Buzz Bands

Prairie escapees

You can hear the restlessness in every tortured chord, measured scream and stabbing guitar riff on the Kinison’s debut album “What Are You Listening To?”

No wonder the three core members of the quintet left their bucolic prairie hometown of Oblong, Ill., (pop. 1,580) 2 1/2 years ago for California. “There was nothing else to do but leave,” says vocalist Christopher Lewis, 21. “If I was still at home living with my parents, I’d just be sitting around, getting drunk ... not that I don’t enjoy my drinks now.”

Upon landing in Riverside in early 2002, the Kinison hooked up with a new bass player and drummer and honed its act playing shows in the Inland Empire. Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker signed the band to his label, La Salle Records. Says Lewis, whose band performs tonight at Chain Reaction and has an early show Friday at the Echo: “We’re just trying to make good music with passion.”

Punk opinions

The frontman of L.A. rockers Say Anything sounds cynical, or at least world-weary, and the quartet’s debut album, “Say Anything Is a Real Boy” (due in September) doggedly dodges stylistic ruts. Has Max Bemis heard it before? Well, he is 20. But from pop to punk to arty melange, Say Anything’s music seems perfect for the Absolutepunk.net Tour, which visits Chain Reaction on Tuesday and the Troubadour on Wednesday. There are no cookie-cutter punk bands among the top-billed acts: Audio Karate, Say Anything and rock-’n’-ranter MC Lars, whose lament in “iGeneration” could be the borrowed chorus of the year: “Hope I die before I get sold.”

Fast forward

Imagine a ticked-off PJ Harvey crashing a low-life piano bar -- that’s what Boston’s Dresden Dolls (tonight at the Viper Room) conjure up.... “Future Perfect,” the debut album by L.A.’s Autolux, is done (release date: Sept. 7), and it’s remarkable. The band plays Tuesday at the Silverlake Lounge....The latest NYC darlings, Ambulance Ltd., have a date Friday at the Troubadour, but the retro-in-a-blender quartet will be busy in L.A., including a gig at the Viceroy Hotel in Santa Monica at Gourmet magazine’s Masters of the Grill event. Nice chops....Scottish post-punk outfit Sluts of Trust (Spaceland on Friday) have generated buzz for an outlandish live show -- no wonder they hooked up as a support act for the Suicide Girls Live Burlesque Show this summer.... Ex-Buckcherry frontman Josh Todd’s new band performs Thursday at the Whisky and Friday at the Roxy.