Mitchell Frank's Sunset Junction Playlist

No one's going to fault you for turning to a doctor for help with a medical procedure. Since the LA band scene can be just as complex and potentially lethal, we snared a playlist from Mitchell Frank, the man behind Spaceland/The Echo/The Echoplex, and a producer of this weekend's Sunset Junction fest, featuring all the bands below:

Radars To The Sky, "Victoria": Sax and trumpet hooks make this band sound like a brighter version of Morrissey (though brighter than Morrissey = taller than the wee little whore in Total Recall).

Henry Clay People, "Working Part Time": This brother-fronted Pavement disciple's full-throttle temp-work metaphor starts with the line, "We've been working part time/all the time". Henry, were you perhaps wearing Sex Panther?

Oliver Future, "Stranger than the Stranger": These keyboard-laced, new-new-wave Austin transplants vent about getting sick of LA's constant sunshine, the equivalent of moving to Texas and bitching about being able to take your gun everywhere.

Jonathan Rice, "The End of The Affair": This jangly pop song features Rice's girlfriend/Rilo Kiley singer Jenny Lewis, a former child actress who appeared with a young Fred Savage in The Wizard. After such a unmatchable high, how can you blame her for abandoning film altogether?

Happy Hollows, "Monster Room": Fronted by a girl in knee socks, this three-piece sounds like a cross between the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and the Cranberries. If you can't wrap your mind around that, trying to pronounce their professed hometown of "Negahdariland" will make your head explode.

Castledoor, "Birds and The Fleas": This harmonic six-piece's two waif keyboardists happen to be married to the band's two singer-guitarists. All of them have obviously ignored everything ever written about Fleetwood Mac.

Bodies of Water, "These are The Eyes": Says Frank of this orchestral, Polyphonic Spree-ish crew, "I thought, 'this band is f*ing ready'. I then thought, 'for what? Rock stardom? Local envy? Penis envy?' Couldn't figure out what it was. Whatever IT is, they are f*ing ready for IT!"

Beachwood Sparks, "You Take The Gold": This countryish semi-supergroup (ex-members of The Tyde, Further, and other bands you've never heard of) made their debut at Spaceland in 1998, got big-ish, broke up, and have reformed this summer just in time to realize that, with so many great new bands in LA, they're now only a semi semi-supergroup.