In an interview last month with Noisey, Failure’s Ken Andrews talked about the trio’s reunion and acknowledged how surprised he was that February’s comeback show at the El Rey Theatre sold out in two minutes. And he sprung a surprise himself – the news that the band was working on a new album. Today comes […]
As long as there is California, songwriters will be penning paeans to the West Coast dream. And so it goes with the Canyon Rays, named as an homage to Laurel Canyon and sounding every bit as sunny as a beach. The band is the work of songwriter Luke Hamel, who debuted last December with a […]
Wartime Recitals call themselves an indie-pop band, and it’s true if you abide the olden definition of that classification. Loose, heartfelt and exuberant, the L.A. sextet’s music is more Los Campesinos! than any of the synth-drenched, vocoded indie-pop of today. Their new single “Bad Dances,” with its call-and-response vocals and surging chorus, is a day-brightener […]
Tired of fluffy pop and craving something that will shake the cobwebs out of your ears? Enter Barrows. The L.A. instrumental post-rock quartet returns with sophomore effort appropriately titled “Red Giant,” a concept album the life and death of a star. Stars are not given a twinkling and romantic context here; instead Barrows lays down […]
File under: Good ideas with legs. The L.A. band Oliver Future met its demise more than three years ago, and the song “The Gold Sparrow” appeared on their 2010 album “In Event of Moon Disaster.” Originally intended to be a music video for the song, “The Gold Sparrow” grew and grew and grew – until […]
It’s been a long and winding road for Nightmare and the Cat. (We figure it’s OK to invoke that line since they have a song called “Blackbird Smile.”) It’s been three years since the L.A.-based quintet debuted with an indie release that saw the brothers Stewart – singer Django and guitarist Sam, scions of Dave […]
The rapturously catchy jangle-pop of L.A.-based Strange Babes is informed by several dualities. The songs were co-written by Sam McCarthy and Jaden Parkes, onetime bandmates in New Zealand’s Goodnight Nurse – whose lead singer, Joel Little, went on to produce and write for McCarthy’s next band, Kids of 88, and Lorde. Half the songs were […]
“Little Earthquakes,” the new single from songwriting couple Imperial Mammoth, seems especially timely, with all the modest temblors that have rattled southern California recently. Its creators, Leonard Jackson and Laura Jane Scott, know a thing or two about being shaken. Says Jackson: “We wrote it about our childhood experience with major earthquakes (Loma Prieta for me […]
Los Angeles alt-R&B singer-songwriter Jarell Perry released his “White†EP in the fall, full of hazy soundscapes, moody lyrics, and soulful vocals. He has gained some attention since then amid the budding young generation of modern-day neo-soul, and began his headlining Monday night residency at the Bootleg this week. In the past month, he has […]
As frontman of San Francisco’s Birds & Batteries, Mike Sempert dealt in music that straddled the line between contemporary Americana and electro-tinged indie pop, all of it notable for his weighty vocals, weightier lyrics and tasteful orchestrations. Sempert’s solo debut, “Mid Dream” (out this week via Orange County-based Velvet Blue Music), was made in northern […]
