A couple of regional indie favorites are coming through town in the next week with lots of similarities, though they sound nothing alike.

Both are fresh off SXSW, both have new albums on the way, and both have animal references in the band name.

While Horse Feathers' melancholy Americana is going through a rebirth, prog-pop rockers Minus the Bear is toying with new sounds.

Minus the Bear

Upon the first listen to the opening track on Minus the Bear's new album, there is something noticeably missing, or rather, added.

Davie Knudsen's signature effects-heavy, two-hand guitar tapping has been swapped out for some serious synth action.

Don't worry, Knudsen is still in the band, but he's got a new toy -- a Japanese Omnichord, a sort of electronic autoharp.

The sound is prominent on a handful of songs on the new album, enough so that the record, "Omni," is loosely named after the kidney-shaped synthesizer.

"Omni" is overall more prog than pop compared to its predecessor, 2007's "Planet of Ice," said bassist Cory Murchy.

"I don't know if it's a conscious thing, but when we come together to write songs the groove is important to us, we're all lovers of dance music and lovers of bad pop, but who's to say it's bad pop if it gets you moving," Murchy said during a telephone interview. "Before it was like, 'Let's have a million parts in one song...,' and that was a lot of fun and exactly what we needed at the time. This time we went in looking to tighten things up."

Released May 4 on Dangerbird Records, "Omni" is Minus the Bear's fourth full length, the Seattle quintet's first album since splitting with Suicide Squeeze Records.

Minus the Bear headlines a show on Monday at The Knitting Factory Concert House, 919 W. Sprague Ave., with support from Everest. Music starts at 8 p.m. Tickets are $16 in advance, $18 day of show, through TicketsWest.

Horse Feathers

Once a duo, a now a quartet, Horse Feathers hasn't delivers more of the familiar indie-folk-country that won critical praise on the Portland band's last outing, last year's wintery "House With No Home." However, the forthcoming, "Thistled Spring," is an album of renewal, with warmer tone and brighter spots throughout.

The instrumentation has been beefed up with strings and piano, in addition to accordion, guitar and banjo. Bandleader Justin Ringle continues to rely on sparse arrangements, but with more colors at his disposal. He takes advantage of the opportunity to fill the space with orchestral swells, then strips it down to bare essentials at choice moments.

Ringle sings his weighty lyrics mournfully and stark, but the mood is slightly lightened by vocal harmonies that sometimes soar, and other times simply float.

Released Tuesday on the indie giant Kill Rock Stars label, "Thistled Spring"

Horse Feathers appears Saturday at 7 p.m. at Empyrean Coffee House, 171 S. Washington St. Cover to be announced, all ages welcome.

A version of this story appeared in today's Spokesman-Review Newspaper.