It’s been almost a year since Haiti was devastated by a 7.0 earthquake. Relief and reconstructions efforts still need support, and the L.A. music community is stepping up. A group called Plays Well With Others has curated a sterling 18-track compilation titled “To Haiti With Love,” featuring songs by artists such as Gary Jules, Love […]
[Catching up on some recent developments …] File this under interesting twists: the next album by the Bird and the Bee will be “Interpreting the Masters Volume 1: A Tribute to Daryl Hall and John Oates” (March 23 on Blue Note Records). No irony from the mouths of Greg Kurstin and Inara George here, says […]
How do you repurpose a 37,000-square-foot industrial space located in Echo Park? If you’re the husband-and-wife duo of Kaz Murphy and Jacqueline Grad and their business partners, you transform it into a rock ‘n’ roll mecca. That’s the concept behind Bedrock – a facility that’s likely to soon be on the map of Eastside musicians […]
[A batch of local stuff you should be paying attention to …] The latest in the (almost) monthly songwriting series from Hello Dragon might be its best yet. “107” paints a sad little picture from downtown L.A. that will bring a smile to the face of anybody who’s surveyed the scene at Bar 107 on […]
Sean Tillman’s party band persona, Har Mar Superstar, will release “Dark Touches,” its first album in five years, on Oct. 13. I’m not big on tongue-in-cheek dance music – in fact, Tillman’s pop album as Sean Na Na a couple years back far outstrips his work as Har Mar – but there are very few […]
[New and notable from the L.A. scene, one in a series …] I have been remiss in keeping you updated on the exploits of Learning Music, the moniker under which John Wood releases his tunes. Back in February, I wrote about his ambitious subscription series, Learning Music Monthly, through which Wood releases one album per […]
Meet John Wood. He’s Learning Music. He’s 27, a profilic composer, a whiz-bang keyboardist, almost stupefyingly ambitious and, when it comes to making music, a communalist, if not a communist. He’s performed shows with as many as 15 or 20 musicians onstage without the benefit of rehearsals. And he’s ready to start his second season […]
[Quite a weekend we have in store musically, assuming, that is, that you and I aren’t on the invite list for Josh Groban’s birthday party:] Friday: Everest is back; the L.A. quintet brings its vivid Americana to the Echo (with the Parson Redheads and Two Sheds) at the beginning of a West Coast swing that […]
[A quick patriotic note on inauguration eve:] Bruce Springsteen’s new album, “Working on a Dream,” will be out Jan. 26 — but you can stream it starting at midnight Eastern time (9 p.m. where we live), thanks to NPR. Hey, that’s almost now. Follow this link … On the local front, Vosotros Music has posted […]
[Blowing out birthday candles today: the Flaming Lips’ Wayne Coyne. Now that’d be some party …] Norwegian punk songstress Ida Maria [that’s her video for “Oh My God,” above] turned more than a few heads at Spaceland on Monday night, and I heard a several people saying they were adjusting their plans to catch the […]
