CAUGHT LIVE: THE KISSAWAY TRAIL

It's easy to stumble upon the peppy sonic orgy of The Arcade Fire's (where art thou Neon Bible follow-up?) instrumentals, The Polyphonic Spree's choral grandiosity and Stars' pop breeze once you simply take the Kissaway Trail to the foot of Sleep Mountain.

In support of the Danish sextet's second long player (Bella Union/Etch n Sketch/Playground), Sleep Mountain, released in March, The Kissaway Trail played a fairly under-attended set at LA's Spaceland last night. Hot of the buzz of SXSW (I saw them there also) and their recent stint with Aussie darlings The Temper Trap, the group managed to kick the room into place with a swirly set of numbers from both their albums that were supported alongside keyboard pokes, ganged-out vocal melodies and a night-closing, onstage tambourine jump-along of standout "SDP."

The Kissaway Trail - SDP by inertiamusic

The band has an SF set tomorrow (the 22nd) at Pop Scene before jaunting back to Europe (hopefully the volcano no American can pronounce, Eyjafjallajökull, doesn't present a problem) for a full tour, festival slots and sets alongside the likes of Tokyo Police Club and The Raveonettes. Sleep Mountain is out now. Go on and give standouts "SDP," and "New Year" a listen… your ears will thank you. You can stream the entire album over at Spinner.

Photos from the Spaceland set are below (all by Matt Draper/Hollow-Eyed Photos)

-Matt Draper

CAUGHT LIVE- COLD CAVE, BEST COAST AND SMITH WESTERNS

Future Sounds favorites Best Coast and The Smith Westerns opened last week for darkwavers Cold Cave at LA's Echoplex. Veronica and I were on hand as the 'Love Came Close.' Photos below.

--Posted by Matt Draper

CAUGHT LIVE- THE RUMBLE LA: MARCH

Thanks to everyone who came out to 3 Clubs Thursday night for The Rumble LA. San Diego's BEATERS treated those early-comers to a solid set blending snotty, swirling bedroom punk with tribal-like cacophony and a room-filling wall-of-sound crutch that was almost impossible to ignore. No wonder standouts "Fishage" and "White Hate" have already become FS staples.

TWIN TIGERS showed the packed back room a little something about this whole shoegaze-laced-guitar thing that the the blogosphere seems to be paddling through for air these days. Just expecting great things from this outfit is one thing, but seeing their sound grow to fill venue walls in the future seems like a near certainty for this Athens, GA about-to-break foursome.

Night-closers RUMSPRINGA near-lived up to their tag as "LA's best-kept secret" with a guitar/drum take on blues-soaked, riffed-out rock tunes that oddly-enough got most of the first few rows flailing like a Prince set (no doubt thanks to 808 bleeps from a sometimes third member) while the rest of the room (myself included) wondered just how they haven't ever seen the band before.

-Posted by Matt Draper

NOUVELLE VAGUE GO FOR "3"

French duo (plus various added singers) Marc Collin and Olivier Libaux of Nouvelle Vague have, since 2003, teased our ears with their sultry, loungy bossa-nova-laced versions of our favorite songs from the 70's-90's New Wave, Punk and Pop genres past. I nearly cringe each time you edge on calling NV simply just a cover band. Their smart, sexy and playful romps though everyone from Joy Division, The Undertones, XTC, The Dead Kennedys, The Go-Go's and Depeche Mode (they locked down Martin Gore to guest on 3's take on "Master and Servant" and Echo and The Bunnymen's Ian McCulloch on "All My Colours") provide some sort of sophisticated- yet otherworldly- transference for the songs of our collective past that have no doubt soundtracked piles of college parties, radio Top 40 playlists and significant-other mixtapes, into something that makes us all remember just how important these tracks (everybody knows at least a handful of them) have had in our lives.

In support of 3, the group has released an iPhone app and has just embarked on a US tour (on the heels of a European one) which finds them at LA's Henry Fonda tomorrow night. Check back to FS later in the week for a full show review as well as an interview with the band. For now though, I leave you with a live video of their take on the heavily-covered 1977 Plastic Bertrand track "Ca Plane Pour Moi" as well as an MP3 (from 3) of "Master and Servant" (ft. Martin Gore).

Download "Master and Servant" ft. Martin Gore (mp3)

ça plane pour moi, performed by Jenia Lubitch

Nouvelle Vague | MySpace Music Videos

--Post by Matt Draper