SXSW: 25 L.A. bands to see in Austin (Nos. 21-25)
Kevin Bronson on
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[Final installment of our L.A.-centric SXSW preview … Hello, Austin:]
If you like: Britpop, sharp-dressed lads from South Gate, Indie 103.1’s “The Red Zone” (R.I.P.)
What’s up with them: The south L.A. quartet looked like surefire winners four years ago, when they self-released “The Score” and found their single “Mister Sister” getting airplay on the late, great Indie 103.1 FM – on both the station’s rock shows and its Latin-oriented “Red Zone” show. Finally, Joey Medina, Raul Martinez, Steve Mungarro and Chuck Gil are back, still channeling the U.K. musically, but, on their new EP, singing some songs en espanol. In a country full of Spanish-speaking Morrissey fans, makes sense, right?
Catch them: 8 p.m. Wednesday at Rusty Spurs.
If you like: Glam that doesn’t look glam, indie that doesn’t sound indie, diminutive lead singers with prodigious facial hair and voices, guitarists whose instruments seem to play them, house parties.
What’s up with them: By now, we should have had our hot little hands on Vanaprasta’s debut album “Healthy Geometry,” but Stephen Wilkins and gang opted to go back to the drawing board rather than release an album they didn’t feel was an accurate representation of where they were at. Which is .. well, they’re trying to figure that out. All the parts are there for this quintet to become a powerful machine.
Catch them: 9 p.m. Wednesday at Rusty Spurs.
If you like: Feeling as if you’ve busted out of a cocoon.
What’s up with them: Bred in Orange County but having reached maturity in L.A., Voxhaul Broadcast’s David Dennis, Anthony Aguiar, Phillip Munsey II and Kurt Allen will release their debut album “Timing Is Everything” on March 22. Theirs is an exhilarating mix indie guitar licks and rock ’n’ soul that has earned the embrace of tastemaker Nic Harcourt, among others.
Catch them: 8 p.m. Saturday at the 512 Rooftop (and at 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Buzz Bands LA showcase), and more.
If you like: Motown as filtered through the synth-fuzz nation, digital artists pursuing the cassette sound, Kate Moss videos.
What’s up with him: The Pennsylvania native’s music has come at a trickle over the past year or so, but it isn’t hard to imagine that he’ll get picked up by some savvy indie label very soon. He has an album finished, or almost so, and if you accumulate just the material he’s released himself, it’d be pretty good.
Catch him: Midnight Wednesday at the Swan Dive (and 3 other shows).
If you like: Talking to spirits, hearing music made by people who talk to spirits, the Strokes, electro-punk, very pretty print shirts.
What’s up with them: White Arrows have earned some deserved attention for their hybrid of urgent post-punk and hazy psychedelia, and any minute now the quintet will spring some new music on us that will turn even more heads, not that we’re tired of last year’s EP yet. The press release says frontman Mickey Schiff has a degree in Ritualistic Shamanism, which sounds more dangerous than anything the Strokes (to whom White Arrows have been compared) have done lately.
Catch them: Midnight Wednesday at the Dirty Dog.
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