The Heavenly States' self-titled debut should have at least a few indie eclecticists levitating. They want to rock you every which way but hell-bound. They want to lull you with ballads and then take you higher with ethereal pop. They also want the airwaves. Ambitious but fitting from a band that recently shared a split single with Coldplay, and somehow it all gels into an appealing whole where other wayward souls get lost. The Heavenly States opens slow, quiet, and tinkling, for just a twinkling, before busting out the jagged post-punk jams on "American Borders." Out comes the AM-radio soft rock interlude, then back to the angularity-squared guitar. Then, hell, is that electric violin on "The Story Of"? It's topped off with punchy rhythms and ebullient "Hey-hey!" 's like the band never quite got over the Romantics. The next couple tracks keep up the jubilant pop – the group attack their songs like their place in the afterlife depended on it – till things get diffuse, and the States thunder into the piano-pegged psychedelia for "Cumulous to Nebulous."

OK, all is not platonic or ideal on The Heavenly States – you have to question the chorus of the otherwise joyful coupling of Sonic Youth and the Cure on "Senseless Beauty": "But the queen, she will reign / And the rain just makes me wet / And the wet is so sexual / And sex just complicates it." And then there's that electric violin. But heaven can wait – and so can I – for the next Heavenly States album. The Heavenly States play a CD-release party Sat/27, Parkside, S.F. (415) 503-0393. (Kimberly Chun)

Various artists
Frisco Styles (Deitch Projects)

With 48 bands contributing more than two hours of music, Frisco Styles surveys the Bay Area rock underground without pompously presenting itself as a definitive guide: "This compilation is unfinished and only a small part of the many types of music that come from here," compiler, renowned visual artist, and man-about-town Chris Johanson humbly states in the liner notes. And while this double-disc set has its fair share of unfortunate omissions – an inevitability with ambitious scene reports such as this – it's nonetheless a highly recommended starting point to uncovering and rediscovering what's happening night after noise-addled night in our clubs, alleys, basements, lofts, and practice spaces.