Phantom Planet

Everyone knows about Hollywood relationships. Some doe-eyed, D-cup darling gets hot, sweaty and covered with K-Y in the company of a strapping beefcake. Predictably, the tryst crashes horribly, publicly, into the celebrity breakup bin. Then there’s Phantom Planet. The Los Angeles fivesome is best known for having the dude from Rushmore (Jason Schwartzman) as its drummer. But PP is an anomaly in the storied tradition of movie-star bands — i.e., Dogstar (Keanu Reeves), the Accelerators (Bruce Willis) and 30 Odd Foot of Grunts (Russell Crowe) — that suck as much as they blow. Planet’s indie pop rock is actually decent. Which brings us back to Hollywood relationships. Schwartzman is gone. He bolted in August to pursue his acting career, leaving new drummer Jeff Conrad to fill the void. The main attraction for the casual fan is no longer orbiting the Planet, but there’s still the music.