Blog: Buzz Bands: Kevin Bronson on the music scene in Los Angeles and beyond

Buzz Bands, as the spiffy graphic would imply, is moving. It's now part of SOUNDBOARD , The Times' new group music blog that will feature a lot of people writing about a lot of things, some of them even bands that buzz. To the folks around Los Angeles (and occasionally elsewhere) who followed along with my scribblings the past 15 months, thank you. Readers, adjust thy bookmarks. Meet SOUNDBOARD . -- Kevin Bronson

Name yourself after rehab -- they said no, no, no ... That's what Hazelden is finding. The L.A. rock quartet last week heard from a Minnesota-based law firm representing the prominent drug and alcohol treatment facility Hazelden . Would the band please change its name? "I'm not sure what we're going to do yet," says front woman Mary Jane Snow, who says the band is named for Hedley Hazelden (1915-2001), a highly decorated World War II airman and test pilot [pictured above, with Hazelden]. Snow says her unsigned band [...]

Talk about a roller-coaster month. The Little Ones gained a little one in January -- and the Los Angeles quintet lost their record deals in the EMI corporate reorganization. "It was the highest of the highs and the lowest of the lows," says singer-guitarist Ed Reyes, who with wife Jenny became parents of a son, Nolan, on Jan. 31. Only a week earlier, the band was told it was being let go from its contracts with EMI imprints Heavenly (in the U.K.) and Astralwerks (in the U.S.). They're regrouping. Later today, [...]

Local miscellany: The cinematic quality to Dengue Fever's makes it a natural for music videos. Here's the latest from the band's third album, "Venus on Earth" -- a track titled "Seeing Hands": Elsewhere: That sold-out Hot Chip show that was postponed on Feb. 4 has been rescheduled for April 28 -- and it's at the Mayan. ... Locally famous folkies and Jenny Lewis collaborators the Watson Twins are now aligned with Vanguard Records and have a [...]

Liela Moss can talk the talk. Now her band, the Duke Spirit , has "The Step and the Walk," and the sky might be the limit. That single, off the British quintet's new album "Neptune," capped a set that made you forget its occasional soft spots on Wednesday night at the Echo, which was more crowded than NME's thesaurus of platitudes. The shoulder-to-shoulder masses witnessed a band that's about one tick short of a 12 o'clock high, as Moss and bandmates dealt lean, foreboding garage rock that harks back to the '80s and '90s Britpop heydays. [...]

The guys in Rooney lost more than a videographer when Brandon Schantz died in December. They lost a friend, whose sensibility and skills helped the L.A.-based quintet's music shine on screen. Schantz, who died at age 27 from a rare form of lymphoma, will be saluted at the Roxy on Thursday night, when Rooney is joined by Brett Dennen , Lisa Donnelly and others for a benefit performance. Proceeds from the evening will go toward establishing the Brandon Schantz Memorial Endowment in Broadcast Journalism at the University of Texas. "Brendan was [...]

The Police, with Elvis Costello and the Imposters, have added a second show at the Hollywood Bowl . With the bill's May 27 date sold out, the added show will go off on May 28. Tickets ($304.50, $154.50, $99.50 and $54.50) go on sale at 10 a.m. Sunday. It'll make for a busy week for veteran rock acts at the Bowl -- the Police/Costello on Tuesday and Wednesday, R.E.M. (which does not appear on th Bowl's calendar but is listed on the band's tour itinerary) on Thursday, May 29, and [...]

Earlimart's announcement this morning on its MySpace website couldn't have come as more of a surprise -- the band has a new album finished and slated for release on July 1. "It's done, in the can and delivered," front man Aaron Espinoza says of "Hymn & Her," which will be released on Majordomo (an imprint of Shout! Factory ) less than a year after the group's first album for that imprint, last August's "Mentor Tormentor." "We just want to be relentless, keep making stuff." "Mentor Tormentor" was more than two years in [...]

[Apologies for the protracted silence, folks. Been away on a family matter, complicated by a run-in with Mother Nature , but thankfully people like Classical Geek Theatre can clue me in on what I missed. I now attempt to lurch back into action:] An injury sustained by singer Alice Glass has forced the postponement of eight show by Crystal Castles , including Sunday's gig at the Roxy. The Toronto disco-noise duo hope to be back in time for their gigs at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin starting March [...]

Mezzanine Owls might have the most passive-aggressive sound around. Front man Jack Burnside sings woundedly, tossing around snippets of imagery that could have come from a dog-eared journal, while trading twitchy, fuzzed-out guitar lines with Jonathan Zeitlin. Atop the churning rhythms laid out by bassist Dan Horne and drummer Pauline Mu, the results can be otherworldly. "It's not like you make a conscious choice — you sing it the way it feels to you," Burnside says. "Sometimes it becomes its own reality." That concept plays out in the song/metaphor "Snow Globe," an insular [...]

