BUZZ BANDS

FM carried from the Windy City

Ah, California. Sometimes it’s best viewed as a mirage. “Darlin’ darlin’, we’re movin’ out to California / where the weather’s warmin’ and there is no attitude,” Josiah Mazzaschi writes in his song “Save the Drama.” It was a couple of years ago, and the Light FM frontman was making a mark in Chicago, where his quartet’s Moog-heavy power pop was earning comparisons to the Cars, Weezer and the Rentals.

“I was definitely wrong about the attitude,” Mazzaschi says now, a bit sheepishly, “especially now that I’ve worked in Hollywood.”

Not that he regrets heading west. He remembers meeting Earlimart’s Aaron Espinoza in Chicago, “and he was all for me moving out here,” Mazzaschi says. “I ended up working in the studio right next to his studio.”

Mazzaschi spends his days working for producer Dave Trumfio as an engineer at Kingsize Soundlabs (neighbor to Espinoza’s studio the Ship). And he spends some off-hours at Kingsize too, working on the follow-up to Light FM’s unfailingly catchy 2004 album “This Is the Beginning of My Golden Age.”

“Just being around some of the [musicians] I’ve been around is inspiring,” Mazzaschi says. “I’m the kind of guy who tweaks stuff forever; I need to figure out when something is finished.”

For now, the reconstituted (from its Chicago days) Light FM, with Brian Barbier, Kim Haden and Harry Trumfio, is playing the Monday residency at the Silverlake Lounge.

Bringing his songs to the front

Like a lot of songwriters who spent time in the wings of rock bands, Michael Orendy treaded softly when it came to launching his own music.

“It was just a bedroom recording project, and last year when I did my EP it had actually been done for two years,” Orendy says of “Lullaby for the Passersby,” the album he released in June under the name Frankel. “I had a really amazing support system; a number of people just demanded I get it out there.”

“Lullaby” was not only produced by Raymond Richards at Rancho Park’s Red Rockets Glare studio but was issued on Richards’ label by that name. It’s gently orchestrated pop that recalls a Harry Nilsson (a contemporary kindred spirit may be Richard Swift) yet harbors the subtle atmospherics you might find on a Grandaddy album.

Orendy, who’d been in noisy local bands Athalia and Meow Meow, has grown Frankel into a full band live -- a good thing considering the trepidation he felt early on as a solo act. “I think it was too many piano recitals as a kid,” he says, laughing. “Now I think I have my confidence up to a reasonable level.”

Frankel plays tonight at Tangier and next Thursday opening for Patrick Park at Spaceland.

Fast forward

* The Deadly Syndrome and Let’s Go Sailing are joined by Austin’s Oh No! Oh My! tonight at the Troubadour.... Johnathon Rice’s “Further North” is due Sept. 11; he plays the Echo on Friday.... Tom Morello’s hometown pal Ike Reilly has a gem in “We Belong to the Staggering Evening”; Saturday they visit the Troubadour.... The Start, behind “Ciao Baby,” starts a tour Saturday at the Echo.