BUZZ BANDS

The Dodos’ singer/songwriter Meric Long (pictured front) plays guitar like a drummer -- choppy down strokes and percussive, athletic fingerpicking. The band’s drummer, Logan Kroeber (at left), plays his kit like a guitarist -- more conscious of tone and atmosphere than keeping time. Armed with the lovely new album “Visiter,” the San Francisco band may vanquish the shivering, beatless singer-songwriter scene for good. “Logan played in metal bands, and I was into Balinese and West African music,” Long says. “We both write very rhythmically. I didn’t want to be this singer-songwriter who just played coffeehouses.” Anyone who caught their recent swing through L.A. with kindred beardos Akron/Family knows the Dodos make a lot of strange noise with very little onstage. Kroeber whallops his floor toms like a pre-face tattoo Mike Tyson, while Long loops his lonely tenor into weather-beaten harmonies. Long is prone to yelpy fits of self-recrimination onstage (one older lyric goes “I feed myself, you feed the poor”), but it’s no affectation. “I’m a self-loathing person,” Long says. “Everyone has horrible moments, but it’s hard for me to reflect on my lyrics. It’s like me commenting on myself commenting on myself.” Live: The Dodos play Friday at Ground Zero at USC and Saturday at the Silverlake Lounge. Also: Record-release shows tonight for the Hanks (new album “Distance”) at the Knitting Factory and Twilight Sleep (new EP “Race to the Bottom of the Sea”) at the Echo. . . . The Jakes and Billy Boy on Poison lead a teenager-heavy bill Friday at the Roxy. . . . And the Heavenly States hit Spaceland on Saturday.

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-- August.Brown@latimes.com