Neon Trees is possibly the best infectious, American indie rock band that NME, Pitchfork, and the rest of the internet’s blogs haven’t seemed to notice yet. Recently tapped by the Killers to open up a pair of shows, these California and Utah guys seem to be prime for label attention and alternative radio play. Check out their new tracks, “Girls and Boys in School” & “Drop Your Weapon”, mixed by Mark Needham (Bloc Party, The Killers, U2, My Chemical Romance).

‘Twilight‘, the soundtrack to this vampire love story should easily outsell the musical score from this past summer’s blockbuster, “The Dark Knight”. With Paramore on board with another hit in their track, “Decode” and a new cut from Mute Math, as well as hits from Linkin Park and Muse, this film will probably be lucky to make a quarter of what the latest Batman made, but could double or triple the sales total of that film’s soundtrack. View the track listing here.

Saosin will be heading into the studio with producer Butch Walker this January, according to a recent interview with Walker on alternativeaddiction.com. Walker is most well known for producing albums for the likes of Avril Lavigne, Bowling for Soup, and a few other radio friendly acts. He has recently produced tracks for artists like Pink and UK band The Automatic. Is this an odd pairing, or does Saosin need Walker to make that radio friendly album? For now, hear Saosin’s new song called “Love Maker”.

Live Cuts:
In the past week I caught a few shows from Weezer, Anberlin, Audrye Sessions, and Innerpartysystem.
Weezer is currently on tour with Angels & Airwaves and Tokyo Police Club in support of “The Red Album”. The band mixed it up with material that spanned their entire career, including their staple hits and more. They even brought out Angels & Airwaves singer Tom Delonge to sing on “Undone – The Sweater Song”, which made for an in teresting pairing. Due to work obligations, I unfortunately missed covers of Nirvana’s “Sliver” & Pink Floyd’s “Time”, but heard they went well. They also incorporated their hootenanny theme on the hits “Island in the Sun” & “Beverly Hills” where fans were brought up with whatever instrument they had to play along with the band. Weezer still knows how to have fun and satisfy their fans, a good formula for maintaining a successful career.

Anberlin played a solid set last week and are a better band to see headlining than on the Warped Tour or some opening gig.

Audrye Sessions are a recent signing to RCA subsidiary Black Seal and played their EP release show last week in San Francisco. With the aid of a violinist and some horns, they played a short set that sounded spot on. Be sure to catch them somewhere in the U.S. over the next few months.

Innerpartysystem is currently on tour with warped tour buzz band 3oh!3, and are direct support, but supply easily the best show of any of the 4 acts on the Myspace sponsored tour. Equipped with an eye-pleasing light show, and intense stage presence, IPS has had England talking for months and should have the same effect here in their own country. They put on a show fit for an opening slot on the next Nine Inch Nails tour, where they could play in large arenas, not skating rinks.

Quick Picks:

The Classic Crime – “Medisin”

Jimmy Needham – “A Breath or Two”

Soundcheck is written by Dallas Osborn who currently attends San Francisco State University and works on the Live 105 (KITS) Action Team.