BUZZ BANDS

Just forget about the category

Call it what you want -- new rave or nu-rave -- but Norwegian electro-rocker Datarock is happy to be playing it, even if the tag, which originated with the English band the Klaxons, is cause for a bit of eye-rolling among those who remember the trance-heavy real raves.

“The term doesn’t make sense,” says singer-guitarist Fredrik Saroea, who with bassist-keyboardist Ketil Mosnes is the driving force behind Datarock. “But the youth culture needs something new now and then -- or about every six weeks.”

The current explosion in the indie dance movement -- populated by the likes of Hot Chip, Cansei de Ser Sexy (CSS), Low-Fi-Fnk and Justice -- “is really kind of an international trend, and it’s a fun thing to be part of because the audience is so engaged,” Saroea says. “Our shows are a bit ravey, but the funny thing is the term totally re-energized Datarock without us having to change anything.”

True, the red-tracksuit-wearing band, whose debut, “Datarock Datarock,” comes out Tuesday on Nettwerk, is still the same outfit that rolls Devo, the Talking Heads and the Happy Mondays into one big disco ball. Don’t look for the pointed lyrics of an LCD Soundsystem here; Datarock keeps things campy and playful.

And if anybody brings glowsticks to Datarock’s show Wednesday at the Troubadour, they’ll be more fashion statements than anything. Says Saroea: “We’re just trying to re-create the dance floor.”

Orphaned by Grandaddy

This has come slowly for Jim Fairchild: his songwriting career, the emergence of his debut under the moniker All Smiles and even the warming of friends and fans to that album, “Ten Readings of Warning.”

“I think it’s one of the latent qualities of being a professional musician so long but not being responsible for composing anything,” says the guitarist, who spent a decade executing the vision of songwriter Jason Lytle in the band Grandaddy. “Things happen when they’re supposed to happen.”

The reflective, sometimes oblique narratives on “Ten Readings” -- recorded in Chicago; Portland, Ore.; and L.A. in 2005 and ’06 -- frequently allude to moving on, although Fairchild says the album was not specifically about the late-2005 breakup of Grandaddy. “There’s a whole bunch of notions that you’ve been on this path a long time, and now the harbingers are singing in your ear that you’re going to have to make a change,” he says. “It’s more about realizing that a certain cycle in your life has been completed.”

He initially had only modest aspirations for his solo project, but All Smiles ended up being signed to L.A. indie Dangerbird Records, whose co-founder, singer-songwriter Peter Walker, encouraged Fairchild’s urge to loose his voice. “There was so much uncertainty,” he says. “I had never sung publicly.” All Smiles opens for Menomena at the Troubadour Tuesday.

They’ve got big ears

The brain trust of New York sextet White Rabbits, singer-guitarist Greg Roberts and singer-keyboardist Steve Patterson met when they were record store clerks in Columbia, Mo. And at times on the band’s debut, “Fort Nightly,” it seems as if they’re trying to cram the whole store into 11 songs.

“We’re all kind of crate-diggers,” Roberts says. “We like the idea of throwing a bunch of stuff together, as long as it has great rhythms.”

“Fort Nightly” has that. Underpinned by all manner of island beats, including ska and calypso, the album takes indie rock to a place where three-part harmonies collide with dual drummers and tinkling piano mingles with tart guitar riffs. The sensation that you are witnessing chaos is only momentary.

Roberts, Patterson, singer-guitarist Alex Even, bassist Adam Russell and drummers Matt Clark and Jamie Levinson find themselves gaining a lot of attention -- so much that White Rabbits continued with tour plans even after headliners Mystery Jets had to cancel because of visa problems.

“It almost seems like a parody,” Roberts says of the band’s dates Tuesday at Cinespace and Wednesday at Spaceland, which are likely to attract record label scouts. “We have to stay grounded and do the best we can.”

Fast

forward

* Touts: Airborne Toxic Event, back from England, opens for the Kaiser Chiefs tonight at the Fonda and headlines the Troubadour on Saturday.... CSS turns the Fonda into a dance party on Sunday.

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Recommended downloads

More photos, downloads: www.latimes.com/buzzbands.

* Download Datarock’s “Fa-Fa-Fa”: https://media.nettwerk.com/DatRo/DatRo_FaFaFa.mp3. Stream the album at www.virb.com/datarock.

* Download White Rabbits’ “Kid on My Shoulders”: www.sayheyrecords.com/mp3/White-Rabbits--Kid-On-My-Shoulders.mp3