Album Picks:

Unknown Mortal Orchestra - II

CD $12.98

LP $14.98

Lo-fi psych-pop band Unknown Mortal Orchestra grow and refine their sound by leaps and bounds on their second album. While the band’s fine self-titled debut reveled in its Syd Barret-inspired weirdness, II ups the ante by funneling its odd turns into pop songs that seem to activate new nodes in your brain. “From the Sun” makes like a White Album demo, stuffing its rich arrangement into the washing machine — it comes out with colors mismatched but intact. “Swim and Sleep (Like a Shark)” is high-flying indie-pop that doesn’t have to ask to make itself at home on loop. By the time you’re three songs in, with the soft vintage soul of “So Good at Being in Trouble,” II becomes remarkable rather than merely enjoyable. From space-rock (“No Need for a Leader”) to glammy soul (“Secret Xtians”) to Madchester-style Britpop (“Faded in the Morning”), Unknown Mortal Orchestra seem to have digested decades worth of bargain-bin records and made the sounds their own on II.

L.A. indie pop heroes So Many Wizards take the stage at The Echo tonight as a four-piece rather than a three-piece band for the first time, opening for wonderful britpop weirdos Unknown Mortal Orchestra. The show's at 8:30 p.m., and it's 10 bucks. Buy tickets here.

Frontman Nima Kazerouni started So Many Wizards as a solo project in Long Beach around late 2008, recording the Tree EP. Drummer Erik Felix from neighboring San Pedro came aboard shortly thereafter and the two started quickly evolving the sound.

Since then, the band added third member Frank Maston and now have added Geoff Geis of local goodies Pizza! and Big Whup. It's a long way from back in 2009, when Kazerouni played live while old TVs rigged with LCD screens played his backup parts.
 

“The vintage TVs really threw people for a loop, which was cool, but it got old fast (super fragile and hard to set up),” Kazerouni explains. “These days, as the bands grows with members and hence new sonic possibilities, focusing on honing those possibilities is the primary goal.”