Blank Blue began with a concept album born behind the counter of Long Beach’s Fingerprints record shop, and they have now grown into a four-piece band—with percussionist Andres Renteria and bassist Brian Martinez—who dissolve genre distinctions with a truly inclusive spirit-of-’67 inspiration expanded to accommodate a sampler (and maybe a sitar?) next to the electric guitar. RZA Wilson’s Pacific Ocean Blue? That’s more like a remotely appropriate joke—but Blank Blue run so deep and so calm that there’s plenty of room for a few kinds of genius to play out all the way. Singer Niki Randa rises even higher alongside freshly revealed guitar-shredder Nobody on songs that ripple and curl like the ocean they were written about. They’re a band from the wetter world, where the United States of America wrote the national anthem.
Thu., Dec. 4, 9 p.m., 2008
