BUZZ BANDS

Fashionable Entrance

Guy Blakeslee's doom-laden songwriter project gives neo-folk a blast of stoned psychedelia, and The View speak in modish punk codes.

January 4, 2007

Forward march back in time

Exploring the fringes of today's folk scene is often like stepping into the Wayback Machine. Press one button, and you're in a forest, swaying gently to an acoustic guitar. Press another, and you're in a room staring at black-light posters, convulsing to turgid blues riffs.

"Some of the material being done now sounds older than the stuff that was done in the '60s," says Guy Blakeslee, 25, who, as Entrance, is a purveyor of the latter.

His second album, the miasmal, Black Sabbath-informed "Prayer of Death," "has a lot to do not with the drug aspect of psychedelia but with the overall consciousness," Blakeslee says. "Music can be a shortcut to those states of mind."

Blakeslee, who moved to L.A. a year ago after four hard years of touring, is clearly wary of some neo-folkies who've donned the vintage clothing and are playing the part. He spent the last few years ingesting "a whole variety of old-time American recordings" and applying the music to his stark outlook on life.

Which is? "The less afraid of death you are, the less you can be controlled in your daily life," he says, noting that in his travels he has seen "all these forces manipulating the population through fear."

For now, he aspires to be an opposing force, with guitar in hand. With Paz Lenchantin on bass and Derek James on drums, Entrance launches a tour as opener for Steve Malkmus & the Jicks on Saturday night at the El Rey Theatre.

That was pig Latin you heard

U.S. audiences could be excused for their befuddlement when they hear the chorus of "Wasted Little DJs," the catchy single from the nascent quartet the View — after all, some Americans call for a translator just to have a normal conversation with a Scotsman.

It's pig Latin, singer-bassist Keiren Webster explains. " 'Wasted' becomes 'asted-way,' 'little' becomes 'ittle-lay,' and so on," he says. "It's simple when you break it down."

So is the View's youthful exuberance — Webster, singer-guitarist Kyle Falconer, guitarist Pete Reilly and drummer Steve Morrison, who hail from Dundee, are all teenagers with one foot in the Britpop and punk pantheon and the other on the dance floor.

The four friends began as a cover band when most were 14, dashing out songs by the likes of the Sex Pistols, Oasis and T. Rex. They started penning their own adolescent kiss-offs about two years ago.

Although their debut, "Hats Off to the Buskers" (1965 Records/Columbia), isn't out until March 13, the View hits these shores this week, with shows Friday at the Viper Room and Saturday at Spaceland. "We're really excited," Webster says of the band's first visit to the U.S. "We want to be where the action is."

Fast forward

Touts: Full speed ahead into 2007: There's a very appropriate bill tonight at Pershing Square for the outdoor Spaceland on Ice show: Eskimohunter and Bodies of Water. Cool.... Catchy popsters the Shakes join Miss Derringer at the Knitting Factory for a show Friday, while a couple of L.A. punk stalwarts, the Bronx and 400 Blows, are rocking Safari Sam's.... More punk: The Briggs play the Troubadour on Saturday.... Charismatic rapper Pigeon John headlines Sam's on Monday.... Singer-songwriter Peter Walker will ratchet it up Tuesday when he plays the Troubadour with Sidestory, Minipop and We Are Lions.... And hit Lady Sovereign's show at the El Rey Theatre early on Wednesday; Honeycut is opening.



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