POP MUSIC : Try These House Blends : L.A’s burgeoning coffeehouse scene sprouts an acoustic revival as singer-songwriters make a big noise with their unplugged playing

As an earnest-looking quartet called Days Like These plays at the Highland Grounds coffeehouse, sounds ricochet harshly around the high-ceilinged room, and the air is filled with a loud, intensely rhythmic grinding that rivals the harsh noise of industrial rock.

Then the cappuccino machine shuts off.

Now the new Pasadena-based band can be heard, and its blend of poetic lyrics and guitar, cello, bass and drums are a radical contrast to the machinery of the coffeehouse.

The 75 or so people crammed into the room--some milling about, some sitting at a curved counter, others sprawled on a stairway leading to a small loft--divide their attention between listening to the band, socializing and ordering double lattes or munching on sandwiches.

It’s a scene that is being repeated with increasing frequency at similar sites around town, where young singer-songwriters and largely acoustic bands compete with coffee grinders and post-graduate chatter to try out their songs. And it mirrors a national trend in music, with such newcomers as Marc Cohn and Shawn Colvin making an impact, and such major stars as Eric Clapton and Mariah Carey soaring to the top of the charts with “Unplugged” recordings.

“Isn’t it wonderful?” says Wendy Waldman, a veteran L.A.-based singer and songwriter and one of the biggest boosters of the burgeoning acoustic music scene. “It’s not glam, not neo-Seattle, but kids--and some of the older artists too--feeling good about going out and playing songs again.”

Waldman, 42, used to hang around the Ash Grove, the old folk music mecca, and the Troubadour back when such stars as Joan Baez and the Byrds were reinventing folk music. And she herself was on hand as a performer and writer in the early ‘70s when Joni Mitchell, Jackson Browne and Linda Ronstadt made the Troubadour and McCabe’s the intimate centers of the national style known as the “California Sound.”

What’s happening now, she says, is nothing less than an overdue renaissance.

“I was present for it in L.A. in the late ‘60s and through the ‘70s, but then I abandoned ship and went to Nashville and saw it happening all over again there, the whole coffeehouse scene.

“In the era of disco and in the post-punk days of the ‘80s there was no club scene in L.A. But the time was right for it to happen again. There’s an intrinsic power in the songwriting community here.”

Ron Oberman, senior vice president of artists and repertoire for MCA Records, agrees. “The scene is incredibly healthy,” he says. “In the past there weren’t a lot of clubs where a solo or acoustic performer could play. There was so much emphasis in the clubs on bands with electric set-ups. But now both the performers and clubs with an acoustic orientation are on the rise in L.A.”

In recent years Waldman has concentrated on her writing and producing, with credits ranging from Vanessa Williams’ Grammy-nominated No. 1 hit “Save the Best for Last” to the Dirt Band’s mid-’80s country hit “Fishin’ in the Dark.” But she’s been so inspired by the coffeehouse upswing that she has reassembled a longstanding, on-and-off band of fellow L.A. singer-songwriters Karla Bonoff, Andrew Gold and Kenny Edwards and is making another go as a performer.

“People are hungry for this kind of music,” says Kathy Fisher, an acoustic singer-songwriter. She cites a recent commentary in Newsweek magazine complaining that much current pop music is too intense. “It’s all peak with no foreplay,” Fisher adds. “Our kind of music has more dynamics, we know how to build a song without being emotional and screaming through the whole damn thing.”

Highland Grounds owners Rich and Leslie Brenner have gone out of their way to make the facility a home for such performers. The coffeehouse, located on Highland Avenue north of Melrose, has just begun holding evenings sponsored by the Los Angeles Songwriters Showcase on the second Thursday of each month, supplementing regular performances by such veteran acts as the Williams Brothers and Chuck E. Weiss and newcomers such as Days Like These.

But Highland Grounds is hardly your only choice for such environs.

“When we started three years ago we were one of only seven real coffeehouses with this kind of music in L.A.,” Leslie Brenner says. “Now there are something like 50.”

Among the best bets:

* The Largo, an Irish-themed pub on Fairfax Avenue. Owner John Flanagan, who took over the room last year, has held over some of the cabaret and performance art formerly associated with the Largo, but he’s also given new emphasis to young singer-songwriters and local bands, with the group Grant Lee Buffalo (whom Flanagan often joins on stage with his mandolin) and neo-saloon-crooner Charley Parks the most notable artists in residence.

* Big and Tall, a combination coffeehouse and bookstore on Beverly Boulevard. A blend of music and poetry is held in the upstairs loft, the sounds wafting over the bookshelves and the espresso and sandwich counter downstairs.

* The Onyx/Sequel coffeehouse and art space on Vermont Avenue in Los Feliz. There are two rooms, so the performances--ranging from the wildest performance art to straightforward songsmiths--don’t have to compete with the cappuccino machine.

