The one-man band writes, performs and records his songs with abandon. If it's melody you want, you'll have to work for it.

Reclining on a sofa outside the modest structure that sits behind his parents' San Diego home, Nathan Williams, the 22-year-old musician who records under the name Wavves, is halfway through a six-pack of late-afternoon beers. Popular indie music scene lore has held that he lives and works out of a pool house, but truth be told, there's no pool.

"It's a shack in the back," he concedes.

Williams has been making music as Wavves for only a little more than a year, recording inside that cramped shack. But he's managed to generate plenty of interest -- partially by posting his songs for free on his Ghost Ramp blog, which he started as an avenue to talk about rap music after quitting his job at a record store.

Among the revitalized lo-fi rock community, Wavves has emerged as a standout for his raw, jittery sound, comprised of guitar, drums and heavy distortion that often masks Williams' vocals, rendering them unintelligible.

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-- Eric Ducker

Photo: Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times

Here's a brief look at the pop music stories that are featured in this Sunday's Calendar section and were posted on Pop & Hiss earlier in the week.

• The Jonas Brothers: It's full scream ahead How big are the Jonas Brothers? One day here last week, not knowing the cause, some floors of Rockefeller Center were evacuated when the floor-shaking and screams of the lads' fans during a TV shoot sent trepidation through the tenants. Related slide-show: Exclusive: The Jonas Brothers take N.Y.

• Q&A: Grandmaster Flash on his return with 'The Bridge' Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five formed in New York in the late '70s and radically altered the musical and cultural landscape -- pioneering the turntable as a way to make music, not just play it. After being inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2007, Flash, 51, is preparing to release his first studio album in more than 20 years. "The Bridge" is out Tuesday.

• Leonard Cohen reborn in the U.S.A. The 74-year-old songwriter is touring America for the first time in 15 years. Why now? He felt the flicker.

Photos: Grandmaster Flash and the Jonas Brothers. Credit for both: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times