BUZZ BANDS

Northern exposure

Like many cohabitants who also are co-writers, Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte live in a household equipped with a piano and creative tension. “When creativity is lacking, it’s challenging,” Stolte says, “but sometimes everything just falls away and a song comes out of the middle of nowhere.”

That’s when the duo, the force behind the Silver Lake quintet Great Northern, shines. Their songs tread the tenuous ground where heartwarming meets heartbreaking, unfolding as if the boy-girl vocalists were revisiting crumpled old love letters. The keyboard-laden arrangements allude to psych-period Beatles, wistful Neil Young-ism, the theatrical swell of Mercury Rev and, yes, even fellow L.A. indie-rockers Earlimart, for whom Bixler once played guitar.

Bixler and Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza were among the co-founders of the Ship, the Eagle Rock studio that was launched in part with equipment from a Fresno nightclub that Bixler’s father once ran. The Ship now refers not just to the space but to a collective of bands that record there.

Great Northern, which opens for the Earlies on Friday at Spaceland, adjourns to the studio this month to record a six-song EP with a lineup that includes drummer Scott McPherson and Earlimart’s Ariana Murray (keyboards) and Davey Latter (bass). A year of live shows and the band’s demos have elicited some feelers from independent labels, but Bixler is concentrating on having the best possible material to showcase at the South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, Texas, in March.

“We’re getting a lot of good feedback,” he says. “Our goal is to do it more as a band -- ultimately, no matter who’s doing the writing, somebody is always contributing something.”

Foreign

report

Scribbles from the recent L.A. debuts of three acts from Britain: With the catchy ditty “Rock & Roll Queen” getting exposure on “The O.C.,” the Subways, who blew through town this week, have their very young legs up on getting their music to the mainstream. Singer-guitarist Billy Lunn sounds like a prepubescent (and maybe not yet jaded) Noel Gallagher. Now if 19-year-old bassist Charlotte Cooper would only thrash around less randomly.... The Arctic Monkeys’ L.A. debut at Spaceland two weeks ago was testament to the power of the Internet; even though the group hasn’t put out an album in the U.S., the adoring crowd sang along with cherubic (imagine Harry Potter with a guitar instead of a wand) frontman Alex Turner.... And here’s hoping Art Brut’s brass doesn’t lose its shine. Lead shouter/singer Eddie Argos’ outfit sizzles with the wry wit and boisterous riffs. And when he implored everyone in a recent Spaceland crowd to “go home right now and form a band,” you wanted to.

Fast

forward

Coming attractions: Nightmare of You, the Long Island quartet that can be described as Madchester gone a bit giddy, brings its jaunty rock to the Troubadour on Monday and Chain Reaction on Tuesday as openers for the (International) Noise Conspiracy.... Tonight is the last chance to catch Olivea Watson, a delicate singer/songwriter whose Thursday night residency at the Mint has gained notice. Watson’s arsenal includes “Back to LA,” an ode to the city, as well as musicians from Lucinda Williams’ camp.... The Lashes, a Seattle sextet with an exuberant, Strokes-y take on power pop, visit next week, with shows at Star Shoes on Monday, the Key Club on Tuesday and Spaceland on Friday, previewing songs from its forthcoming debut on Columbia.

Shouts: To Bang Sugar Bang, the L.A. trio that celebrates the release of its album “Thwak, Thwak, Go Crazy” on S.O.S. Records with a show Tuesday at the Echo.... And to Big Stone City, a trio that in a recent Viper Room set lived up to a friend’s tout: “Looks like Slayer, sounds like Sugar.”

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Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Stream Great Northern’s “Our Bleeding Hearts” at

www.greatnorthernmusic.com

* Stream Art Brut’s “Formed a Band” at

www.artbrut.org.uk/release.html

* Stream Big Stone City’s “She’s Always” and “Dead End Soul” at

www.myspace.com/bigstonecity* Watch the Subways’ video for “Rock & Roll Queen” at

www.thesubways.net/us/flash.php