Kodak To Graph is the nom de tune of Michael Maleki, a transplanted Floridian whose almost-anything-goes compositions combine organic instrumentation with electronic wizardry and samples. The L.A.-based artist just released a full album for free download — “ISA” runs the gamut from intensely filmic to whimsical and wonderful. Either way, it’s powerful stuff, as is the […]
Cayucas, the breezy musical vehicle of twins Zach and Ben Yudin, return June 23 with “Dancing at the Blue Lagoon,” their sophomore album for Secretly Canadian. The brothers made the album, the follow-up to 2013’s “Bigfoot,” at the celebrated Bear Creek studio in Washington State with producer Ryan Hadlock (the Lumineers), yet the new single […]
Sean Guerin and Isaac Franco — aka De Lux, aka Those Nice Lads From Down the Block in Echo Park Who Played Every Show You Attended in 2014 — are stretching their wings. It’s only been a year since the dance-punk revivalists released their debut album “Voyage,” and this week they announced their sophomore effort […]
L.A. native Nicky Blitz, born Nick Scapa, cut his teeth in Miami, where he attended the University of Miami and was a cog in some songwriting machines, penning tunes for films, TV shows, ad agencies and other artists. [See this interesting narrative.] His polyglot tastes (and talents) are on display on the new, self-released “Hawk” […]
Vanessa Long calls the often-mystical, always-clever songs she makes as Cillie Barnes “gyp-hop” — sung and sung-spoken meditations that have the quality of diary entries. Her downtempo new single “Symmetry,” part of a small collection “The Friendly Witch” that she is releasing this week, feels like she’s letting you in on a secret. “I wrote ‘Symmetry’ […]
[File under Things I Slept on During March Madness:] Oxnard native Nic Hessler had a good thing going a few years back, making music under the name Catwalk while he was still in his teens and prepping an album for the Captured Tracks label. In late 2012, he was sidelined with the autoimmune disorder Guillain–BarreÌ […]
Massachusetts-born Alexa Melo is only 20, but the singer-guitarist sounds like she’s been through the wars. And she has, in a manner. Signed to a major label as a precocious teen, Melo was passed from producer to producer to producer before finding a sonic ally in Christian James Hand (who produced the Mowgli’s). Now “emancipated” […]
On their debut album “Great River,” Long Beach five-piece Children become the latest band to follow the unsteady currents that lead back to the ’60s psychedelic rock movement. The album, recorded last fall in Mississippi, follows the “Feel Time” EP in 2014 and finds the quintet — Tom Gil, Jeff Steiskal, Graham Walker, Trevor Wallace […]
Indie-rock quartet Travelers have had an album nearly completed for two years, but only now has the L.A. outfit unveiled the first two songs. The band features the collaborative talents of guitarist Eric Cannata and drummer François Comtois from Young the Giant, along with guitarist Aidin Sadeghi and bassist Bret Leinen, all of whom trade […]
LA Font continue to be one of the finest indie-rock bands on the local landscape — prolific, melodic, intelligent (maybe too smart for their own good, but that’s just a longtime follower’s hare-brained theory) and, well, lovingly caustic. Their first substantial release since the 2013 full-length “Diving Man” comes out this week, and it’s an […]
