Usually my entries into the hallowed halls of the Synthesis Band You’ve Never Heard Of…OF THE DAY!!111 archive have some sort of clever plot device or other thematic tie together. But today’s selection, the Simi Valley based Fire On the Plains is just an honest to God badass band that I you more than likely have never heard of. The band recently completed a West Coast tour, stopping through Chico this past weekend. And though I had heard the songs streaming on their Myspace, which featured the typically pissed vocals and skronking guitars found in most modern thrashy metal bands, the recordings do no justice to the band live. The vocals were heavier, the drums were unflinchingly on point, and the band’s seasoned stage presence belied their youthful exuberance. The band currently has a self-released EP available, and will be playing around Southern California over the next couple of months, including a show with metal upstarts Carnifex. LEARN ABOUT IT!

Want to listen to some whacked out, two-piece mania? Look no further than Napa, CA’s Planets. There’s not much I can say descriptively in a short burst, other than Planets indulge to the fullest in odd times and dissonance. Both members are savage beasts, and bass player Paul used to rep SWIMS. Some tour dates:

Big thanks to Sludge Swamp for turning me on to this stuff. I was perusing their archives for some cool stuff to put on a mix CD for an upcoming BBQ, when I stumbled upon the psychedelic doom of Jex Thoth. Formerly known as Totem, the band takes its name from its beguiling frontwoman, who seems to have a bit of Grace Slick coursing through her veins (and God knows what else).

It’s nice to see how diverse the metal scene is getting, especially since that’s all I’ve been listening to lately, and I usually like to mix it up. This stuff is spacey, hypnotic but still has plenty of rock punch, and it doesn’t completely drag ass like a lot of doom you’ll hear. Jex Thoth releases albums on I Hate Records, which is out of Sweden (Jex Thoth hails from California), but unfortunately, their debut LP seems to have been delayed due to a printing error. With any luck, they’ll be able to fix that up soon.

With all the ballyhoo about Sub Pop’s 20th Anniversary, it’s nice to see one of the bands that made Sub Pop SUB POP are still around and doing well. Today, Synthesis Editor Ryan “Daddy” Prado handed me a copy of Mudhoney’s forthcoming album The Lucky Ones, and it’s pretty damn good. In fact, it sounds like something that would’ve been put out by the label 20 years ago. It’s fuzzy and sloppy and probably hasn’t even caught whiff of Pro-Tools.

Mudhoney’s previous two albums for Sub Pop, Since We’ve Become Translucent and Under a Billion Suns were much more expansive in sound and scope with both albums featuring songs that incorporated a horn section. Both albums were nice pieces of psychedelic hard rock, even if they didn’t garner much attention, but you won’t find much of that here. The Lucky Ones is just filthy Seattle grunge done by the guys who’d done it best. The album’s due in stores May 20th.

This is a bit atypical of the bands that we generally choose for Synthesis Band of the Day. No horn-rimmed glasses, waifish broads with ugly indie-rock haircuts, ‘roid-bicep hardcore meatheads, striped sweater wussies or epic Dungeons & Dragons progressive metalheads. No, Phredley brings the funk-rock.

In my fledgling college days, back when tie-dye wasn’t as vomitous and my roommate’s constant Phish-Grateful Dead-Phish musical rotation didn’t drive me completely bonkers, I would have broken my left leg to check out a band like Phredley. Now bad photoshop effects kinda irk me, patchouli oil makes me want to hurl and hippie funk in general just pisses me off. But not Phredley. They’s alright.

Based around a brother-sister duo (Phred Brown on Vocals, Guitar & Horns; Alesha Brown on Keys & Vocals) and a rhythm section (Paul Loos, Drums & Vocals; Samuel Tobias Winn, Bass & Vocals) Phredley lays down funk that is far closer to the heart of nearby Detroit than that of longhair revivalists in Colorado or Vermont. And when they stray toward the pop side of the spectrum, it comes across more as radio-friendly than looking for a parking lot miracle. More importantly (for me at least), their lyrics hold water. With the aforementioned hippie-funk enthusiasts, it’s most often the lyrics that drive me to enraged hysterics; Phredley uses some clever (or nearly clever) turns of phrase. No, Phred’s not Leonard Cohen by any means, but in a sometimes poppy, sometimes rocky funk quartet, it works. Their track “The Truth About Capricorns” also has some pretty, Beatelesque, tonally complex passages. If you’re a big fan of Ben Harper/Jack Johnson/Maroon 5, or your ’70s R&B records don’t have much dust on them, do yourself a favor and look into Phredley.

One of my shitty bands got the chance to share the stage yesterday with a couple slightly less shitty bands, the surprisingly badass Phantom Planet and a band I’d never really heard of called Takota. I don’t think anyone else had really heard of them either, but I get the feeling that’s about to change: they’re second disc, Just Before Morning is set to come out on Island Records later this year and if it’s anything like their live set, its gonna be filled with epic vocal hooks ( ala Dredg ) set atop guitar-driven midtempo pop rock, with a little synth grandeur added in for good measure. Someone told me they sounded like the Scorpions gone modern emo, which might sound like a dig, but if you know shit about epic ’80s ballads you know the Scorpions are on point. Anyways, since they’re on some major label bullshit they only have brief clips of some songs on their Myspace but you can get a pretty good gauge of what the band is all about regardless. If you’re on the east coast you can also check them out on tour with Third Eye Blind next month. Oh and if yourre wondering who the sore thumb dude is in the above picture (for those too obtuse for old adages, sore thumb as in sticking out) he’s not just some random old dude who slapped on an H&M sweater to try to look more croosh, he’s Justin, one of the old drummers from Reel Big Fish. That’s cred.