Is it my imagination, or is there quite a bit of genre-hopping going on around town? When we last spotted Bodies of Water, they were flying the folk flag, parlaying their jangly, feel-good hymns into a deal with Secretly Canadian, the indie imprint on which they released two albums last year. Now husband-and-wife team David […]
Marcos Chloka cops to being something of a sonic fetishist – fond of “creating soundscapes and music that just surrounds you,” he says – but how that has played out in the L.A. quartet Lower Heaven is a little bit different. Chloka has incorporated the autoharp into the band’s reverb-soaked compositions, adding a little shimmer […]
File under synchronicity: Over the course of a 24-hour period this week, I was e-mailed, or stumbled upon, three cover songs performed by Los Angeles bands. All are interesting takes on the originals, so I thought I’d share. First, indie-pop quintet You Me & Iowa [pictured] delivering a surprisingly harmonic version of the Troggs’ hit […]
Four vocalists, four songwriters and a total of six veteran hands who know their way around a song – the conflagration of talent in Truth & Salvage Co. seems to make the L.A.-based outfit immediate contenders in the roots-rock world. Chris Robinson of the Black Crowes, for one, thinks so. He’s signed them to his […]
Kissing Cousins’ name sounds cute, sure, but the Los Angeles quintet’s debut album “Pillar of Salt” [recommended] is serious stuff – brooding, yearning music that, in a stealthy way, is about as punk-rock as you can get with a flutist (Karo Haro). Songwriter Heather B. Heywood and bandmates Melissa Pleckham, Beth Zeigler, Alexis Woodall and […]
The Black Heart Procession’s haunting, wry chamber pop has the feel of watching dark scenarios through a keyhole. Hard to believe San Diegans Pall Jenkins and Tobias Nathaniel have been doing this for more than a decade now, but their aesthetic never gets tiring, or repeats itself. The band’s new album, “Six,” comes out in […]
It occurred to me Wednesday night at the Viper Room that there ought to be a club in Los Angeles called the Major Label Refugees. Card-carrying members could get a discount at Guitar Center, or half off breakfast at Mel’s, or something. We could mount an annual Major Label Refugees Festival. “You’d have enough bands […]
On their self-titled debut album, Heavy Young Heathens, the musical bonding of brothers Aron and Robert Mardo, keep it raw and unvarnished – a straight-outta-the-garage Anglophilia that does its damnedest not to hide behind the fuzz. It’s not a huge leap from the dirty glam the L.A.-based brothers did on two albums as Mardo, but […]
Happy news for the ears of older-guard fans in the L.A. scene: “Farmer” Dave Scher is releasing his first solo album “Fast Forward to the Good Times” (Kemado Records) on Aug. 18. Scher, the guitarist in Beachwood Sparks and All Night Radio, has played alongside the likes of Elvis Costello, Jenny Lewis, Jonathan Rice. Guests […]
Sean Tillman’s party band persona, Har Mar Superstar, will release “Dark Touches,” its first album in five years, on Oct. 13. I’m not big on tongue-in-cheek dance music – in fact, Tillman’s pop album as Sean Na Na a couple years back far outstrips his work as Har Mar – but there are very few […]
