Like their 2012 debut, Dead Sara’s sophomore album “Pleasure to Meet You” takes no prisoners, vigorously and almost defiantly rooting around in hard rock’s musty corners for new knives to sharpen and teeth to bare. It was not an easy path for the L.A. quartet from their first album to their new one, so if […]
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. […]
SPURS is the latest incarnation of the music of well-traveled singer-songwriter Adam Arcuragi, whose work includes the sterling 2012 release “Like a Fire That Consumes All Before It” and two albums and an EP before that. He’s referred to his music as “death gospel,” and indeed his vivid, often mournful creations hover somewhere between aching […]
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 […]
Riothorse Royale, the mind- and vocal-melding of singer-songwriters Madi Diaz and Emily Greene, debuted early this year with the hypnotic single “Rabbit Hole,” a song whose allure drew from its metronomic pace and idyllic harmonies. Since then, the duo have released a full EP, “The Guest House,” whose five songs are available for free download […]
The first single from fledgling L.A. quartet Swerve recalls the heyday of Britpop, with alternately sharp/punky and pretty/chiming guitars setting the stage for frontman Gregory Mahdesian’s slightly menacing vocals. It’s the first song from an EP that Mahdesian, who previously played in the rock trio the Simple Pleasures, has in the works. Live, the singer-guitarist […]
The Bird and the Bee’s sophisti-pop imagines a world where meticulous application of eyeliner is favored over face paint, designer cocktails trump designer hallucinogenics and “retro” is something of a class distinction. The duo — singer Inara George and multi-instrumentalist/all-star producer Greg Kurstin — haven’t released any original music since 2009’s “Ray Guns Are Not […]
