Little Scream
June 1st | 10:00pm | $5

Would a "little scream" be best identified as a whimper? Perhaps a wail or a yelp? It all does well to sum up the music and career of Laurel Sprengelmeyer. A native of Montreal, Sprengelmeyer (a.k.a. Little Scream) has often yelped from the wings of indie rock fame with her demure and mysterious style, but never bombarded the stage. Likewise, her music always seems to be on the verge of bellowing out a sweet tinged and instrumentally lush Regina Spektor-themed ballad, or subduing and bringing down the screech of a Blonde Redhead garage rocker. She's proof that you don't have to scream in order to be heard – but feel free to holler all you want at the sight of her swirling and diverse repertoire.

LISTEN:  “Red Hunting Jacket” :: The Golden Record

Seapony
June 1st | 9:00pm | $5

It's always sunny in Seattle? You wouldn't think so, to consider some of the stereotypically gloomy and mood-induced rock that steams out of the Emerald City. But every once in awhile, you get a band like Seapony, whose minds are clearly focused about 1,200 miles south on the beaches of Los Angeles, harkening back to an almost mythical time when teeny boppers danced on wood-paneled wagons and drank milkshakes on the beach – but there were also plenty of those kids hanging out in their garages with lo-fi stereos blaring and wondering when it was all going to fall apart.

The Bearkeys
June 1st | 8:30pm | $5

Sometimes you have to dig through labyrinths of lyrical metaphors to uncover a songwriter's progression. With others, you can see it painted on the walls. From a 2007 collection of high school angst-driven tunes entitled "Somewhere Between 16 & 19" written by Jenny Weaver, to "Finally," penned by Jen Bjerke (rhymes with "bear key"), to this year's "Coffee & Chocolate," written by the newly dubbed Bearkeys. These warm, piano driven folk ballads are all from the same source, but they run the gamut from the perceived necessity of spiritual resolution to an ode to warm embraces and life's simple pleasures.

Sea Of Bees
June 3rd | 10:00pm | $7

Life is good when you're coming off of a weekend in Big Sur with the likes of the Mother Hips, Jackie Greene and Truth & Salvage Co., setting up a few trips to New York and London this summer. Such is life for Jules Baenziger, a.k.a. Julie Ann Bee, a.k.a. Sea of Bees, the kind of indie pop songstress that has the potential to trap fans of fellow Central Valley indie rockers Granddaddy like a river of honey snares a fly. She applies a crafty edge as a singer songwriter and mixes just the right amount of vinegar in with the honey (yes, we're back to honey again), pouring it over jangly guitar hooks and mischievous instrumentation.

LISTEN:  “Wizbot” :: Songs For The Ravens

Breathe Owl Breathe
June 3rd | 11:00pm | $7

This trio of back country folk from Michigan would seem like prime candidates to move out into the sticks and re-establish the Quaker lifestyle, M. Night Shyamalan's "The Village style – but dammit, they wouldn't be allowed to bring the record player. There are the anthems of simpler times – log cabins, cookouts, hammocks and whiskey brewed in the barrels out back, daydreaming about Mason Jennings' permanent vacation and Jack Johnson's cabin fever. But there's a bell on the property to ring as a warning when the urban sprawl creeps too close. They know it's coming, but they can't quite see it from the porch yet, so let's have some more rye.

LISTEN:  “Swimming” :: Across The Loch

David Williams
June 3rd | 9:30pm | $5

Give a listen to "In The Man's World," and you'll understand exactly what high plains drifter David Williams is all about, before he even utters a word. "The Man" is the one who wants it all to sound like Perry Como or Pat Boone – Williams is the one who scours the junkyard and demands by sound that you will think that the clanging is beautiful, too. Janky in the way the Dodos are janky and luscious in the same way, and tinglingly gorgeous the way Leonard Cohen and Elliott Smith are, Williams' desolate sound is somehow a maze and an open doorway at the same time.

The Brothers Young
June 4th | 11:00pm | $5

Hard to say if The Brothers Young were aware that the Shins will change your life before or after they saw "Garden State," but either way, it's a lesson they took to heart, yet not to exclusivity. They describe themselves as anti-anti-folk. Would that make them folk? Maybe it just means they wanted to be an against-the-grain kinda band, and they succeeded in crafting a sound that harnesses the classic indie rock formula and puts a box-stepping, madman's lounge spin on it similar to the Starlight Mints. They result is bouncy and festive with just the right amount of "hmmm."

LISTEN:  “The Roman Sun” :: The Good People EP

Hurtbird
June 4th | 9:30pm | $5

Lumberjack-hop? When in the heck did Paul Bunyan lookalikes start popping their flannel collars and dropping beat lyric hip-hop? Furthermore, when did atmospherically charged indie rock bands become their rhythmical backing force? Hurtbird lead emcee Ryan Hayes is a mountain of a human, bearing a mild resemblance to horror icon Sig Haig, but lays down rhymes with the poise of a street-smart lyricist, equally in tune with the roots of acid-drenched rock. As much the Doors as they are Dilated Peoples, this Portland outfit combines rock and hip hop in ways we could only dream about after the very concept of that combo has repeatedly lampooned itself since the first time Fred Durst looked in a mirror.

