So the story goes that Jordy Towers, fka Optimus, had retreated from Los Angeles to his native Cleveland, licking musician’s wounds that seemingly only major-label-relationships-gone-sour can inflict. At a bar he met Matt Gibson and Ben Schigel, and SomeKindaWonderful was born. Aside from a name the late Huell Howser would love, the L.A.-based quintet brings […]
If the sleek disco or the sexy sheen or the call-and-response chorus of “It’s Like This, It’s Like That” – the first single from Henri – doesn’t hook you, then Cole Rise’s video for the song will. The clip from Rise (a National Geographic photographer and creator of popular filters for Instagram) features some “salacious” […]
White Arrows’ sophomore album “In Bardo” is somewhat of a departure from the L.A.-based quintet’s big electro-tinged psych-pop, but not so much that Mickey Church’s falsetto goes unrecognized. Slightly darker and bit more on the psych-rock side, White Arrows’ first single “Leave It Alone” allowed the guitars to switch places with synths for the spotlight […]
Juan Velazquez played in Abe Vigoda, the tropi-punks whose four-album exploits supernova-ed with the Pitchfork-approved “Crush” in 2010. Roses, Velasquez’s new venture with Marc Steinberg and Victor Herrera, is not that. It’s a cool-as-a-Members-Only-jacket collision of post-punk and New Wave that fans of the Psychedelic Furs might fall for. Los Angeles has long been a […]
Jake Hays’ bedroom in Agoura Hills must be a lonely place, judging from the shadowy pop he creates there under the name Maudlin Strangers. Back in May, Maudlin Strangers debuted with with the aching single “Overdose,” which producer Bass Science then remixed and, boom, the electro ears of the world, or at least Soundcloud, migrated […]
Kan Wakan’s stunning debut album “Moving On” has all the elements of an epic film score – lush orchestration, arresting mood swings, subtly recurring musical bits – that it makes sense that virtually every song will make for great cinema. And so it is with the video for the sultry “Like I Need You,” directed by […]
It’s been about 2 1/2 years since Delta Spirit released its third album, a self-titled affair that completed the SoCal-bred quintet’s transformation from folk band to rock band. That time period also saw Delta Spirit pack its gear and relocate to New York – just in time, it turned out, for Superstorm Sandy to wreak […]
Just when you think nobody is pushing any boundaries and everything “new” fits into some samey-sounding genre, something like Amoureux materializes out of the ether. Amoureux’s avant-pop is the brainchild of drummer Nicole Turley and bassist Holiday J, who intersperse a few synths, violins and saxophones into the minimalist compositions on their debut EP “Never […]
Jena Malone is well-known for her acting chops (“Donnie Darko,” “Saved!,” “Sucker Punch”), but she’ll soon be known as one-half of the musical folk-pop duo who performs and records as the Shoe. Initially only improvising for fun after Malone met Lem Jay Ignacio at a Christmas party, the two already have the debut full-length “I’m Okay” […]
Signer-songwriter Mike Sempert’s solo debut “Mid Dream” sparkles with deeply affecting narratives, elegant yet plain-spoken in their almost handcrafted feel. One of the album’s finest, “Finest Line,” gets a video treatment from Justin Frahm and Greg Gheorghiu that is steeped in symbolism. Filmed on San Francisco’s windswept Ocean Beach, the video speaks to the cyclical […]
