Kevin Bronson on October 2nd, 2012

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Earlimart’s show on Friday night at the Satellite celebrating its new album “System Preferences” felt like a family reunion, even if some prominent siblings and cousins couldn’t make it.

Four years have passed since the Aaron Espinoza/Ariana Murray creative alliance released “Hymn and Her.” In that time, they have gotten married (though not to each other), become involved in other projects (including Admiral Radley with Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy) and watched the Eastside music scene explode. Who knows how many generations of Silver Lake musicians have come and gone since Earlimart decamped to Silver Lake from Fresno more than a decade ago, each wave seemingly respecting its forerunners less and less.

• ||| Photos by Jeff Koga

There was nothing but reverence Friday night, especially from Espinoza, who once hung with the late Elliott Smith, has worked in his studio The Ship with many of those newbies and treated the stage at the Satellite (nee Spaceland) as if it were hallowed ground. “I don’t know what I’d be doing if it weren’t for this neighborhood,” he said. “It changed my life.”

Espinoza, Murray and the current lineup of drummer Denny Weston and multi-instrumentalist Seb Bailey gave back Friday night in their tour de catalog. Espinoza had announced beforehand that it would be the last Earlimart show for a while – Murray is six months pregnant with her first child – so there was a certain wistfulness in the performance, particularly as they ended their main set with the new song “A Goodbye.”

Before that, the quartet had reminded old-schoolers of their punkier beginnings with edgy takes on “Burning the Cow” and “We Drink on the Job,” – two tunes that are a tick short of their 10th birthday. Earlimart highlighted one of its strongest albums, 2007’s “Mentor Tormentor,” by playing “Happy Alone” and “Nevermind the Phonecalls.” And, mid-set, the band delivered the show-stopper, “Heaven Adores You,” the paean to Smith that starts off like prayer and builds to a fervent call to the heavens.

The new “System Preferences” dominated the evening; it’s an album of woozy, world-weary ruminations that features a little more of Murray’s vocals than past albums. Especially on the swoon-worthy song “10 Years,” the singer-keyboardist-bassist demonstrates she can hold her own with all the currently fashionable retro-pop starlets and their perfectly cut bangs. The nifty dueling vocals of “97 Heart Attack,” though, show that time Espinoza and Murray have collaborated is a decade well-spent.

Earlimart is seven albums old now in a world where seven songs can make you an indie phenomenon. The lush “System Preferences” may not turn that world on its ear, but it is to be savored for its perspective and its craft.

Faced with the daunting task of playing solo to a chatty Friday night crowd, Blake Hazard of the Submarines preceded Earlimart with a charming set of material that recalled Harriet Wheeler of the Sundays. Hazard is working on material for a release titled “The Eleanor Islands” coming this winter.

And Blonde Summer – one of Espinoza’s studio charges in the aforementioned Ship – kicked off the evening with a set of irresistably hooky indie-rock, including their latest single “Slow Days Fast Company.”