BUZZ BANDS

Reduced angst

When L7 co-founder Donita Sparks returned to songwriting in the years after the breakup of the girl-punk legends, the results were, well, different. “It was slow, pretty stuff ... slow, pretty, but quirky,” says the 42-year-old who penned the 1992 hit “Pretend We’re Dead.” “Then the upbeat rock started to creep back in.”

Now it’s back in full force, and while you might not hear the grinding punk of L7 when Sparks performs with her new band Friday at Spaceland, the songs are possessed of the same voice, edge and attitude. You know, for dance songs.

“I wanted to take out some of the angst and make it danceable,” Sparks says of her new work, including the bouncy “He’s Got the Honey” and the groove-heavy “Mainline.”

Sparks last year assembled a band including ex-L7 drummer Dee Plakas, guitarist Alan the Italian and ex-Superbees bassist Dat Ngo. She also has been working on scoring an independent film based on actor and ex-game show wisecracker Charles Nelson Reilly’s stage show.

Sparks says she’ll shop her solo project as a finished or almost-finished album. “I wouldn’t say it’s in its infancy,” she says, “but it’s just started to walk.”

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Hotel California

The Hotel Cafe is growing, and that doesn’t mean just adding more tables. The Hollywood singer-songwriter haven is closed this week while it gets a face-lift. Regulars Joe Purdy and Jim Bianco are on the bill Saturday for the planned reopening.

But beyond just the physical space, the Hotel Cafe also announced this week the launch of a six-week national tour beginning Sept. 7, with each of its 27 stops featuring different headliners. Regulars at the Cahuenga Boulevard room will recognize plenty of the names -- besides the aforementioned duo, Cary Brothers, Tom McRae, Imogean Heap, Butch Walker, Rachael

Yamagata and Josh Radin will be among the participants.

The tour’s L.A. date is Oct. 12, with Brothers, Heap and Walker headlining the El Rey Theatre.

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Fast Forward

So “Let Me Come Home,” the third album by Orange County’s Limbeck, is fresh air -- imagine Tom Petty as a wide-eyed kid, or Son Volt copping a sunny California attitude. The countryfied quartet performs tonight at the Knitting Factory with exuberant Kansas quartet Koufax, whose new album was released this week.... Mt. Egypt, the nom de tune of boarder-turned-songwriter Travis Graves, plays the Roxy on Sunday night, offering material from his new album, the Tony Berg-produced “Perspectives” (due Sept. 26)....The Night Porter (the new band featuring Carla Bozulich), along with Young Jazz Giants and Fatso Jetson, have been added to the bill for the inaugural Arthurfest, the Sept. 4-5 festival at Barnsdall Art Park. Tickets are still available for the event, featuring, among others, Sonic Youth, Sleater-Kinney, the Black Keys and Radar Bros. on Sunday and Yoko Ono, Spoon, Cat Power, Olivia Tremor Control and the Juan Maclean on Monday.... Pasadena seven-piece genre-mashers the Big Pill celebrate the release of their debut “The Overdose Album” on Tuesday at the House of Blues.