eleven thousand

There are a handful of powerful new bands in town that are quietly and steadily building a buzz -- the Pervz, Big Friendly Corporation, the Silver State and Judee's Pryde. (And the alt-rock outfit Clydesdale, if you count the Review-Journal's Doug Elfman.) But there's a dark horse in this herd that possesses the musicianship necessary to bust out of the usual categories of indie, punk and retro-glam: Eleven Thousand.

Eleven Thousand is a guitar-rock trio that has been playing local shows at every conceivable dive -- the now-defunct Boston, the Hurricane, the Aristocrat, the Cooler, Matteo's -- on a regular basis for a little more than a year now. On April 14, Eleven Thousand enters the punk/metal arena of the Aristocrat, where tattoos and piercings and long hair seem de rigeur.

Too bad that the three dudes in Eleven Thousand -- singer/guitarist Jesse Harvel (ex-Daphne Major), bassist Jack Cowell (ex-Inviolet Row) and drummer Jason Turner (ex-Jovis) -- sport none of the visual trappings. They're just a T-shirt-and-jeans-wearing, extra-loud guitar band that has more in common with Sonic Youth, Rein Sanction and Dinosaur Jr. than with any of today's trends.

"I guess we probably fill a niche as playing rock without any pretensions and avoiding any set categories," says Harvel over beers at the Ice House Lounge. "We serve up music that's more or less in the rock vein, but with no messages or secret meanings. There's nothing heavy going on, just meat-and-potatoes rock. We plug in and go. But hopefully it's all catchy enough on the first listen that someone will want to hear the songs a second time."

There's nothing "meat-and-potatoes" about Eleven Thousand's seven-song demo recording that it has been selling at shows for the last month. It's a guitarist's wet dream, full of crushing shoegazer atmospherics ("Chromatic"), Pixies-style chord changes ("Lesson 13") and thundering Chavez-type riffage ("We Can't Help You Now"). In essence, Eleven Thousand is an encyclopedia of post-punk axwork, with Cowell and Turner providing a raucous backdrop for Harvel's abrasive noodlings.

So when can we expect a proper full-length debut from these guys? When are they gonna get signed and become the next Killers?

"Between the 12 or so songs I wrote last year," admits Harvel, "I haven't been satisfied enough to put together an entire album. Another Killers? Well, let's just say none of us are unrealistic in our expectations about the music industry."

For more info, go to www.eleventhousand.com.

JARRET KEENE

JARRET_KEENE@YAHOO.COM - Las Vegas CityLife