The guitarlicious five-piece Vanaprasta has been on our short list of L.A. indie rockers to watch for about a year, and this month’s release of its “Forming the Shapes” EP did nothing to make our interest wane. Now the quintet has recorded a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” — a track that was covered, rather notably, in 2007 by a guitar band named Franz Ferdinand. Vanaprasta might very well have one-upped the British lads, turning the song almost neurotic with its scratchy guitar licks. The song will appear on the forthcoming charity compilation Uncovering a Cure, a benefit to help AIDS Project Los Angeles rebound from recent state budget cutbacks. The album will feature the likes of the Ruby Friedman Orchestra (”I Want You [She's So Heavy]“), Sabrosa Purr (”Cocaine”), Garrison Starr (”Just the Two of Us”), Love Grenades (”Give Me Back My Man”) and Robotanists (”Heaven”). Should be a good one, for a good cause.
||| Live:The Uncovering a Cure benefit show goes off March 30 at the Roxy, featuring Vanaprasta, Sabrosa Purr, Robotanists, Oh Darling, the Ruby Friedman Orchestra, Lindsey Ray, Pollyn and Castro (formerly known as the Prayer).
Kitten, the young L.A. rock band fronted by 15-year-old wunderkind Chloe Chaidez, has reached a deal with Atlantic Records, but don’t expect the quartet to jump into the major-label pipeline right away. Word is that Kitten will release its debut EP independently, possibly in June, with some tour dates between now and then. Kitten is performing at SXSW at the Girls Rock Austin event on March 17 at Submerged.
Black leather never goes out of fashion. And to a certain population — represented by the giddy crowd that packed the Echoplex on Thursday night — neither does the music of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Revivalists when they first roared into our consciousness early last decade, Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been have now become a couple of rock ’n’ roll’s sexiest journeymen, and that’s not a slam. Five albums in (discounting the throwaway instrumental disc they did in 2008), and now energized by new drummer Leah Shapiro, BRMC seems frozen in time, still parlaying a sense of cool and danger and mystery into a cacophonous alternate reality. Thursday could have been that night in 2001 at the Silverlake Lounge, when a new shoegazer band had arrived from San Francisco and was taking L.A. by storm, except for the light show and the new songs.
That new material — off “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo,” released this week — fit seamlessly in BRMC’s set during the 90-plus-minute excursion. Been complained [click to continue…]
[Huge weekend ahead. And that's even before I decide how to commemorate Quincy Jones' 77th birthday on Sunday.]
Tonight: Great pairing at the Troubadour — local trio the Happy Hollows, slowly gaining attention after the re-release of “Spells” early this year on Autumn Tone, headline, and the Veils [pictured], the U.K. quartet whose 2009 album “Sun Gangs” was 40 minutes of brooding bliss, support. … At Spaceland, Quasi comes to town behind its eighth new album, “American Gong.” … Also: Night 2 of the sold-out Black Rebel Motorcycle Club-Whigs stand at the Echoplex (after BMRC plays a 6 p.m. in-store at Amoeba)(update: the Amoeba in-store has been postponed); Little Boots and Dragonette at the Glass House in Pomona; Sleepy Sun at the Echo; Holly Miranda at the Bootleg Theater; the Pack A.D. at downtown’s Redwood Bar; Adolescents at the El Rey Theatre; Agent Orange and the Gears at Alex’s Bar in Long Beach; Michael Monroe and the Binges at the Viper Room; the Parson Red Heads and Truth & Salvage Co. at the Hotel Cafe; Non-Ultra Joy at Casey’s downtown; and Downtown/Union at Pehrspace. Oh, and if you’re curious about that best new artist Grammy that the Silversun Pickups didn’t win, the band that did capture the award, the Zac Brown Band, plays the Gibson Amphitheatre.
