Hot As Sun wear their affectations just so, from their playful take on ’80s disco to … well, dahncing, dahlings. On their forthcoming album “Night Time Sound Desire,” the trio of Jamie Jackson, Deborah Stoll and Waz concoct a world in which you can fall in and out of love in four dizzying minutes, after […]
After meeting in the Environmental Analysis program at Pomona College, Merritt Graves and Skylar Funk got together to save the world by being involved with Farmscape and Agrisaurus to promote awareness around solar and other renewable energy. However, the sing-along alt-pop songs they write together as Trapdoor Social would never have you thinking about such […]
/iframe> Sam Spiegel’s Maximum Hedrum has released a video for “Keep In Touch,” the first single off the group’s self-titled debut album due on March 19. The video was co-directed by Spiegel and Christopher Neil. Inspiration comes from the story of Javier Silcook, a young man with cerebral palsy and his relationship with his mom […]
Points to Hustle Roses for truth in advertising – there’s plenty of hustle and bustle on her first mixtape, “Bitters.” A combination of dancefloor-friendly synth-pop, wonky interludes and sharp lyrics, “Bitters” is the brainchild of Olivia “Ollie” Stone, aka Hustle Roses, who carved out some space in our playlists as the singer-guitarist in the pop-rock […]
The first proper EP from Warships’ is so bright and propulsive it’s hard for us to sit still. When the SoCal quintet first brightened our mood last May, they had an album finished and seemingly ready for release, but things apparently take time. “Shadows,” produced by Raymond Richards, came out this week, with Eric Chirco, […]
Pam Shaffer makes chamber-pop for dimly lit chambers. The meditations on her second album, the fan-funded “It Is Happening Again” (out this week) seem to materialize from the shadows of a roomful of old things, illuminated only by a single candle. Piano, guitar, strings and Shaffer’s plaintive vocals conspire to draw slow-mo vignettes on “Orpheus” […]
There’s probably a riveting docu-drama waiting to be made about the life and times of Annie Hardy, the rail-thin singer-guitarist who roared out of Orange County eight years ago as party of grunge-gaze (OK, we just made that up) duo Giant Drag. Hardy’s prickly and hilariously R-rated observations and her wounded-waif persona made Giant Drag’s […]
Singer-bassist Lorelei Plotczyk knows her way around the moody shoegazers – she handled those duties for the Los Angeles incarnation of Bay Area-bred Film School. Now based in San Diego, she’s fallen in with singer-keyboardist Susie Ghahremani (formerly of the Boston-area indie-pop band Snoozer), singer-guitarist Itai Faierman (The Mashtis, Mu) and drummer Luis Galvan (Galactic […]
If you’ve been to Mystery Skulls‘ residency this month but still wonder why the guy behind this one-man show looks familiar, it’s because you were probably a fan of Luis Dubuc’s previous project, the Secret Handshake. Although the former moniker gained a following in the electronic realm, Mystery Skulls leaves the soul-influenced bubblegum electro-pop behind […]
Sunday’s second day of the Year of the Snake Lunar New Year Festival in Chinatown was a little more chill than the parade-filled first day, but there was plenty of energy on the local music stage, where random ninjas crashed the set by the taiko-drum-wielding Random Ninjas, young trio the Vim Dicta played a set […]
