John Gold’s falsetto-drenched power-pop is the stuff of unbridled hope in the face of dreary reality, an aesthetic he cultivated during his years as a DIY “writer-songsinger” (as he calls himself) and polished to near pop perfection on his 2011 album “A Flower in Your Head.” It’s that polarity he brings to his new single […]
Enigmatic songstress Nika Roza Danilova – aka Zola Jesus – is still exploring mysterious places, but now it sounds as if she has some pop hooks to keep her company. The 25-year-old singer today announced she has signed to Mute Records, which will release her fourth album “Taiga” on Oct. 7. “Taiga” is Russian for the […]
When Madi Diaz first unveiled her single “Stay Together” last August, it was clear the singer-songwriter was giving up her grounded-in-roots music to see if she could soar with the dream-pop birds. Judging from that song and the new “The Other Side,” she sounds fine in the clouds. “Stay Together” and “The Other Side” (with […]
Singer-songwriter Colby Miller and L.A.-based producer-beatmaker Neal Harris “met” years ago on an Elliott Smith message board, eventually remaining in touch via social media. Now the pair are long-distance collaborators as Seagoat, with a fan-funded full-length album in the works. With Harris fleshing out and arranging Miller’s demos, Seagoat’s music veers toward tasteful, genteel electro-pop, […]
Nineteen-year-old folk singer Phoebe Bridgers saw her already-rising profile spike this spring when she appeared in an iPhone commercial covering the Pixies’ “Gigantic.” Those who knew her for acoustic gems such as “Waiting Game” might have been surprised to see her channel her inner Kim Deal (everybody has one of those, right?), but her EP […]
L.A. pizza may not live up to NYC pizza, but it’s still sold here in the city. Echo Park’s neighborhood party boys Criminal Hygiene actually spend their days serving up pizza when they’re not on tour (one of them delivers for Tomato Pie and the other two can be found at Purgatory Pizza), albeit they […]
Wildcat! Wildcat! have certainly kept their fans on pins and needles. Since materializing out of the reverb-osphere in early 2012, the trio of Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson and Jesse Carmichael released a trickle of unfailingly catchy and impossibly falsetto-laden songs one at a time, building to last September’s four-song EP. This week, though, they announced […]
Prolific O.C. quintet the Growlers are adding to their legend so fast you’d think the surf’s up and the sun’s going down. The band, helmed by singer Brooks Nielsen and guitarist Matt Taylor released an album and a long EP last year, and they have another full-length, titled “Chinese Fountain,” set for release Sept. 23 […]
Torch singer, jazz swinger, punk provocatrice, ’70s pop siren – Holland Greco plays all of these and maybe a few more on her long-awaited solo debut “Volume One” (out today via Zappa Records). A mainstay of the L.A. scene since her days fronting the Peak Show a decade or so ago, Greco wields a ukulele […]
Dustin Lovelis’ songwriting chops and ’60s and ’70s pop sensibilities shone on the two albums and an EP released by the Long Beach quintet he fronted, the Fling. Last year, burned out from touring and, Lovelis says, “curtain business aspects of music,” the Fling went on hiatus. Lovelis, though, kept writing, eventually producing enough demos […]
