BUZZ BANDS

Punk charity

Guitarist Dave Aguilera visited his Bleed the Dream bandmate Scott Gottlieb at Cedars-Sinai on Tuesday afternoon. “Dude, we bought you some shoes,” Aguilera said, handing the drummer a shoebox. Inside were no sneakers, just a wad of cash totaling $3,300, the donations the indefatigable punk outfit collected on the last leg of its tour -- completed after Gottlieb, 31, had been diagnosed with leukemia and had returned to L.A. for treatment. Doctors report the drummer “is progressing very well,” says his mother, Linda. “And the support from around the country is really nice to see.”

Gottlieb collapsed in the quartet’s van while on tour in Albuquerque in April. His illness came just as the band, which includes bassist Keith Thompson and vocalist Brandon Thomas, was gaining momentum after the March release of its debut EP, “Awake.” Between the music and the band’s can-do attitude -- Bleed the Dream virtually talked its way onto the 2003 Vans Warped Tour before earning touring slots with Pennywise and Yellowcard -- the foursome has endeared itself to the punk community.

“It was awesome to see, like, 15-year-old kids dropping 20 bucks in the [donation] can,” Aguilera says. Other bands, as well as Epitaph Records, have solicited help for Gottlieb, who has no medical insurance, on their Web pages. Bleed the Dream will play on this year’s Warped Tour with a fill-in drummer, and Aguilera says the band’s next CD will be a benefit for Gottlieb, adding that those who want to help should visit www.bleedthedream.com.

Here are some ideas

Fans of Matt Pond PA’s unaffected indie pop are the kind who might not only memorize the lyrics but also make notes on the pages. “I seem to get an endless flow of suggestions,” Pond says, joking that fans “are just going to have to join a band to get their dreams to come true.”

Pond’s newly released fourth album of mini-symphonies, “Emblems,” is bedroom pop with the door flung open and the volume, if not the candor, turned up. “It seems the trend is to sing quieter and be more oblique,” he says. “I wanted this to be a little more transparent.” Maybe it’s because, unlike with 2002’s “The Nature of Maps,” the songwriting was largely a solo process, with the band’s lineup in flux. “No one was checking me,” says Pond, whose band opens for Keane on Friday night at the Troubadour. “You’d think that it’d be less self-conscious. Weirdly, it was more self-conscious.”

Fast forward

Must be in the jam? Not only has Phish called it quits, but L.A.-based Pseudopod “is no longer, for now at least,” guitarist Ross Grant told fans in an e-mail. The quintet was formed while the members were students at UCLA. Grant currently plays guitar in Jem’s touring band.... Earlimart joins such Eastside regulars as Dengue Fever and the Vacation on Sunday afternoon at the Los Feliz Street Fair. Earlimart’s new album is due in September.

-- Kevin Bronson