Kisses have found “A Groove.” Not that the indie duo of Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson didn’t have one before, but nothing on their previous two albums (2013’s “Kids in LA” and 2010’s “The Heart of the Nightlife” was this deep, or bold. “A Groove” is the first song to emerge from Kisses’ forthcoming third […]
The first single from L.A. garage-rockers the Shelters recalls the swagger of the Replacements and the saw-toothed riffage of tragically overlooked power-poppers like the Velvet Crush. “Birdwatching” is the work of the new trio of Chase Simpson, Josh Jove and Sebastian Harris, who had played in the L.A. band Automatik Slim. The former two have […]
Tijuana Panthers have given you a little something to jam while cruising around the city this summer with the car windows open. “Front Window Down” is the breezy first single from “POSTER,” the fourth album from the Long Beach trio of Chad Wachtel, Daniel Michicoff and Phil Shaheen. The album, out Aug. 28 via Innovative […]
If Isaac Rother & the Phantoms aren’t headlining a Halloween party in L.A. this October, somebody’s missing the boat. The Washington state-bred retro-rockers debuted their full-length “The Unspeakable Horror of …” last month, their collection of howling, growling throwback blues imagining the time Screamin’ Jay Hawkins got together with Sam the Sham for a collaboration […]
Emily Gold says the pop confessionals on her forthcoming debut album “Recluse” aren’t just love, lust or heartbreak songs but about “the in-between,” and that often-agonizing fluidity of emotions plays out in her new single “Love Moves.” Amid lush instrumentation and finger-snaps, and punctuated by a tasty guitar solo from David Burris, the British-born, California-bred […]
In city never hesitant about giving its bleeding hearts to the U.K.’s crown princes of mopery, there’s always room for Ballerina Black, the Los Angeles trio who continue to produce some of the sleekest pre-millenial alt-rock around. The new EP “Whails” is their first substantial release since the 2012-13 “Injureless” EP trilogy (they teased with […]
Los Angeles quartet TETE find their antecedents in dream-pop pioneers like the Cocteau Twins and the ethereal enchantresses in the 4AD catalog. And their new conjuration, “Newblood,” suggests we keep a wary eye on the swirling dark clouds overhead, if not the person standing next to you in the club. “Somebody like you / I’ll […]
L.A. psych-rockers Fever the Ghost have been out-weirding-out just about everything in their path since 2013, when they arrived on the scene, ostensibly by interstellar transport. Beyond making you believe in parallel universes, their music is rife with experimentation, a web of synths, guitar and vocals speaking to each other in a seemingly foreign tongue. […]
For years, Cecilia Della Peruti has been a familiar figure on the L.A. indie scene, but not necessarily because she wants to fit in. Since 2011 or so, her band Gothic Tropic has gigged and gigged and gigged and gigged some more, prompting a lot of next-big-thing chatter but offering little in the way of […]
“Our two hearts will never sleep alone,” Michael Escañuelas and Celese Hernandez sing on Their Wedding’s new song “Naked,” a squishy pillow-talker best enjoyed with the lights down low. The Inland Empire-bred quartet of singer-pianist Escañuelas, singer-percussionist Celese Hernandez, guitarist Al Hernandez and drummer Ryan Ohanessian has been refining such romanticism for two-plus years now, […]
