BUZZ BANDS

Eastern is in the West

Eastern Conference Champions return to the scene of the crime next week. Forgive the Philadelphia trio if they tread lightly on this trip to Los Angeles.

ECC had taken up part-time residence in L.A. last winter, pulling a successful residency at the Silverlake Lounge, only to have their van burglarized and all their gear stolen in late February. They regrouped, replenished (thanks partly to the largesse of some equipment suppliers) and hit the road. “It’s funny,” singer-guitarist-pianist Josh Ostrander says, “but through our gear getting stolen, our live show actually got better.”

Then, last week, when “Ameritown” was released on Suretone Records, a scheduling snafu forced the band to move a record-release show from CineSpace to Silverlake at the last minute. Suffice to say the mood will be more celebratory when ECC headlines Safari Sam’s on Monday.

“Ameritown” may surprise anybody who witnessed those garagey club shows in February. The album, produced by Owen Morris (Oasis, the Verve), is a charmer, with Ostrander’s pinched vocals twined with his languid piano lines and the pressing beats of drummer Greg Lyons and bassist Vern Zaborowski.

The album includes material from the band’s two well-received EPs, but the rest was a rush job. “When we signed” in late 2005, Ostrander says, “I thought, ‘Omigod, I have no songs.’ ” He took three months off to write, all but sequestering himself to come up with material: “I shut everything off to try to write something original. No cable TV, no radio -- maybe a little Marvin Gaye in the morning to get us going.”

He’s proud of the final product, which he says sounds “really big, without being overproduced or glossy.”

Allen writes postcards

It took a concept that was borderline gimmick to inspire Bishop Allen to complete a second album. After selling a few thousand copies of its 2003 debut, “Charm School,” the playful New York indie-pop act spent more than a year recording and discarding a follow-up.

It turns out that all the band needed were some deadlines. The five-piece, led by Justin Rice and Christian Rudder, who met while attending Harvard University in the late ‘90s, opted instead to craft four-track EPs for every month in 2006. The EPs were to be named for the month in which the songs were recorded, and there would be no turning back.

“The hardest months were April and May,” says Rice, who starred in the 2005 indie flick “Mutual Appreciation.” “It just felt like we still had a ton in front of us. But we believed if we were constantly giving people new music, the EPs would sort of be like a postcard from a friend.”

Of the 48 songs recorded, nine were heavily reworked for Tuesday’s release of “Bishop Allen & the Broken String.” On the 12 finished tracks, Rice’s scruffy vocals are softened by buoyantly relaxed guitars and a dash of orchestral trimmings. It’s a pleasant-enough frame for lyrics that deal with the twentysomething concerns of middle-class bohemians, such as begging a rich uncle for cash.

“There’s truth in that,” Rice says. “The kind of music we make is not about virtuosity. It’s about sincerity.”

Bishop Allen plays Tuesday at the Echo.

Wherefore Chromeo?

Montreal-based electronica duo Chromeo are the first to admit that when they released their debut, “She’s in Control,” three years ago, they had practically no idea what they were doing.

“It wasn’t an evolution of our sound, it was an abrupt transition,” singer-guitarist Dave 1 says.

“We were straight hip-hop guys and we weren’t really interested in electronic music. But [Montreal producer] Tiga asked us if we wanted to do an electronic music project, so we figured why not?”

Released on Vice, “She’s in Control” was a modest underground success and laid the groundwork for the pair’s sophomore release, “Fancy Footwork,” a playful pastiche of ‘80s party music, blue-eyed soul and Roger & Zapp-esque R&B.;

But for all their ‘80s homage, Chromeo would just be another ironic band targeted at the Vice/hipster demographic if not for their preternatural ability to create funky tunes that stick in your head. As a result, the duo has become one of the hottest acts in the indie-dance world, selling out nearly every stop of its cross-country tour -- and forcing the Echo to relocate tonight’s performance to the bigger ExPlex space.

“We’re just trying to open people’s ears to stuff other than what’s hot at the moment,” keyboardist Pee Thugg says. “We try to go against the grain and get them in our world.”