[Here’s a sampling of some of the best stuff to hit my e-mailbag recently …] Loney Dear‘s new album, “Dear John,” was released in January but for those of you that haven’t gotten to it (or who missed their L.A.show with Andrew Bird), this is for you. Hailing from Sweden, Loney Dear’s frontman” Emil Svanängen and […]
Singer-guitarist Tim Scanlin would be the first to admit that he and his bandmates in Actionslacks no longer belong in the peer group “Kids With Guitars.” But that doesn’t mean the quartet is trudging quietly into middle age. On the contrary, considering their new digital EP with that very name. “No, I don’t think we’re […]
Neil Schield is standing on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, smiling and saying, “I’m an oxymoron.” And if you were more cynical and knew he was opening a record store, you’d think he could lose the prefix. In about three weeks, Schield is indeed opening a brick-and-mortar shop, Origami Vinyl, in a 400-square-foot space at […]
If nothing else, Foreign Born has become very astute at biding its time. The L.A. quartet arrived in ’05 with and EP and a single (“We Had Pleasure”) that should have put them on the map immediately. After they recorded their debut “In the Remote Woods,” the indie labels that should have come calling didn’t. […]
[Heard on the local beat …] L.A. quartet Bigelf is described as “30 years behind and five years ahead of what’s happening,” and I’ll buy that. Fronted by Laurel Canyon-bred Damon Fox, the foursome channels Black Sabbath into a sprawling, gnarly mountain of sound – and while you’re not liable to find many of the […]
[Culled from recent electronic correspondences:] Singer, songwriter, composer and arena rocker Mark Mallman says via press release that his is re-recording his forthcoming album, tentatively titled “Invincible Criminal,” on Badman Recordings. Yeah, he had one done, and then, “I sat back and listened to a record in the major key, when my life had gone […]
There’s no Olin in Olin and the Moon, but there’s plenty of good-natured lunacy. Cherubic frontman David LaBrel, 22, moved to L.A. over three years ago from Sun Valley, Idaho, and older brother Travis, along with drummer Marshall Vore, soon followed. But it took a while for the newbies to find bassist Kyle Vicioso and […]
[Birthday greetings go out today to Lou Reed, Chris Martin and Jon Bon Jovi. Now that’s a trio …] This month’s residencies start in a big way: At Spaceland, where Nico Stai has the headlining slot, Hesta Prynn (pictured, of Northern State) gets the ball rolling early [Download: “Seven Sisters”]. Pop Noir and Eastern Conference […]
[More L.A.-made tunes from the Buzz Bands fountain …] Sometimes you have to jog Buzz Bands’ memory, and that was the case when I heard “Bliss & Death,” the new album from National Skyline. Oh, yes, there on the shelves was the band’s self-titled 2000 release on Hidden Agenda Records, purchased long ago via mail […]
Meet John Wood. He’s Learning Music. He’s 27, a profilic composer, a whiz-bang keyboardist, almost stupefyingly ambitious and, when it comes to making music, a communalist, if not a communist. He’s performed shows with as many as 15 or 20 musicians onstage without the benefit of rehearsals. And he’s ready to start his second season […]
