Once upon a time, there was an L.A. art-punk band called the Mae Shi, who released a pretty great poppy, skronky album called HLLLYH in 2008, then broke up over bad blood following a confusing Pitchfork Fest appearance. Half of the band performed using the familiar name — the wrong half of the band, according to founder Tim Byron and his brother Jeff. Actually, the Mae Shi may still exist. Visit their MySpace page and find the ominous message, “We do not break up.” But perhaps they would've been better served by borrowing that famous phrase from Bébé's Kids: “We don't die, we multiply.” The former members of the Mae Shi (that first half: John and Bill Gray and Jacob Safari) have been busy, popping up in the electronics-damaged rock project Signals, the beat-influenced Bark Bark Bark and the thrashing Man's Assassination, Man. All of this to say: Hypercolors is billed as the “debut of new Mae Shi band,” which could mean anything within the realm of noisy and awesome.

Mon., Aug. 30, 2010

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