L.A.’s Washing Machines return with their sophomore EP “Quick Fix,” and the title rings true as it is only three songs but gets the job done if you’re in the mood for angsty punk that pleases the likes of Kurt Cobain fans. They may have parted ways with Chris Hansen, but as a quartet Washing Machine […]
Psych-pop agitators White Arrows have toured their kaleidoscopic duds off since releasing “Dry Land Is Not a Myth” in 2012. The debut couched various existential crises in danceable electro-rock and reverb, and perhaps still unsure whether they are “Coming or Going,” the L.A. quintet has embarked on making “In Bardo,” the follow-up album that is […]
Having used the same escape hatch from Utah as fellow Provo natives the Moth & the Flame, Spencer Petersen and Thomas Carroll have played in L.A. bands such as Eyes Lips Eyes and SWIMM. Now singer-guitarist Petersen is debuting his own project, Sego, and judging from the first single “20 Years Tall,” it ought to […]
Morgan Kibby’s knack of weaving ethereal vocals and tingling electro-pop has always been a thread in her work with M83, but her voice is finally showcased on “In Cold Blood” (out now via Crush Music). On her first full-length under the solo moniker White Sea – she released a 2011 EP titled “This Frontier” and […]
California-rock mystic Jonathan Wilson brought his band to the year’s first edition of Saturdays Off the 405 at the Getty Center over the weekend, and the expansive music on the singer-songwriter’s 2013 album “Fanfare” could hardly have been a better fit for the postcard-perfect day in the Santa Monica Mountains. The free series continues June […]
To Silver Lake regulars of last decade, there was no coulda-woulda-shoulda rock ’n’ roll story more heartbreaking than the Movies. Blessed with a distinctive post-punk/New Wave sound, deliciously subversive songs and an incendiary live show, the Movies were also cursed with band drama, much of it revolving around enigmatic, volatile frontman Timothy James. They did […]
Liam Gowing – ex-L.A. Times scribe, full-time biker and audacious titler of albums – has this house in West L.A. It’s not palatial, but he likes to entertain. And his occasionally legendary house parties became the theme for the song “Purdizzy (On Saturday),” a weekend-in-the-shade kind of number that appeared on last year’s album “Drunk Sluts […]
It’s hard to tell from Decorations’ first single whether singer-songwriter Devon Geyer is more girl-crazy or synth-obsessed. “Girls” comes at you like a Technicolor bounce house – pubescent Devo tooting and cursing along to scratchy guitar. Geyer, the son of prolific songwriter Stephen Geyer (who penned myriad television themes as well as songs for the […]
When Dexy Valentine unveiled her side project Bonfire Beach in late 2013, it made for a great early Christmas present. Setting aside the dream-pop she makes in Magic Wands, Bonfire Beach dives headlong into gritty shoegazing, recalling the deliciously foreboding rock of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Duke Spirit and the Raveonettes. We share Valentine’s […]
Everything about “If and Or” – the debut full-length from L.A. duo the Boom Circuits – seems ready for a major motion picture. In fact, director Ben Redmond’s slick video for the hyper-romantic single “The Cost” almost qualifies itself. The album is the work of Vega Schenk and Andy Ellis, who, after releasing EPs in […]
