BUZZ BANDS

Caution, men at work -- on hooky dub-style punk

Their debut album, “Stars of CCTV,” crept to No. 1 in their native Britain this week, but the members of scruffy quartet Hard-Fi were hardly in a position to celebrate. They were on a bus traversing the frozen Midwest, halfway through the U.S. on a mission that brings them to the Troubadour on Wednesday. And make no mistake, Hard-Fi is more on a mission than a tour.

“America’s very important to us -- we know it’s very hard to get here and do well,” says Richard Archer, the architect of Hard-Fi’s dancy, dub-inspired punk. “But we’re not afraid of failure.”

Such intrepidness is born of the quartet’s modest beginnings in Staines, by Archer’s account a dead-end town where he returned, broke, after his band Contempo broke up. “There are towns like Staines all over the world, with people who lose their jobs or struggle with life or try to escape their situations,” Archer says. “Those are the people who will get what I’m saying.”

Archer and band mates Steve Kemp, Ross Phillips and Kai Stephens address working-class issues -- its first hit, “Cash Machine,” was about coming up empty at the ATM -- in a working-class manner. The mini-album that got Atlantic Records’ attention was recorded on borrowed equipment in a ramshackle studio.

“We want to write songs that people can’t get out of their heads but that say something about their lives,” Archer says. “It’s hard to write songs that are catchy but are not benign.”

Glam, bam, no thank you, man

Oliver Future, a band of Austin, Texas, transplants who on Monday conclude a monthlong residency at the Viper Room, moved to L.A. in August to jump-start their music careers. “And there was personal growth as well,” singer-guitarist Noah Lit points out.

There was some outgrowing involved too -- as Lit and his longtime collaborator, bassist Jesse Ingalls, moved away from the glam stylings of their previous band.

“I’m not going to lie to you, there were boas involved,” Lit says with a laugh. “We were really obsessed with David Bowie and Marc Bolan.... We could definitely write the Bowie-ish piano ballad, but he already did that. I think that whatever we have now sounds like us.”

Glammy flourishes remain -- thanks mainly to Josh Lit’s keyboards and Noah’s changeling vocals. But on the EP “Bear Chronicles V.2,” which the band will release through iTunes, producer Rusty Logsdon (Eels) coaxed a range of dynamics from the quintet, from the sleaze-rock of “Bukowski Bar” to the almost pop-punk “What Heart,” with its sticky call-and-response chorus.

For now, the Lit brothers, Ingalls, guitarist Sam Raver and drummer Jordan Richardson are sharing a house in Echo Park and soaking up L.A. -- a place, Noah says, “where you can talk to the guy in the Bentley or the bum next to him.”

Fast

forward

Pop veteran Willie Wisely this week released his latest (and most accomplished) album, “Parador,” an eclectic collection of classic pop that at its apex recalls “March”-era Michael Penn. The album, produced by Linus of Hollywood and released on Wisely’s own Ella Records imprint (through www.notlame.com), will be celebrated with a show Friday at the Hotel Cafe.... Retro-pop stylists Of Montreal, getting attention with their latest release, “The Sunlandic Twins,” return to L.A. for a show Friday at the Ex Plex (the venue beneath the Echo in Echo Park).... Local hard-rockers Fireball Ministry join Fear Factor and Strung Out at the House of Blues on Tuesday for a benefit concert for A Place Called Home, which serves at-risk youth.... L.A.’s Mellowdrone, gearing up for the March 7 release of its debut, “Box,” wraps up its series of Thursday shows tonight at Spaceland.... Guitarist Nate Denver has hooked up with local punk trio 400 Blows; he replaces Christian Wabschall.

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-- Kevin Bronson

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Recommended downloads

* Download Hard-Fi’s “Cash Machine” as the free single of the week at www.apple.com/itunes.

* Stream Oliver Future’s “What Heart” at www.myspace.com/oliverfuture.

* Stream “Parador” by Willie Wisely at www.wiselylive.com.