BUZZ BANDS

Sugary sweet electro-pop

Setting to music such imagery as stolen kisses, prom dates, hand-holding and Baskin-Robbins rendezvous, Hellogoodbye’s glitchy synth-pop isn’t exactly graduate-level electronica. It’s more bubble gum on Red Bull -- which is not to diminish the following the Huntington Beach quartet is building.

“When I was really young, I listened to a lot of oldies radio,” singer-guitarist Forrest Kline says. “I think you can hear some of that in the music.”

The freshman-crush-meets-sugar-rush exuberance, delivered with geeky humor, has helped Kline and band mates Jesse Kurvink (keyboards), Marcus Cole (bass) and Chris Profeta (drums), who range in age from 18 to 22, sell 45,000 copies of their debut EP, released in late 2004 on local imprint Drive-Thru Records. The band just released the good-natured, two-hour “OMG HGB DVD ROTFL” concert video and has four live dates next week. Its shows Monday and Tuesday at Chain Reaction in Anaheim sold out, though tickets remain for a gig Wednesday at the Knitting Factory and for a just-added performance New Year’s Day at Chain Reaction.

Not bad for a project that started 3 1/2 years ago with Kline programming beats on his computer -- still his songwriting tool of choice. “I just settle on a beat and go from there,” he says.

Kline says Hellogoodbye is “three-quarters of the way through” with its full-length debut, being recorded at the studio of ex-Self frontman Matt Mahaffey and due for release in the spring.

Fast

forward

Touts: Fresh off an appearance this week on “Late Show With David Letterman,” New York trio We Are Scientists play Cinespace on Tuesday -- the band’s Virgin Records debut, “With Love and Squalor,” is due Jan. 10. It was produced by Foreign Born’s Ariel Rechtshaid, who, it turns out, might have to fill in on bass for the L.A. date.... The third album from L.A.’s Very Be Careful, titled “natas,” is due early next year -- which the group will ring in, by the way, with a show at the Hollywood Ramada Inn (1160 N. Vermont Ave.). The band is also playing Friday at the Scene in Glendale.... Sexytime Explosion plays Friday at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach, for part two of the venue’s benefit for the Long Beach Rescue Mission.

Shouts: To indie rapper the Gray Kid, a recent transplant from NYC whom you’ll see more of in the new year.... And to South Bay quartet La Bella Ruse, which delivered a strong set Tuesday at the Silver Lake Lounge.

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Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Hear two versions of Hellogoodbye’s “Bonnie Taylor Shakedown” at www.purevolume.com/hellogoodbye

* Stream We Are Scientists’ “The Great Escape” at www.wearescientists.com/music