Kevin Bronson on March 13th, 2014

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[Host Buzz Bands LA’s “Dear Austin, Love L.A.” day party on Wednesday put a crimp in my actual journalistic activities. But I tried to bounce back a little …]

(@krbronson) on Wednesday at SXSW:

That a guy named Moses was playing a gig at a house of worship was not lost on anybody Wednesday night at the Central Presbyterian Church, least of all Moses Sumney. “My parents would be so proud of me,” the L.A. singer-songwriter said with a chuckle during a heavenly 45 minutes in which sang guitar ballads, beat-boxed and live-looped in dazzling fashion and induced the congregation … er, crowd  into a chorus of oh-ohs and ooh-oohs that left everyone muttering “Oh, wow.” Sumney, who played KCRW’s stage earlier in the day and seemed none the worse for it, should be on everybody’s A-list at SXSW, not just for his folk-soul stylings but for inventive performances and charisma, which are affirming on a lot of levels. His music is still in its embryonic stages – the rendition Wednesday of “Everlasting Sigh,” for instance, was about the fifth different way we’ve heard the song done – and Sumney is now at a stage where his music could go anywhere. And maybe everywhere.

Soundtrack to … a pledge drive?

Kins, the Australian quartet now based in Brighton, England, make the kind of vaguely soundscapey indie-rock that, regrettably, it’s easy to talk over. They trade in sometimes-sparse post-Radiohead atmospherics and groove-laden textures that never really take hold, or at least they didn’t Wednesday at the annual KCRW showcase at the Haven. Kins and many bands of their kind have been embraced by the sophisticates at public radio, because … well … I’m not sure: Because it’s just ineffectual enough to be pleasant? Memo to return to their debut album “Kins” to see if anything sticks.

Also notable. . .

It was a good night to check in with old friends, and the new songs sprinkled throughout Spirit Animal’s set made it worth being squirreled away in a patio dive called Headhunters to witness the set. Everything about the Brooklyn quartet – fronted by onetime L.A. guy Steve Cooper – is vicious: The pugilistic funk bass lines, the shreddy metal guitar licks, the appetite-for-destruction drumming and Cooper’s penchant for in-your-face couplets. Playing in what felt like a basement, Cooper was all up in the crowd’s face, singing, rapping, prancing and dancing while his tighter-than-tight band played Spirit Animal’s funk-rock/hip-hop/pop hybrid. Some of the Top 40-ready choruses in his new songs were almost hilarious, counterposed with the breakdowns and mayhem that surround them. Can’t believe these guys are still DIY.

Photo of Moses Sumney by Scott Dudelson; others by Bronson