Buena Park artist Gabriel Brenner began making music in late 2013 under the name Pastel, drawing influence from the Polynesian rhythms, classic soul singers, and the ’90s R&B of his childhood – and the result is some soulful “Alt&B,” full of brooding melodies and bustling production, and lyrics about more than heartbreak and relationships, also […]
The first single from Los Angeles trio Ghostel is part Motown rave-up, part retro-pop delirium and part playground taunt. And it’s “So Annoying” you probably will not be able to get the chorus out of your head. It’s the work of 21-year-old singer Bryce Buckmaster and the husband-and-wife team of Daniel Knowles and Jennifer Farmer. […]
Shines, neé Los Angeles-based artist Jafar Jahanshahi, just released his self-titled debut EP, a six-track experimental project, on the Brooklyn/L.A. label Color Station. With an uncle in the hardcore punk band the Vandals, and a family of Bohemian musicians, the L.A.-reared Jahanshahi’s influences are diverse, and so is his work, often genre-hopping and morphing within […]
After the demise of Bluebell, it’s been a while since anyone has heard from London’s Annabel Jones. That is, until now. The singer-songwriter (and daughter of the late Davy Jones) has resurfaced with a track under her own name this time around, and it’s just as wonderful as anything she’s previously written – if not […]
Harmony-rich indie-poppers Hunter Hunted will headline this year’s Tarfest, the free, all-ages music and arts festival at La Brea Tar Pits Park on Saturday, Sept. 20. The 12th annual festival on the Miracle Mile, which runs from 1 to 8 p.m., features four more of L.A.’s top emerging musical acts – the Moth & the Flame, […]
Figs Vision implore you to dance in front of your mirror. Thankfully, the L.A. outfit’s new album “Mother” gives you more than just glowstick 4/4 electro as incentive. Figs Vision – the vision of childhood pals Jordan Spoliansky and Gunner Sixx (Nikki’s eldest son) that now includes Zackary Darling and Storm Sixx – draws inspiration equally […]
On their new album “Days in the Sun,” Cobalt Cranes have found the sweet spot between two movements that drove 1990s guitar rock – the edgy angst of the Pacific Northwest and melodic psychedelia of the British shoegazers. They’ve come up with a name for it, “California grunge,” say Tim Foley and Kate Betuel, the […]
From the Neighbourhood to Arctic Monkeys, it seems that a majority of bands have taken quite the turn with one theme in common; the darker the sexier. Trading in shimmering bright melodies for heavy and shadow-bouncing synths seems to be all the rage today, and it, of course, rarely comes without falsetto. L.A.’s duo Dead […]
If the sublimely beautiful “It’s Okay,” the new song from Two Sheds, sounds like a song with a past, it’s probably for a good reason. The Sacramento-born band has been in hibernation for a while – it was back in 2006 that the band released its debut “Strange Ammunition,” with an EP the next year. What […]
Irontom have always looked like the skater kids down the block, and not the dangerous ones. That is, until you put a microphone in Harry Hayes’ hands and musical instruments at the disposal of bandmates Zach Irons, Daniel Saslow, Dylan Williams and Dane Sandborg. Then all hell breaks loose, with the L.A. quintet unleashing complex […]
