Silversun Pickups: Swoon

L.A. quartet makes music for licensing

I ran an eighth-inch cable out of the headphone jack, and blasted the new Silversun Pickups album, Swoon, for the neighborhood kids. “The guitars sound like Sonic Youth,” said Thomas, 6, who’d just BitTorrented 3 GB of noise rock. “I like that they’re layered. But the drums are all, like, major label.” Irma, who is 7, made a face like she’d eaten a sour gumball. “It sounds like music you’d hear on TV or something,” she said. “Like in an ad.” Later, though, a street party broke out, in montage, with Swoon as the soundtrack. Somebody uncapped a fire hydrant. And then an ice cream truck gave out free cones. “I’m starting my own band,” Irma said the next day. “I’m indier than them, anyway.”