Music

‘Breaking barriers’

Young Vegas rockers showcase musical mix on upcoming album, tour

Julie Seabaugh

Chris Daniels never figured he’d play in a band, what with his malformed left hand and all, but once his buddies Angel Ayala and Manny Lanuva started practicing as a duo and repeatedly asked him to give that old synthesizer he owned a whirl, he finally agreed to try. “I only have one hand … [but] it doesn’t bother me; I just had to get used to having my own style,” he says.

Two years after its inception, the metal trio formerly known as Betrayed By a Kiss joined forces with fellow Las Vegas High buddies from the band Homesick to form Love It or Leave It. With the August addition of Foothill High drummer Carlo Mazzone, the lineup solidified into a six-piece that remains tight both onstage and off. As Daniels puts it, “My only real friends are my band members.”

The group recorded a five-song EP last month in Los Angeles with producer Kyle Black, otherwise known as the bass player for Hopeless Records alt-rockers Nural. This Time the Stakes Are Higher will be released by June, in time to appear on the merch table during the band’s monthlong California-to-Florida jaunt with fellow Las Vegans Thrash Unreal and Arizona’s Alaska and Me. Moving Mountains Management’s Cody Verdecias, who helped set up the tour, says what first drew him to the band as a Columbia Records A&R man was simple: They were “not afraid to be themselves no matter what; rich or poor, age or skin color … They are here to break the barrier for the world of music they surround themselves with and do it with such style and soul.”

Live, Daniels and vocalist Ayala are the two dominant personalities, trading verse lines, interacting with the audience between songs and even leaping into the crowd during breakdown-heavy set-closer “H E Double Hockey Sticks” at a recent Friday-night Jillian’s gig. Their earnest shout-outs to family, “homies,” security guards and someone who apparently proffered cupcakes add to an interesting mix: Guitarist Lanuva and bassist Russell St. Clair leap and headbang in undeniable pop-punk fashion during the shapeshifting “Put Some Pep in Your Step,” but during numbers like “Controversy” and “Apparently” there’s a strong hip-hop vibe emanating from the group of 19-to-21-year-olds. When Daniels begins freestyling about Lanuva’s technical issues, the Snoop Dogg photo under the “Influences” section of their MySpace page starts to make sense. “We’re all from the east side of town, lower-middle-class backgrounds,” Daniels shrugs. “We don’t really try to be any certain way, that’s just how we are.” Or as Ayala, when he’s not prowling stage or jumping atop the monitors and drum riser, tells the crowd after clap-happy EP track “She’s Like So Called Fire,” “We’re the friendliest people you will ever meet. We f--king love our hometown. We love how you guys jam, and we’re not going to let you stop.”

With Thrash Unreal, The Countdown, She Turned

Us Into Trees, The Countdown. April 25, 6 p.m., $10.

The Box Office, 388-1515.

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