L.A. trio Pollyn’s languid, atmospheric electropop sounds as if it were made on slow simmer – not even the disco beats on its debut album “This Little Night” seem to faze singer Genevieve Artadi, whose sultry vocals recall the David Arnold-composed “James Bond” soundtracks. The soundscapes laid down by guitarist Anthony Cava and beats/effects guy […]
Teenage wunderkinds Moses Campbell – it’s a six-piece band, not some grizzled folk singer that the name might conjure up – seem to have bottled up the exuberance of youth and the dreariness of aging on one calamitous album. “Who Are You? Who Is Anyone?” (just out on the Smell’s olFactory Records) embraces the present […]
International Tennis Champions slipped me a cassette of their music after I happened upon their very first show last fall, which reminded me that my car has a cassette player, which reminded me of bygone days when I delivered newspapers out of my car in the wee hours and wore out tape after tape, which […]
Eef Barzelay gets more out of a couplet than most novelists get out of 300 pages. On his band Clem Snide’s new album, “The Meat of Life,” Barzelay – coming off two strong solo outings – achieves moments of uncommon tenderness and beauty, his warbly tenor inhabiting his characters’ fractured lives and emotional fissures. “The […]
The languid, shimmering dream-pop on “Anything That Moves,” the third album from L.A. collective Snow & Voices, takes me back to the 1990s, when there was a special cubbyhole on my CD shelves for the likes of the Sundays, the Golden Palominos, the Innocence Mission and Mazzy Star. Singer Lauri Kranz isn’t in that league, […]
[Things to do this weekend: Wish David Byrne a happy birthday. Find a way to see one of those Flying Lotus shows. Use this post as a opportunity to remind folks that Patrick Park has a new album out.] As downright pretty as Patrick Park’s third album is, “Come What Will,” like its title, sometimes […]
Painted Hills, “Painted Hills” (Bird Song/Parasol) – Singer-guitarist Josh Schwartz’s solo project (formerly known as Bolero) splashes down with a well-crafted batch of paisley psych-pop that feels like the soundtrack to the best possible hippie dream. Schwartz, who has played in Beachwood Sparks, Further and the Tyde and has toured with John Cale and the […]
I’m not sure there are a lot of Eureka moments on “Eureka,” the forthcoming third album by Rooney – Robert Schwartzman and mates, however, have become some of the most reliable purveyors of ’60s- and ’70s-leaning power-pop around. As by-the-diagram as the L.A. quartet’s new disc sometimes feels, Taylor Locke’s sharp guitar work, as well […]
I have no idea why the Futureheads aren’t almost as big as some of the other U.K. post-punk bands that emerged in the middle part of last decade. The Sunderland, England, quartet’s music certainly seems like rocket science compared to many of their more popular contemporaries. (Tangentially, when I included a new song in a […]
Avi Buffalo, “Avi Buffalo” (Sub Pop) – There are a lot of “out-of-the-mouths-of-babes” moments on the unblinkingly frank and heartrendingly tender debut album from the mostly teenaged Long Beach quartet. From the stains in “Summer Cum,” to the dialogue with death in “Where’s Your Dirty Mind” to the confessions in “Jessica,” singer-guitarist Avi-Zahner-Isenberg (his vocals […]
