BUZZ BANDS

They leaped. Will fans follow?

You grow, and your fans grow with you -- at least, that’s what Copeland frontman Aaron Marsh is hoping. The Atlanta-based quartet’s third album, “Eat, Sleep, Repeat,” leaves behind what Marsh calls “a lot of the blatant pop hooks” in favor of epic sprawl. Never as overarching as the band’s adenoidal peers, the album nonetheless treads in the emotional territory where lyrics such as “It’s freakin’ me out” sound like literature.

“We went into it with big ambitions; we wanted to make a more timeless record than we’ve ever made before,” Marsh says of his work with Bryan Laurenson, James Likeness and Jonathan Bucklew. “I think we surprised some people....You never, never know if you take a leap whether everybody’s gonna follow you.”

So far, so good. “Eat, Sleep, Repeat” has sold 16,000 copies since its Oct. 31 release by local indie label the Militia Group. Copeland is enjoying a successful run on the Death & Taxes Tour (Tuesday at the Glass House and Wednesday at the El Rey Theater) with the Appleseed Cast, as well as up-and-coming L.A. trio Acute. And the foursome this week was picked up by Columbia Records.

Despite the album’s introspective bent, Copeland was careful not to over-polish. “We wanted to make it lush and layered, but maybe not go for the most pristine, primo sound, so it would retain the intimate quality,” Marsh says. “We wanted it to sound real and not too slick.”

‘Chaos’ is a long time gestating

In one way, Shana Levy’s debut album is a triumph of perseverance -- it’s been more than four years since the singer-songwriter left Irving to form her own band, Let’s Go Sailing, with the help of a rotating cast of Silver Lake musicians. In another way, the release of “The Chaos in Order” represents the most painful birth ever.

“I really felt like I was going to implode if I didn’t release it,” says Levy, whose band is playing the Monday night residency this month at Spaceland. “It’s like having a baby that’s overdue; it was time to induce labor.”

What Levy has borne is a collection of airy, orchestrated indie pop songs whose bite is couched in plaintive vocals and sprightly melodies. But it’s no wonder that, considering how some of her material evolved in the long span during which it was recorded, Levy might feel “Chaos” is old before its time.

“I love it because it’s a piece of me,” she says, “but I hate it because it took me so long to finish, and I feel like I’ve grown since I started it.”

Residencies (cont.)

Gliss, the L.A. trio that turned a few heads by performing some of its shows on its recent U.K. tour in the nude, is playing Club Moscow on Wednesday nights at Boardner’s this month. Clothing is not optional.... At first blush, the music of the Paul Chesne Band (apparently the name is subject to change at the whim of the artist) sounds like barroom bluster that goes down like a dollar draft. Stay sober enough to catch Chesne’s wordplay, though; the stuff on his album “Wet Dog Man” is a spit take waiting to happen. Chesne and mates are holding forth every Tuesday at the Kibitz Room on Fairfax through Dec. 26.

Fast forward

* Touts: L.A. quartet Hello Stranger survived an East Coast tour on which its van was towed one night and singer Juliette Commagere’s keytars were stolen on another. Suffice to say they will be happy to be back home when they play the Troubadour tonight with Something for Rockets....The opener on tonight’s Troubadour bill is not-to-be-missed French chanteuse Emilie Simon....Over at the Viper Room, where Cut Chemist headlines tonight, Bay Area hip-hop outfit North Coast Underground warms up; its disc “Cadillac Dreams” bristles with some sharp social commentary (especially the title track and “Wicked Enterprise”)....Midnight Movies, its full-length “Lion the Girl” coming March 3, celebrates the release of its “Patient Eye” single Friday at Spaceland. Among the openers are the Willowz, returning from a tour and buoyed from booster Michel Gondry having used their music in his movie “The Science of Sleep.” ... Other quality L.A. people winding down fall tours with hometown dates: Irving tonight at Spaceland; the Adored (opening for the Damned) Saturday at the House of Blues; and the Outline on Tuesday at the Roxy....

* Shouts: To Atlanta-based Heavy Mojo, which won the U.S. finals of the Global Battle of the Bands last weekend at the Key Club.... To avant electro-punks Xiu Xiu (and their berserk new drummer Ches Smith) for a ferocious set last week at the Echo.... To the Vacation (now a quintet), which delivered a roaring set brimming with new material Monday at Safari Sam’s.... And to Safari Sam’s itself -- the venue is now issuing “band passes” that allow musicians free admission to shows there (with certain conditions).

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Recommended downloads

Stream Copeland’s “Control Freak” at www.thecopelandsite.com

* Stream Let’s Go Sailing’s “Sideways” at www.myspace.com/letsgosailing