L.A. seems to be swimming in synth-pop lately and we may have lost track of how many duos are clinging to the genre, but we’re adding Moxi to our list anyway. The duo of Anna Nelson and Andy Toy released their debut  EP “In My Dreams” last year with songs like “Terrible Disguise” piquing some […]
As if Nathan Willett and Matt Maust weren’t busy enough – their French Style Furs side project with ex-We Barbarians drummer Nathan Warkentin released its debut album July 8 – Cold War Kids have a new album on the way. It’ll be the fifth for the Orange County/Long Beach-bred band, and the first with the […]
“All I Really Want,” the first single from the forthcoming full-length by the Bots, sounds like the work of some garage-rock legends – taut and dangerous and crackling with moxie earned from years of taking their licks. And, well, in a way, the Glendale-bred brother duo of Anaiah and Mikaiah Lei have already built a […]
Few bands in these parts can execute the stylistic range of Hi Ho Silver Oh, the ensemble built around the quartet of guitarist Casey Trela, bassist Kevin Manwarren, guitarist Roxy Radulescu and drummer Chris Dunn. One song they are flannel-friendly folkies and next they are sonic contortionists, stretching around all manner of rhythms while maintaining […]
To update a Cracker lyric: What the world needs now is another producer-driven electro-pop duo like I need a hole in my head. David Lowery wrote that 22 years ago about folk singers, and, of course, it did nothing to stem the tide of new folk singers, especially good ones. Which brings me to Made […]
There’s some of the Local Natives’ DNA running through “The Freak,” the new single from L.A.’s Torches. Singer-guitarist Azad Cheikosman and drummer-vocalist Eric Fabbro (joined live by bassist Adrian Acosta) couple pummeling beats with a keening lament about needing to feel a sense of belonging. The song appears on Torches’ new EP “Endlessly Repeating,” which […]
The pool-party pop of Melbourne-bred, L.A.-based duo Wunder Wunder figures to make a big splash next week when their debut full-length “Everything Infinite” is released via Dovecote Records. The work of Aussie transplants Aaron Shanahan and Benjamin Plant (both of Miami Horror), the album lives up to its title with purely visceral expansiveness, inspired, its […]
Remember all that agitated pop-punk-cum-new-wave on the Active Set’s 2011 album “11?” The L.A. quartet’s new single “Shut ’Em Down” is not that. Not at all. A couple of years and lineup changes later, the Los Angeles four-piece of singer-guitarist Matthew Stolarz, bassist Alen Racedo, drummer Gabriel Grinta and guitarist-keyboardist Francis Ramsden takes a more […]
Silver Lake’s Distant Cousin, singular, not to be confused with Distant Cousins, plural, is a new solo project from Boston-born artist and multi-instrumentalist David Zukofski that fuses electronica and programming with live instruments and textures. His four-track, self-titled EP is about “chosen solitude and [his] desires to sometimes roam the city at night alone†and […]
Through two EPs, the music of WALLA has proven the perfect antidote to a low blood sugar level – the L.A.-based quintet’s songs work their way from your ears to your hips and back to your face, which is smiling. The band – the multinational coalition of Ian Charlie, Alessio Balsemin, Maricio Carcamo, Jonathan Hoonch Kim and […]
