► The long-awaited second album from Meiko, “The Bright Side,” will be out May 15, the L.A. songstress announced yesterday. It’s the follow-up to her self-titled debut, released in 2007 and picked up by MySpace Records (R.I.P.) in ’08. She returns to her home base, the Hotel Cafe, for a show tonight — maybe somebody will whip up some of those “Famous Turkey Balls” she makes in the video for “Stuck on You.”
► NME darlings Bombay Bicycle Club [see our post from Feb. 2] headlines the sold-out El Rey Theatre behind the U.S. release of their lauded (in the U.K. ) “A Different Kind of Fix.” Toronto art-rock quartet the Darcys open — visit their site for a free download of their interpretation of Steely Dan’s “Aja.”
► The Other Side of Morning celebrate the release of their album “Letters From Your Love, the Madman” at the Roxy. TOY, Shawn Cook and Jane Carrey (Jim’s daughter) open.
► Liquid Love Letter [see our post from November] returns to the Bootleg Theater, with John Gold and Stephen Sowan supporting.
► And L.A. rockers Nacosta play a free night at the Satellite. [See our post from last week.]
In three short years, So Many Wizards have become a staple in the DIY scene for L.A., and they’ve never been afraid to color outside of the lines during their time together. Experimenting with unpredictable song structures and textures, Nima Kazerouni, Erik Felix, Frank Maston and Geoff Geis have released two EPs that have continually intrigued fans of the unconventional, but this will be the year they finally release a full-length. Their debut record “Warm Nothing” is slated to arrive in late 2012 on JAXART Records, and if their new single “Lose Your Mind” is any indication of the how well all their eccentric elements all come together for a mighty musical mosaic, it’s a record worth looking forward to.
The Other Side of Morning gets up on the same side of the bed as a lot of ’90s alt-rock giants without really stretching the formula, but the L.A. quartet of James Werner, Kyle Wyman, Thomas Yagodinski and Tim McDonnell has watched is album “Letters From Your Love, The Madman” rise and shine. Since its self-release last year, the album, made with producer/engineer Doug Grean (Stone Temple Pilots/Velvet Revolver), gained steam and recently was picked up by the Rocket Science label and released today. The nifty stop-motion animation video for “Cracking Up” is the work of drummer Yagodinski — is it really, as the song says, “only a dream?”
||| Live: The Other Side of Morning celebrates its album release with a show Wednesday at the Roxy.
The Breakups are one of those local bands you should never take for granted — steady hands, making music around their day jobs and responsibilities in other bands and, in songwriter Jake Gideon’s case, confidently carrying the torch of true-blue power-pop. “Running Jumping Falling Shouting,” out today, is the Breakups’ first release since 2008′s “Eat Your Heart Out” EP, and the quintet of Gideon and bandmates Phil Shrut, James Williams, Nik Ahlstam and Tim Lee) dispenses sharp ear candy indebted to the likes of Elvis Costello, Emitt Rhodes, the Beatles and the melody-laden, lovelorn masses that followed. For someone with a classic pop palette, Gideon has a postmodern outlook on affairs of the heart. (See “Sentimentalitis,” co-written by Wait. Think. Fast’s Jacqueline Santillan, one of myriad contributors on the album.) And then there is the timing. The Breakups, releasing an album on a Hallmark holiday? So there.
Ah, FIDLAR are at it again. And we’re not referring to whatever Zac Carper has going on in the press photo. The quartet is leading the charge among the cadre of young L.A. bands doing stripped-down garage-pop that’s skate-, surf- and party-friendly. From their early digital singles to last year’s “DIYDUI” EP for White Iris, they make catchy sound as easy as three chords, two beers and a bong. The 2 1/2-minute blasts from Carper, brothers Elvis and Max Kuehn and Brandon Schwartzel seem the antithesis of the mantra from which they get their band name, F*ck It Dog, Life’s A Risk — they’re not very risky at all. But they sure are fun. Their new single “No Waves” will be out as a 7-inch via Mom+Pop Records on March 13. Maybe it’s derring-do enough.