It's not a secret show, but it is kinda stealth. The Little Death NYC plays at El Cid on Friday night. That's a quartet featuring Moby on guitar/bass. Tickets are $15 at the door. ◊ ◊ ◊ Color me on vacation a few days. Back sometime next week. ||| For myriad things musical, check in with The Times' Soundboard blog. ||| For a nice rundown of local activities, check in with You Set the Scene and Radio Free [...]

You don't just hear a lot of the 1990s in the music of L.A. quartet Hazelden , you hear a lot of singer Mary Jane Snow's ambition. As one of the few kids from her self-described "white-trash Minnesota neighborhood" to attend college, she lived in Chicago, London and San Francisco before taking up songwriting in earnest, inspired by this decade's rock revival, informed by heroes such as Nirvana and Smashing Pumpkins and maybe even channeling a little "Celebrity Skin"-era Hole. "It was about the time you started to hear the Strokes or the Vines on [...]

Presidential candidate John Edwards wasn't the only person moved by the story of Nataline Sarkisyan , the 17-year-old from Northridge who died in December of complications from leukemia and whose family's battles with its insurance carrier became headline news. Two local musicians, producer/beatmaker/lyricist ailment (Tony Barkodarian) and rapper/lyricist eye2eye (Mike Chakrian), were touched too. "We didn't know Nataline personally, but I grew up in the same area and the whole story hit very close to home," says Barkodarian, a Northridge native who now lives in Glendale. "The best catchphrase I heard was [...]

A Cursive Memory are four kids from the San Pedro area who are having a boatload of fun. That's the best way to describe "Changes," their album that was released today on Vagrant. Reminds me of the O.C. band Hellogoodbye . The band's album release show is tonight at Chain Reaction. Their video for "Everything" shows what happens when they mix it up in Tinseltown: A Cursive Memory - EVERYTHING Highlights for Tuesday, Feb. 19 [...]

[Be still your indie-rock hearts for a minute -- this local-music installment groups three veterans of the L.A. scene with new albums, hosts of collaborators and upcoming shows:] Jim Bianco One of the originals on the Hotel Cafe scene, Jim Bianco comes as close as anybody I've heard to filling the long shadow of Randy Newman. On his third album, "Sing" (March 4, Hotel Cafe Records), Bianco's nifty horn-, accordion- and [...]

I suppose it was inevitable that the Presidents of the United States of America would resurface this year. Could've sworn these guys broke up about 1998, but the bio tells me they've been back it full-time since 2004. Now comes the news that they have a new album "These Are the Good Times People" (what newspapers have they been reading?) due March 11 and they have re-teamed with "Weird Al" Yankovic for the video to its first single "Mixed Up S.O.B.," which you can hear here. I mention [...]

[In a decade long ago and far, far away, the 1990s, I used to shell out import prices for British bands I'd get excited about. Their releases always predated the U.S. distribution of their albums, and on many occasions I Just Couldn't Wait. Now that I receive music in advance, those mail-order companies don't get as much of my paycheck. But this installment of from-the-hip blurbs about new albums features three bands I'd have opened the wallet for (even at $23.49 on Amazon):] [...]

• The Raveonettes - Dead Sound

There's no need to practice partisan politics to endorse Grand Ole Party , especially if you like your rock raw and soulful. The San Diego-based trio, which released its debut album "Humanimals" on Super Tuesday, dispenses its retro blues like indefatigable campaigners, with singing drummer Kristin Gundred belting it out as if Grace Slick and Tina Turner never happened. "I'm more drawn to things that are really intense; that's probably like I sing the way I do," she says. "And in front of this band, that's certainly the way it comes out." Gundred, [...]

[Emptying the notebook from a busy week of music ...] Color me disappointed in having missed the Mika spectacular Monday at the Wiltern. Yes, I fall distinctly on the "hater" side of this Europop phenomenon -- his cringe-worthy exuberance reminds me of every girl in my high school who ran for class president. He seems to acknowledge and even play to his detractors too, as Mikael Wood's excellent review of the [...]

• cassettes won't listen - paper float (styrofoam x-911 remix)
• Taken by Trees - Lost and found

Easy as "1 2 3 4" -- Feist , the 31-year-old Canadian torch singer and Grammy nominee for best new artist, will be coming to the Hollywood Bowl for a headlining gig on July 20. The Toronto native's striking chamber pop will be counterposed that evening by the stirring soul stylings of Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings . There's no on-sale date for tickets yet, and a third artist is likely to be added to the show. The Bowl's pop/rock offerings are shaping up for the summer. Earlier this morning, a May [...]