It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Love Grenades‘ sizzling Elizabeth Wight. It was almost two years ago that Wight had become Sam Sparro’s sassy and promising protegé with New Wave-influenced singles, “Young Lovers” and “Tigers in the Fire,” putting her on the L.A. dance-club map. With her witty and fast-paced lyrics paying homage […]
Barbie Hatch may sound familiar if you’re a fan of the hip-hop group N.A.S.A., which consists of members Squeak E. Clean and DJ Zegon. She’s mostly known for her vocals on the duo’s track “Way Down,” which also featured Wu-Tang’s RZA and Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist John Frusciante. Her contributions also led to the […]
Whether they are unleashing dancefloor nuggets, carving holes in your ears with sharp indie rock or embarking on seemingly interplanetary psychedelic excursions, Vanaprasta are exhilarating. The L.A. quintet’s no-holds-barred approach works onstage, where Steven Wilkin’s arena-ready voice cuts through wicked guitar work from Cameron Dmytryk and Collin Desha and the rhythms of Taylor Brown and […]
The eclectic jazz-pop of L.A. quintet Big Moves can sometimes seem like an exercise in musical aerobics as much as songwriting, but their adventurous spirit and labyrinthine arrangements will appeal to sophisticates who like their artists to color outside the lines. The group’s new “Lanterns” EP – the follow-up to 2008’s album “In the Beginning” […]
[File this post under “Following Up” – new music, either singles or EPs, from three local artists whom we’ve chronicled before:] Polls, “Mouth of a Fox” – The noise-pop trio of Chris Newcomer, David Franklin and Julien Bellin have followed up last year’s debut EP with a new 7-inch that offers another dose of agitated […]
“You’re no different from me / No matter the language we speak,” Ximena Sariñana sings on her first English-language single, “Different,” which, owing to its nifty production, horns and even a little whistling, is sticky as syrup. Sariñana, the Guadalajara-born songwriter and actress, allows as how she’s “from a different world,” but by the time […]
So the story goes that Blake Sennett was retired from music, his baggage heavy from a decade’s worth of work with Rilo Kiley and two albums of material from his own band the Elected. A friend got him off the schneid, back in the studio, and, boom, we have “Bury Me in My Rings” (out […]
Although a few of his fellow band members may have left to form Signals, the Mae Shi’s Brad Breeck has been keeping busy and he hasn’t turned down the volume since the release of the ambitiously convulsive “HLLLYH.” Now performing and releasing new music under the moniker Skull Tape, Breeck is still a flowing fountain […]
[Memo from the Buzz Bands Dept. of Rock: :”You guys have been too heavy on the indie-pop and folk. What gives?” So in an effort to pump up the volume:] Any number of tunes on the forthcoming album by Astronaut Academy would slide nicely into alt-rock radio playlists of the 1990s, which seem like a […]
Rebecca Coleman may have parted ways with Avi Buffalo, but she hasn’t left music behind. Forming a new band called Pageants with guitarist Devin O’Brien, Coleman is now offering more than backing vocals. Occasionally known to flesh the group’s sound out with ex-Buffalo Arin Fazio and Lia Braswell (of Therapies Son) on drums, Pageants doesn’t […]
