There’s a lot of heavy-duty stuff going on in Carlos Lopez Estrada’s video for “Waking World” by the sun-soaked rockers El Sportivo & the Blooz. The director trails Isaac Ravishankara (a fellow filmmaker) through the wilderness near Morelos, Mexico, to create one of those waking-dream vignettes that is at once beautiful and horrifying. “I see […]
A lot has happened since Twinstar last released music in 2005 – Facebook, e-books, smart phones, dumb trends, shifts in politics, changes in climates … Oh, and singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Keith Joyner got his college degree. “No wonder the LP took its leisurely time getting here,” Joyner says of Twinstar’s return, “The Sound of […]
Big Harp’s second album does not sound like Big Harp’s first album. Which is understandable, considering the husband-wife duo of Chris Senseney and Stefanie Drootin-Senseney created 2011’s “White Hat” during the quiet times after their kids had been put to bed, without having played a live show. The couple found that the piquant folk music […]
It’s been more than two years since Jake Bellows departed Omaha for L.A., and that solo album he mentioned was in the works back in 2011 is finally taking shape. Bellows fronted the indie-rock band Neva Dinova for three albums between 2002 and ’08 and collaborated with Conor Oberst on an EP (re-released in 2010 […]
Motion CNTRL calls its music “incapacitated pop,” and there’s a kernel of truth in that. The stylish production, lovelorn girl/boy vocals and oozing melodies in the L.A. duo’s first three songs may induce binge-sipping (whatever you were using to wash down “Violator” in 1990, please) and serial hand-holding in the corners of clubs where everyone […]
At this stage of their career, the Little Ones couldn’t be blamed for being grumpy old men – well, at least middle-aged ones, by indie-rock standards. They’ve been signed to two labels and dropped by two labels and watched while bands with similar aesthetics (and lesser songs, in some opinions) became indie darlings. But damned […]
There’s something at once playful and sexy in the electro of L.A. quartet Hot As Sun – you don’t just dance to theirs beat, you dahnce. It’s an affectation to be sure, but a sweet one, and by the end of “Dahnce to the Beat” you’re liable to be obeying every instruction Deborah Stoll is […]
The new single from Cold War Kids comes sprinting out of the gates on a lickety-split piano line, frontman Nathan Willett upbraiding himself in that bluesy tenor before drummer Matt Aveiro and new guitarist Dann Gallucci join the fray. It’s as exhilarating a four minutes fans have heard from the SoCal since Willett was complaining that […]
Mind the Gap threw their collective hats in the ring of pop contenders in 2011, mixing feel-good acoustic numbers with dancefloor-friendly electro to win fans at residencies on both sides of town. They sell themselves as rainbow-coalition entertainment – “MTG is a Sri Lankan, a Mexican, a Korean and a Jew from Cleveland,” their bio boasts […]
San Diego County-bred Kera & the Lesbians make desert-tinged barroom blues that you imagine witnessing in the Most Interesting Saloon Ever. If you witnessed any of the quintet’s October residency at the Bootleg Bar, you get it – Kera Armendariz’s jean-jacketed take on lounge singing comes from an artist who isn’t afraid to challenge stereotypes […]
