There is no doubt that the Mountain Goats‘ John Darnielle is an impressive wordsmith. Autobiographical tales or not, the musician has now released 14 studio albums in addition to several EPs and cassettes that showcase exquisite storytelling, and the band’s latest record, “All Eternals Deck” contains lyrics that have not backed down. Darnielle’s daunting layers […]
With last spring’s “To the Alps” and this week’s digital single “Clamoring for Your Heart,” Santa Monica-bred indie-pop quartet Princeton continues to evolve toward a sleeker, Euro sound that’s not far from Jesse Kivel’s side project Kisses. The spare, brooding new song sounds like something Stephin Merritt would’ve done on the classic “69 Love Songs,” […]
It’s hard for me to even type David Kilgour’s name without getting a warm-and-fuzzy. The music of the iconic (and I don’t think it’s stretch to use that word here) New Zealand indie-rocker first flew onto my shelves via early-’90s mixtapes traded with friends from far-off lands – packed as they were with artists from […]
Mariachi .. really. When the Bronx – one of the most deliciously uncompromising hardcore punk bands to emerge in the last decade – first donned their charro suits and morphed into Mariachi El Bronx, it felt like they were kidding. They weren’t, embarking on a foray into south-of-the-border flavors that turned out to be both […]
You’d think the hills of Silver Lake and Echo Park were Appalachia judging from the amount of big-hearted folk music coming from the scene. The tunes of Count Fleet are exemplary – earnest and winsome, they feel like a hedge against high-tech city life, illusory social media friendships and button-pushing marketing campaigns. The duo of […]
There’s a console full of slick production tricks on “The Fall,” the new album from L.A. electro duo Public Jones – so many, in fact, that the debut (out Aug. 2) from the team of Asghar Husain and Peter Kerekes gets lost in the ether somewhere between the synth-rock of today and techno-rock of the […]
L.A. quartet Superhumanoids have a slightly off-kilter name, so it’s fitting in a way that the visual accompaniment to their song “Malta” be abnormal as well. The song, which is off of their recent “Parasite Parade” EP, offers lyrics that focus on the fear of a friendship falling apart. To represent this questionable relationship, director […]
First as a solo artist on Sony and now fronting the rock quintet Of Verona, Toronto-born Mandi Perkins plays the vulnerable/steely strong rocker-grrl game to the hilt, packing plenty of emotional punch into the band’s radio-ready rock. The project began after Perkins – a former literature major at UC Berkeley with a thing for the […]
Long before Gothenberg, Sweden’s Little Dragon landed features on two high profile tracks from Gorillaz’ “Plastic Beach,” singer Yukimi Nagano, drummer Erik Bodin and bassist Fredrik Wallin had initially burst onto the scene with their patchwork of neo-soul and electro-pop showcased on their self-titled debut in 2007. Now with additional member and keyboardist HÃ¥kan Wirenstrand, […]
Anybody who checked out Joseph Arthur’s remarkable residency in February at the Bootleg Theater knows the 39-year-old artist is more than just a songwriter. You could get as lost in the Bootleg’s auxiliary rooms – which, during the residency, were turned into a Museum of Modern Arthur to display his paintings and prints – as […]
