When Buddy refers to his music as “wimpycore,” we think he’s talking in the past tense. Maybe his long-ago EP of sparse singer-songwriter fare qualifies, or “Alterations & Repairs,” the 2007 release that saw Buddy become a band. But certainly not “Last Call for the Quiet Life,” the long-awaited, long-fretted-over follow-up. Conceived and recorded with […]
As opposed to the brisk first single “Just One of the Guys,” the title track to Jenny Lewis’ forthcoming album “The Voyager” is a string-soaked paean to self-realization with a NASA theme. “The Voyager’s in every boy and girl / If you wanna get to heaven, get out of this world,” Lewis sings, perfectly and […]
In his solo guise as Gold Star, Marlon Rabenreither’s woozy, melancholic songs have the feel of instant classics, reminiscent of any number of writers who had dicey relationships with their Muse. The former art-schooler and frontman of the Sister Ruby Band seems to operate from the premise that the best way to achieve clarity is […]
The good, the bad, the ugly … and the pixelated? That’s the bizarre filter through which the cinematic Old West is filtered in the video for EFG’s new slab of psych-rock “Singing Bridges.” The video is the work of artist, photographer and filmmaker Sam Falls of San Diego, who let his digital demons take over […]
With an full-length in 2012 and an EP in ’13 under the name Soft Swells, Tim Williams found more expansive territory for his music that on his three “singer-songwriter” albums. His growth spurt must’ve felt good – Soft Swells’ relentlessly upbeat songs are the ocean breeze to cynicism’s summer heat. And, as it turns out, Williams […]
“Famous or we’ll die trying / Everybody ends up in California,” Freedom Fry sing in “Home,” an ode to their adopted southern California home. The duo’s new single is a beautifully languid acknowledgement of the seductive powers of L.A. – and the latest pop gem from New York-bred Bruce Driscoll and Paris-born Marie Seyrat. After […]
The Peach Kings’ spin on Americana has always been sultry and dark, so it makes sense that the NSFW video for the title track of their “Mojo Thunder” EP is a whirlwind of iniquity. The gripping animation done by the New York-based studio Ataboy, under the direction of Kris Merc and Benjy Brooke, portrays a […]
I’ve always thought that somehow it might not be a concidence that the acronym for Los Angeles quartet Patrolled By Radar is PBR. Theirs is working-class roots-rock that finds nuggets of meaning in seemingly workaday scenarios. PBR’s new album “Cool Your Jets,” their third, finds singer-guitarist Jay Souza and mates Bosco Sheff, Ben Johnsen and […]
The Bixby Knolls have long repped the dark underbelly of rock in L.A. – although not the costumed bombast of the city’s metal history, nor the practiced indie cool of bands that have made downtown-adjacent neighborhoods their home. No, they’ve been like having a Primal Scream in the neighborhood, a quartet whose gritty but hopeful […]
The cinematic rock of Jonathan Haskell flourished on last year’s Seven Saturdays self-titled album, a mix of ambient instrumental music and richly textured compositions featuring guest vocalists such as Jim Evens (Helen Stellar) Jacqueline Santillan (Wait. Think. Fast.), Rain Phoenix, Rachel Stolte (Great Northern) and Vanessa Fernandez (Octover, Vandetta). “Fields” appeared as a gorgeous six-minute instrumental […]
