BUZZ BANDS

There’s no need to practice partisan politics to endorse Grand Ole Party, especially if you like your rock ‘n’ roll raw and soulful. The San Diego-based trio, which released its debut album “Humanimals” on Super Tuesday, dispenses its retro blues like indefatigable campaigners, with singing drummer Kristin Gundred belting it out as if Grace Slick and Tina Turner never happened. “I’m more drawn to things that are really intense; that’s probably why I sing the way I do,” she says. “And in front of this band, that’s certainly the way it comes out.” Gundred, center, guitarist John Paul Labno, right, and bassist Mike Krechnyak met at UC Santa Cruz, jammed for a while in San Francisco and settled in San Diego before catching the attention of Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennett, who, to continue the voting theme, also fronts the Elected -- and who also produced “Humanimals.” “Our approach was that we like records, we like tube amps, we like the older versions of sounds,” Gundred says. Their throwback results more closely approximate GOP’s live shows, which they honed on a tour supporting Rilo Kiley and which will get a true test in April, when the trio plays Coachella. “I’m familiar with it,” Gundred says of the festival experience (she has performed with Rilo Kiley as a backup singer). “But at the same time, it wasn’t my band. I’ll probably write my lyrics on my damn hand I’ll be so nervous.” Live: GOP plays Friday at the Echo. ALSO: Fresh-outta-high-school pop-rock quartet A Cursive Memory, whose debut “Changes” comes out next week on Vagrant, plays Wednesday and Feb. 19 at Chain Reaction in Anaheim. . . . Singer-songwriter Shane Alexander marks the release of his third album, “The Sky Below,” with a show Wednesday at the Troubadour. . . . And Very Be Careful plays the Echo tonight in the first of a handful of anniversary shows for Echo Park Records. More: latimes.com/buzzbands

--

-- Kevin.Bronson@latimes.com