Autolux, the always-compelling and sometimes-mysterious L.A. art rock trio, have signed to TBD Records, which will release their long-awaited sophomore album “Transit Transit.” An announcement on the band’s website says the release date has not yet been decided, but the band has booked a show on April 16 at the Bootleg Theater. That’s the day before Autolux is scheduled to open for Thom Yorke’s band at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Outside the U.S., “Transit Transit,” the band’s first album since 2004’s “Future Perfect,” will be released on ATP.
||| Previously: I talked to Autolux in September about “Transit Transit” and the future.
L.A. quartet Wires in the Walls plant their flag on the same solitary stretch of Americana as bands such as Okkervil River and Magnolia Electric Co., coloring their winsome tunes with horns, accordion and euphonium. Frontman’s Warren Sroka’s fragile vocals remind me of a less clarion David LaBrel (whose tenor makes Olin and the Moon so remarkable). Sroka and bandmates Nick Tracz, Bryan King and David Irelan on April 2 release their second EP, “Call Signs.” A downright pretty sample:
Maybe the eternal summer sunshine in Norway is the reason Oslo’s Serena-Maneesh sound like they do — suffering from “persistent and pervasive elevated or irritable mood,” stumbling into the blessed darkened sanctuary of a cave decked out as a recording studio, what other music could they make? Blurry sonic shock tactics, plowing the same space-dance furrow as the Klaxons, with submerged blasts of squally black metal guitar. Layers of distortion and battering motorik beats mix with trippy time-shifts and airy ethereal melodies. Whispered threats and the sweet vocals of Elvira Nikolaisen, sister of S-M mainstay Emil. Shoegazing with red eyes and a facial tic. Their album “Abyss in B Minor” comes out March 23 on 4AD. No finer place for them to be.
Dangerbird Records continues to add muscle to its roster — today the L.A.-based label announced the signing of Canadian indie-rockers Hot Hot Heat. The quartet’s fourth album “Future Breeds” — a return to the delirious spazz-pop of early in its career — will be released this summer. Their two major-label albums for Warner Bros. in 2005 and 2007 produced several KROQ hits, including “Middle of Nowhere” and “Let Me In.” Dangerbird’s been busy, with the recent signings of Minus the Bear (”Omni” out May 4) and Codeine Velvet Club (the side project of the Fratellis’ Jon Lawler, albu due April 6).
☛ Also:Stacy Clark, the winner in the pop category at the recent Orange County Music Awards, is signing to Vanguard.
☛ See ya, EMI:OK Go announced on Tuesday the formation of Paracadute, the band’s own distribution and promotions company. The move follows the brouhaha over the band’s crazy video for “This Too Shall Pass,” which EMI prohibited from being embedded on blogs and fan sites. Frontman Damian Kulash talked about the move Wednesday on NPR’s “All Things Considered.”
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Hello, fans of dream-pop and all things beautifully ethereal. Buzz Bands LA has a pair of tickets to give away for A Sunny Day in Glasgow's show on Saturday night at the Mint. Be the first person to e-mail buzzbands(at)gmail(dot)com with the band's hometown, and the tickets are yours.
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"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."
The guitarlicious five-piece Vanaprasta has been on our short list of L.A. indie rockers to watch for about a year, and this month’s release of its “Forming the Shapes” EP did nothing to make our interest wane. Now the quintet has recorded a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” — a track that was covered, rather notably, in 2007 by a guitar band named Franz Ferdinand. Vanaprasta might very well have one-upped the British lads, turning the song almost neurotic with its scratchy guitar licks. The song will appear on the forthcoming charity compilation Uncovering a Cure, a benefit to help AIDS Project Los Angeles rebound from recent state budget cutbacks. The album will feature the likes of the Ruby Friedman Orchestra (”I Want You [She's So Heavy]“), Sabrosa Purr (”Cocaine”), Garrison Starr (”Just the Two of Us”), Love Grenades (”Give Me Back My Man”) and Robotanists (”Heaven”). Should be a good one, for a good cause.
