Permission to Breathe: Band With Mission

Some guys get into rock bands just to meet girls. Others get into them to have a good time. And then there are the people who get really serious about this stuff--the sort of people who feel, somewhat like Jake and Elwood Blues, that they’re on a mission from God.

The Valley-based band Permission to Breathe, playing at FM Station on Friday night, is like that. These guys are serious about their rock and roll.

“Serious is a good word,” says Bryan Broussard, the group’s lead singer and songwriter. “The whole concept is about finding your space and the freedom to do that.”

The band, whose name they say comes from a passage in Beach Boy Brian Wilson’s autobiography, has just released its first CD on Solid Discs Records. It was produced by Alvin Clark, who has previously worked with the Fine Young Cannibals, X, and Gene Loves Jezebel.

“All of our songs are a means to an end,” says lead guitarist Erle McCan. “Our songs offer a solution, not just angst.”

“Run Like Water” is one of those “ ‘I want to wrap my arms around you metaphorically speaking’-type songs,” Broussard says. And “ ‘Meanwhile’ is one of those songs when you’re on the wrong end of the dating game.”

The band got its start 2 1/2 years ago when Broussard met McCan while working at Tower Records in the Valley. They later added drummer William Lyles and bassist Jason Russo. The rest, as they say, is history.

Broussard lists early Police and U2 as his personal favorites, but it’s another rocker whom he writes about on the album with a song called “(Leaning on) Neil Young’s Soul.”

“I admire his longevity and his creativeness,” Broussard says. “He keeps making great music and he throws caution to the wind.”

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* Permission to Breathe plays Friday night at FM Station, 11700 Victory Blvd., North Hollywood. $5 cover. Call (818) 769-2220.

Saving the World: Friends Into Saving Trees, or FIST, is a serious seven-member band with a serious cause and a slogan.

The slogan is “One World, One Love, One Tree.”

The cause is protecting the planet.

The band will be playing only its second public gig when it plays Friday night at Mancini’s. The band, which has been together for about a year, started because of the members’ common concern for the environment.

“We were all interested in doing something good for the planet,” says Andreas Gobor, the group’s drummer and spokesman. “The band grew out of that.”

Gobor describes the band’s music as alternative folk-rock with four-part vocal harmonies. Its lyrical themes deal with human problems and environmental issues.

“It’s based on folk music, but we’ve created a new sound on top of it, Gobor says. “Nobody can put a label on it.”

Gobor says the band’s ultimate goal is not rock stardom per se, but rather saving the trees, and ultimately the world. They want to raise enough funds so that they can plant 100 acres of trees. Gobor says he thinks that would cost about $1 million.

So, the group has recorded a CD, “Can’t See the Forest,” to help raise funds and awareness of the problem in the United States.

“People know about the rain forests, but we’d like to concentrate on the problem here in the U.S. in the Pacific Northwest,” Gobor says. “We’ve been depleting the forests, and it’s being wasted a lot of the time.”

* Friends Into Saving Trees (FIST) plays Friday night at Mancini’s, 20923 Roscoe Blvd., Canoga Park. $5 cover. Call (818) 341-8503.

The Last Honky Tonk: The Cowboy Palace Saloon is holding the first-ever Super Finals of its weekly talent contest Wednesday night.

For more than 30 years, the talent night at the Palomino was one of the preeminent showcases of new country-music talent in Los Angeles. Has the Cowboy Palace now assumed that position since the Pal’s demise?

“It appears that way,” says owner Bob Rustigian. “We have 15 to 18 people performing each week, and we’re getting some real quality people.”

Rustigian says that the 10 contestants competing Wednesday night represent the cream of the country crop. All the contestants have come in first or second in the club’s quarterly final contests during the last three years.

The contestants are Suzanne Sawyers, Amy Marie, Steve Barker, Gari Ann Wylde, Del Harley, Rod Cordova, Toni Hudson, Juliet Lane, Mark Sellers and C.C. Collins.

The Super Finals performers will be vying for a guest spot on the forthcoming “Live at the Cowboy Palace” CD, as well as $200 in cash and other prizes, Rustigian says.

Chad Watson and his band will host the showcase and accompany the contestants.

* Talent Contest Super Finals will be held Wednesday night at the Cowboy Palace Saloon, 21635 Devonshire St., Chatsworth, No cover. Call (818) 341-0166.