BUZZ BANDS

Kenna gets his groove back

In January 2004, the beginning of what electro-soul singer Kenna calls “the year of discombobulation,” he tried to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro. He got close to the top but became violently ill from what he thought was altitude sickness and had to come back down.

“It was a real bummer,” Kenna said. “I got back and told my dad that I got sick and didn’t make it to the top. He asked if I took any altitude medicine, and I told him I did, half of a sulfur-based pill. He said, ‘Ah, you’re allergic to sulfur.’ ”

Though the medicine derailed his mountain-climbing plans, it did provide a metaphor for the many things that didn’t pan out as expected for the Virginia-based singer. An emotionally articulate songwriter versed in icy beat making, piano ballads and jittery no-wave, Kenna was supposed to kill off genre limitations for good. But his critically lauded 2003 debut album, “New Sacred Cow,” was undermarketed by a label, Sony, that didn’t know what to do with a black rock singer produced by the Neptunes who sounded like late-’90s Warp Records. Malcolm Gladwell devoted a chapter of his book “Blink” to the question: What went wrong for Kenna?

“My dad told me that maybe, in your life, you’ve added something artificial that hasn’t let you get to the top,” he said.

Kenna’s new album, “Make Sure They See My Face,” is a purge of the last three years, which saw him wrestle out of his record deal, watch personal relationships turn sour and have a case of writer’s block that necessitated daily phone calls from old friend (and Star Trak label boss) Pharrell Williams. Produced by Williams and Chad Hugo, the album finds common ground between Keith Fullerton Whitman-style noise-rock, otherworldly chamber pop and the soaring melodrama of his onetime tour mate, Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan. Lyrically, it chronicles the “psychotic” recent years of figuring out his identity in a culture unsure of where to place him.

If “New Sacred Cow” was ahead of its time, perhaps that mass audience he was promised is finally ready for Kenna, who plays at Element on Monday. But after the dashed hopes for his debut, he’s happy with his new record in itself, and knows that potential stardom isn’t his responsibility at this point.

“I tell people, if you love my record, keep it to yourself,” Kenna said. “If it’s important to you, you’ll only play it for the people you love, who will celebrate it with you. It’s not about if I lip-sync it for you and do a jig on MTV, even if I’m probably going to end up doing that.”

Cool sounds from Scotland

Unlike fellow Glasgow band the Fratellis, who would have us believe they were forged in some smoky Liverpool garage, the Twilight Sad make music inspired by Scotland. The four-piece’s debut LP, “Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters,” is dense with chilled layers of foggy, gothic guitars commandeered by singer James Graham’s brogue that would make Irvine Welsh proud. “It feels right to sing how I speak,” Graham said. “I think it adds more character, but I didn’t realize how Scottish I sounded until I heard it played back.”

The four-piece formed in 2003 but chose to hone its sense of song dynamics for a couple of years before playing live or releasing CDs. One of its first shows was last year’s CMJ showcase, a nerve-wracking start, Graham says, but they’re quickly making up for lost time. Booked all over the U.S. and Europe through August, the band will stop at the Knitting Factory on Wednesday and play the cred-making Pitchfork Festival in July. The band’s excited to share the stage with Sonic Youth but not so jazzed about the weather. “We’ve heard it gets really hot in Chicago that time of year,” Graham says with a sigh. “We don’t do the heat that well.”

Fast forward

Everest, the mellow, intricate California folk project from Earlimart’s Joel Graves, plays Bordello tonight.... Say Anything makes the House of Blues weep tonight and Friday.... Experimental quartet Amiina chills out at the Silent Movie Theatre on Friday.... The Fold marks its 10th anniversary Tuesday at Silverlake Lounge.... And a strangely thrilling bill of garage-rockers the Ponys, muckraking post-punks Deerhunter and, yes, “Donnie Darko’s” Jena Malone is at the Echo on Saturday.

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-- August Brown and Margaret Wappler