The grab-bag band is strictly for the birds

The name of the band is the Guillemots, but you wouldn’t have known it if you had walked into the group’s show here on Saturday: The borrowed drum kit had a different group’s name emblazoned on it. The venue was a tiny theater in a converted meatpacking plant and the audience was a few dozen people. “We’re holding things together with Scotch tape today,” the band’s manager said with resignation before the performance.

It was fitting that there was a random spirit to the show; the Guillemots are a curious collection of odds and ends. The band feels as tangential as an art student’s sketchbook. The London-based collective has gotten some rave reviews for its music at home -- Mojo magazine brands it “the most remarkable band in Britain,” and Q magazine called the group’s eight-song EP “From the Cliffs” (released last week in the States) “‘Pet Sounds’ for the Coldplay generation.”

The Guillemots’ visit to Austin for the South by Southwest Music Conference was part of pivotal visit to the U.S. that includes a daytime broadcast today on KCRW (89.9 FM) and a show tonight at the Hotel Cafe.

The band is led by Fyfe Dangerfield, a tall, lanky Brit whose plaintive voice is not dissimilar to David Gray’s and whose adventurous musical sensibilities are reminiscent of the Arcade Fire or Belle & Sebastian. Dangerfield himself is a bit of a character, a bird-watcher who, during the Austin show, caught the sound of a bird outside, diverting his attention for a heartbeat. The band’s name, too, is a avian reference: guillemots are black-and-white seabirds in the auk family.

Dangerfield grew up in Birmingham (“That’s the one in the U.K., not Alabama,” he noted, helpfully) but recruited his three mates in London.

“I’ve never not known what I wanted to do,” the 25-year-old Dangerfield said. “It was just a case of finding the right people to make music with.”

The drummer is Greig Stewart, a beefy Scotsman who strides on stage in a long African tunic and white sneakers. The stand-up bass player is Aristazabal Hawkes, a Japanese-Canadian whose musical background makes her oblivious to most pop and rock history. Guitarist MC Lord Magrao was born in Brazil and says his style is to treat his instrument as a forum for experimental percussion.

Pulling on unorthodox sounds and found noises is part of Guillemots’ still-shaping signature. The band members often agree to disagree on their musical likes.

(“Bjork,” Dangerfield said, “that’s the only person that we all like.”) And the arrangements pull on a wide array of sounds and genres, giving the music an anachronistic feel, not unlike some of Fiona Apple’s material.

In Austin, the short daytime set at the Real Theatre found the band without its usual gear, but Dangerfield was enthused when he saw a baby grand piano at the rear of the stage. Hopping behind it, he gave the performance a different sound than is heard of “From the Cliffs,” the eight-song EP released in the U.S. last week that is infused throughout with electronic keyboards.

“I usually use about three or four keyboards during the show with a lot of strange sounds and things in them, weird organ sounds and things,” Dangerfield said after the performance.

Drummer Stewart, chimed in: “You like to go on the edge. The edge is usually where you have the best view.”

During the show, Dangerfield literally went past the stage’s edge. For his second solo performance of the show, the singer stepped off the small raised stage, stepped within a few feet of the audience and began singing a deeply emotional song titled “Blue Would Still Be Blue.”

His eyes were closed and he sang powerfully and without a microphone. It was deeply moving for the small crowd, but it wasn’t an impromptu move inspired by the small venue -- Dangerfield has made it a staple of Guillemots shows, including gigs with thousands of fans at large theaters, such as the Hammersmith Odeon in London and the Manchester Apollo, where the group opened while on tour with Rufus Wainwright last year.

Just as the evocative, starry-night songs of Badly Drawn Boy caught the attention of Hollywood soundtrack supervisors, Guillemots might find an easier path to the American ear through movie theaters than commercial radio. On Monday night, the group was scheduled to perform at the Studio City home of Brian Loucks, a CAA agent who was inviting Hollywood filmmakers and other local tastemakers.

The band’s co-manager, former rock journalist Barry Taylor, has worked for years with Moby and used a similar licensing mind set to promote that artist’s career and sound. For Dangerfield, the whirlwind run from Austin meatpacking plants to Hollywood power parties is a bit off-putting.

“It’s all quite mad, but wonderful,” he said. Then his attention was diverted to the sky. More birds flying by. “You never know what you’re going to see.”