Over three albums, the first released when he was still a teenager, Robert Francis has proven a special, though slightly incrutable, talent among folk singers. His mellifluous vocals, knack for unpredictable arrangements and exacting lyrics have made those albums true long-players rather than singles machines, although “Junebug,” off 2009’s “Before Nightfall,” did well in Europe. […]
It’s all a house of cards, what we’re doing in this life. That’s the takeaway from the new video for DWNTWN’s single “Til Tomorrow.” Directed by Lenny Beckerman and shot by Kevin Hayden, it was filmed at the Elks Lodge in Playa Del Rey (score one for the location too). The synth-pop outfit – Jamie Leffler, […]
That tastiest bit of Torches’ 2012 album “Heads Full of Rust” was the propulsive rocker “I Want Something,” an insistent plea to find some semblance of meaning in a scene populated by dressed-up affectations masquerading as art. (At least, that’s how we read it.) The trio’s lineup changed last year, and the core duo of […]
You never know when your dental hygienist from Topanga Canyon could be putting out the most recently anticipated albums on Asthmatic Kitty Records. Yes, that’s Sufjan Steven’s label, and no, we’re not talking about a new and upcoming young artist – not technically anyway. Linda Perhacs, who released her album “Parallelograms” back in 1970, has been […]
If there’s one thing to be said about Liphemra, the solo project of L.A. artist Liv Marisco, it’s that she doesn’t stay inside the lines when she’s coloring her music with jazz and trip-hop elements. When we first discovered Liphemra back in July 2012, it was interesting to see how a drummer of many familiar […]
Singer-songwriter Alaska Reid has decided to adopt the band name Alyeska, but the teenaged singer-guitarist is still the writer behind the trio’s beyond-their-years folk-rock. Reid, who hails from Livingston, Mont., and is now based in L.A., deals in raw, forthright confessionals that sound like they could have been birthed in a Laurel Canyon backyard back […]
Beginners are actually not … beginners, that is. Onetime bandmates in Malbec, Nick Ruth and Samantha Barbera reconnected at a concert headlined by Foster the People, for whom another ex-bandmate, Mark Pontius, drums. Since Malbec parted ways in 2010, Ruth and Barbera had taken divergent paths: Barbera was bassist-singer in the punk band Holy Fever; […]
[TGIF … kind of. It’s already Friday which means SXSW is nearly over, but we’ve still got lots to explore and we did our best to check out the bountiful goods last night. The usual energetic bustle of downtown Austin was a bit dampened after Wednesday’s night late-night tragedy, but the Mohawk, Cheer Up Charlie’s […]
[Wednesday was a busy day for the BBLA crew. We were very happy to see our friends – and new friends – at our “Dear Austin: Love, LA” day party and we even managed to see a few more bands in the evening before we shut our eyes to recharge. Here’s what else I saw […]
Buzz Bands LA’s annual “Dear Austin, Love L.A.” day party brought an eight-pack of southern California music muscle to the Chuggin’ Monkey on 6th Street on Wednesday afternoon, and our only lament was that the afternoon was too short. Folk, soul, rock and electro – the eight-band lineup had it all, on a cozy stage […]
