The Belle Brigade, the new L.A. folk-rock outfit fronted by siblings Barbara and Ethan Gruska (pictured at SXSW), have their sights set on April 19, when their self-titled debut album comes out on Reprise Records. My profile of the Gruska siblings appears in today’s LA Weekly – check it out. Meanwhile, the band will be […]
[Just in time for the beginning of baseball season – and the arrival of the Baseball Project – your humble blogger returns from some time in a distant land, away from the noise. That one mixtape I made for driving through the Midwest was pretty killer, though …] Already, my most difficult show-going decision of […]
Top music picks on a night everyone will be curious who comes out on top at the “Air Sex Championships” at the Satellite: ‣ The Echo and the Echoplex will be going off thanks to Dub Club’s Japan Benefit, with the Chris Murray Combo and Queen P and the Apologies performing. ‣ South African quartet […]
Nothing against Benjamin Hoste’s excellent video for this song, but Canadian chillwaver Teen Daze has taken a kitchen appliance to Seven Saturdays’ “True Romance,” turning Jonathan Haskell’s perfectly languorous composition into a palpitation-inducing mess. The track is part of “Secret Things,” a free six-song EP that offers retooled Seven Saturdays material (the Sun Airway, White […]
The solo debut of Aska Matsuyima – aka ASKA – started innocently enough: The pianist recorded the song “There Are Many of Us” and shared it with friends, one of whom was filmmaker Spike Jonze, who used the track in his short “I’m Here.” That’s enough to inspire anybody, right? The Japanese-born, L.A.-based songstress, a […]
Just in time for the sure-to-be-hazy days of summer, Morgan Kibby and friends spend a day at the beach in the video for “Mountaineer,” the poppiest of the songs off White Sea’s debut EP, “This Frontier.” With its de rigeur face-painting and sun-splashed vibe, the Gigi Nicolas-directed clip (which premiered over the weeked on mtvU) […]
Top Tuesday touts: ‣ The Australian songstress who goes by Washington – already a platinum-selling breakthrough artist in her native country – visits the Bootleg Theater behind her U.S. debut, an EP titled “How to Tame Lions.” Young Hunting and Annie Stela support. That’s Washington’s video for the EP’s title track, above. ‣ Norwegian electro […]
Top picks for the final Monday in March: ‣ Austin’s young rock ‘n’ roll hero, Gary Clark Jr., plays Bardot as part of It’s A School Night (RSVP). ‣ Chris Robinson Brotherhood (of the Black Crowes) kicks his residency and tour off at the Echoplex. ‣ HoneyHoney closes out their Bootleg residency with Milo Greene […]
The Henry Clay People released “Somewhere on the Golden Coast” in 2010 only to take off on the road with Silversun Pickups and the Drive-By Truckers for the rest of the year. So, it was surprise to hear they’ve already got a new material in the works. Their forthcoming EP, “This Is a Desert,” is […]
Skysaw, a band formerly known as This, is the latest vehicle for ex-Smashing Pumpkins drummer Jimmy Chamberlin. Chamberlin, plus cohorts Mike Reina and Anthony Pirog, will be augmented by Paul Wood and Boris Skalsky of NYC indie rockers Dead Heart Bloom on upcoming live dates. Skysaw’s debut album “Great Civilizations” will be with us in […]
