The Buzz Bands show closes out May with a passel of new music, and my guest this morning will be Leslie Stevens of Leslie & the Badgers, who will soon release a new album, “Roomful of Smoke.” Click on Little Radio to listen in at 10 a.m. UPDATE: Internet problems scotched the live webcast of […]
[More L.A. releases, and surprises …] Olin and the Moon, “Terrible Town” (self-released) – Not to sound too hayseed, but this album’s like beer. Sometimes you cry in it; sometime you raise your glass. The L.A. quintet with roots in Sun Valley, Idaho, have birthed a “No Depression”-worthy recording that, while hardly straying from country […]
[Birthday shouts to Noel Gallagher of Oasis and Tim Burgess of the Charlatans …] Today: Where to start this evening’s bulging schedule except with Animal Collective? Having hit the Troubadour and the Music Box @ Fonda earlier in the year, the critical darlings now sell out the Wiltern. … The buzziest shows of the night […]
The La’s are making new music? At the risk of tainting, or at least de-mystifying, what I consider to be the finest pop song ever written, “There She Goes,” I say bring it on. The BBC reports that enigmatic frontman Lee Mavers has written a new album and joined up with Babyshambles bassist Drew McConnell. […]
[Catching up on some recent local releases …] Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, “Palace & Stage” (SideOneDummy) – Dustin Apodaca, Kyle Devine and bandmates show no signs of busting out of their 1970s time warp, and that’s a good and bad thing for the sextet’s muscular sophomore album. At its strongest – “Blind Lead […]
[Kylie Minogue celebrates a birthday today, and on a more modest scale I submit to you a celebratory list of fine shows tonight …] St. Vincent, the nom de tune of Annie Clark, returns to L.A. for a show at the El Rey Theatre behind her new album, “Actor.” Should be good: The Times spent […]
On one hand, everything you need to know about War Tapes is right here in “Dreaming of You,” the first song to put the quartet on the Los Angeles landscape. Over urgent beats and ringing guitars, singer Neil Popkin gives it his best Depeche Mode-meets-She Wants Revenge, making his girl reverie sound as foreboding as […]
Douglas Smith is a busy guy. Besides acting (he’s Ben on HBO’s “Big Love”) and lending his talents to the L.A. ensemble His Orchestra, Smith has teamed up with singer Ashton Lunceford to form Alaskan Summer. The duo’s old-school boy-girl pop is built on bouncy piano lines and crisp guitars – their debut EP, coming […]
[Nifty and new from L.A. artists, first of two today:] One tour through the Rhone Occupation’s new EP, and you feel as if the sun has just broken through the clouds. On “Would It Kill You to Talk This Out?” the L.A. quartet weaves guileless melodies into gentle textures to fashion pop that feels like […]
[Happy birthday to Neil Finn … Now on to a busy night on the circuit:] Big shows at opposite ends of the sonic spectrum: The Prodigy, behind their muscular new album “Invaders Must Die,” return to L.A., and if Soundcheck’s review of Wednesday’s show at the Grove of Anaheim is any indication, the Palladium will […]
