Silversun Pickups

With their distorted vocals, winding guitars drenched in warm, crubling effect pedals and raw-riffing rock power, the Silversun Pickups rightfully garner many a comparison to alt-rock '90s heroes the Smashing Pumpkins (minus Billy Corgan's nasally croon, though). But that's merely what you'll hear on the surface of their sound. Beneath that veneer, the washed out guitar textures and barbed, melodic harmonies recall early Breeders and latter-day Nirvana. But the Pickups also have a tendency to lean hard on poppier West Coast indie rock songwriting sensibilities a la Earlimart. A product of L.A.'s incestuous music scene, founder Brian Aubert has said that the sum of his band's parts can be blamed on what he calls the "tumbleweed effect" -- it blows along and influences stick to it. He also says that the band was ushered onto the live stage before they were ready to play, which forced it to either crash-land or flap their wings and learn to fly. Listening to their 2006 debut long player Carnavas and follow-up Swoon reveals that they were able to pull off the latter.