TUESDAY, JULY 31 Project K, The Dagons at Al's Bar. Here are two of L.A.’s most interesting and lyrically intelligent new bands, both finding non-retro ways to solve the future-of-rock dilemma. Project K guitarist Greg Kay (Paper Tulips) and bassist Io Perry cleverly trade off vocals, finishing each other’s sentences and chiming together on key phrases in the vicious pauses between ex-Popdefect drummer Nick Scott’s tight stops and starts. Last year’s excellent debut CD, Testing Underway (Bong Load), is crammed with punky two-minute dramas like "Just One Kiss" and "Green Light Extender," distinguished by Kay’s shards of spaghetti-Western guitar and Perry’s subtle bass slides and elaborate note patterns. Most beguiling is Perry’s "Lullaby," a swaying ballad of gorgeous resignation that Project K has, so far, never performed in concert. On their second CD, Make Us Old (Dead Sea Captain), the Dagons indulge in moody, poetic fairy-tale lamentations like "Poison Comb," and "If You Kiss Me," a jangly country-goth confession. Even better are the trio’s new chansons, with drummer Drew Kowalski’s incantational cymbal slashings and singer Karie Jacobson’s plaintive, possessed melodies circling reproachfully in the air like word wreaths, or wraiths. (Falling James) back to News