When we last checked in with local heroes Silversun Pickups, they were basking in the glow of having captured lightning in a bottle. Songs that had warmed in Silver Lake’s incubator since around 9/11 had been hatched into 2005’s “Pikul” EP, then their 2006 debut “Carnavas.” Two Top 10 singles, 350,000-plus in album sales and […]
[I am haplessly behind on reviewing recent releases from local artists. Here’s the first installment of catch-up:] Eulogies, “Here Anonymous” (Dangerbird, April 7) – Ever since Peter Walker mushroomed into a full-band project a couple of years ago and christened it Eulogies, his music has taken on new urgency. Bandmates Tim Hutton, Chris Reynolds and […]
Jonneine Zapata casts herself as something of a mystery woman, and it’s not just the icy, inhabited-by-the-music glare she projects onstage. The L.A.-singer will have you believe that with little more music training than the exposure to Mom’s record collection (heavy on the Motown) and childhood sing-alongs she has arrived where she is today, fronting […]
For all the serious tones, goosefleshy emotions and half-whispered meditations on Great Northern’s sophomore album, the title came to songwriters Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte as they sat in a darkened room brainstorming on that very issue. “I went to find a pen to write some of them down,” Stolte says, “and couldn’t find the […]
Fol Chen, “Part I: John Shade, Your Fortune’s Made” (today, Asthmatic Kitty) – As with his previous project Bedroom Walls and its self-christened genre appellation “romanticore,” Adam Goldman remains just as much about creating mythos as music. Oh, he’s still twee as heck, and every bit the art-schooler, only cleverer now. He goes by Samuel […]
Singer-songwriter Anya Marina has postponed her scheduled show tonight at the Hotel Cafe because of a death in her family. She also has had to scotch two dates in the Midwest supporting Jason Mraz. The rest of the bill at the Hotel Cafe tonight goes on as scheduled, including a record-release show for Sweet Talk […]
Dave Stewart (Eurythmics, if you were born in a latter decade) is offering a little Valentine’s Day gift – the title track off his new EP “Let’s Do It Again.” Of course, the song featuring singer Sierra Swan already has a commercial tie-in, so should I even say it has substantial buzz? Guess not. ||| […]
[Hide the live chickens, Alice Cooper is celebrating a birthday today …] Matt & Kim’s latest album, “Grand” (released in January on Fader), is pretty lightweight stuff, but the duo [pictured] can charm an earflap beanie off a hipster and they always draw well in L.A. With the Mae Shi on the bill, the sold-out […]
Sounds like a gimmick – a rock band anchored by the three Berlin brothers making an album in Berlin – but the nine months the Living Things spent in the German capital rate as the most exciting and profilic of the quartet’s young lives. “We went to Berlin with a bunch of songs and an […]
[Catching up on a batch of album releases by SoCal artists …] Go West Young Man, “Go West Young Man”” (today, One Cell Records) – Melody merchant Damin Suarez (ex-the Fictions) has crafted an homage to classic pop that pushes the same buttons as the likes of Elvis Costello, Ben Folds and a host of […]
