The loose, lo-fi rock ’n’ roll of L.A. quintet the Acetates recalls the days before fancy recording techniques smoothed out all the rough edges in folk and blues music. The fivesome of Simon Elbaum, Oren Klein, Nick Wheaton, Brian Morales and Brian Cannady have no problem with frayed edges; the rough-and-tumble feel of their early […]
L.A.-based quintet Machineheart traces its roots to Tacoma, Wash., emo-pop band He Is We. Trevor Kelly was co-founder of that band; Jake Randle, Carman Kubana and Harrison Allen were touring members; and model/singer Stevie Scott replaced ailing frontwoman Rachel Taylor as touring vocalist in 2012, a year after they released a full-length on Universal. After […]
It’s taken a minute for the Peach Kings to release their “Mojo Thunder” EP – they unveiled the title track last June – but the duo of native Texan Paige McClain Wood and Silver Laker Steven Trezevant Dies finally have it finished. It’s another chapter in the duo’s bluesy lounge noir; their spare arrangements place the focus […]
That’s some glorious fuzz A Million Billion Dying Suns unleashes in its song “Hey Man.” And that’s some as-close-as-you-can-get-to-a-real-acid-trip misadventures our hapless hero (played by Andrew Riddell) has in the video for the song. First, the video: It’s the work of director Andrew Juncker and San Francisco-based French Press Films, and it includes, in no […]
What do you get when you mix 50% of Cold War Kids, one-third of We Barbarians and the writings of a Trappist monk? You get French Style Furs, the new trio featuring singer Nathan Willett, bassist Matt Maust and drummer Nathan Warkentin. This week, FSF revealed the first three songs from its full-length, “Is Exotic […]
Some San Diego locals may recognize the frontman of L.A. quartet Wistappear. His name is still Ian Lipson, but he’s got a new project now that he’s in the City of Angels. Recruiting Evan Jiroudek, Marcus Hogsta and Isaac Tamburino, Lipson’s work as Wistappear is an interesting fusion of psychedelia, wonky rock n’ roll and folk-pop. […]
Who needs hallucinogens when you’ve got Jeffertitti’s Nile? The band – the cosmic conveyances of singer-guitarist Jeff Ramuno – this week releases its second full-length, “The Electric Hour.” Ramuno, who plays bass for Josh Tillman in Father John Misty, calls his music “transcendental space-punk doo-wop,” which uses a lot of words and hyphens where “psychedelia” […]
I’m not sure I miss feathered mullets or Prefab Sprout enough to totally buy into Tower, but with all the other parts of 1980s New Wave music having been mined for goodies, why not the squishier parts too? Tower is the collaboration between Derek Coburn and Darin Green, and the very vibey “Can’t Vibe” was […]
Power-pop stalwarts Ozma have had a mercurial career: Branded as Weezer acolytes early on, they culivated a fervent fanbase before parting ways in 2004 after three albums – only to return strong in 2007 with “Pasadena,” which established their own crunchy sound. In March, a stint on the Weezer Cruise in their rear-view mirror, the […]
Dustin Krapes, doing business as Habits, put out one of the better under-the-radar albums of the year back in March. Now he’s taking to studio alchemy, remixing songs from five of the artists playing this Saturday’s Desert Daze festival at Sunset Ranch Oasis near Mecca. Habits does a ghost-in-the-machine number on songs from Deap Vally, […]
