Michael Benjamin Lerner’s unfettered take power-pop shone brightly on the first Telekinesis album – one of my favorite energy drinks of 2009 – and now, surrounded by a new cast of cohorts including Jason Narducy (Robert Pollard band, Verbow) and Cody Votolato (Jaguar Love, the Blood Brothers), he’s taken the first step toward a sophomore […]
Voxhaul Broadcast has pretty much taken Los Angeles by storm this year, juggling a passel of sweaty live shows with recording sessions to complete its debut album, “Timing Is Everything.” The songs made by the quartet of David Dennis, Anthony Aguiar, Phillip Munsey II and Kurt Allen walk an exhilarating tightrope between rock ’n’ soul […]
As alluring a shapeshifter as “The Shores” might be, there’s a wry conceptual disconnect in the Sea of Cortez’s first single. The six-minute track begins with moody atmospherics, pulsates a little, and then Christian Thomas sings: “Testing the waters from the shore.” Which, of course, is no way to gauge anything. The accelerating rhythms and […]
By Ben “Mouse” McShane Physical Forms – the new quintet featuring Regan Farquhar and the Mae Shi’s Jeff Byron – made their live debut Monday night at Pehrpsace, and even the most hyphenated genre names won’t do their sound justice. Power-chamber-electro-pop-arena-funk, we hardly knew ye. Farquhar (known in indie hip-hop circles as the motormouthed rapper […]
[Birthday greetings go out today to Glenn Tilbrook …] Top 4 spots tonight to have your ears on: ‣ Sacramento’s Julie Baenziger brings Sea of Bees to the Bootleg Theater tonight. That’s Sea of Bees’ video for “Marmalade,” above – I posted the song in June [see also my LA Weekly piece on Jules]. Sea […]
“Come Come,” the debut single from the L.A. duo Hot As Sun is a sweetly blissed-out reverie, built on a simple Omnichord line, that conjures up the entirety of the 1980s going by in slow motion. It’s the first step toward a four-song EP for collaborators Jamie Jackson and Deborah Stoll. Jackson is a multi-instrumentalist […]
By Laura Ferreiro As the summer draws to a close, the Chemical Brothers joined forces with fellow dance music purveyors Chromeo and YACHT for the penultimate show of the 2010 KCRW World Fest series at the Hollywood Bowl. The veteran British duo proved capable of getting nearly everyone at the venue out of their seats […]
Updated: Since the download of this album has expired, we’ve included the stream below. File under limited-time offers: Jim Fairchild, the former guitarist for Grandaddy and the current guitarist in Modest Mouse, has been busy touring and working on his third album as All Smiles. I backgrounded it last November when All Smiles made a […]
For all the juice the supposedly revitalized, social media-fueled Sunset Strip is enjoying these days, it remains on many nights a living museum for rock clichés. Tired metal, un-ironic Spinal Tapestry, decadence-celebrating party rock and rap – often, the welcome mat is out, and the audiences here, straining to hear echoes of the days the […]
Dead Man’s Bones principals Ryan Gosling and Zach Shields bring their children’s choir to an elderly care facility for a rendition of “Pa Pa Power,” and magic happens. Even before they bring the food.
