Jenn Wasner and Andy Stacks couldn’t have placed themselves farther apart Thursday night, but even from opposite ends of the Troubadour stage, the duo known as Wye Oak connected for an hour of electrifying shoegaze and folk-pop. Their set-up was spare, with Wasner minding her guitar and pedal board on the right, while Stacks took […]
Greg Laswell may have packed up his gear and moved to New York, but he’s still got his SoCal roots. So it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise he’s recruited Hotel Cafe songbird Sara Bareilles to duet with him on his new single “Come Back Down.” Driving piano arpeggios, mighty vocals and tight harmonies […]
Like so many do in the L.A. music scene, Emma Ruth Rundle and David Clifford of post-rock quintet Red Sparowes are working double time by starting up yet another band. (So, this makes it triple time.) Rundle and Clifford also have the Nocturnes, and on the new project Marriages they are joined by fellow Red […]
Although many of us still miss the Unicorns, supporting Nicholas Thorburn in Islands isn’t such a bad thing. The Montreal-based band recently released “A Sleep & A Forgetting,” and the follow-up to 2009’s highly regarded “Vapors” has been worth the wait. Thorburn’s modern pop has always been a bit adventurous, but his new break-up record […]
L.A. band Spaceships claim they play bedroom-garage style rock and roll for the kids, and it’s hard to disagree. No matter one’s age, their fuzzed-out tunes have no place in the life of a real “grown-up.” Perhaps it’s because Jessie Waite and Kevin LaRose sing their melodies with a hint of twee. Perhaps it’s because […]
Portland, Ore.,-based band Unknown Mortal Orchestra have a knack for releasing odd music videos. The playfulness of it all can either come off arty or simply bizarre, but their visual accompaniments are nonetheless entertaining. In support of their self-titled album (out now on Fat Possum), their Sam Kristofski-directed clip for “Strangers Are Strange” is a […]
What would happen if Rilo Kiley were just starting out amid today’s garage-rock surge? Well, they would sound a lot like Bermuda Dunes-based band You Me & Us. They may call their genre of music “dog pop,” and they may not have a single song over 2 minutes 30 seconds on their “Paperweights” EP, but […]
Jasmine Ash is mostly known for being the frontwoman and main songwriter for L.A. indie pop band Oh Darling. She recently stepped out on her own for a solo debut titled “Beneath The Noise,” and here her pop sensibility shines the brightest yet. Although Ash’s feather-light high register always seems to trickle a sweet layer […]
Bay Area band Finish Ticket offers a sound that is broad and touches on everything in between the rock and pop realms. However, their opening track to their latest EP “Shake a Symphony” is nice blend of only the good things in between those two genres. Also playing with the line in between underground and […]
“You can’t spell ‘Shangri-La’ without L.A.,” says zany synth-pop band YACHT on their blog, and their new music video for the title track of their record “Shangri-La” is a purely an ode to the City of Angels. Core members Jona Bechtolt and Claire L. Evans then continue to go deep in to their philosophy that […]
