JJAMZ are back, minus a J, and with a new all-caps moniker, PHASES. And as passing fancies go, the L.A. quartet have now entered the currently commercially thriving dance-pop phase, having unveiled three lightweight wafers of sleek synths and tuned-up vocals. The band harnesses the talents of four musicians well-known on the L.A. scene — Z […]
Is there an app yet that pings you every time Open Mike Eagle opens his mouth? Because the L.A. rapper does not disappoint. His new jam is a broadside at idol worship titled “Celebrity Reduction Prayer” [I got to this late, I know, but think of it as a great companion piece to yesterday’s […]
Albert is a new band fronted by singer-songwriter Nolan Bryan, who you imagine spent the better part of his youth rooting around in his family’s vinyl collection to find classic roots-rock, soul and California country. The debut album “Businessman” follows up a solo EP that Bryan released in 2013 backed by some of the same […]
The best thing about the debut album from L.A. quartet Talk in Tongues is how it doesn’t drown in its own sound. In connecting the dots between ’60s and ’70s psychedelia and the Creation Records bands and their U.K. offspring, “Alone With a Friend” keeps its above water, just the right amount of fuzz, jangle, […]
Singer-songwriter Caitlin Notey possesses a big, evocative voice and broad tastes in classic soul and Americana to go along with it. The L.A. native, reared in Topanga Canyon and schooled at USC where she assembled her band Huxlee, puts her vocals and influences to good use on “22,” the new single from the sextet’s forthcoming […]
If you saw Kenneth Pattengale and Joey Ryan — the Milk Carton Kids — in the early days at the Hotel Café, you could hardly have predicted they’d be a national sensation, playing big concert halls, earning a Grammy nomination, being tabbed as group of the year at the Americana Music Awards. Their mien was […]
In April, the Mynabirds previewed some new songs at the Echo, stoking anticipation for their first album since 2012. Today, singer-keyboardist Laura Burhenn and gang unveiled the recording of one of them, “Semantics,” of which she says: “Does it matter what we call things, what we call ‘Us’? And yeah, it does. It can change […]
Corsica Arts Club’s bright garage-pop emerged last summer with the Golden State paean “California I Follow,” and since then the duo of L.A. natives Brendan Thompson and Arash Parsee have enlisted the services of Nate Chovanec, Jason Mittleman and Peter McArthur to round out the band’s lineup as they continued to work on more music. […]
Here’s to the time-honored bromide that the best things in life are free. In April, while everybody was busy paying attention to Coachella, psych-poppers Strange Babes released their self-titled album for the mere cost of a click, quietly and without the fanfare it deserved. In fact, it’s still available for free, just by clicking here. […]
Nightmare Boy is the nom de tune of Barrie-James O’Neill, a Scotsman who forsook Glasgow for L.A. about a year ago and whose debut EP, “Hate,” which came out in March, is drawing comparisons to the likes of Elliott Smith. Such parallels are not to be taken lightly, but it is apt here: O’Neill’s mostly […]
