[Further musical excursions and updates on bands we recently posted on:] The Mowgli’s, “I’ve Been Around” – Quicker than you can pop a couple of Xanax, the Los Angeles septet has seemingly set its sights on Grouplove’s reign as Happiest Band Around. Their debut single “San Francisco” [see our March post] earned radio play on […]
Top 40 radio influenced producer Rich Jacques as a child, and it can be heard in the songs he writes today. As frontman of L.A. band Right the Stars (whose name derived from a Wilco lyric) Jacques boldly writes big pop hooks for his quartet’s propulsive guitar-driven rock. But Jacques’ project didn’t always boast brawny […]
Carina Round is a woman of many voices, full of vigor and empowerment one moment, tender and vulnerable the next, and a bit art-damaged at others. All speak in varying tones on “Tigermending,” the U.K.-bred, Los Angeles.-based songstress’s first album in five years. Compared to PJ Harvey in her early days on Interscope, Round has […]
Riley Bray is a tall man– 6-foot-7, according to the press release – which, ostensibly, should help the singer-songwriter’s reach. As frontman of the Golden Ghosts, all things roots-rock are within Bray’s grasp. “Gleam,” the band’s just-released debut album, doesn’t deviate too much from the classic rock diagram, but whether meting out earnest anthems, brawny […]
Canadian electro songstress Grimes will join indie-pop and folk luminaries Grouplove, Milo Greene, Cults and Soko on the bill for this year’s Make Music Pasadena, the free daylong festival that draws more than 30,000 to the City of Roses. The diverse bill also features electro-funk guru Dam-Funk, Cambodian psych-rockers Dengue Fever, French chanteuse Jessica Fichot […]
Folk singer-songwriter Simone White has always had a keen sense of storytelling. Her folk/country-tinged 2007 debut, “I Am the Man” and 2009’s quiet offering “Yakiimo” gently pierced listeners with a soft synthesis of intimacy and intelligence. But come May 7, the White will no longer be defined by only her wispy vocals, when “Silver Silver” […]
Times are changing for L.A. rockers Everest, and to them it might feel like “Rapture.” The quintet, which burst on the scene in 2008 with “Ghost Notes” on Neil Young’s Vapor Records and followed it up in ’10 with “On Approach” on Warner, has parted ways with the major label for its third album. “Ownerless” […]
The gauzy psychedelia on L.A. trio Derde Verde’s 2011 mini-album “Moon/Mirror” comes from a lot of different places – talking in time-stamps, those would be the genteel ’60s, the experimental ’80s and the shoegazey ’90s. For the sweet single “Go to Sleep,” video director by Yelena Zhelezov (who’s also done work with Julia Holter and […]
Did you score any new music on Record Store Day? Echo Park shop Origami Vinyl made it a little easier on music fans’ budget, hosting an all-day free show at the Echo with a top-drawer crew of local bands playing along with Wisconsin’s All Tiny Creatures and Zammuto, the new project from Books’ Nick Zammuto. […]
As a solo singer-songwriter, Austin Hartley-Leonard carved out a nice niche in soulful Americana, releasing an album and an EP, getting a slew of TV placements and earning a spot as a Hotel Cafe favorite. His new guise as Broken Anchor takes his melodically rich songwriting into the realm of atmospheric indie-pop, and if his […]
