Phil Pirrone leads JJUUJJUU with a rotating cast of backing players. The Los Angeles psychedelic rock band recently released its debut album, "Zionic Mud." It's heavy on reverberated vocals, fuzzed-out guitar licks and intriguing song titles like "Italian Toothpaste." JJUUJJUU stopped into the CPR Performance Studio before a show at Denver's Lost Lake. The band played two songs and Pirrone spoke with Bruce Trujillo about how he started playing music, the many collaborations on "Zionic Mud" and running the California music festival Desert Daze.

Brazilian Girls this year released the album "Let's Make Love," the pop band's first since 2008's Grammy-nominated "New York City." It features the eclectic dance sound the quartet became known for in the early 2000s. The album came together over the course of several years, with recording sessions in Istanbul, Paris, Madrid and New York. Brazilian Girls visited us in the CPR Performance Studio last month. The quartet played three songs from "Let's Make Love" and spoke with Alisha Sweeney about recording the album all over the world and the romantic themes behind the new songs.

The Portland band tries out different sounds and genres on its seventh album.