Wartime Recitals call themselves an indie-pop band, and it’s true if you abide the olden definition of that classification. Loose, heartfelt and exuberant, the L.A. sextet’s music is more Los Campesinos! than any of the synth-drenched, vocoded indie-pop of today. Their new single “Bad Dances,” with its call-and-response vocals and surging chorus, is a day-brightener […]
Tired of fluffy pop and craving something that will shake the cobwebs out of your ears? Enter Barrows. The L.A. instrumental post-rock quartet returns with sophomore effort appropriately titled “Red Giant,” a concept album the life and death of a star. Stars are not given a twinkling and romantic context here; instead Barrows lays down […]
The rapturously catchy jangle-pop of L.A.-based Strange Babes is informed by several dualities. The songs were co-written by Sam McCarthy and Jaden Parkes, onetime bandmates in New Zealand’s Goodnight Nurse – whose lead singer, Joel Little, went on to produce and write for McCarthy’s next band, Kids of 88, and Lorde. Half the songs were […]
“Little Earthquakes,” the new single from songwriting couple Imperial Mammoth, seems especially timely, with all the modest temblors that have rattled southern California recently. Its creators, Leonard Jackson and Laura Jane Scott, know a thing or two about being shaken. Says Jackson: “We wrote it about our childhood experience with major earthquakes (Loma Prieta for me […]
As frontman of San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries, Mike Sempert dealt in music that straddled the line between contemporary Americana and electro-tinged indie pop, all of it notable for his weighty vocals, weightier lyrics and tasteful orchestrations. Sempert’s solo debut, “Mid Dream” (out this week via Orange County-based Velvet Blue Music), was made in northern […]
Now that the mundane strumminess of Vivian Girls is in the rear-view mirror, Katy Goodman is focusing energy on her solo project La Sera. And she has a lot of it, judging from the new La Sera album “Hour of the Dawn” (out next week via Hardly Art and streaming in full here). The new album […]
The latest old-school volley from Toy Bombs aspires to a spot on any mixtape of paeans to the radio, and rock’s sometimes-dicey relationship with the medium. (Let’s see … “Rock and Roll Radio” by the Ramones, “Top of the Pops” by the Kinks, “Radio Song” by R.E.M., “Radio Radio” by Elvis Costello … Oh, there’s […]
It’s been 10 years since Gina Villalobos broke through as one of most distinctive voices in alt-country with her debut “Rock ’N’ Roll Pony,” an album she followed with three more collections of smart, nuanced songs that fit like a wool sweater against the chilly drafts of duplicity. After 2009’s rapturous “Days on Their Side […]
The video for Max Collins’ single “Sports Bar” gives a new meaning to the billing “one night only.” Collins, of course, is the frontman of L.A. trio Eve 6 (known best for the radio hits “Inside Out” and “Here’s to the Night”) who rebooted with their original lineup in 2011 and released “Speak in Code” […]
Maudlin Strangers, the solo project of Jake Hays, has a sleek bad-boy vibe similar to the Neighbourhood. It’s as “bad” as pop music can get, at least. If you’re looking for electro-pop that is darker than most but still sparkles enough to be worthy of a pool party soundtrack, then Maudlin Strangers songs like “Overdose” […]
