Local post-punk rockers the Trims are set to release a new EP, Delete You After, this Friday with a release party at the Blank Club.

While the band has always been known for its late 70s/80s retro alt -rock sound, influenced by bands like Joy Division and early cuts from the Cure, this new EP has a more modern twist, capturing the essence of groups like the Killers, the Rapture and Franz Ferdinand, who themselves were highly influenced by 80s post-punk but with a more dance-rock edge.

The shift is due in part to the band working with producer Steve Murr, who has an impressive resume, including Smashmouth, J.Dash, Young Science and Pounders.

“We felt that we had hit a plateau with our sound as far as recording so we decided to bring in a producer to help shape the songs with an outsider’s perspective,” says lead singer/guitarist Gabe Maciel. “Working with Steve was not work at all, but rather a sharing of ideas with someone who became less of a producer and more of an extended member of the band.”

Some of the key changes that Murr brought to the table was the use of keyboards, which the Trims have never recorded with before, as well as suggesting they speed up their songs. Both of these elements give the songs a stronger dance feel and less of an overt rock sound.

http://youtu.be/TJbCXY_EsVg

Murr also helped the Trims pull off the bigger guitar sound they always wanted. Although they’ve been able to achieve a large sonic wall of guitars in their concerts, they haven’t yet been able to translate that power to their recordings.

“We tracked guitars in a way that would capture that same tone and emotion you would hear live,” says guitarist Bryan Aguirre.

For people who haven’t seen the Trims live in awhile, they’ve added a visual component to the show, putting on coordinated color lightning as they play.

“We feel that the lighting reflects visually what’s going on musically,” Maciel says. “We have always wanted to give people the most bang for their buck. If you come out to see us and pay money, we want to bring an arena style performance to a small club and give our fans a show they deserve and will never forget.”

The Trims play April 26 at the Blank Club at 9pm. Tickets are $8. More info.

Kung Fu Vampire’s video output has been sporadic these past couple years. That’s something he plans to change in a major way by releasing a video for every song on his new album, Love Bites, which came out Halloween last year. He starts things off with his first video for the title track.

Fans were clearly eager for Kung Fu Vampire to start releasing videos again. In only a couple days, he racked up over 6,000 views. The video shows a young vampire boy who’s walking down the street carrying a mysterious box, which mesmerizes all the women he passes. They follow him, hypnotized, concluding with a surprise twist that reveals not only where he’s been walking to, but what is inside the box.

The video was directed by local prolific music video director Frank Door, who has shot videos for K.Flay, the Trims, Northern Son, not to mention the infamous sandwich video for Young Science, which Kung Fu Vampire has a very brief cameo in.

The Morgan Hill mafia will invade BFD this year, when Mike Garmany and James Mellow (better known to many of his early fans by his real name, Grant Averill) will both be playing the Local Band Stage at Live 105’s annual music festival.

Garmany will be performing with the Holdup, whose first two records both debuted at #1 on iTunes’ reggae chart, and who have been in rotation on Live 105 with “Young Fools,” their sorta-cover of Peter Bjorn and John’s “Young Folks.” Mellow will lead his electro-pop group Young Science, who got onto the airwaves last year with “Liquor Store,” the single from their debut EP. Both do production at Garmany’s Morgan Hill studio, where Mellow just completed the first Young Science album.

“We’ve been super good friends since we met in junior high,” says Mellow, taking a break from work at the studio. In fact, he says he picked up his first instrument back then, the bass, just so they could be in a band together. That one never went anywhere, but they do have a hip-hop/R&B collaboration now called Twin City, for which they released a free 17-song mix tape.

In light of all that, it’s a little remarkable that neither their professional collaboration or personal connection has anything to do with the fact that they’re the sole representatives of the South Bay on the BFD lineup this year.

“It was absolute coincidence,” says Mellow. He knows dozens of band are vying for the attention of Aaron Axelsen, the Live 105 DJ who picks the lineup for the Local Band stage, and who first played both Young Science and the Holdup on his Soundcheck show. Many seem to try to figure an angle that will get them noticed, but Mellow thinks Axelsen’s continued success comes from his straightforward approach: “He just has to like your music. That’s it.”

Axelsen says both Young Science and the Holdup are hard-working bands with great songs, who embody what he wants to showcase in the Bay Area scene. “People ask me all the time, ‘How do I get on the radio, Aaron?’” says Axelsen. “I just say ‘look at what Young Science is doing.’”

If it weren’t for recent alternative hitmakers The Naked and the Famous and Silversun Pickups, the main stage at BFD 2012 on June 2 at Shoreline Amphitheater would feel like a 1990s time machine. Jane’s Addiction, Garbage and Cake will headline the festival, Live 105 has announced.

Jane’s Addiction originally broke up in 1991 at the height of their popularity, They have reunited, broken up and reunited again since then, with no letup in the accompanying drama. Last year, they released just their fourth album in the over 25 years since the band was founded, The Great Escape Artist.

Garbage peaked in the mid-’90s with hits like “Stupid Girl” and “Only Happy When It Rains”; they never officially broke up, but have gone on “hiatus” several times. They are set to release their fifth album, Not Your Kind of People, next month.

Of the returning ’90s alt-rock soldiers, only Cake has been active continuously since they formed in 1991. Best known for their 1996 hit “The Distance,” their sixth record Showroom of Compassion debuted at #1 on the Billboard charts in 2011.

New Zealand’s the Naked and the Famous formed in 2008, the same year Jane’s Addiction reunited for the second time. Sounding eerily like Passion Pit’s long-lost twin band, they made the alt-radio Top 10 in 2010 with “Young Blood.” Fellow indie rockers Silversun Pickups, best known for “Lazy Eye” and “Well Thought Out Twinkies,” will release their new album, Neck of the Woods, next month.

Some of the festival’s coolest offerings are in the Subsonic Tent, which has become a magnet for up-and-coming, electro-friendly acts. This year Oakland’s Wallpaper, who are suddenly all over the late-night-television circuit and even have a song in the Top 40 despite an expletive in its title, will play there, as well as San Francisco’s budding girlrap star K. Flay, who killed last year on the local stage. Subsonic Tent mainstays the Limousines will do something slightly different this summer, spinning a DJ set. Other tent acts include Knife Party, Dragonette, and AmpLive of the Oakland duo Zion I performing with Eligh.

On the Soundcheck Local Band Stage this year are two South Bay bands, The Holdup and Young Science. The Stone Foxes, A B & The Sea, New Diplomat, Dirty Ghosts and more will also perform on the local band stage.