The Devil Whale
June 10th | 11:00pm | $5

It's hard to say which would be an odder sight or would have less of a welcome place in Salt Lake City – devils, or whales. But after a few spins, it's easy to see that this band of lost boys is OK with not having a place to hang their musical hat. On one hand, they're circling around classic rock chords employed by the Beatles and the Kinks (and even mild hints of U2), but would get immediately booted from Lennon and Davies' clubhouses with their vortexes of electronic effects, intermittently jangled hooks and layer cake indie pop. If you like your vintage rock dressed up for a 21st century alt rock festival, pull up a chair. Hey, was that a spout from a blowhole coming out of the Great Salt Lake?

LISTEN:  “Barracudas” :: Teeth

Cooper McBean & The Vested Interests
June 10th | 10:00pm | $5

There's enigmatic front man Pete Bernhard, there's "that chick" on the bass Lucia Turino…and then there's the "other guy," the third in country punk heroes the Devil Makes Three. While you'd have to saw that Cooper McBean is the more relatively anonymous member of said trio, truth is, he's the one they go to when they really want to country it up. He's got that open-plains campfire, bustling saloon snap and drawl in his voice, plucked right from the lore of Hank Williams and Waylon Jennings. Making this much more than a pat-on-the-head side project, his band the Vested Interests tows the line with whiskey romping anthems and road trip wallops – and we're talking "Oregon Trail" road trips here, the kind of jams you play just before capping a buffalo and dying of dysentery.

You Are Plural
June 10th | 9:30pm | $5

Sometimes, you just have to have the guts to take an idea and run with it. Possibly stemming from strange dreams about jazz lounges being taken over by robots that occurred at the end of one of "those" days, San Francisco's duo of Jen Grady and Ephiram Nagler are a brain-flickering experimental indie pop outfit not afraid to combine elements of free-form jazz with frisky electro pop and mood altering vocals. Maybe if Ellen Page was the only character in "Inception…?"

The Lonely Forest
June 11th | 11:00pm | $5

Truth be told, there's nothing lonely about the tunes cranked out by this Washington indie rock outfit – and in this forest, the trees are made of glass and steel. There's a classic, varnished radio pop rock element (a la R.E.M.) pulsing through their bouncing power chords and spit-shined lyricism, but it also packs the slightly off kilter edge of a Death Cab for Cutie (with whom the band has recorded and toured with), with slight whispers of a post-punk rock edge, and singer John Van Deusen at times will flash shades of Marcus Mumford – that is, if he'd decided to join a rock band instead of forge a twisted bluegrass outfit.

LISTEN:  “Two Notes And A Beat” :: Arrows

Birds & Batteries (Mike Sempert solo)
June 11th | 10:00pm | $5

While San Francisco indie electro-country darlings Birds & Batteries have become something of an uprising sensation (both in the Bay and on Sophia's patio), it's easy to overlook the fact that the band itself is a fairly recent manifestation, and carries the weight of a boatload of songwriting that front man Mike Sempert crafted in his Boston days before relocating to California. While he hasn't been afraid to run his tunes through the digital ringer and jazz them up with funky beats, Sempert's approach as a singer and songwriter is pure Neil Young, circa "Harvest," with painfully sweet wails and an honest yet mysterious air. Hey, Neil Young himself was known to be a shape shifter at different times in his career. Coincidence?

Seryn
June 17th | 11:00pm | $5

"This Is Where We Are" is the title of the debut album from this succulently alluring Denton, TX quintet – and it certainly fits, because they're the kind of band that you'd have to imagine would be able to grab whatever instruments are laying around (from a dusty accordion to a wooden spoon and an iron pot) and pen the lushly intoxicating anthem to, well, wherever they happen to be. The instrumental creativity is frisky and inspiring, and the songwriting no less impressive for a group that isn't afraid to take the concept of indie folk pop and bend the genre into their own sun-drenched and densely layered vision of the world at large - that is, to bend it without breaking it. "This Is Where We Are?" When they start playing, you'll find it doesn't even matter where you are.

LISTEN:  “We Will All Be Changed” :: This Is Where We Are

Calling Morocco
June 17th | 10:00pm | $5

Cheers to you, Davis' own Calling Morocco. There aren't many bands that can somehow sound like the soundtrack to a coming of age teen comedy, the great American road trip, and a night of drinking gone horribly wrong all at the same time. This alt-everything (country, rock and punk) band is some bizarre cross section of guys from Jimmy Eat World showing up on Merle Haggard' porch, out of their minds on Boone's and Thunderbird, and begging him to tell them all of their cigarettes. It appears Merle was kind enough to brew them some coffee and offer them a smoke, perch them on his knee, and proceed to tell them what's what.