe a

little moxie, not to mention a kinship with decades of artists who honed their hooks in

a garage. If "Frix the Prix" got only a modest reception, it might have been

because the Prix never bothered to slather its retro feel in eight layers of irony.

"St. Domino," the new EP from the quartet, expands its palette

considerably, with touches of glam and new wave seeping into six rollicking songs

recorded at Red Rockets Glare studio with Raymond Richards and Dan Long. You might even

hear a little Smiths along with the quartet’s frenetic piano lines and harmonies. The

Prix (Cashew Von Harding, Blake Jordan, Zach Ziegler and Stephen Mills) are the resident

band this month at club Kiss or Kill

(recently moved to Wednesday nights at El Cid). This week, they celebrate the release of

"St. Domino" at Kiss or Kill with support from Star No Star, the Power Cords and Service Group.

||| Download "The Chevalier."

Photo of the Prix by Sterling Andrews. [Thanks to reader A. Martinez for the

reminder.]

Spoon’s show Monday night at Little Radio’s downtown Los Angeles warehouse

space was a lot like an exhilarating day at the gym: If you took care of business, it

was a good sweat.

With the brick oven that doubles as the Internet radio station’s headquarters packed,

the Austin quartet bobbed and weaved through 82 sweltering minutes of music, much of it

from "Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga," the new album that reaffirms Spoon’s station at the

vanguard of this decade’s indie rock. It’s music that makes demands — it’s nothing if

not insistent — and refuses to succumb to any excesses.

On Monday night, the warehouse setting made its own demands. Front man Britt Daniel

kept the show — for certain first-day buyers of the album as well as guests of the

sponsors and assorted hipsterati — motoring along banterless for most of the evening.

Fans who stationed themselves near the stage early were rewarded; those who stayed near

the front of the space chatting up their friends until set time struggled to get a good

view. You schmooze, you lose. Or get a ticket to the September gig at the Fonda.

But an hour in, after the heat had thinned the throngs, Spoon came on strongest. When

Daniel delivered the chorus to "The Beast and Dragon, Adored," it felt like a

moment of truth: "I got a feelin it don’t come cheap / I got a feelin oh and then

it came to me / It took its time a-working into my soul / I got to believe it come from

rock and roll."

Photos of Britt Daniel, top, and the crowd, below, by Timothy Norris. More at Little

Radio’s website.

L.A. punk trio 400 Blows’ recent

nationwide tour suffered a setback a couple weeks ago when drummer Ferdie Cuilda was

hospitalized in Texas with a case of the chicken pox — no small matter in adults. He is

back in Los Angeles recuperating now, and some in the music community are joining forces

to help him with a mountain of hospital bills, which are formidable since, like most

musicians, the drummer had no insurance.

So the Locust, the Bronx and Qui with David Yow will perform a benefit for Cuilda on

Saturday, Aug. 4, at the Echoplex. Advance tickets for the all-ages show are $15. Word

is that a couple headline-quality special guests are also going to play. Show info isn’t

up yet on the Echo/Echoplex website (newly designed), but stay tuned.

Eastern Conference

Champions can’t seem to get a break in this town. Back in February, during a stay in

L.A. to do a residency at the Silverlake Lounge, their van was burglarized and all their

gear stolen. The Philadelphia trio still managed to play South by Southwest a couple

weeks later. Today, on the day their debut album "Ameritown" comes out, they

were supposed to play a record-release show at Hollywood hotspot Cinespace. But because

of what was described to me as a "scheduling snafu," ECC won’t be playing

there; Spoon will.

Fear not. You can help ECC toast "Ameritown" (which deserves it, by the

way). The band will play the late set tonight at the Silverlake Lounge.

Eastern Conference Champions will also be back in L.A. on July 30 for a show at

Safari Sam’s.

I’ll post a piece from my interview with Josh Ostrander that week. For now, here’s

the band’s video for "Nice Clean Shirt."

A couple of commercial heavyweights will round out the lineup for the annual Sunset Junction Street Fair to be held Aug. 18

and 19 on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. She Wants Revenge will follow the

Buzzcocks on the Sunday evening roster at the rock-oriented Bates Stage. And prior to

the Buzzcocks set? It’s another radio-friendly band whose participation cannot be

announced yet for contractual reasons

So fight your crowds at the west end of the festival accordingly:

Saturday, Aug. 18: Noon, Renee Dawnson; 12:40, Division Day; 1:30, the Pity Party; 2:20, the Parson Red Heads; 3:15, the Culver City Dub

Collective; 4:10, the Broken West; 5:05,

Sea Wolf; 6:05, Autolux; 7:30, Blonde Redhead; and 9:20, Ben Harper.

Sunday, Aug. 19: Noon, Cody Marks; 12:50, Eskimohunter; 1:30, the Movies; 2:20, the Airborne Toxic Event; 3:10,

the Aggrolites; 4:05, the Bronx; 5:15, to be announced; 6:45, the Buzzcocks; 8:35, She Wants Revenge.

That’s a pretty good collection of local talent. I’m not fond of standing around on

hot pavement for hours to catch bands whose music works better in darkened clubs, but

the back-to-back pairings of the Broken West and Sea Wolf, and then Autolux and Blonde

Redhead, will be too good to miss. And if the dirty-reggae dudes in the Aggrolites wear

their customary Dickies to perform at 3 in the afternoon? Props.

The lineups

on Sunset Junction’s other two stage is great too — Morris Day & the Time and the

O’Jays are among the acts on the Hoover Stage; the Breakestra, Jesse de la Pena and

Rocky Dawuni are among the acts on the Sanborn Stage.

◊ ◊ ◊

Rilo Kiley’s "Under the Blacklight"

will be out Aug. 21 on Warner Bros., and I haven’t heard the new album, which is being

described as  "showing an eclectic new side" of the band. Maybe somebody

will share, eventually.

It’s the band’s fourth record and first since

principals Jenny Lewis and Blake Sennett detoured for their respective side projects

last year.

For now, here’s a stream of the first single, "The Moneymaker."

◊ ◊ ◊

I was all set to post an interview with Eastern Conference Champions today,

because the Philadelphia trio (who did a residency in Silver Lake in February) was

scheduled to play a release party for their debut album "Ameritown" on Tuesday

night at Cinespace. Turns out ECC won’t be the guests at Steve Aoki’s weekly Hollywood party — Spoon will. The flyer I got this morning says

"early arrival recommended" and says to e-mail reservations@dimmak.com to get on the list.

The Watson Twins will also perform.

Yes, Spoon is also doing a special

performance at the Little Radio warehouse

downtown tonight. The Internet radio station will also webcast the show live.

Eastern Conference Champions, meanwhile, are well worth seeing, and they’ll be in L.A.

to play Safari Sam’s on July 30.

◊ ◊

◊

Have no idea what’s taking so long to get the album out, but the first

single from local quintet Astra Heights

has been released on iTunes. It’s a nice tune called "Choices." The band

plays July 31 at the Troubadour.