The World Record are West Coast rock classicism personified: a roar of guitar-jangled exuberance that weds a sturdy, shimmering collection of hooks, heart, and crackerjack songwriting to a record collection in which wax by Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe, and Alex Chilton spin in abundance until they form an aural magnetic north. They are bent on making you happy, and not repeating themselves.

After just over 10 years as a band, The Henry Clay People played their final show in August of 2013 and went their separate ways.

While working on their third album, Orb Weaver, The Parson Red Heads weren't interested in taking their time. In fact, they were dead set against it. Having released a painstakingly hand-crafted LP in 2011's Yearling, the band had established a mode of meticulousness. On Orb Weaver, the focus on recreating the improvisational bombast of their live show was stage center, resulting in flashes of sun-stroked auditory maelstroms and expansive blotter-pop americana previously missing from the band's recordings.

Over a nine-year career that's seen the band form in Oregon, then move to Los Angeles for nearly six years—where they were influential in a burgeoning music Silver Lake scene still seduced by the specters of Love and Buffalo Springfield—the now Portland-based Parsons have established a well-deserved reputation as an uninhibited live group.

As vocalist/guitarist Evan Way explains, Orb Weaver was all about bottling that energy into one explosively off-the-cuff record.

"We've always made records that were more thought-out," says Way. "When we play live, we play more like a rock band. We wanted to show that more aggressive side of us, the more rock-oriented side."

Producer Scott McCaughey (The Minus 5) was all-too-happy to steer the ship when it came to capturing the album's spontaneity.

"The band had a vision for the record before we started," says McCaughey. "A few songs took some exciting and possibly unplanned turns, but it all fit into the whole that we'd imagined."

"[Scott] was great about being very vocal and honest, saying, ‘Don't ditch that, it has character and that makes it way cooler,'" adds Way.

The song "Lost Again" was originally a demo Way had discarded for contention to make the album. McCaughey, struck by the tune, suggested a different angle and encouraged the group to record it right away with a new and still very foreign arrangement. With Brette Marie Way—Evan's wife and The Parsons' vocalist/drummer—providing typically dynamic harmonies, the result speaks volumes of the immediacy of Orb Weaver. It's a gorgeously sprawling composition, replete with reverbed guitar squalls and a saccharine-sweet melody that's belied only by its sly psych fringes.

"Borrow Your Car," a breakneck power-pop scorcher penned and sung by guitarist Sam Fowles, ushers in the kind of fiery tune expected from The Parsons' live show, Fowles and bassist Charlie Hester forming interlocking melodic runs that strike out toward Nick Lowe terrain. Interestingly, McCaughey and The Parsons' only other collaboration before Orb Weaver was recording Lowe's "Don't Lose your Grip on Love" for Lowe Country, a compilation of country-tinged Lowe covers released on Fiesta Red Records.

"Times" begins with all the minimalist groove of Fleetwood Mac's "Dreams," opening up only after Way croons, "I try to turn my back on you/but I forget to tell my heart," then moves into their oft-cited harmonic telepathy with The Byrds and Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.

Despite the modest homage to their influences, The Parson Red Heads are a band forging their own musical identity with each new album.

"More and more of the personality of the band itself has come together because we're comfortable," explains Way. "Everybody is settling into their roles; it's a natural result of playing a ton together."

When Los Angeles’ Le Switch decided to go into the studio to record the follow up to 2008’s And Now….Le Switch, they mulled their options. With the departure of their longtime viola/trumpet player they wanted to sharpen their focus and make a truly collaborative record. With too many distractions in Los Angeles, the remaining four members opted to head north to Hangar Studios in Sacramento (Vetiver, The Broken West, The Morning Benders).

The change in environment worked its magic. Singer/guitarist Aaron Kyle opened up the songwriting process and the other three members contributed lyrics and production ideas, organically pushing the band in new directions. At their core, the new songs retain the soulful, early 1970’s rock ‘n’ roll approach of the first album, but as if filtered through the pop half of Jon Brion’s brain.

Josh Charney’s presence is felt profoundly; there are very few songs when the first note played isn’t from an upright piano, organ, Wurlitzer or Moog. He also contributes the almost Petty-esque track, “Bad Decisions.” Christopher Harrison (who also plays bass) punctures all the toe-tapping in the songs with jagged guitar solos. Drummer Joe Napolitano (Henry Clay People, Princeton, The Northstar Session) once again engineers, contributes the occasional guitar riff and even plays keys on his late-period Beatles-inspired contribution, “How We Imagined It.”

Aaron Kyle’s voice (both literally and figuratively) is front and center in the mix. Flavorpill described him as “one of the most seductive and mournful voices around, running the gamut from yodel to Hank Williams warble” and the LA Times (Buzz Bands) said he “sings as if he’s never five minutes from his last whiskey , or five minutes from his next.” Lyrically, Kyle explores classic, personal themes like: falling in love, falling out of love, searching for your place, finding your passion, Sisyphean struggles and succumbing to desperation.

When asking the band about the meaning behind the album title (The Rest of Me is Space) I was told a little story of their Halloween in Sacramento. The band was taking a break from recording and Christopher called home to say hello to his wife and daughter. They had just returned from a costume party. His wife, Bridget, mentioned being particularly impressed with one of the little boy’s costumes. When she asked the boy to explain it, the boy said, “I’m Saturn (a huge blue, orange and yellow bulb with rings covered his head), and the rest of me is space” wearing black pajamas with glitter. The band fell in love with the story and when they saw the actual photo of him, it was decided that this be the name of the record.

Le Switch is ecstatic to have Paul Larson (The Minor Canon, Strictly Ballroom, DNTEL) join them on bass for their upcoming tour. Their record release show takes place at Spaceland (in their home base of Silver Lake) on November 4th. They’ll follow that up with a West Coast tour that will take them through the new year.