[Birthday greetings today for nice-guy troubadour Jason Mraz. Here’s a snapshot of tonight’s offerings:] After what seems like an interminable wait, Foreign Born’s sophomore album “Person to Person” is out today on Secretly Canadian. The L.A. quartet is eschewing a club show to celebrate the release, instead opting to play a 6 p.m. in-store at […]
London troubadour Ed Harcourt gets a lot of mileage out of his piano-based compositions, sonically and emotionally. The onetime Mercury Prize nominee, whose last album of new material, “The Beautiful Lie,” finally came out in the U.S. a year ago (delayed two years by the label limbo he was in after being dropped by Astralwerks), […]
Portland, Ore., quintet Y La Bamba makes fractured folk that sounds as if it comes from dog-eared diaries. The author is statuesque Luz Elena, the daughter of Mexican immigrants, whose vintage vocals seem to come from the 78-rpm era, and the songs on last year’s debut, “Alida St.,” were inspired by her family and the […]
Deleted Scenes’ debut album “Birdseed Shirt” is a sonic and emotional roller-coaster, possessing the stubborn eclecticism of a Modest Mouse and the melodic moodswings of your favorite roots rockers. If you want an album with a “vibe,” move on – but “Birdseed Shirt’s” shifting dynamics feel very organic, if not downright stirring. The Washington, D.C., […]
Oh, you say, another actor’s musical tangent. Indeed, on the surface that’s what actor-director-producer Adam Goldberg’s debut as LANDy is – even if, as he points out, he is merely an “occasionally famous actor.” I interviewed Goldberg for a piece in the Los Angeles Times, and, not to steal from that piece, suffice to say […]
[Another edition of Ears Wide Open – had to shorten the headline, sorry – to catch up with a couple SoCal bands with new releases …] With siren-like distortion, a familiar chord progression and a big sound, L.A. quintet Atlantic Line announces its arrival on the single “Big Brother.” The fivesome of Ray Silva, William […]
Brody Dalle’s post-Distillers project Spinnerette kicks it into high gear this month – the band’s self-titled debut is out June 23, and the song “Rebellious Palpitations” alone is almost enough to make you forget the Distillers, if you hadn’t already. The frontwoman [pictured with bandmate Tony Bevilacqua] brings her live band to the Troubadour on […]
Children Collide are already a pretty big deal in their native Australia, where they are signed to Universal and in 2008 released their well-regarded debut “The Long Now.” But as many bands from that hemisphere have found, that’ll barely get you a g’day in Los Angeles. With singles like “Social Currency” (check out the video), […]
[In L.A. this week, we’re having a spate of June Gloom. That’s Californese for “clouds.” Here are a couple of singer-songwriterly things that may lighten the mood, if not cause the sun to break right through …] The secret link between KCRW and Perez Hilton? Butterfly Boucher, who, according to her people, is endorsed by […]
Post-punk/new wave quartet Stellastarr* reminds me of better times. “Jenny” occupies the No. 3 slot on my “Popular With Me 2003” mix, and the New Yorkers had another hit with “My Coco” before taking a drubbing in the backwash of other mid-decade post-punk bands who seemed to have more industry horsepower. Although label-less, they have […]