Primer: “Baby Hawk (Part I of III)” Everything about Rademacher’s ambitious trilogy “Baby Hawk” seems to spell gloom. The sometimes-Fresno- and sometimes-Silver Lake-based indie rockers are taking on the trials and tribulations of being indie rockers in a three-album series (revolving around the mythical band Baby Hawk). Topics on the table: artistry, careerism, “success,” integrity, […]
George Lewis Jr., who releases music under the moniker Twin Shadow, has poked his well-coiffed head into new wave, electro-pop and R&B, and has come out groomed to be a pop star. His debut “Forget,” a hybrid of all those genres topped with yearning Morrissey vocals, made a memorable splash in 2010, and he’s well […]
Peter Hook got by with a little help from his friends last week when he brought his band Peter Hook & the Light through Los Angeles to perform two seminal albums by his first band, Joy Division. On Sept. 14 the Music Box, Hook and his band ripped through 1980’s “Closer,” with Perry Farrell and […]
No label does as much to keep the C86/Creation Records/post-punk flame burning as Bay Area-based Slumberland Records, and those who like to give their Joy Division and Jesus and Mary Chain records a rest every once in a while hope the light never goes out. San Francisco post-punk trio Weekend ably carries the torch, the […]
Plenty of Friday fun: ‣ Feedback-loving Bay Area post-punk trio Weekend hits the Echo behind their new “Red” EP on Slumberland Records, with Talk Normal and Tan Dollar supporting. ‣ Nashville quartet the Features, sharp and spirited when they visited L.A. in July, make a return visit to the Satellite. ‣ Bright Eyes plays a […]
Like most of the songs on their debut “Pickin’ Up the Pieces,” we adore Fitz & the Tantrums’ “Don’t Gotta Work It Out.” But the video for the song makes us long for the days of the band’s black-and-white performance clips. Did somebody shuffle the storyboards, or what? What’s with the briefcase? The feathers? The […]
[In the interests of keep you up to date, here are three recommended songs from artists we’ve previously posted about:] HoneyHoney, “Turn That Finger Around” (e-mail required) – “Billy Jack,” the second album of razor-sharp Americana from the duo of Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe, will be out Oct. 24 on Lost Highway. Their “Ten […]
The Nocturnes’ gorgeous hybrid of folk and dream-pop is the stuff of slow-motion dreams and translucent hallucinations. The L.A. quartet is the brainchild of Red Sparowes guitarist Emma Ruth Rundle, who along with RS bandmate Dave Clifford on drums, guitarist Julian Rifkin and multi-instrumentalist Paris Patt, fashions dirgey anthems out of echoing guitars and choral […]
The last time we talked with Dawes frontman Taylor Goldsmith, he made it clear that the band felt most at home on the road. Yet “Time Spent in Los Angeles,” which opens their latest record “Nothing Is Wrong,” could be read as a tender love letter to their home turf. No matter how much the […]
The heavy mystique that fills the air at Hollywood Forever Cemetery sharpens the senses, and an intimate show inside the Masonic Lodge only makes the place that much more memorable. For those who ventured out on Sunday night, folk songstress Laura Marling, a musician who has never been afraid to share her tales of love, […]
