BUZZ BANDS

Mortals make up lost time

Judging from the agitated undercurrents in the Mere Mortals’ sonic stew, you’d think the fledgling L.A. quartet is trying to catch up on 2 1/2 decades of rock music, all in one set. Maybe it’s just residual frustration from songwriter Axel Steuerwald’s childhood. “We were all a bit [testy] because we were late for the punk-new wave movement,” says the German-born, London-reared singer-guitarist. So you’re liable to hear snippets of psychedelia, British Invasion and the Paisley Underground in the garagey rock Mere Mortals will play during their Monday residency this month at the Silverlake Lounge.

After moving from London to L.A., Steuerwald hooked up with fellow Southland newbies Aaron Collins (bass), Wil Holland (guitar and vocals) and Sean Burgess (drums) via want ads on Craigslist.com. And Steuerwald is grateful for another break: The Sex Pistols’ Steve Jones spun the Mere Mortals song “Cracked” on his Indie 103.1 FM radio show. “His show is so up our alley; he’ll play a doo-wop song followed by something that came out yesterday,” Steuerwald says. “It’s kind of the same thing we’re aiming for, something ultra-modern and classic.”

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Donation for the hall

When the High Strung arrives at Spaceland on Wednesday to perform a set of their amiably fractured pop, the Detroit-based quartet will be driving a new tour bus. One recent night in Cleveland, they got rid of their 1988 Chevy, a graffiti-covered monster with 318,621 miles on it -- by driving it up the steps and leaving it at the entrance of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

They left a plaque describing their “donation,” and a note from guitarist Josh Malerman that read, in part: “Dear Hall of Fame: We believe rock and roll can make a man heroic, make man Superman, can make giants out of the audience and artists alike.... The High Strung’s donation to you is a wild multicolored beast of a vehicle that despite its age and demands placed upon it, carried us to 500 shows across America without asking us to cancel one.... And don’t you worry about any potential towing costs, the keys are in the ignition.”

According to reports, the museum had it towed -- a mistake, if you believe what Malerman wrote: “Way we see it, we’re gonna be on the wall in 2028 anyway.”

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Fast forward

Singer-songwriters Joe Firstman, Josh Kelley and Tony Lucca team up for a show Saturday night at Club Lingerie, with a chunk of the proceeds benefiting the Red Cross Disaster Relief Fund.... The Muffs haven’t skipped a beat -- on the heels of the release “Really Really Happy,” their first album in five years, the band plays tonight at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa and Saturday at Spaceland....Finch plays the El Rey Theatre on Tuesday, along with Recover, whose album “This May Be the Year I Disappear” is due out in October.