This Los Angeles foursome were known as the Brokedown until another band with a prior claim on the name threatened to sue the Angelenos for everything a mid-level indie band are worth. (Last time I checked, that totaled a pile of ironic T-shirts, several dozen cases of Stella Artois, and two cases of CDs.) The Broken West works well enough as a replacement, but the Brokedown is actually a better fit for the group’s music: on their debut (title courtesy of Samuel Beckett), frontman Ross Flournoy and his mates kick up a ramshackle jangle-pop racket that gets its energy from always sounding as if it were on the verge of falling apart. That’s a familiar indie-scene gambit, of course, one that’s guided Bob Pollard and Guided by Voices through a long career of beery decrepitude. But Flournoy doesn’t seem concerned with demonstrating his originality; he’s just a guy who’d rather move on to the next catchy melody than spend forever sharpening the one he’s already got.

The Broken West + Minky Starshine + Lorntell | T.T. the Bear’s Place, 10 Brookline St, Cambridge | March 7 | 617.492.BEAR