On the heels of having released their first new music in two years, Eastern Conference Champions are continuing a band tradition of writing and releasing an original holiday song every year. As last year’s “Saving Christmas” indicated, they take their musical Christmas card seriously. This year, it’s ECC’s typically guitar-heavy “Christmas Time,” which will be […]
The last time we heard from Brendan Thompson and Arash Parsee – aka Corsica Arts Club – we added songs like “California I Follow” to our long list of sun-kissed indie rock. The duo returns with “Untamed,” a track where it sounds like they packed up their beach gear after a long day of sun-bathing to […]
Nascent pop darling Ryn Weaver’s omnipresent “OctaHate” is going through the inevitable remix mill, and the latest comes courtesy of L.A.-based producers Ghost Loft (Danny Choi) and Twice As Nice (the duo of Nick Audino and Lewis Hughes). Because, I guess, you can never have enough remixes. Or producers. Speaking of Ghost Loft, in October […]
It’s been a few years since Say Hi dropped the tail-end of the moniker (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom) and the decision continues to bodes well. Seattle-based Erik Elbogen has been at it since 2002 and the newest installment to his catalog “Endless Wonder,” released in June on Barsuk Records, is nothing short of […]
Who knew work could sound so much like a party? The first single from L.A. duo Vicious Kicks is nothing if not relatable. “No time for playin’ / no time for sleep / I’m a workaholic / and I do what I need,” cries the chorus in “Workaholic.” Then there’s the groove, a Spandex-ready rewind […]
The Two Tens’ “Sweet As Pie” is quite possibly the most blissful two minutes you will spend all day, because hooky power-pop can do that and because the L.A. duo have shown they can get in and out of a song faster than it takes you to order your exotic soy latté. And because … […]
Not to get too hung up on nomenclature, but there’s something sexy about the sound of “SDM” (that’s Soft Dance Music), the descriptor used by the artist going by the name Taste Nasa. It’s all disco, of course, and the new single “I’d Like to Be Your Girl” – owning the same homoerotic feel as White […]
Brady Erickson’s rock band the Ross Sea Party released a 2010 EP and 2012 full-length of perfectly fine anthemic rock ’n’ roll, but in 2013 the singer-guitarist closed the books on the that project and assumed the persona of Life Leone, desert mystic. The sonic difference is striking; Life Leone’s debut EP “Comes Crashing In” […]
There’s a 15-year-old inside me that wants to love “Karaoke,” the new single from Smallpools, despite its heavy scent of formula, lyrics seemingly cribbed from a schoolgirl’s notebook, its assembly-line tidiness and the overall aura, thanks to the onslaught of bands like Fun., Passion Pit and Foster the People, of Been There Done That. But […]
Eastern Conference Champions’ noisy elegies to the human condition draw equally from classic rock and the abrasive alt-rock of the 1990s. Over a decade that has seen the core duo of singer-guitarist Joshua Ostrander and drummer Greg Lyons (now joined by guitarist Melissa Dougherty and bassist Phillip Munsey II) release two full-lengths and four EPs, […]
