A dream delayed

Has Moving Units silenced its own buzz?

The Los Angeles trio stoked the fires of anticipation with a four-song EP and a slew of sweat-

drenched live shows in 2003. The songs, full of body-shaking bass lines, twitching guitars and punked-out vocals, whetted appetites for a full-length album.

But the Units’ debut, to be titled “Dangerous Dreams,” remains dangerously absent as the band tweaks and polishes.

“We don’t have any great tales of eccentricity,” drummer Chris Hathwell says. “It’s not like we blew our advance on hookers or drugs or anything.”

Hathwell and bandmates Blake Miller and Johan Boegli, who perform Saturday night in their only L.A.-area show before a date at Coachella, plead guilty to perfectionism in the face of pressure -- from their label, Rx/Palm, and others -- to finish.

“Blake and I were in the studio 30 days in a row mixing,” Hathwell says. The aim? A sound, says Miller, “far more multi-

dimensional” than fans might expect. He adds wryly, “It might be the most cohesive expression of schizophrenia ever.”

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Moving Units, El Rey Theatre, 5515 Wilshire Blvd., L.A. Saturday, 8 p.m. $14.50.

(323) 936-4790.