Who: The Postal Service on the main stage In 3 or Fewer Words: Signed, sealed, delivered. Memorable Because: “We’re an imaginary band called the Postal Service,” Ben Gibbard said halfway through the band’s turn on the big stage. Imaginary? No. Accidental? Yes, the happiest of accidents. Ten years after their shot-in-the-dark album “Give Up” blew […]
What? There’s a new Postal Service song, you say? The long-dormant collaboration between Benjamin Gibbard and Jimmy Tamborello awakens from its slumber this spring with reunion shows – and the 10-year anniversary re-release (on April 9, via Sub Pop) of their album “Give Up.” On the release, there are two new songs, each featuring jenny […]
[In response to the inevitable questions I am asked at shows – What have you heard? What are you listening to? What’s new? – today I embark on something called Random Dispatches … the contents of my notebook, spilt.] ‣ Lavender Diamond’s recent show at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts was a revelation, […]
‣ Prince continues to take over the Forum. ‣ Shoegaze dream-poppers, Asobi Seksu headline the Satellite tonight with Scattered Trees and Useless Keys opening. ||| Download: Asobi Seksu, “Perfectly Crystal (Beach Fossils/Spirit Animal Remix)” ‣ Daniel Lanois’ Black Dub, featuring drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and soulful singer Trixie Whitley, plays the Music Box tonight with […]
Next thing you know, Glitch Age will be the New Rage. … Although, there’s more than a kernel of seriousness in that quip. With producers and beatmakers always seeking new sonic turf, the ambient soil of New Age music seems fertile territory. And if Jimmy Tamborello (aka Dntel) is experimenting there, others may follow. Tamborello, […]
Top show picks should you need aural cleansing after watching the Grammys: ‣ Guitarist-around-town Blake Mills (pictured) quietly released a very good solo album, “Break Mirrors,” in 2010. The guy who has played with Julian Casablancas, Jenny Lewis, Band of Horses, Jesca Hoop and Simon Dawes (among others) plays a free show tonight at the […]
Not much to say about these – they’re the songs you love, only different: In lieu of flowers? Steve Cooper and his electro-funk fun bunch Spirit Animal will be giving away and 10-track album of covers and remixes on Valentine’s Day. The digital collection is titled “Brazen Brand” and contains bliptastic reworkings of tunes from […]
[In between all the Grammy prepping and posturing, there is a massive amount of live music to enjoy. Don’t know where to start, really, except to wish Justin Timberlake a happy birthday on Sunday – maybe he can take home one of those cute gramophone trophies from the big awards show …] Tonight: The big […]
It seems like Paul Larson has been a familiar figure on the Silver Lake scene before there was even a Silver Lake scene. Larson, the lead singer and principal confessor in the Minor Canon, made an album with Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, the Postal Service) and Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks) during the Clinton Administration, and has […]
[Notebook entries, once sentence apiece …] Wolfmother [visit the site to sign up for the download of the new single “Back Round”] sure was great a couple Fridays ago in the Natural History Museum’s Mammals Hall (imagine that), but I was surprised that the set started and ran so late, since the museum’s First Fridays […]