Spring harvest

When it rains, it pours -- a cliche if there ever was one, and one barely applicable to our arid climate. But it feels appropriate in the context of local music. Of late, CityLife doesn't go too many days without the delivery of a new locally produced album, whether it's an original work by some band or a DJ set programmed by one of our city's many nighttime spinsters. So, it seemed like the time to do some spring cleaning and whittle down that growing, leaning local CD pile -- starting with Vegas's recent major label signees, The Cab.

The Cab

Whisper War (Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen)

"Being on [the] Decaydance/Fueled By Ramen [label]," says Cab singer Alex DeLeon, " ... you get thrown into a certain scene, but I don't want to be thought of as a certain kind of band."

That's understandable. No self-respecting musician would dare say otherwise, and yet Vegas's The Cab absolutely is a certain kind of band -- a bad band. That's what happens when you select the emo/pop-rock song template preferred by Fall Out Boy, The Higher and Yellowcard, add a demographic-expanding dash of Timberlake sass, record carefully, then hand your demo to Panic! at the Disco's Spencer Smith, who drinks it up like wine, gets you signed, and slaps you on the track to a funny kind of stardom where true playfulness and spirit of innovation aren't technically against the rules, but strongly discouraged.

Like albums by those other bands, Whisper War sounds like the product of industry focus group research conducted with input from a mall full of 13-year-old girls. Singling out individual songs for critique is useless. There's one that's a little Spanishy ("High Hopes in Velvet Ropes"), one that sort-of approximates funk ("That '70s Song") and one, "I'll Run," wherein DeLeon whines, "Believe me, believe me tonight/ If you have a little faith in me." Sorry, dude, but you and your dollar-eyed bandmates have already signed onto a calculated insincerity that precludes trust. And that "certain scene" you claim you don't want to get thrown into? You are that scene, and you're embarrassing those of us who still want something better for this town.

DAVID SURRATT

Darren Michael

A Perfect Misery (Self-released)

Barroom rock, no matter how accomplished, is hardly my cup of tea. Still, it's hard to deny the genuine musicianship displayed by singer/guitarist Darren Michael, funky bassist Rodney Russ and rock-solid drummer Mitch Anthony. Michael cites Audioslave and Rush as influences on his band's MySpace page, but his varied interest in all forms of music -- punk, funk, reggae, jazz, metal -- makes him more of a jam band draw. (One can easily imagine this power trio opening for String Cheese Incident, for example.) Then again, the propulsive, bluesy scream of "2V's" might fare better on the Sunset Strip, while "Answer to Live" is a smoky ballad that wouldn't be out of place at a jazz festival. Regardless of what box you want to put him into, it's clear Michael makes rock music for the sheer joy of it, and his emotive vocals put him in a class all by himself. If you're looking for a great bar band, this trio will have you dancing and drinking in no time.

JARRET KEENE

Scott Stubbs

Electro 2008 Mix (Topaz)

Trance/house/progressive talent Scott Stubbs still floats on the surface of Vegas's teeming DJ pool, as he has for well over a decade. Now the city's top-selling spinner drops a 73-minute electro album -- not his usual M.O., but still predictably good. What's "good" mean in the context of nonstop dance music? It means Electro 2008 Mix doesn't just kill time at 135 beats per minute; it eats, sleeps and hunts with the rhythm of a live animal and the good ideas never run out (the looping of Robert Plant's "Immigrant Song" banshee wail is one of them). Perfect for the clubs, but goes just as well with headphones and housecleaning.

D.S.

Michael Grimm

Michael Grimm Live (MattyKay Music)

According to his press kit, singer/guitarist Michael Grimm hails "from the back roads of Mississippi," and his raw, Southern-soul vocal attack and musical selection seems to confirm this biographical detail. Presumably recorded at the Cannery Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas, Michael Grimm Live offers inventive yet dyed-in-the-wool Southern arrangements of classic hits like CCR's "Proud Mary" and Otis Redding's "I've Got Dreams to Remember." But it's Grimm's own original tunes that really shine, particularly the thumping, gospel-laden "Old Biloxi," which will make you long for chitlins and gravy and greens -- even if you've never been to Mississippi or anywhere near the South. And his out-of-nowhere version of Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)" is pretty stunning. Grimm performs 6 p.m.-12 a.m. May 1-3 at Hank's Fine Steaks & Martinis inside Green Valley Ranch, followed by a 6 p.m.-10 p.m show May 4 at the Blue Martini in Town Square. For more info, visit www.MichaelGrimmMusic.com.

J.K.

Mato

Starchild (self-released)

Late of last decade's beloved, RCA-signed rockers 12 Volt Sex, Matthew Gucu -- a.k.a. Mato -- is back. He's solo this time around, and says he's recently been heavily into Eastern philosophy and apocalyptic Mayan calendar prophecies. You can hear the musical and lyrical references all over Starchild, a 10-track emotronic foray that some will find a little too confined, yet that manages to rattle every bar of its own cage with some daring and varied composition that keeps a sense of levity even as it predicts poignant Earth-wide cataclysm. Vegas's cynical-leaning rock scene could use more of this.

D.S.

