Whispertown, the songwriting vehicle for Morgan Nadler that was originally known as Whispertown2000 and then The Whispertown 2000, has emerged with new music for the first time since 2009’s “Done With Love” EP. And it’s different. On her 2008 album “Swim,” released via Acony Records (the imprint helmed by Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings), Nagler […]
Saint Motel is good at cinema. Oh, the L.A. quartet can write pop hooks too, but as the nifty collage of 16mm film, video and iPhone images in the band’s new video for “At Least I Have Nothing” reminds, the foursome of A/J Jackson, Aaron Sharp, Greg Erwin and Dak first came together in film […]
Evan Voytas’ sound – fizzy bursts of R&B and funk beneath a keening falsetto – has been a long time in the making. In the four-plus years since he moved to L.A., the multi-instrumentalist has performed with rising stars from both the indie and mainstream realm. But if you were go to back in time […]
Superhumanoids continue to tease. In 2011, the L.A. dream-poppers dropped two appetizers, “Malta” and “Mikelah,” as they continued work on their full-length album (now done, we hear), and this morning the band anchored by Cameron Parkins, Sarah Chernoff and Max St. John unveiled another single, “Geri,” as they announced spring touring plans with Class Actress, […]
“Icebreaker,” the debut album by L.A. quartet WALK, is just that: an entreé to the kaleidoscopic songwriting explorations of Tim Jordan and bandmates Daniel Apodaca, Chris Kerrigan and Matt Kelly. It’s a delirious collision of psychedelia and shoegaze and more – the Flaming Lips meet Swervedriver, Dinosaur Jr. meets Built to Spill, to throw around […]
Musicians may just want to skip this anecdote and go straight the download. In 2007, four dudes out of O.C./Long Beach calling themselves CoCo B’s unleashed an album of brash, hooky guitar-bass-drums indie-rock that earned deserving comparisons to the Replacements, Guided by Voices and Archers of Loaf. I was, and remain, crazy for “I Live […]
On last year’s “Plains of Id” EP, the Ross Sea Party embraced the modern folk-rock aesthetic of songs built on big melodies, agitated rhythms and gang harmonies. As the L.A. quintet of singer-guitarist Brady Erickson, guitarist Mark Tillman, multi-instrumentalist Will VanderWyden, drummer Michael Baumer and keyboardist/glockenspiel player Jacquelyn Thropay embark on their next release, they’re […]
Mirror Lady arrived quietly on the Silver Lake scene recently, dispensing two lo-fi dollops of twitchy folk-pop notable for their keening vocals and skeletal synths – both of which do not exit the brain easily after entering the ears. The trio is the brainchild of T.J. Petracca, Sean Robinson and Taylor Pile, who met at […]
Jack Littman’s spare folk music abides the great traditions of the troubadour. The 23-year-old Los Angeles native (yet another product of Hamilton High’s music program) digs deep to narrate the frailties of the human condition – his and others’ – and in the manner of an essayist uses his deft vocal phrasing as punctuation. His debut […]
Midway through the Jealous Sound’s comeback album “A Gentle Reminder,” singer-guitarist Blair Shehan sings optimistically, “This is happening.” Fans of the L.A. quartet’s breakthrough “Kill Them With Kindness,” selected one of SPIN’s best albums of 2003, will hardly believe it. After the eight years, the Jealous Sound is back, shedding baggage, embracing the future and […]
