Gladly trading traffic for rainThe poetic atmospherics...

Gladly trading traffic for rain

The poetic atmospherics of Trespassers William can conjure up an otherworldly state, but it was a fairly down-to-earth matter that led the group to emigrate to Seattle a couple of years ago: It’s hard to play music when you’re driving in a car.

“We were scattered all about Southern California -- Long Beach, Orange County, Inland Empire, L.A. -- and the hour-and-a-half commutes to rehearsal were starting to get kind of crazy,” recalled guitarist Matt Brown. He’d just finished a practice for the band’s first tour in more than a year, which brings the group to Smart City Grinds in Azusa tonight, Tangier on Friday and Spaceland on Tuesday.

The band members “caught the bug of the Northwest” on a visit, liked the smaller metropolis and relative affordability, and decided to move into a house there to record their follow-up to 2002’s “Different Stars.” The result, “Having,” exudes an ambient warmth in blending singer-songwriter Anna-Lynne Williams’ breathy vocals and Brown’s somnambulant guitar with glossy, high-tech touches, this time all tweaked in the mix by David Fridmann (the Flaming Lips, Mercury Rev).

“We just kind of put out a dream list of mixers, and that included Dave and other such impossibilities, and assumed that nobody would bite -- and Dave did,” Brown says.

Listeners’ 10 songs in 10 days

Ten days, 10 songs, one each day -- written, rehearsed and recorded. That’s the challenge the Good Listeners gave themselves, and pulled off.

“Some of our favorite work over time is stuff that we did quickly,” says Clark Stiles, who plays guitar, bass and drums for the L.A. duo, with Nathan Khyber handling vocals and keyboards. “It was just a morning coffee-induced idea. When I called him, he thought I was crazy -- and he was up for it.”

The result is the band’s debut CD, “Ojai,” honoring the place where the pair turned a home into a temporary studio. Songs such as “Light From Sound,” a throbbing wash of moody pop, and the daydreamy “Time Will Tell,” with delicate guitars and piano accents, belie the regimented process.

Re-creating the experience live -- as the group will do Friday at Tangier -- can be tricky. Stiles typically creates a drum loop, lays down a bass line, then picks up a guitar to play throughout the developing song, while Khyber sings and plays keyboards.

Next week, the guys leave for New York, where they’ll hole up for 30 days in a friend’s donated lodge in the Adirondacks creating their next project. “The process will be really similar,” says Stiles, except they’ll revisit each song for an extra day during the second half of their stay. Call it another working vacation.

Fast

forward

In what the band is calling its last show, the Lassie Foundation performs Monday night at the Silverlake Lounge, marking this month’s release of its swan song, “Through and Through.” The double-disc album includes live, alternate, demo and previously unreleased recordings, as well as two new songs and a cover of the Mighty Lemon Drops’ “Inside Out,” recorded with (and at the studio of) original Lemon Drop songwriter-guitarist David Newton.... The fifth album (and first since 2002) by O.C. hard-core outfit Stavesacre hits stores Tuesday. The quartet celebrates “How to Live With a Curse” (on Abacus Recordings) with a show Monday at Chain Reaction in Anaheim.... The Key Club marks two years of its no-cover, all-ages promotion Ruby with a big lineup on Tuesday, including Gran Ronde, Program the Dead and Killola.

-- Frank Farrar

and Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Download Trespassers William’s “My Hands Up” at www.myspace.com/trespasserswilliam

* Download the Good Listeners’ “Light From Sound” at www.myspace.com/thegoodlisteners

* Download the Lassie Foundation’s “Down on the Docks” at www.myspace.com/thelassiefoundation

* Download Gran Ronde’s “Say Say Say” at www.myspace.com/granronde