Australian four-piece the Drones really pack a punch with their almost-post-rock shoegaze. I saw them at SXSW, secured a copy of their very good album “Havilah” and caught them once since, their challenging music getting more dynamic with each listen. I would think that fans of Autolux and Silversun Pickups might want to take heed. […]
Here’s one that’s long overdue – Dios (they’ve thankfully reverted to their original name after spending time as Dios Malos) soon will release their third album, “We Are Dios,” via the mellow fellows at Buddyhead Records. I’ve had the unfinished mixes for a while, and they’re gorgeous – a realization of the trippy psychedelia and […]
With its cerebral eloquence, maze-like song structures and insistent atmospherics, the music of Australian quintet Dappled Cities is not exactly Pop 101. It reminds me of the widescreen romanticism of Britpop bands such as Suede and Gene, though without as many hooks. The band’s third album, “Zounds” is out this week on Dangerbird Records, and […]
Miss Derringer’s delirious cocktail of girl-group, surf and Western styles – all dressed up for that punk-rock carnival they’re having in an alley downtown – is seldom more urgent than on the single “Click Click (Bang Bang),” the leadoff track on the band’s 2009 album, “Winter Hill.” Husband-and-wife collaborators Liz McGrath and Morgan Slade and […]
Ruby Friedman has the eyes of somebody who’s lived a little, the writing chops to make her experiences compelling and a voice that makes it all sound larger than life. The siren of the L.A.-based Ruby Friedman Orchestra is part damaged diva, part drama queen and all exposed nerves. How she came to to be […]
Welcome news dept.: Black Rebel Motorcycle Club is working in Hollywood on a new album to be released in early 2010. In the meantime, the L.A.-based trio have announced it will release “Live,” a two-DVD, one-CD package on Nov. 11. The release, on the band’s own imprint through a partnership with Vagrant, features more than […]
[Happy birthday, Joe Perry.] There’s an incredible slate of shows tonight, starting with the Nine Inch Nails finale at the Wiltern. IO Echo opens. … Cass McCombs‘ “Catacombs” may well the bedroom pop album of the year (I wonder how many romantic mixtapes the song “Dreams Come True Girl” has made this year), and the […]
[One in a series highlighting new music from L.A. bands …] L.A. quartet Shiloe is 50% drumming and 99% inscrutable. The foursome’s dense, gothic-leaning shoegaze, underpinned by rhythms from dual drummers Daniel Clifford and Dan Moore and bassist Melissa Pleckham, fairly buries guitarist Ken Ramos’ vocals, but it’s the aesthetic that counts here, wide swaths […]
[My e-mail is overflowing with notable new music, so in a probably vain attempt to try to catch up, I will start by highlighting new tunes from old friends …] There’s no understating the Cocteau Twins’ influence on the dreampop and shoegaze bands that followed them; to this day the band’s ability to project emotion […]
Along with a penchant for combining elements of this decade’s hitmakers (think Franz Ferdinand, the Killers and the Bravery) into one explosive rock package, the four guys in Los Angeles quartet Saint Motel have a sense of humor. “We tried to get married in a chapel in Las Vegas,” drummer Greg Erwin says, before frontman […]
