BUZZ BANDS

Sure, Tucker’s ‘Nervous,’ but

in a good way

The story sounds apocryphal, but singer Jeff Tucker and the people around Rock Kills Kid swear by it: For the better part of three years, Tucker, withdrawn and virtually broke, lived in a shower-less recording studio, eking out an existence and relying on baby wipes for hygiene.

“I dug my own cave and crawled in it,” says Tucker, 26. “I basically lived there because I didn’t have anywhere to go. I spent 24/7 sitting in there writing -- I was kind of addicted to songwriting.”

No surprise, then, that many of the songs on the L.A. quintet’s debut, “Are You Nervous?” (expected in early May on Reprise Records), are about isolation. But like the dancier side of ‘80s stalwarts such as Echo & the Bunnymen and the Psychedelic Furs, Rock Kills Kid infuses its synth-pop with cathartic bounce.

It’s a long way from the punk rock that earned Tucker a deal with Fearless Records, “but after that first EP came out [in 2001], I decided I wanted to write the way I felt, not the way somebody wanted me to sound,” he says.

Now, on a tour (including Friday night at the Key Club) with band mates Sean Stopnik, Shawn Dailey, Reed Calhoun and Ian Hendrickson, Tucker has come out of his shell. “I’m definitely happier and more stable,” he says. “It’s kind of a scary time, but exciting.”

At 46, Wynn

still provides plenty of energy

If Steve Wynn’s new album had a face, it’d be creased and smiling and three days away from a razor.

” ... tick ... tick ... tick” -- the latest from the former Dream Syndicate frontman, now doing business as Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 -- is so energetic and so lovingly shambolic that if you didn’t know better you’d think it came out of a savvy 19-year-old’s garage.

Never mind that Wynn, who emerged a quarter-century ago as a mainstay in L.A.’s Paisley Underground, is 46.

“Every record is the chance to make the album of a lifetime,” he says, adding with a laugh: “The nice thing about being around this long is that everybody assumes you know what you’re doing.”

The third of a trilogy of albums recorded in Tucson with band mates Jason Victor, Dave DeCastro and Linda Pitmon, “tick” still largely crackles with the Neil Young-meets-Velvet Underground sound for which Wynn is known -- not to mention a snap that reflects his life in the city he left L.A. for 10 years ago, New York.

“It’s great to go out walking and have the whole world happen around you,” says Wynn, whose band plays the Echo tonight. “I think I’ve written my last song from the inside of my car.”

Fast

Forward

Touts: Behind its beguiling, atmospheric new release “Peregrine,” Lawrence, Kansas, quartet the Appleseed Cast visits the Glass House in Pomona tonight.... English four-piece Mad Staring Eyes warms up for its appearance at South by Southwest by playing Club Underground at Tempest on Friday night.... The show celebrating the new EP releases by the Cold War Kids is Saturday at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, with Foreign Born joining the fray.... Sounds deliciously like Europe’s answer to Built to Spill: “Skeleton,” the album released this week by Figurines, gets a workout when the Copenhagen foursome performs Monday at Spaceland and Tuesday (with Amusement Parks on Fire) at Cinespace.... The show postponed two weeks ago by Jack’s Mannequin goes off Friday at the Viper Room.... The reunion of local power-pop quintet Ozma has been embraced by fans -- the band’s Sunday show at the Knitting Factory sold out, so they have added another show Monday.

Shouts: To L.A. SideOneDummy Records, which celebrates its 10th year with a four-night stand at the Key Club starting Wednesday, when Flogging Molly performs with up-and-comers the Briggs. The Casualties, Gogol Bordello and MxPx headline the ensuing nights.

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-- Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Stream Rock Kills Kid’s “Paralyzed” at www.myspace.com/rockkillskid.

* Listen to “Bruises” by Steve Wynn & the Miracle 3 at www.stevewynn.net.

* Hear the Appleseed Cast’s “Here We Are (Family in the Hallways)” at www.myspace.com/theappleseedcast.