When Moving Units materialized in the dark days of 2002, the L.A. trio was on the vanguard of the dance-punk renaissance – in some ways, ahead of their time. They had some lousy label luck, but that first EP and the 2004 full-length “Dangerous Dreams” sound darned-near like classics these days. In the ensuing years, […]
Signer-songwriter Lily Kershaw has knack for taking the simplest of ideas and making them seem ascendant. “Nothing is ever as it seems,” the L.A. native sings over a plaintive piano line in the lilting single “As It Seems,” and never has that platitude resounded with such depth. The single, which drew attention as the backdrop […]
After a series of cassette-only releases, the third of which being “Cassette 3: The Marion Morrison Mixtape,” producer/rapper Jonwayne is set to release his debut LP, appropriately titled “Rap Album One,” on Oct. 29 on Stones Throw. Its first single is “Reflection,” an unconventional and genre-jumping track. Beginning with sparse piano, then adding driving drums, […]
Following the EPs “Thuggin’” from 2011, and “Shame” from 2012, as well as this summer’s track “City” for the Adult Swim Singles Series, Gary, Indiana’s Freddie Gibbs and Los Angeles’ own Madlib are back with “Deeper,” the final EP to be released before their long-awaited joint album. Even gangsters get their hearts broken, as a […]
Together Pangea, known for years at L.A. backyards as Pangea, has not risen to the top of the garage-rock heap for nothing. In an era when sheer energy often passes for craft, the band built around the alliance of William Keegan, Danny Bengston and Erik Jimenez has proven masterful at shreddy guitar rock while only […]
A year of occasional, consistently exhiliarating shows has done nothing to dampen enthusiasm for Nightmare & the Cat’s major-label debut. From seeing them live, you got the feeling that the L.A.-based quintet, built around the songs of brothers Sam and Django Stewart, could sound like anything they wanted – pop, rock, soul, folk, British, American […]
The first single from Imaginary Persons is a mesmerizing psych-pop entreaty that conjures up a man floating in space, in slow motion, just out of reach of whatever has been taken from him. Imaginary Persons is the nom de tune of Tommy Alexander, last spotted playing in Low Flying Owls. Alexander began recording his Imaginary […]
Glasser‘s comeback single “Shape” isn’t as warm as her popular tune “Home,” but its textures and rhythms match the trippy press photo above. Glasser – aka – Cameron Mesirow – writes on her website, “I have been thinking a lot about space,” and she explores the continuum we live and breathe every day with lush […]
Three years after the self-release of his debut album “Earl” at the age of 16, Earl Sweatshirt is back with his major-label follow-up entitled “Doris.” It is a dark, moody and mellow affair featuring production from Tyler, The Creator, RZA, Christian Rich, and The Neptunes, as well as four tracks produced by Earl under the […]
The folks at the Skirball Cultural Center weren’t kidding Friday night when they subtitled the latest in their “Into the Night” music series “The Wild Side.” Besides sets from three of L.A.’s indie-rock finest – Jenny O., In the Valley Below and Body Parts – fans at the Skirball’s end-of-the-summer bash got a meet-and-greet with […]
