Alex Church founded Sea Wolf, named the band after a Jack London book and part of a revitalized East LA music scene.
LOS ANGELES - It was a dark and stormy night, the first stormy night here in five months. But at the Greek Theatre recently, an iconic outdoor venue in the Hollywood Hills, the show would go on, with Air headlining and Sea Wolf opening.
While the audience wasn't sure what to do about the rain - some brought ponchos, others strained their hoodies in vain - the weather was entirely appropriate for Sea Wolf's big-venue debut. With a sound that evokes the attic instead of the ocean, this band is from Los Angeles but certainly not of it. The city, if anything, is a foil for the band's founder and frontman, Alex Church, who drew from his feelings of alienation to write many of the songs on the band's new album, "Leaves in the River."
"There are a lot of negative stereotypes associated with LA," Church said backstage after he finished loading equipment back in the van. "I'd rather people judge me by the music and where the music comes from - the history - rather than Los Angeles."
Never mind, then, that Sea Wolf is part of a revitalized East LA music scene that, this year alone, has exported Earlimart and Silversun Pickups. The members of these bands are all friends and labelmates. They call themselves the Ship Collective, after the studio owned by Earlimart. Five years ago, these bands were local favorites who played exclusively within a 3-mile radius around the Echo Park neighborhood.
"There was something special about that time," said Jennifer Taft, the booking manager at Silver Lake's Spaceland club. "Those bands were not playing anywhere except the East Side, and there was no radio that would support them. Now I can imagine what a mother feels when she sends her kids off to college."
Church first became known around town as a founding member of the band Irving. The band's sunny pop sound made it a local favorite and later went on to tour nationally. In 2003, though, Church decided it was time to move on. Irving was a hit, but it wasn't him.
"A lot of what the band's about musically is a return to my roots and who I am - embracing myself, my past, and my background," he said of Sea Wolf. That past involves growing up in the rural Northern California town of Columbia and, later, in the Bay Area. It also involves a film degree from New York University and finding a serious girlfriend who lives in Montreal.
Fittingly, then, "Leaves in the River" is an autumnal record. Its folk-themed sea chanties and delicate love songs are ornamented with images of wet leaves, brick houses, and midnight squalls. Despite the pining for colder climes, the production is warm and intimate, the rock pulse present but restrained.
"I wanted [the album] to be a combination of electronic sounds and super organic sounds. I love my friends' bands," he said, referring to Earlimart and Silversun Pickups, "but the kind of music I do is completely different from what they do."
Nonetheless, Angeleno audiences took immediately to Sea Wolf, which now includes six touring members, including a cellist. Thanks in part to Irving, and to Church's indie heartthrob status, fans flocked to the band's residency at Spaceland in September of last year. According to Taft, who arranged the gig, "It was bananas. It was crazy packed every week."
Ironically, then, Sea Wolf's first single, "You're a Wolf," is an anti-LA anthem.
The idea for the song, Church said, came from a female friend, who was told by a palm reader that she would never find true love in Los Angeles. Church translated this idea into a haunting campfire song, with a strumming guitar and an ominous cello line. With just a hint of ennui, he sings, "Old gypsy woman spoke to me/ Said, 'You're a wolf, boy, get out of this town.' "
"At the time I heard the story, I was feeling like I didn't belong here," Church said. " 'You're a Wolf' means you don't belong here. You're not this, you're this."
In Sea Wolf's songs, this deep-seated alienation is paired with bittersweet nostalgia, like two sides of the same coin. On "Winter Windows," which opened the show at the Greek Theatre, Church practically sighs the lines, "This is the world we live in/ It's not the one I'd choose, but it's the one we live in."
Even as Church distances himself from Los Angeles - he spends half the year in Montreal - the loner theme seems likely to stick. He named the band after the Jack London book, about a salty sea captain who rescues a marooned literary critic. With his scraggly-beard-and-sweater look, Church physically recalls the critic, but he said he identifies instead with the captain, a "self-taught, blue-collar intellectual guy." London, he added, was also a Bay Area native.
With independence as his calling card, Church is careful to add that he chose the name Sea Wolf well before bands like Wolf Parade and Los Lobos became popular. He also emphasized how lucky he was to find his current touring band, which he cherry-picked from other local groups.
"Even wolves have packs they're loyal to," he said sheepishly with a chuckle.
Sea Wolf plays at the Middle East Upstairs (472 Massachusetts Ave., Cambridge, 617-864-3278) tonight at 9. Tickets are $9. mideastclub.com
© Copyright 2007 Globe Newspaper Company.
