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• Pere Ubu
• Buzzcocks
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THE SOFT HANDS

We used to build bands out of seconds: like with X's "Suck Suck" or Wipers' "Tragedy," it didn't even take the time to inhale/exhale to register that this was some momentous material. And Long Beach band the Soft Hands build their songs by the second too, taking the first two-second sliver of Buzzcocks' "Ever Fallen in Love?" (by coincidence, for sure, though by design would be pretty commendable as well) and re-routing it into either the Urinals' "Ack.Ack.Ack.Ack" post-punk palpitations or the early Pere Ubu ("Life Stinks") warning-chime guitar sound, and then smashing out the part where a chorus should go with a palms-hit-the-piano-keys breakdown—not a dance breakdown, just a breaking-things breakdown—and then a finale that tightens up like the last stitch darting through a wound. They call it "I Hope So," and it's the first teaser track from a pretty new and promising little band. And it takes 98 seconds to finish: longer than Wire's "The Commercial" and only about half of the Minutemen's "Jesus and Tequila," but right in the middle of that is probably exactly where Soft Hands hope to punch a clock.

THE SOFT HANDS WITH THE NEW FIDELITY, THINKING ALOUD AND ELIJAHFELL AT THE GYPSY LOUNGE, 23600 ROCKFIELD, STE. 3A, LAKE FOREST, (949) 206-9990; WWW.THEGYPSYLOUNGE.COM. SAT., 8 P.M. $7. 21+.

Local musicians! Send us yer tunes in care of Locals Only!,OC Weekly, 1666 N. Main St., Ste. 500, Santa Ana, CA 92701.