Like the light and images in the Jack Johnson/Teddy Cafaro video, the musical influences in Incan Abraham’s new single “Springhouse” are refracted and shape-shifted. The L.A. quartet’s Afro-tropical psychedelia bears the faint whiff of an indie movement whose ship has sailed, but more than on last year’s “Ancient Vacation” EP the rhythmic complexities and inviting […]
Sandra Vu is now known most for drumming in Dum Dum Girls, but longtime fans of Vu will remember her as the drummer of L.A. band Midnight Movies, who saw their demise in 2008. Since then Vu and Ryan Wood have continued making music together under the name SISU (pronounced see-soo). With the help of […]
Paige Wood looks a little deranged, wearing that smile and continuing to sing while she is tied up on a New York skyline. But she has plenty of issues in Paul Trillo’s video for the Peach Kings‘ “Lonely” – isolation, imaginary friends and a bandmate, Steven Trezevant, who never actually shows his face. And as […]
Joshua Hanson has a troubadour’s tenor that will stop you in your tracks – and it has, more than once – and since the singer-guitarist moved to L.A. from Idaho he’s been polishing his orchestral folk music as Yellow Red Sparks. With multi-instrumentalist Sara Lynn and singer-drummer Goldy, Hanson takes an economical yet cinematic approach […]
L.A. four-piece Pretend Electric is aiming big. The tunes on the quartet’s debut EP “Entraînant,” which came out in September, sound as if they could have been plucked from the soundtrack to Indie Rock Guitar Hero, if there were such a thing. You want anthems that can make stadium sway? “The County” and “Casino” will […]
Most music fans may know Rachel Fannan from San Francisco band Sleepy Sun, and if you’ve recently seen the Fresh & Onlys, you’ll recognize her as their keyboardist. But Fannan’s always been writing music on her own, and now we see the fruits of her solo labor under the moniker Only You. With the help […]
Tucked away about halfway through Lavender Diamond’s “Incorruptible Heart” is probably the most surprising song on the L.A. quartet’s sophomore album. “Light My Way” is a hopeful synth-pop number that’s a couple shades brighter than the gorgeous but lovelorn chamber-folk on the album. Of course, Becky Stark has a way of making sad sound like […]
The second EP from Connecticut-bred, L.A.-based singer-songwriter Liz Wood offers up the edgy, angsty fare meted out by many of the confessionalists you might have liked in the ’90s. Inspired, she says, by the end of a long relationship, Wood’s second EP “Into My Own” (out in October) is a jagged little empowerment pill for […]
In 2008, indie-rock agitators the Henry Clay People released a great album titled “For Cheap or for Free,” which embodied the economic times of the moment. (And probably the moments that ensued, but that’s another discussion.) Next month, the Henry Clays will perform for cheap, for free and for charity. They’ve scheduled a residency called […]
If you plan on hosting a nice dinner with some quiet music to entertain your guests for the rest of your civil evening, L.A.’s Criminal Hygiene is not your band. If the sound of broken bottles at the beginning of tunes like “Blak Water” don’t tell you what’s up, then maybe the brash vocals, reverb-drenched […]
