05.16.11: Brand X Presents LA UNHEARD Featuring: AIRLINES / YOYA @ Echoplex

Airlines || Listen||Watch
The band: Airlines, an upbeat Silver Lake/Echo Park quintet.

The sound: Airlines play the kind of danceably cheesy electro-based music made Internet-famous by acts from Cut Copy to Delorean. “Burial Grounds” belies its funereal title with major-key sunshine, while EP title track “Visions” reveals the band’s ’80s influences: “Just keep it coming, because I’m feeling all right,” the group sings over a Phil Collins “In the Air Tonight” drum fill. Hey, we said it was cheesy.

The random: The group formed at SXSW 2010 after a random party performance. “People liked it. We liked it. The universe liked it,” singer Hayden Tobin explained over e-mail. The then-four-piece added drummer Ron Marinelli to the mix, and the rest is synth-history.Brand X

Yoya || Listen||Watch
The band: yOya, an L.A. duo comprised of USC alumni Alex Pfender and Noah Dietterich.

The sound: The two-man crew turns to modern electronic beats and keyboards for their rhythm section, but Pfender’s hard-charging acoustic guitar strums and the pair’s high-flying harmonies are throwbacks to the Britpop anthems of groups such as Turin Brakes and early Coldplay.

The random: yOya’s perhaps unintentional Coldplay homage goes one step further than the songs: the decorated marching-band-style jackets favored by that band’s Chris Martin (not to mention My Chemical Romance) are the group’s go-to look.Brand X

8:30pm / Free / 21+