BUZZ BANDS

There's nothing contrived about the chaos that prevails onstage when the L.A. quartet the Deadly Syndrome gets unhinged. "Our whole thing is not to choreograph -- we just want it to be pure," says drummer Jesse Hoy, whose kit is encircled by pounding band mates Will Etling, Chris Richard and Mike Hughes at the climax of many sets.

That unbridled euphoria -- and wry touches such as onstage cutouts of ghosts -- helped the Deadly Syndrome go from zero to signed in a few short months. Well, that and explosive, unaffected songs right out of the Arcade Fire/Modest Mouse/Wolf Parade playbook.

The party crowd the quartet has won over is liable to see another side of the Deadly Syndrome when its debut album, "The Ortolan," comes out this summer on Dim Mak Records. It was recorded in a Laurel Canyon house with first-time producers Nico Aglietti and Aaron Older. "When you play the gigs we have [as opening acts] it's a bit of a risk to go with your softer side," Hoys says, assuring you that there is one. "Our strategy has been to kind of attack the audience."

The results are quite theatrical -- even humorous. Hoy, after all, came to L.A. with UC Santa Barbara mate Etling after the drummer landed a job working on "Jackass 2."

They met Hughes and Richard through friends, and after the foursome found they shared a lot of the "indie-centric tastes," Hoy says, "the chemistry between the four of us led us to get more serious."

Or as serious as a band that hands out ghost figurines on popsicle sticks gets. The ghosts make their next appearance Tuesday at Boardner's in Hollywood.

More mature, more subtle

Hip-hop might not be dead in 2007, but it certainly is weird. How else to explain the minor fracas that erupted last week between El-P and his ex-label, Rawkus Records, over a photo of El posing with P. Diddy? Or columnists at XXL, once averse to the underground strain of hip-hop, raving that the El-P album might be the best album of the young year? One can chalk it up to the increasingly nebulous distinctions between the worlds of mainstream and subterranean hip-hop. Or one can chalk it up to the fact that, thanks to his sophomore album, the Brooklyn-based El-P is finally getting the plaudits he's long deserved.