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Download: Candy Claws, ‘Sunbeam Show’

by kevin on July 29, 2010

candyclaws-kmccormick

If the forests made music, it would sound like Colorado’s Candy Claws. The duo of Ryan Hover and Kay Bertholf, which expands to a thicket of musicians when they tour, trade in lush, intricately arranged orchestral pop with vocals so hushed you need to wait for the wind to die down to hear them. They’ve taken the nature thing seriously — their sophomore album “Hidden Lands,” out last week, is intended as a musical companion to Richard M. Ketchum’s illustrated book “The Secret Life of the Forest.” Even without that volume, though, it’s pretty rapturous, especially with the headphones on. A chorus of leaves, rustling.

||| Download: “Sunbeam Show”

||| Live: Candy Claws plays Spaceland on Friday, supporting L.A.’s Pepper Rabbit [background].

Photo by Karen McCormick

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[Happy birthday, Geddy Lee ... and here's what's up on our happy Thursday:]

Top 4 shows to not-so-surreptitiously tweet from:

☛ Brooklyn’s Here We Go Magic, whose thicket of hypnotic beats, dizzying synths and spry melodies coalesce nicely on their sophomore album “Pigeons,” visits the Troubadour (with Beach Fossils opening). That’s HWGM’s video for “Collector,” above, and you can download it here.
Nite Jewel (new EP “Am I Real?” just out digitally) is joined by Memoryhouse, Baths and Kisses at the Echoplex.
Heavy Young Heathens, who have a new EP titled “Make Room for the Youth?” (visit their website to download it for free), play on a big International Pop Overthrow bill at Spaceland that includes the New Fidelity, Eugene & the 1914 and King Washington.
☛ And Nathaniel Rateliff headlines the Echo.

Not to mention: Queen Caveat’s EP release party at the Viper Room (download [click to continue…]

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nathanielrateliff

Missouri-born, Denver-based singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff pens songs as provocative as novels, thick with details, characters and unexpected twists.  His new album “In Memory of Loss,” out now on Rounder Records, is a collection of vivid memories and naked words about the future, produced by Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Califone).  Sparse, organic instrumentation and gorgeous harmonies sit carefully behind Rateliff’s wistful voice, a strange and familiar combination that sits somewhere between Cat Stevens and Bill Callahan. No longer performing as Nathaniel Rateliff & the Wheel, he’s quickly gaining a reputation as a powerful performer who can silence a crowded house with his first few notes.  Catch him and his 5-piece touring band this Thursday night at the Echo.

||| Download: “Whimper and Wail”

||| Also: (via Brooklyn Vegan) “Early Spring Till”

||| Live: Nathaniel Rateliff plays the Echo on Thursday with Seattle’s Pearly Gates Music.

— By Addy Danti

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Top 3 reasons to go out tonight (after watching “Paul McCartney: In Performance at the White House” on KCET at 8):

Laura Marling, the U.K. folk singer who’s nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for her sterling sophomore album “I Speak Because I Can,” plays the El Rey Theatre. That’s her video for “Rambling Man,” above.
☛ It’ll be formidable back catalog vs. good new album at the Gibson Amphipheatre, where Squeeze play behind their new release “Spot the Difference.” Old-school fans seem to always want the hits, y’know?
☛ And up in the Buzz Bands neighborhood, it’s Vanaprasta and Robotanists at LaBrie’s in Glendale.

You might also like: Obits and Night Marchers at the Echo; Kira at the Silverlake [click to continue…]

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Download: Kisses, ‘People Can Do …’

by kevin on July 27, 2010

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The new single from Kisses — the collaboration between Princeton’s Jess Kivel and his girlfriend Zinzi Edmundson — is even better than the first (which we took a shine to back in March). “People Can Do the Most Amazing Things” (out next week digitally and on 7-inch vinyl on IAMSOUND Records) is a sleek, simmering Euro-pop number that reminds me a bit of Stephin Merritt’s work as Future Bible Heroes, or of a lesser-known duo from my dusty archives, Vitesse (recommended: “Chelsea 27099″). Kivel’s world-weary deadpan seems buoyed by twinkling keyboards, but the biggest conundrum for me is: When he sings the song’s title statement, is he being earnest or jaded? Kisses are planning a full-length album by the end of the year. Color me eager.

||| Download: “People Can Do the Most Amazing Things”

||| Live: Kisses perform Thursday night at the Echoplex.

