When it comes to being retro, Jason Falkner is ahead of the curve. Don't believe it? Back in 2000, the veteran L.A.-based musician formed a band called TV Eyes with two friends, Roger Joseph Manning Jr. and Brian Reitzell. All three had worked with the French duo Air. Falkner and Manning were also founding members of the early '90s power-pomp group Jellyfish.

The idea behind TV Eyes was to create a pastiche of early '80s post-punk bands (most notably Gang of Four). In 2000, this was a pretty clever lark. Four years later, it's beyond de rigueur. The TV Eyes' album remains unreleased.

"When we started this record," Falkner muses from his home, "the genre was peerless, this re-genre. Now it seems like we're bandwagoning. It seems stupid." Falkner reports that his bandmates are a little less ambivalent. "The other guys in the band really started to think, well this could be a hit record. You know, I've heard that my whole life about every single thing I've ever done. I've never had a hit, so I'm not holding my breath."

Indeed. Jason Falkner is a textbook example of the cult-pop hero. Time spent gestating in bands? Check—The Three O'Clock, Jellyfish and The Grays. Excellent major-label works that sold diddly? Check—two Elektra releases, Jason Falkner Presents Author Unknown (1996) and Can You Still Feel? (1999). Ephemera in the way of side projects, import releases and demo collections? Check—where to start?

Though he's spent much of the last few years in supporting roles (more about them later), he's managed to get some new material out with the October release of the Bliss Descending EP (pictured) via Red Eye Records. "This guy at Red Eye just started hounding me," Falkner says. "That's how people get things done with me. They have to bug the crap out of me, and then I'll acquiesce."

The EP's five songs show Falkner's music-making instincts have yet to desert him. He ably mixes grabby pop hooks with his artier inclinations, as when he turns the airy, synth-laden chorus of "Lost Myself" into a rocking, guitar-proud outro. Falkner's songs recall the smart, arena-ready moves of The Cars and Cheap Trick as easily as they do the knottily alluring works of XTC and Brian Eno.

Still, new Falkner material has been in short supply in record stores lately. "I had to start looking around at other ways to continue being creative while I keep working on my record," he says. Among his other gigs: touring as Air's bass player, supporting Beck on a recent Saturday Night Live appearance and opening for Travis.

In 2001, Falkner released Necessity: The 4-Track Years (spinART), which mined his recent career for raw gems. Its contents were stunningly meticulous for a mere demo collection. That same year, Falkner—who plays nearly all the instruments on his albums—produced, arranged and performed Bedtime with the Beatles (Sony Wonder), an instrumental collection of Fab Four lullabies aimed at the infant demographic (or, more accurately, the parents of said infants). He recently did some sessions for Paul McCartney's next album. "I gave [the Bedtime CD] to him and he wouldn't stop talking about it," Falkner beams.

Then there were the abandoned sessions he produced for local legends the Lilys on their follow-up to 1999's The 3-Way. Falkner notes the difficulties of communicating with Lilys' frontman Kurt Heasley, a man known for giving interviewers skyscraper-sized quotes only tangentially related to the questions posed. "A lot of it may be Chinese algebra," Falkner jokes. "There is a guy inside [Kurt] that knows that he's a spin doctor," he continues. "And I was trying to get to that guy, god I was just trying so hard. I just don't think he was ready to make a record the way I make records. I really don't know what happened." Falkner still hopes the two tracks he almost finished with the band will see the light of day somehow.

As of this writing, Falkner is in Norway, producing an artist named Magnet. He's still audibly frustrated when recounting his days at Elektra, recalling mishaps both predictable (the label's response of "It's genius but there's nothing we can do with it") and quite unique (his A&R rep revealed plans to quit and start a porn business with his dad right before Falkner began his first album). Falkner hopes to finally complete and release a solo LP and tour behind it in the new year. And he continues his search for management, a label and all the other evil necessities of a musician. "I'm just trying to get all my ducks in order this time."