It’s been a long trip for Luke Messimer, and maybe a strange one too, but certainly circular. Messimer was one of two frontmen in the Orange County-bred quintet Mississippi Man, which released a very promising album in mid-2010 and then called it quits by the end of that year. After the breakup, he lived in […]
Voices are carrying. The Silver Lake Chorus – a 25-member-strong ensemble co-founded by Samantha Rader (daughter of actor/activist Sally Struthers) – has made waves in L.A. with its choral arrangements of indie music. As the their forthcoming EP suggests, it’s not just any indie music either. “From the Snow Tipped Hills” was written by Justin […]
Although Jillinda Palmer recently celebrated the release of a solo EP, the Damselles & the TC4 are still set out to release a full-length debut. And who wouldn’t be happy about that? When you need some good ol’ fashioned doo-wop with an tight backing rock band (whose name honors former Sea Level Records proprietor Todd […]
As long as there is modern rock radio, there will be bands who seem to exist for the expressed purpose of making it there. That’s not to disparage Orange County-bred quintet the Bolts, who dispense full-throttle rock ’n’ roll better than most, especially for their young age. There’s no indie navel-gazing here, just three brothers […]
When we last spotted Los Angeles duo 8mm, they had moved away from their trip-hop beginnings and segued into glossy, pop-noir territory. The sheen on their 2010 EP “Love and the Apocalypse” was no surprise – the “he” half of this husband-wife team is Sean Beavan, the Grammy-nominated producer and mixer who has worked with […]
Last month, Mayla Embry – the 3-year-old daughter of local songwriter/producer Aaron Embry and his wife Nikki – was diagnosed with leukemia. Yes, it’s the same Mayla who was celebrated in the recent Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros song “Mayla.” On Oct. 3, Father John Misty, Inara George and Becky Stark – more artists […]
He is Michael Orendy, the occasionally reclusive songwriter who, in odd-numbered years since 2007, has released three albums of gorgeous, orchestrated pop as Frankel. She is Ariana Murray, who has been one of the driving forces in long-running L.A. indie-rock band Earlimart. They are married. So maybe their new collaboration, Paw City, was inevitable. Their […]
Daniel Ahearn has one of those voices that commands attention – genteel but earnest, lyrical but lacking the extravagant affections that bog down many folk singers. In singer/multi-insrumentalist Mindy Jones, Ahearn has found the perfect foil for his frank meditations. And as Daniel Ahearn & the Jones, they make sweet songs that are reality checks […]
Bruce Driscoll is moonlighting. Driscoll – who with his sister Erica is the creative force behind rising electro-pop band Blondfire – has teamed up with Parisian songstress Marie Seyrat as Freedom Fry. It’s boy/girl pop awash in harpsichord, dulcimer, autoharp and ukulele, with Driscoll’s plaintive voice paired nicely with Seyrat’s chanteuse sighs. Freedom Fry released […]
The Lonely Wild’s Old West-flavored Americana stakes out the middle ground between the nuanced narratives you’ll hear on the new Lord Huron album and the epic spaghetti Western psychedelia of Spindrift. The Lonely Wild’s debut album, “The Sun As It Comes” (due next year), aspires to such cinema, its material informed by songwriter Andrew Carroll’s […]