Photo by Jessica Koslow

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With too much music for the incredible shrinking record industry to nurture, artists are increasingly turning to fan-funded strategies to help get their work manufactured and marketed..

Add disco-funk quartet Casxio, indie-rockers the Deadly Syndrome [that's their new Aurelien Levitan-directed video for "Armrest," above"] and singer-songwriter Bleu to the list of artists trying to finance their new projects through campaigns at Kickstarter.com, a website that allows donors to put their money where other people’s ideas are.

Fan-funded music is not a new idea — singer-songwriter Jill Sobule’s 2009 album [click to continue…]

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[Raising a glass to Juliana Hatfield on her birthday ...]

phosphorescent

Five mp3s, with tonight’s corresponding shows:

Polls, “Executive Treats.” The L.A. noise-pop trio celebrates its EP release at the Bootleg Theater. [See last week's feature for more.]
Jesca Hoop, “Feast of the Heart” (e-mail required). The songstress and former Tom Waits nanny celebrates the release of her very compelling new album, “Hunting My Dress,” with a show at the Hotel Cafe.
Bear in Heaven, “Lovesick Teenagers” (via Pitchfork). The Brooklyn buzz band headlines the Echo.
Phosphorescent, “The Mermaid Parade.” The Brooklyn purveyors of heartbreaking twang (that’s Matthew Houck, pictured) headline the Troubadour.
The Monthlies, “Still Life” (e-mail required). The L.A. quartet celebrates the release of its new “Horror Flick” EP by playing tonight’s installment of the International Pop Overthrow festival at Spaceland.

Your tastes may vary: Conor O’Brien, the frontman of the Mercury Prize nominee Villagers, does a solo set at Hotel Cafe. … Also: Midnight Juggernauts at [click to continue…]

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Ears Wide Open: Funeral Party

by kevin on July 26, 2010

funeralparty-jeremyadams

It’s been two-plus years since I happily stumbled upon Funeral Party at the Echo, and more than a year since I talked to James Torres about how fast the L.A. quintet was growing up. Since then, they’ve been busy — polishing their previously DIY sound, preparing their debut album “Golden Age of Nowhere” (which won’t be out until January on RCA) and touring relentlessly, including a spring U.K. trip with Surfer Blood and a current cross-country jaunt with New Politics. If you couldn’t tell by the bold statement of their early cowbell-addled single “New York City Moves to the Sound of LA,” Funeral Party makes urgent dance-punk with a decidedly East L.A. snarl. The first single is a throbbing number called “Finale” — let it rip.

||| Live: Funeral Party plays tonight at the Viper Room. And they’ll be doing a residency at the Bootleg Theater in September.

||| Download: After the jump, trade your e-mail for “Finale”: [click to continue…]

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robyn-kelismarquee

To say that I am not much of a dance-music guy would be an understatement. But the opening of the Robyn/Kelis “All Hearts” tour on Friday night at the Music Box — which old pal Lina Lecaro tells me was attended by a lot of gay men — was one impressive display of disco dynamite.

Read my review on SPIN.com.

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[Re-posting this because some gremlins seem to have invaded the original — sorry.]

Top 3 reasons tonight is like Friday:

☛ Local dance-punks Funeral Party (album coming in early ’11; background here), on tour with Danish rockers New Politics, play the Viper Room. And if New Politics singer David Boyd has half the moves he displays in the “Yeah Yeah Yeah” video, above, it could be a dynamite show.
☛ Aussie dance-rock trio Midnight Juggernauts (see the video) hit the Echo behind their new album “The Crystal Axis.”
☛ And reasons 3a, 3b, 3c and 3d: July’s residencies wind up, with Summer Darling at Spaceland, Mississippi Man at the Echo, the Outline at the Bootleg Theater and Yellow Red Sparks at the Silverlake Lounge.

More in my roundup on West Coast Sound.

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