BUZZ BANDS

Googling minefield

Not only does it wreak havoc with Internet firewalls and spam blockers, the name Poets & Pornstars is a bit overwrought ... or is it? “I thought it was a rock ‘n’ roll name,” says singer/guitarist Hal Ozsan, who extracted the moniker from one of his song lyrics and hung it on the quartet he started a year ago. “There’s a poet and a pornstar in every one of us.” There’s also, seemingly, always a club full of fans to see the band, which melds the British rock sensibilities of Ozsan with the glammy tendencies of bandmate Justin Barry into a chest-pounding melange of electric gloss, perfect for the denizens of the Sunset Strip. The quartet, which includes bassist Ryan Sanquist and drummer Tom Ardia, recently hooked up with management heavyweights the Firm and has an album’s worth of material ready, should any label be shopping. Ozsan, a 27-year-old actor with frequent appearances on “Dawson’s Creek” on his resume, is only looking as far ahead as the next show: Tuesday night at the Viper Room. “I don’t know how the industry works,” he says. “The thing that does work is being a great rock ‘n’ roll band and blowing away the people who come to see us.”

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Raucous sextet

They play boozy, foot-stomping ditties with horns that look like yard-sale giveaways. They deify “Chili Cheese Fries.” They tour in a former Florida state prisoner transport vehicle. And they lost their last bass player to a circus band in Italy. The Morning 40 Federation could only be from New Orleans, because nowhere else is debauchery celebrated with such panache. The sextet, who perform Friday and Saturday night at the Scene in Glendale, play raucous music that doesn’t fit into any genre. “In fact, no matter how I describe it to people, I always use the word ‘sleazy’ -- sleazy burlesque, sleazy horn-driven rock ‘n’ roll,” guitarist Bailey Smith says. “It has a swagger to it, but also a little par-oom pah-pah.” The 5-year-old group, which releases a new album this spring, makes use of an alto tuba, a trombone and an array of saxophones nursed by Josh Cohen. “When we’re setting up, I’ll hear the inevitable ‘Oh no, anybody got a rubber band?’ ” Smith says. “That’s Josh -- he’s got the mad-genius style of repairing broken-down instruments.”

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Fast forward

Big week for Gary Jules -- he plays the Troubadour on Sunday, and his new album “Trading Snakeoil for Wolftickets,” featuring the big-in-the-U.K. cover of Tears for Fears’ “Mad World,” comes out Tuesday.... The annual Export Sweden music showcase visits the Troubadour on Saturday. The five acts vary stylistically, and two stand out: the electropop of Kamera and the synth-driven rock of Holden.... Alabama-born, L.A.-based Grant Langston lays it on a little thick sometimes, but go ahead, try not to smile during some of the songs on his album “Road Side Service.” Catch him Friday at the Hotel Cafe.... Midnight Movies is among the myriad Southland bands playing this week’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, Texas, but few will be happier. The trio has hooked up with Ryko.

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