Les Blanks’ Americana-infused indie-rock is the stuff of hard riffing and even harder drinking. Their 2008 album “Shoot the Horse” earned a lot of favor in Silver Lake circles, but it’s taken three years for Josh Caldwell, Parker Todd Brooks and Brian Soika (now joined by Keith Waggoner and Jonathan Hylander) to make a follow-up. […]
Tip of the cap to Aquarium Drunkard, the L.A.-based music website that has been honored by MTV voters as Best Independent Music Blog as part of the “O Awards” (proper title: The Open, Ongoing and Online Music Awards). The site, founded by Justin Gage in 2005, beat out some heavyweight contenders to earn the honor. […]
An outrageous video – it’s what’s for breakfast. That it comes from the slightly warped imagination of OK Go bass player Timothy Nordwind is no surprise. The appetizing clip for “Peace and Quiet” – the fourth song from People, Nordwind’s bedroom recording project – was directed by Trish Sie and filmed with iPhone. Chow down. […]
Midweek fare that’s better than fair: ‣ Australia-bred Andy Clockwise’s long-awaited album “The Socialite,” a genre-hopping collection of biting, wry and occasionally hilarious rockers, came out this week. [You can stream the album here.] His trio headlines the Troubadour tonight, with Robotanists and George Stanford supporting. ‣ The Airborne Toxic Event plays the third of […]
The name Brady Erickson may sound familiar. Any fan of his former band Sunday Drivers could tell you that their 2007 EP, “Archetypes” boasted a dark new wave rock sound that easily nestled itself into a niche of bands like Killers and Interpol. Erickson’s pipes are now the centerpiece of a new project called the […]
Coming from an artist who knows his way around the kitchen, Spirit Animal’s visually appetizing video for “Broken Paradise” is no surprise. “A macabre tale told in the shadow of a shrimp cocktail,” Spirit Animal frontman Steve Cooper says of the Ben Fee’s video, which is as likely to get a rise out of foodies […]
Tonight’s touts: ‣ Back in November, right before the Vaccines’ hype washed ashore, the trusted Guardian tipped us to another up-and-coming “savior of rock ’n’ roll – Brother. Like the Vaccines, the London quartet already has a big-label deal and a boatload of buzz despite the fact that for now you could fit their musical […]
[We hope everybody had a great Easter. Here are a few good eggs we’ve been meaning to share…] Cold Cave, “Villians of the Moon” – Dark synth-poppers and recent Coachella standouts Cold Cave continue to tour heavily as they support their new album, “Cherish The Light Years.” They’ll be back in the SoCal area on […]
No mystery, judging from their name, what DNA runs through the blood of the Riverside quartet the New Division – although they could have called themselves “Joy Order,” we suppose. It’s what songwriter John Kunkel does with the ’80s electro and post-punk influences that’s special: He sprinkles his songs with fairy dust and light touches […]
There haven’t been many rags-to-riches stories in recent years like Seattle’s the Head and the Heart. They’ve gone from playing open-mic nights and selling 10,000 copies of their self-released, self-titled debut by word-of-mouth during 2009 to joining Sub Pop’s roster and premiering their latest single, “Lost in My Mind,” on national television last week. The […]
