Music: Fully loaded buzz with Idle Hands

It seemed like the perfect way of finally sitting down and getting Ciaran Daly's story: An impromptu happy-hour meeting on the Nicollet Mall, where he had planned to meet a friend. He already had a couple margaritas in him.

"This is all spur-of-the-moment," Daly said as his afternoon suddenly picked up steam -- just like his band, Idle Hands.

After six years of slowly moving through the Twin Cities club scene -- let's not call it idling -- Idle Hands went into high gear this summer, thanks to a smattering of strong press and steady airplay on the Current (89.3 FM).

The newfound attention revolves squarely around the quintet's full-length debut, "The Hearts We Broke on Our Way to the Show," a confident -- let's not call it cocky -- collage of all things Brit-rock. Like the interview, the 12 songs are loaded with unplanned, unrequited and/or unsubstantiated rendezvous over drinks, be they at bars, on dance floors or at the tail end of parties. It's a lively, tonic, social whirlwind of an album that pretty well mirrors Daly's life.

"It's a bit of a cliché, but it's true: You write what you know," said the singer-guitarist, 37.

This is probably the best point in the story to bring up the fact that Daly is Irish. Like many people of their generation, his parents left the country "as soon as they could," he said. The family bounced from Australia to Austria to England and then -- the next logical step -- Edina, where Ciaran arrived at age 12.

"Not every family that lives in Edina is rich," he noted glumly, painting himself as a "quirky, bowl-cut kid who didn't know how to dress." But, he said, "That taught me early on not to give a [expletive] about fitting in."

"Truthfully, I'm lucky to be with the people I'm with," he said. "When you're playing what are basically simple songs -- which mine all are -- the trick isn't finding the best musicians in town, it's finding good musicians who you love and who love you back."

Idle Hands flirted with even bigger attention a few years ago, when it went to Los Angeles to record with producer Mark Needham (engineer for hits by the Killers and Cake) in hopes of landing a record deal and/or a U.K. radio buzz. Neither happened, though they did finish four tracks, all of which are featured on the new album (and on a 2008 EP), including the songs the Current has been spinning, "Loaded" and "Secretary."

"You can't take that kind of thing personally, because you're one of 500 bands trying to make a dent," Daly said of the previous efforts. As for the current Current-buoyed buzz, which is starting to spread to similar stations around the country, such as Seattle's KEXP, he gushed, "It's been massive."

Like the singles, the rest of "The Hearts We Broke" lifts heavily from Bowie and T. Rex -- whose "Cosmic Dancer" is remade as a thumping dance-rock nugget -- on up to fun riffs on the Psychedelic Furs ("The '80s Killed Your Boyfriend"), Blur and Pulp ("Liver and Brains," "Damage Control") and the Clash and Libertines ("Sunshine on the Tenements").

"Secretary," in particular, has been a real prize on the FM dial, and its back story is almost as alluring. It involves English poet Philip Larkin, whom Daly can recite at the drop of a hat (and he'll throw in a perfect accent to go with it; otherwise, he mostly speaks like Joe America). Larkin had a long affair with his secretary. After his death, she turned in an unpublished poem he wrote about her: "We met at the end of the party / When all the drinks were dead / We met at the party / 'Have this what's left,' you said."

Coda on Hanson While the details of Jeff Hanson's autopsy were not made public after the police closed their investigation, the singer/songwriter's parents want it to be known that the medical examiner found no illegal drugs in Jeff's system. In fact, they said, there wasn't even a lethal dose of any drug, but rather just a bad mixture that led to his June 5 death.

"Based on everything we know about Jeff personally and the information we received regarding the autopsy results, we feel certain that his death was a tragic accident," Peter and Martha Hanson said via e-mail.

Way-out Willie A guy who's already about five movie characters in one, local blues/rock vet Willie Murphy is the subject of a new film/DVD called "Why Marmath?" showing Sunday at 5 p.m. at the Ritz Theater in northeast Minneapolis (345 13th Av. NE., $8). The title refers to Marmath, N.D., population 140, where St. Paul director Digger Kohler filmed Murphy's trio, Cockroach Park, performing in a 1914 vaudeville-style theater with the rugged Badlands and a ghostly town as a backdrop. The symbolism was pretty much built-in, in other words.

"The idea was to get Willie playing somewhere really different and out of the way, which Marmath definitely qualifies for," said Kohler, who is now working on a film of Spider John Koerner playing in a logging camp. "These guys are a big piece of Americana, so I want to capture them while they're really still playing at the top of their game."

Random mix Like an unholy cross between Ted Nugent, the Cramps and Motörhead -- some seriously butt-kicking, attitude-spewing rock 'n' roll, in other words -- 20 Dollar Love kicks out its second album and first for Crustacean Records, "High Dr.," with a release party tonight at the Triple Rock. The trio's growling frontman Nate Pischke pretty well sounds fixated on getting it on, in libidinous songs such as the title track and "The New National Anthem." He deserves as much with all the swagger and sweat he poured into it. ... The much-anticipated Metallagher reunion is Saturday at the Triple Rock (10 p.m., $10), mixing "Creeping Death" and that creepy moustache and sledgehammer. ...

The last installment of First Ave's Honeymoon dance parties, produced with the Moon Goons, lands tonight in the main room with My Cousin Roy, Jimmy 2 Times, Soviet Panda and more (10 p.m., 18 & older, $3-$6). ...

Quietdrive, Davina & the Vagabonds, Innocent, the Sweet Colleens, Cafe Accordion Orchestra, Katie McMahon and mainstays Tonic Sol-Fa are part of the (pretty incredibly) wide array of the local acts you can catch at the Minnesota State Fair starting next Thursday. Check the schedule at MNStateFair.org. ...

The Current has lined up its own impressive list of afternoon on-air guests for its fair stage, starting Thursday with Haley Bonar and including Jeremy Messersmith (Aug. 28), Lucy Michelle (Aug. 30), P.O.S. (Sept. 2) and Mark Mallman (Sept. 3). ... Michelle and her Velvet Lapelles, by the way, will promote their heavily anticipated sophomore record Sept. 5 at the Cedar Cultural Center -- also their last week as City Pages' Picked to Click darlings before handing over the title to a new winner. So does this mean the curse is over?