Itchy, scratchy, catchy Glasmus

Itchy, scratchy techno-tronica that makes my eardrums feel mistreated. Glasmus has that, along with the capacity to re-create the sounds of a ’90s Tijuana disco band. Or weird polit-tronica: “New World Odor,” for example, is the soundtrack from a very bad dream in which George Bush Sr. delivers his new world order speech, albeit in slow-mo and to a declining soundtrack of hellish drones and evil chirps.

But when Glasmus kicks in full throttle with guitars, electric bass, and drums, that, in my opinion, makes the whole experience worth the wait. Not that there’s anything wrong with old-disco or synth music that sounds like a locust in summer, but the hard-driving guitar rock they crank out, surrounded by a glaze of dance-floor bass-and-drums, makes a juicy statement.

Glasmus is a Mexican alt-rock band that started in San Diego a few years ago. They’ve gigged a few times on this side of the border, but much of their progress as a band got worked out on the road in mainland Mexico. “San Diego bands are spoiled,” Glasmus guitarist Mousiky once told the Reader, “because they take for granted that even if they play the local bar it’s a given you get to play through a good P.A. Here [in Mexico] you have to work harder to make it sound good.”

Although Glasmus was homebased in San Ysidro for a time, the group’s Facebook page now lists Tijuana as their home. Each of the members has adopted a stage name that begins with the letter M: along with Mousiky, there’s MagDalen, Moosni, Macondo, and Moncho. With a couple of EPs, singles, and videos to their credit, Glasmus was a 91X FM Band of the Month in 2012, the year they released their debut EP. The Glasmus experience is like looking at parts of other eras of American pop culture — I’m just not sure which ones.

AJ Froman and Flatlands also perform.