BUZZ BANDS

Big in a different Southland

They’ve sold 250,000 records and played to thousands of fans in their native South Africa, but what does that get Just Jinger in Los Angeles? So far, a lot of dead ends and the odd 10:15 slot at the Viper Room.

To say the quartet is undaunted, however, understates their optimism. “We’ve run back with our tail between our legs to London the last couple years so we can get some sort of gratitude for what we do after eating tons of humble pie here,” Ard Matthews, the band’s dreadlock-tossing frontman says good-naturedly. “But it’s all good -- we still have passion, we still have belief. Now it’d be nice to have some luck.”

After four albums and a greatest hits collection back home, Matthews came to the U.S. in 2002 and earned a development deal with Capitol Records.

The band followed the next year, but the deal soured and Just Jinger, then based on the East Coast, “just pointed the van west,” Matthews says.

In L.A., singer-guitarist Matthews and band mates Brent Harris (drums), Denholm Harding (bass) and Sandy Chila (guitar/keyboards) have earned a modest following for their anthemic rock, which is as free of irony as it is saturated in melody. With labels only looking and not buying, the band has dabbled elsewhere; it filmed a pilot for a reality show aptly titled “Nobody Knows We’re Rock Stars,” and Matthews is auditioning for a spot in an “American Idol”-like show that would pit 10 singer-songwriters against one another.

Not that they are distracted. Just Jinger has finished recording a new album, produced by Chila, that’s seemingly every bit as bright-eyed as its previous work. In fact, the track “What He Means” aims to solve the world’s problems in a single chorus. “Optimism comes easy for me,” says Matthews, whose band plays Monday night at the Temple Bar. “For us to play our music convincingly, we actually have to believe it.”

Changing out of Sunday’s Best

It’s not hard to grasp why the debut EP by the Little Ones -- not to mention the exhilarating show the L.A. quintet turned in Tuesday night at El Cid -- puts a smile on your face. The agit-pop on the band’s six-track “Sing Song” feels like a natural extension of its members’ friendship.

What began as a collaboration between singer-guitarist Edward Reyes and guitarist Ian Moreno after the dissolution of the well-regarded quartet Sunday’s Best blossomed to include bassist Brian Reyes, keyboardist Greg Meyer and drummer Lee LaDouceur. Their glee is announced with shouts and shakers, stabbing guitars, kitschy keyboards and Reyes’ boy-next-door tenor, all delivered with the same immediacy that makes bands such as Modest Mouse and Arcade Fire so appealing.

“We are happy,” singer Reyes says. “The best thing is, there is no shtick -- it’s honest.”

Says Moreno: “We had our high school projects, and Sunday’s Best was kind of our college period. This is our adult spin on making music.”

With indie labels likely to come calling, the band is proceeding cautiously. “We have enough songs to make a full-length,” Reyes says. “Then we’d like to find a home for it.”

For now, the Little Ones are looking only as far as their date May 19 at the Echo.

Fast

forward

Slow Motion Reign, whose debut album is due in July on Serjical Strike Records (the imprint of System of a Down’s Serj Tankian), performs Sunday night at the Derby as part of the second annual Armenian Genocide Commemoration.... Behind the February release of “Light in Motion,” the Ruse has two upcoming dates -- Friday at the Pitcher House in Hermosa Beach and next Thursday at the Viper Room.... So you like your pop songs a little suave? The Leviathan Brothers hold forth the next couple of Mondays at Tangier; the trio of Miguel Sawaya, Sean O’Connell and Miles Senzaki perform jazz renditions of songs such as “One” (Harry Nilsson), “Criminal” (Fiona Apple) and “Playground Love” (Air).... A month short of the planned release of its debut, the rock band Loser and Island Records have parted ways.... Marking the release of its sophomore effort, “Cultivation,” Gram Rabbit plays Friday at the Echo before adjourning to the band’s own neck of the woods, Pioneertown, for Saturday’s show at Pappy & Harriet’s.... Australian rockers Youth Group, in town working on their new album, play Monday at Spaceland ahead of this month’s residents, Army Navy.

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-- Kevin Bronson

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* Download Just Jinger’s “What He Means” at www.myspace.com/justjinger.

* Download the Little Ones’ “Lovers Who Uncover” at www.myspace.com/wearethelittleones.

* Stream “Via Satellite” by Slow Motion Reign at www.myspace.com/slowmotionreign.

* Stream “Bloody Bunnies” by Gram Rabbit at www.myspace.com/gramrabbit.