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Perhaps you’re craving something a bit more brooding on this sentimental holiday. It’s understandable, and Jack White‘s new music video for “Love Interruption,” the lead single off his debut solo record “Blunderbluss,” arrives just in time for your viewing pleasure. In contrast to the optimistic “LOV” from Fitz & the Tantrums (see previous post), White’s self-directed video has a vintage glamor sheen that slowly unfurls while he sings his earthy lyrics about what he wishes love would do. Also featured in the clip are his band members: backup vocalist Ruby Amanfu, clarinet player Emily Bowland, and Brooke Waggoner on Wurlitzer electric piano.
No matter the message of the song, Fitz & the Tantrums‘ new music video for “LOV” might even make those who usually scowl at Valentine’s Day events a bit more upbeat about the Hallmark holiday. Combining old clips from just about any genre and era of dance (highlights including Bollywood scenes, ABBA stare-offs and showgirls), the L.A. breakout band offers a collage of retro happiness that has no doubt influenced their soul sound. Although we don’t actually see any band members in this visual accompaniment, it makes a lot more sense than their last video.
(click on the heart to get a download of a song by one of my favorite Paul Epworth-produced bands):
► These guys know how to do special occasions: L.A. quartet Saint Motel does a night called “Heartbreaker’s Hideaway” at downtown’s Belasco Ballroom. Races also performs at the KCRW-sponsored event that features burlesque dancers, DJs, a photobooth and more.
► Ms. Lauryn Hill holds forth at the Hollywood Palladium.
► Audra Mae & the Almighty Sound celebrates their album release with a free show at the Satellite featuring Red Circle Underground.
► Canadian indie-rockers Islands visit the Bootleg Bar — their new album “A Sleep & A Forgetting” is out today on Anti- Records.
► Copenhagen’s the Asteroids Galaxy Tour, their sophomore album “Out of Frequency” just out, headlines the Echoplex.
► The local lineup at the Mint could hardly be sweeter — Daniel Ahearn & the Jones, Correatown, the Sweet Hurt and Monsters Calling Home.
► And at the Echo, there’s the “Valentine’s Day Song Massacre, aka The Sad Hour” with a big lineup of performers including Grant Langston, the Far West, the Driftwood Singers, Death to Anders, Aaron Kyle of Geronimo Getty and more.
The brothers Wardell — Patrick, Sean and Brian, who hail from Huntington Beach — have a lot going for them: Sibling harmonies, crisp guitar work that blurs the line between Americana and indie-rock and a band name that’s sure to get a chuckle: Moostache. If the band’s 2009 debut album “The Body Disagrees” felt merely like a baby step, the Wardells ratchet up the playing and writing on the six new tracks, still brimming with adenoidal charm. Singer-guitarist Patrick, who graduated high school the same year Moostache’s debut came out, sounds the youthful romantic in “Thrills,” when he pines for a love unencumbered by the detritus of modern life. “Maybe, maybe / if was born B.C. / well I’d be better off hard-wired / to be, to be / with only necessities,” he sings. Ditto for the charms of well-crafted guitar rock.
Heady stuff, this new video from Autolux. The L.A. art-rock trio’s 2010 album “Transit Transit” has a way of getting inside your head, and the video for the album’s closing track “The Science of Imaginary Solutions” suggests that if you spend too much time there you might not like what you find. The animated piece is the work of director Thomas McMahan and artist Mark Whalen. ATP Recordings is releasing a limited-edition (100 copies) book of stills from the video (along with other goodies). Autolux, which went almost six years between releasing its first and second albums, is currently in the studio working on its third. If Carla Azar, Eugene Goreshter and Greg Edwards are anywhere near as meticulous with this new one, we’ll have plenty of time to revisit this video for all its layered meanings. It deserves it.
NEW TIME STARTING JAN. 15, 2012: Join me at 7 p.m. every Sunday night for the L.A. Buzz Bands Show on all-music, listener-supported KCSN (88.5 FM). It's an hour of music by SoCal artists, and it's streamable at KCSN.org.
NEW TIME STARTING NOV. 4, 2011: Tune into the Buzz Bands LA Show every Friday at 11 a.m. Pacific Time on Moheak Radio. It's two hours of mostly local, always-fresh music.
"Much popular music is hollow professionalism – musicians and record producers recycling ideas and styles most likely to sell records. The memorable artists redefine the boundaries, either through blinding originality or by looking with unbending honesty at their deepest fears and grandest dreams."
