BUZZ BANDS

Keeping things primal

The latest two-piece phenoms do not go gently into the night. No, the Canadian duo Death From Above 1979 gets into your kitchen, setting you in motion with bottom-heavy bursts of bombast that somehow retain a keen sense of melody. On their debut “You’re a Woman, I’m a Machine,” it’s hard to believe that Jesse F. Keeler and Sebastien Grainger are just a bass-and-drums outfit.

“We have very primal ideas about everything,” Grainger has said. “Ultimately we want our songs to make people completely lose it.”

That abandon was on display last week in a TV appearance on “Late Night With Conan O’Brien” during which Max Weinberg joined the duo in a raucous display of rock. Death From Above 1979 performs Friday night at the Echo.

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Release parties

It’s enough to get your hands in the air, pinkie and index fingers extended. The High Speed Scene’s amusingly potty-mouthed debut owes more to the likes of Van Halen than it does any referents of the current crop of hipster rock. “He’s spinning doughnuts in front of Taco Bell,” frontman Max Hart sings in “The IROC-Z Song,” a crunchy, Weezer-with-a-mullet stomp. The L.A. trio plays Wednesday at the Silverlake Lounge. Party on, Garth....

Oslo’s debut echoes with the orchestrated, anthemic rock on which the Britpop bands of the 1990s built their careers. “Oslo” is more restrained than “Bends”-era Radiohead but less sugary than the current crop of heart-on-the-sleeve Brits. The L.A. trio celebrates the album’s release by playing the Key Club on Tuesday on a bill that also includes Gran Ronde and the Lassie Foundation.

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Fast forward

With some of the year’s hottest acts having drifted west after last week’s South by Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, it’s already been a busy concert week. There’s more on the horizon: “Set Yourself on Fire,” the latest album from Canadian dream-poppers Stars, is unflinchingly cinematic, and the single “Ageless Beauty” swells with emotion. Reason enough to catch them tonight or Friday at the Troubadour.... New York’s Asobi Seksu brings its gauzy shoegazer rock, with vocals in English and Japanese, to the Echo tonight....

Early all-ages show Friday at the Echo: Ida, with whip-smart Chicagoans the Reputation.... Eleni Mandell melted the hardest of hearts last week at Spaceland, and there’s more in the Silver Lake venue’s string of 10th anniversary shows this weekend. Included: Earlimart and Irving head a bill of local faves tonight, and IMA Robot and Run Run Run play Saturday.... Indie-rockers Actionslacks, whose members are now scattered across the country, reconvene for a rare show Saturday at the Alterknit Lounge.... Tuesday night is the last chance to catch Great Northern in its March residency at Tangier.... And it’s Japanese girl-punk night Friday at King King; joining locals Pink Mochi on the bill is a host of bands including Titan Go-Kings.

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-- Kevin Bronson