BUZZ BANDS

Orange County’s Dusty Rhodes and the River Band finds its namesake not in the longtime professional wrestler (or even the 1950s-era major league ballplayer), but in the nickname Dustin Apodaca earned after sharing his Rhodes piano-and-vocals demos with band co-founder Kyle Divine. “They were sloppy as hell, but the songs were so charming,” Divine says. Many a night of “hanging out, drinking beers and watching ‘The Last Waltz,’ ” ensued, Divine says, and drawing inspiration from ‘60s and ‘70s classic rock, a band was born. The sextet, from left, Allen Van Orman, Andrea Babinksi, Divine, Apodaca, Eric Chirco and Edson Choi, last fall released the exuberant “First You Live” (on SideOneDummy Records), an unironic throwback to the prog, folk and psych rock of decades past that is so far from the punk and emo being churned out by fellow twentysomethings it might as well be from another planet. “We don’t exactly sound like any other O.C. band, but people have responded to it,” Divine says. “We’re serious about it; we make this for the love of the music, not for the sake of being trendy.” No surprise the band has played to cross-generational audiences opening for the likes of Jonny Lang and Los Lobos, but it is looking forward to toting its mandolin, accordion, guitars and keyboards to England for dates with Dirty Pretty Things. Upcoming: Dusty Rhodes and the River Band opens for I’m From Barcelona on Monday at the El Rey Theatre.

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-- Kevin.Bronson@latimes.com