From out of the FoldBlack Rebel Motorcycle...

From out of the Fold

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Trail of Dead are coming back to the Fold -- in a manner of speaking. A two-disc album featuring tracks by bands who have played on promoter Scott Sterling’s bills at the Derby and the Silverlake Lounge, “The Fold Compilation,” was released Tuesday. A record-release bash is scheduled Nov. 21 at the Derby. “I had thought of doing a compilation for years,” Sterling says, “but Chris Jerde had the patience to go through all the rigmarole to get the songs.” Represented are artists who went on to hook up with major labels -- such as BRMC, Trail of Dead, the Warlocks and Patrick Park -- along with an array of indies such as Metric, Rex Aquarium, Earlimart, Mike Stinson, Devendra Banhart and Dengue Fever. Also included is a video of BRMC performing “Red Eyes and Tears” at the Silverlake Lounge in December 2001. Jerde says the compilation idea came to him after reading a Times story about how “promoters, in effect, are the new industry A&R; guys and how important they are in showcasing bands.” Jerde, a Fold devotee who released the collection on his imprint Credit Records, adds: “Promoters like Scott have really good ears and a lot of the artists really want to give something back to him for what he’s done for them.”

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Rock of the ‘80s

John Easdale has made the Dramarama reunion official: An eight-song EP originally planned as his solo project will instead carry the name of the band he co-founded 20 years ago in New Jersey. A new album, sharing four of the EP’s songs, is recorded, though release plans are yet to be worked out, and the band has a New Year’s Eve gig scheduled at the Roxy Theatre. Easdale, who has enlisted original members Mark Englert and Peter Wood, along with longtime collaborators Mike Davis, Craig Ballam and Tony Snow, caved in to pressure to re-form after recent events thrust Dramarama back on stage. VH1 made the band the subject of an installment of its “Bands Reunited” program (to air next year), and KROQ-FM invited it to play the Inland Invasion festival in September. “It helped me rediscover the joy and love and passion and fun,” Easdale says. “This is what a lot of people have been asking me to do for years. I finally figured, what the hell.”

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Melee’s melange

Orange County’s Melee can morph from classic rock-tinged cherubs to twitchy indie thrashers, depending on whether the compositions by Chris Cron and Rick Sanberg are underpinned by rollicking piano lines. The band’s “Against the Tide” EP on L.A.’s Hopeless Records reveals snippets of swing that Cron says might flavor Melee’s debut album; recording on that will begin in February. “We don’t want to waste the money his parents spent on all those years of piano lessons,” Sanberg jokes. The band recently returned from its first cross-country tour, which included a spot among the scores of acts at the CMJ Music Marathon in New York City. “We found out what cold really is,” Cron says, remembering both the snap in the air and a snappy, half-hour set. “We’re just another little band out there.”

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