“We’re the girls at the party crying while smashing up the dance floor,” MUNA says by way of introduction. Indeed, the L.A. trio of Josette Maskin, Naomi McPherson and Katie Gavin infuse their synth-pop with a brooding self-awareness, fully on display on the new single “So Special.” It’s the follow-up to their 2014 EP “More […]
The hard-to-type but easy-on-the-ears L.A. duo yOya continue walk the tightrope between the worlds of acoustic folk and electro-pop. It’s an act they pull off with uncommon grace, owing to the strong vocal harmonies and songwriting from principals behind Alex Pfender and Noah Dietterich. The native Oregonians are following up last year’s “Fool’s Gold” single […]
The press blast identifies producer Ryder Bach as “an ex-musical theater actor and ex-Scientologist,” but Bach is better known in some parts as one of two ex-principals in the dearly departed L.A. art-pop outfit Body Parts, whose 2013 album “Fire Dream” made our world a better place. Bach’s forthcoming solo EP is titled “People Are […]
Befitting its title, the new single from L.A. dream-pop trio Florals exists in the penumbra, that space between the band’s gloomy atmospherics and singer Stephanie Marie Rick’s bright, feathery vocals. “Grey” is the second single to be previewed from the trio’s debut full-length, “Kin of Mine,” made with engineer Kris Essig and coming out this […]
The band in Lieutenant’s new video is not Lieutenant, and that’s the point. Director Daniel Contrero’s “Believe the Squalor” is played out in a chapel amid fire and blood by a metal band — just about the polar opposite of singer-guitarist Nate Mendel and the guys he recruited to stage his solo project Lieutenant. Mendel, […]
“Quiet Time” is the first new music from L.A. trio Roses since August’s “Dreamlover” EP, and it places them squarely in the court of kings of sad wave such as the Cure and Moz. Though Roses aren’t the kind to wear shiny or black things, the trio of singer-keyboardist Marc Steinberg, bassist Victor Herrera and […]
If you know L.A.’s Jarell Perry from swooning electro-R&B stylings, a new collaborative EP with Toronto producer Will Diebel — aka Deebs — casts the singer in a different light. “Shift,” released this week via Time No Place/Kompakt Records, Perry’s precise, emotive vocals wriggling through Deebs’ minimal, left-field production. It’s an experiment in beat-driven, atmospheric […]
If we had a buck for every recent press notice that touted “your new favorite psych-rock band,” we could buy enough psychedelics to be trippin’ for the summer. Based on their new single “Golem,” though, L.A. five-piece the Ambient Light might be a contender. From their roots as a post-rock band, the San Gabriel Valley-bred […]
L.A. native Marlon Rabenreither returned from art school in London a few years ago with a ravenous appetite for music as well as the visual arts. His Sister Ruby Band released the solid if overlooked “In Cold Blood” in 2011, an album that fans of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would love, but the his musical […]
It’s been 2 1/2 years since Dan Chang and Michael Garner, who were two-thirds of a cappella-group-guys-turned-pop trio Lady Danville, forged ahead as Hunter Hunted. They jumped into the pop fray with a 2013 EP boasting the still-omnipresent single “Keep Together,” and now, as bands who jump into the pop fray are wont to do, […]