* 8121, downstairs from the Coconut Teaszer rock club on Sunset Boulevard. More of a bar than a coffeehouse, this small cavern is cited as a good starting point for many regulars on the acoustic music circuit.

* Molly Malone’s pub on La Brea Avenue. Another Irish pub, this is a favorite of music industry staffers.

McCabe’s is still going strong. And even the Troubadour is back on the scene, with such singer-songwriters as Texas balladeer Guy Clark and witty Englishman John Wesley Harding having been featured recently at what through the ‘80s had been Headbanger Central. On Monday, the National Academy of Songwriters sponsors an “Acoustic Underground” roundup of L.A.-area singer-songwriters at the club. To give the scene a boost, Waldman and her husband, songwriter Brad Parker, decided to host monthly singer-songwriter showcases when they moved back to L.A. in 1989. They stumbled on the then-new Highland Grounds and initiated Western Beat, a combination open-microphone night and “real” performance on the first Thursday of each month. The first Western Beat drew 30 people. Now the event--having featured artists ranging from country singers John Anderson and Hal Ketchum to rocker Alannah Myles and even an unplugged Spinal Tap--routinely draws as many as 300.

Highland Grounds’ ambience, she says, is perfect. “You really have to want to play there, and I love that,” she says. “It’s not a cushy room, there’s no booze served. It’s really a hangout, very classic L.A. It really reminds me of all the crazy places that used to be here.”

Fred Starner, another L.A. singer-songwriter and coffeehouse booster, agrees that the rough edges of these rooms are part of their attraction.

“The problem is they don’t always push the music, and they want people to play for free,” says Starner, who occasionally organizes “coffeehouse festivals”--performance series at several spots around town. “But like a tennis player you have to keep yourself in shape, and these shows can be like small artist workshops.”

Not everyone is so taken with the funkiness of the coffeehouses and pubs.

“At Highland Grounds they just throw you in the middle of the floor, people are in your face and the coffee machine goes on while you’re in the middle of a heart-wrenching ballad,” says Fisher, 26. After playing at virtually every hole in the wall, she now favors the Genghis Cantina, a performance room at the Genghis Cohen restaurant on Fairfax.

“Coffeehouses are good when you first start, but if you move up to Genghis, it’s hard to go back,” she says. “If I want a record company executive to come to my show, I’d say Genghis. They want it more mature. The younger, rebellious, bohemian artists would rather be tucked away in a corner at Highland Grounds than in the adult conformity atmosphere, but I’m more comfortable in a mature atmosphere. . . . At Genghis, in the performance area it’s almost like a church.”

Genghis is not the place to go to discuss Proust or play dominoes during a performance. It’s a place to listen .

About an hour after Days Like These finishes at Highland Grounds, a slightly older, slightly more upscale gathering of about 50 people--more executive ponytails, more bald spots--sits hushed at Genghis, almost reverent as singer-guitarist Teresa Tudury blends husky, bluesy songs with comedic patter about dysfunctional families and other concerns of modern life.

Tudury, a San Francisco native who has been based in L.A. for four years, appreciates that.

“I love this room,” Tudury says just before going onto the small, dimly lit stage. “The sound is great and the audience is terrific.”

“(Owner) Alan Rinde discourages people that just want to come in and talk,” says Jay Tinski, who books the music acts at the restaurant, as well as at Molly Malone’s and at the Breakaway in Venice. “Even though he may be making money from them, he’d rather have people who are into the show.”

But whatever the taste, the consensus among the musicians and boosters is that both the bohemian Highland Grounds and the slicker Genghis Cantina are leaders in a very healthy trend.

Brendan Okrent, a talent acquisition representative of the ASCAP publishing and royalties organization, has tried to stimulate activity around town, holding such regular events as the monthly “Quiet on the Set” acoustic songwriter showcases at the Largo, and has worked with Waldman, Parker and songwriter Billy Black on the Western Beat nights.

“We’re trying to build a community of songwriters in L.A. again,” she says. “It’s nice to be able to go to a number of places around town and see this kind of music without having to go to a Holiday Inn lounge. There are good people playing, not every night, but most of the time.”

Both the “Quiet on the Set” shows and the regular concerts at Genghis have brought artists in contact with record industry executives trawling for talent. Fisher has just signed a publishing and development deal with Sony Music. Dan Bern, another Genghis regular, is working with former Bruce Springsteen producer Chuck Plotkin, and Tudory says she has gotten some solid “nibbles” directly from her Genghis performances.

This, says a confident Waldman, is just the beginning.

“As the songwriter community in L.A. becomes conscious again of its own power like it had 20 years ago, the industry will have to pay attention,” she says. “We know that three years from now guys from all the labels will be down in these places picking and choosing from all these artists who are working it out now.”