Actors turned indie rockers

Jason Schwartzman (Coconut Records)

Main claim to fame: An icon of the indie film world, Schwartzman has starred in such art-house favorites as “Rushmore,” “I ♥ Huckabees,” “Shopgirl” and “The Darjeeling Limited.”

Indie credentials: Schwartzman quit playing drums for L.A. power-pop group Phantom Planet in 2003 to focus on his acting career, but for the sake of preserving his indie cred, his timing couldn't have been better: His departure was nearly simultaneous with the premiere of “The O.C.”, which used the Phantom Planet track “California” as its theme song and thus catapulted the band into the mainstream. For his current project, Coconut Records, Schwartzman self-releases all of his material on his own label (Young Baby Records) and mostly works alone, although Zooey Deschanel and members of Incubus have contributed to a few tracks.

What the critics are saying: “Like the very best bedroom pop (Beach Boys, Magnetic Fields, Russian Futurists), the songs collected here are deliriously catchy and instrumentally diverse.” – PopMatters

Random factoid: Schwartzman originally included a unique Polaroid photograph with each copy of Coconut Records’ first album, “Nighttiming,” but eventually had to give up the practice because he couldn’t keep up with demand for the record.