4 To Watch: The Broken West

Hometown: Los Angeles, Calif.
Members [L-R]: Ross Flournoy (guitar, lead vocals), Dan Iead (guitar, vocals), Brian Whelan (bass, vocals), Rob McCorkindale (drums, percussion), Scott Claassen (keyboards, vocals)
Fun Fact: Dan Iead passed an early recording along to Jason Falkner, who frequented the L.A. café where Iead worked. Though he expected Falkner to ditch the disc, the band was later personally invited to open for one of the indie popster’s rare live shows.
Why They’re Worth Watching: The Broken West’s first LP, out in January 2007, melds the energy of its tight, song-driven live performances with classic power-pop for a sound that's as rollicking and sun-kissed as a late-afternoon spent barreling down the Pacific Coast Highway.
For Fans Of: Teenage Fanclub, Spoon, The Kinks

Life’s been happening fast for the The Broken West. After forming as The Brokedown in summer 2004 and promptly recording a stellar EP, they’ve since played a nearly constant stream of shows up and down the West Coast, including residencies at some of L.A.’s hippest of hipster hotspots, Spaceland and the Silverlake Lounge.

In the midst of its grueling tour schedule, the band somehow found time to record its first full-length, I Can’t Go On, I’ll Go On, and score a deal with indie behemoth Merge Records. All this in just two years—plus, they’ve already gone through a name change.

“I think we probably could have fought it, but it would have been really expensive and time consuming,” frontman Ross flournoy says of the cease-and-desist order The Brokedown (singular) received in fall 2006 from Chicago-based group The Brokedowns (plural).

With only a few days to pick a new name, and with promo copies of I Can’t Go On, credited to The Brokedown, rolling off the presses, flournoy says, “We kind of went into panic mode.” They quickly settled on a suggestion tossed out by someone at Merge: The Broken West.

“It’s actually starting to grow on me,” admits guitarist Iead. “It rolls off the tongue better than ‘The Brokedown,’ which, grammatically, didn’t make sense.”

Correction: The caption accompanying The Broken West's photo in the February 2007 issue of Paste is incorrect. It should read: (L-R) Dan Iead, Brian Whelan, Scott Claassen, Ross Flournoy, Rob McCorkindale.