Ah, the telephone. It has started and ended relationships, and kept them flickering. It has come to symbolize the geographical distance between two hearts and the conversations that keep them tethered. And until somebody starts writing hits about text messaging, we’re still a sucker for a great pop song with a dialtone. Which brings us […]
When we last spotted Christian Stone and Annalee Fery, they were making blissful noise-rock as part of the quintet the Lonely Trees. Each had a laudable resumé prior to that – Fery as part of Monsters Are Waiting and Stone in Campfire Girls. They’ve continued to collaborate, now exploring dark-shaded electronica as Howls. Fery carries […]
Flowing white curtains, melodramatic lip-synching, floating disco balls,  pastel-turned-neon outer-space backdrops and wind-blown hair … It’s as if ’90s lovebirds traveled back in time to the ’70s for Air Life‘s new Cousin Video-directed music video. Its bold, sweeping notions, which match the shameless love confessions in the R&B quartet’s single “Tell Me Anything,” are crush-worthy. Aside […]
Charlie Hickey is 14 years old. I almost wish he’d waited until after I’d listened to his “Odds” EP to divulge that detail – I haven’t had a true “holy crap” moment recently – but odds are I’d have liked it without caveat, such are its craft and emotional clarity. Not to dissect a four-song debut […]
If you still don’t have the Belle Brigade’s sophomore album “Just Because” … well, what are you waiting for? Here’s a little reminder in the form of free stuff. The sibling duo of Barbara and Ethan Gruska have one song, “Likely to Use Something,” on the recently released ATO Records “Spring Sampler,” available for free […]
Pigeon John’s musical roots date to the Project Blowed days at the Good Life Café and his time spent with underground rappers L.A. Symphony, but the recent exploits of the man born John Kenneth Dunkin have fused hip-hop and pop in a decidedly fun and subversively smart manner. European audiences especially glommed onto his 2010 […]
When bedroom experimentalist Evan Dickson resurrected Hidden Speaker last year by releasing the album “Wet Recluse,” it was as if a decade’s worth of ideas came pouring out. The well has not run dry for the Glendale-based artist; Dickson is releasing a new EP, “Bitter Year, Better Year,” that continues his explorations into the compositional […]
The new single from L.A.-via-Ireland trio the Rebel Light harks back to the days of bowl cuts and bell bottoms. The trio – brothers Alan and Jarrett Steil and their cousin Brandon Cooke, who initially went by the band name Suddyn – dove headlong into explorations of the sunny ’60s with a self-titled EP released […]
If you thought Banta’s “Dark Charms” was a Fleetwood Mac B-side at first listen, you wouldn’t be alone. The Echo Park-based indie pop sextet’s songs embody so much of the same smooth pop folk-rock swing we’ve got a hunch that their self-titled EP (slated for a June release) is only the tip of the iceberg. […]
Dating back to their early live shows legendary for their volume and low visibility (they love their smoke machines), L.A. shoegazers Xu Xu Fang were always candidates for Band Most Likely to Affect Your Mental Health. The brainchild of songwriter and ex-Warlocks drummer Bobby Tamkin, the band fashioned two EPs of dark, brooding trance-rock in […]
