[Happy August. And happy birthday, Shirley Manson …] The members of blues-pop provocateurs Gomez live all over the place these days, and for their sixth album, “A New Tide,” a lot of the songwriting was done online. Can’t do concerts that way, though – the quintet’s national tour behind its new album visits the Wiltern […]
[Birthday greetings go out today to Paul McCartney … in L.A. tonight we have something of a Brooklyn Invasion:] White Rabbits’ new album “It’s Frightening” was produced by Britt Daniel of Spoon, and the music brims with the same spare-but-urgent qualities (that’s the video for “Percussion Gun,” above). The Brooklyn-based sextet headlines the Troubadour tonight […]
[Welcome to June. We’ll celebrate by kicking off some new residencies – and by wishing the Broken West’s Ross Flournoy a happy birthday …] Oliver Future takes another big step in its morphosis by launching a residency at the Echo, and the first night will offer Useless Keys as main support. … At Spaceland, Castledoor […]
||| Download: “Buzzsicle 3” I originally created Buzzsicle 3 for a special promotion, and … well, it’s a long story, but I never posted it until now. It’s an hour’s worth of music featuring 15 songs by L.A. artists Red Cortez, Spider Problem, the Yelling, Greyboy, the Gray Kid, Keenhouse, NightWaves, Shiloe, Robotanists, His Orchestra, […]
The Silent Years are one fun band. The Detroit five-piece makes kaleidoscopic pop songs with intricate arrangements and a sense of wonder, and last month the band hooked up with L.A.-based SideCho Records to release its new EP, “Let Go.” [Download: “Madame Shocking.”] Singer Josh Epstein and his mates hit Spaceland tonight, supported by L.A.’s […]
[One day left till Coachella, and my schedule sheet looks like a 4-year-old practiced drawing circles, lines and arrows on it. So many tough decisions this year …] Tonight isn’t any easier. My Bloody Valentine shakes the chandeliers at the El Rey Theatre, and the Black Keys have a pre-Coachella show at the Glass House […]
It’s easy to be wowed by the primal noises that Robert Davis, guitarist for the L.A. quartet the Yelling, coaxes out of his axe. It’s a hypodermic needle of Zeppelin juice, or a long tall drink of Jack White, and if it doesn’t get your blood pumping then you’d better stick to your hippie-fied electro-pop […]
[Happy birthday to Abe Vigoda – not the band, silly, the actor. Abe’s 88 today, and we love him as much as Conan O’Brien does.] The pride of Issaquah, Wash., Modest Mouse [pictured], hits town tonight for a show at the Palladium that, as of early this morning, was not sold out. Mimicking Birds (signed […]
It was bad enough that Nico Vega had to postpone its hometown album-release show at the 11th hour on Feb. 5 – the aftermath caused some heartache too. “You get pictures from people, ‘This is me, standing outside the Roxy after driving two hours in the rain,’” singer Aja Volkman says. “Honestly, it was hard […]
[Happy birthday to Duff McKagan, rock star, online columnist and … mountain climber.] My, what a diverse music menu you have tonight, Los Angeles. Let’s start with a couple intriguing small shows, like at the Silverlake Lounge, where Andy Friedman & the Other Failures are in from Brooklyn. Friedman is a New Yorker cartoonist-turned-poet-turned-folk singer […]