Rahlo the Traveler

Identity Collage (self-released)

From the title track: "Identity collage/ Live from the desert, it's a musical mirage/ The valley isn't broad enough to hold this whole barrage/ California dreamin' got this poet schemin' large." That's part of West Coast-er Rahlo the Traveler's 90-second hip-hop personal statement, prefacing a 12-track collection of bright, droning loops a la Ghostface and dense raps a lot more fun to hear all metered out than to read in print. Smart raps, too -- even if they do stick closely to a well-worn path of devout egotism that's, at this point, nearly inseparable from the genre.

D.S.

Onara

Out of Print (Self-released)

Industrial-rock trio Onada isn't afraid to whip out chunky guitar riffs within otherwise synth-dominated material, and that's cool. But the band is at its best when it lets its psychedelic freak flag fly, as in its acid-drenched club anthem of betrayal, "Never Ask What You Don't Want to Know," wherein singer Ron Ferraro sneers lines like: "I caught your friend Lisa looking at me/ I might just take her out and make her feel free." Overall, Out of Print is a lustful collection of 11 tracks that aren't too electronic for the rock crowd, or too rock for the electronic crowd -- instead, they're just right on the money, with another highlight being "Fanatic Addict," an amusing and infectious ode to dance-crazy babes: "Don't know what you're on, girl, but I want some/ Keep movin' like that and the cops are gonna come." Somebody should let these guys loose in a major nightclub on the Strip.

J.K.

Sharon Paquette

Sharon Paquette (self-released)

Featuring an opera-ready throat trained at Ontario, Canada's University of Windsor, Sharon Paquette's four-song demo EP tries very hard to find the level of her own cited influences, Joss Stone and Evanescence. It pretty much succeeds, but to what end? Paquette's voice is rich and powerful, yes. Precision-guided, too, as on "I Won't Sleep Tonight," where she sings, "You cast a spell o'er me/ I find it easy to believe/ in fairy tales and rainbows/ You're my pot of gold." If she ever ends up getting cruelly ripped by Simon Cowell, I'll be pissed on her behalf. Let me know if it ever happens, because I always forget to watch that show.

D.S.

CJ Borden

A Songwriter's Collage (Mesa Sand Music)

Las Vegas-based songwriter CJ Borden originally hails from California, but spent some years in the Nashville music scene. She hasn't penned a big radio hit, yet which is surprising given the high level of craft that characterizes every tune on A Songwriter's Collage, an 11-song showcase for Borden -- and a treasure trove of country-radio hits for any slick Nashville producers and singers in search of quality. Most of the material is narrative driven, and standouts include "Louis Vuitton," in which a hillbilly girl moves to Park Avenue for a piece of the American dream, and the ballad "Shine," where a small-town boy enlists in the aftermath of 9/11, only to end up receiving a 21-gun salute back home. On the lighter side, there's the hi-tech dream girl of "21^st Century Fox," which contains the best couplet in country-music history: "Man, she worked me over, I threw a muscle in my back/ Staying up all night playing 'Alien Attack.'"

J.K.

Robert Oleysyck

Various Sessions (Self-released)

Longtime Vegas DJ Robert Oleysyck has been very busy as of late, judging by the thick stack of session CDs he sent CityLife. Every Thursday at The Beatles Revolution Lounge, you can hear him unleash shit-hot remixes of everything from M.I.A. to Lady Sovereign and Fischerspooner to Simian Mobile Disco during a promotion called "This is Not Commercial," which also titles three of Oleysyck's mixes here. These promos aren't for sale, but you can check out the groundbreaking (and Guinness world record-shattering) DJ online at www.myspace.com/robertoleysyck. Or you can just hit Revolution any Thursday night and bask in the sonic glory he conjures whenever he's manning the tables, for that is what a truly cool nightclub ought to sound like.

J.K.

NEWS AND NOTES

"Tarnished," a new, weekly indie and punk party debuts at 11 p.m. May 3 at Downtown's Brass Lounge. Headliners LA Riots will be joined by Abom, Mestizosix9 and Deadbeat. ... IndieKrush takes over the First Friday Land Rover Stage with various left-of-center bands and DJs 6 p.m.-10 p.m., followed by an after-party starting at 10 p.m. at Dino's. ... Plan B celebrates the release of its new album, American Radio, 10 p.m. May 5 at Diablo's Cantina. Guest performer includes Lips Like Morphine. ... The Palazzo's Dos Caminos celebrates Cinco de Mayo with Bostich & Fussible of The Nortec Collective at 10:30 p.m. May 5 (duh!) The Latin Grammy nominees' new album Tijuana Sound Machine arrives in stores May 6. ... Notable visiting spinners include: Philadelphia jock DJ Alexander headlining May 2 at Empire Ballroom; Adam 12 from the band She Wants Revenge May 4 at the Playboy Club; househead Kaskade spins May 5 at Jet; the S.K.A.M. Artist Takeover bringing DJs Five, Turbulence, Echo, Skratchy and Gusto together May 6 at Moon, and Mark Lewis joining the bill with a set in Moon's Satellite Lounge/VIP Room.

News and Notes is compiled by "Poizen" Ivy Hover. Send items of lurid gossip and shameless self-promotion to ihover@lvcitylife.com