BUZZ BANDS

Emo heartthrobs Halifax hook up with a favorite label and hit the road, and Languis looks thinner lately.

It's drive time for Halifax

Halifax's urgent guitar assault and shout-along exhortations seem to form the perfect soundtrack to suburban teenage angst, so the Thousand Oaks quintet have taken their sound and asymmetrical haircuts to where they'll do the most good — the road.

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"We could tour forever," guitarist Adam Charles says from San Antonio, on the 22nd stop of a two-month sojourn that presages the band's third stint on the Warped Tour later in the summer. "We get anxious whenever we go home."

Not that the young rockers (ages 20 to 23) have spent much time there since they put college on hold to chase their dreams in 2003. Their 2004 EP "A Writer's Reference" caught the attention of L.A.'s Drive-Thru Records, and in between logging miles in the van and enjoying plaudits from Alternative Press magazine, Charles and band mates Mike Hunau, Chris Brandt, Tommy Guindon and Doug Peyton assembled "The Inevitability of a Strange World," their full-length debut recorded with Lou Giordano.

"This guy is a real-deal producer," Charles says. "We got sold on him because of what he did with Taking Back Sunday and A Static Lullabye.... The album ended up sounding really clean and really polished — he buffed us out a bit."

On the day the album was released last week, the band celebrated by hitting a Best Buy to purchase a couple of copies — "you know, to boost our album sales," Charles jokes. What they and other buyers might hear is a big-sounding album that matches Halifax's aggressive live show, which they bring to Chain Reaction in Anaheim on Friday and Saturday.

Quartet now a determined duo

A funny thing happened to Languis en route to carving out a larger niche on the L.A. indie rock scene: Half the band quit.

Originally a collaboration between Argentina-born Alejandro Cohen and Marcos Chloca, Languis in the last year had added guitarist John Girgus and drummer Stephen Swesey. Its sound morphed too — from ambient, experimental electronica that made it a staple of the adventuresome Dublab collective to the textured dreampop informed by the likes of the Cocteau Twins, Slowdive and Yo La Tengo.

But if this spring's release of the "Other Desert Cities" EP on Pehr Records and a glistening live show to kick off a short tour boded well for the quartet, it was transitory. Chloca, Cohen's friend since their teenage years, and Swesey left the band, only weeks before it was to start a residency on Monday nights this month at the Echo.

"They simply had different ideas of what they wanted for the band," says Cohen, 31. "It's hard, especially in terms of our friendship, but I have to say that for the past couple years we've been drifting apart."

Cohen and Girgus, the former guitarist in Aberdeen, have decided to carry on. They will perform this month as a duo, playing over some programmed tracks. "We could have canceled the residency, but we felt we were up to the challenge," Cohen says. "We're not doing it to prove a point, but because it's fun and we think we can put on a show that's up to our standards."

Fast forward

Touts: The Young People perform tonight at the Echo behind their new album "All At Once." ... Savage Republic, which played at the original Safari Sam's back in the day, holds forth at the new venue in east Hollywood on Saturday.... Singer-songwriter Rocky Votolato, whose January release "Makers" has earned favorable notices, returns to the Troubadour on Monday.... Two rising L.A. bands, Mellowdrone and Monsters Are Waiting (debut album "Fascination" due this summer), team up for shows Tuesday at the Troubadour and Wednesday at the Galaxy Theatre.... NYC songstress Rachael Sage visits the Knitting Factory on Tuesday in support of her latest, "The Blistering Sun." ... Kitsch as kitsch can: Bubblegummy quintet the Holograms play every Tuesday this month at the Key Club.

Shouts: To the Bronx for ending its residency with a bang — and with a little help from some friends. Black Flag/Circle Jerks main man Keith Morris performed with the punkers Monday at Spaceland; then ex-Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke joined the band for a rendition of "White Guilt," a song he helped the band record.... To the Gray Kid, the crooner-rapper who wowed a modest Spaceland crowd on Tuesday that included songstress Poe and a sprinkling of label scouts.



Recommended downloads

Download Halifax's "Anthem for Tonight" at www.purevolume.com/halifax

Stream Languis' "In the Fields of Lonely Fences" at www.myspace.com/languis

Download Rocky Votolato's "White Daisy Passing" at www.barsuk.com/media

Download the Holograms' "Are You Ready for It" at www.myspace.com/theholograms