For Alex Lilly, it’s always been juggling act. Her music fronting the quintet Obi Best darts spryly in and out of pop, jazz and psychedelia. Her career always found her with a lot of balls in the air: duties backing the likes of Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, the Bird and the Bee and Juliette Commagere; […]
Actor-director Adam Goldberg’s second adventure in pop songwriting, as the Goldberg Sisters, comes at you like a John Lennon apparition through a lava lamp. More often than on his maiden voyage as LANDy in 2009, though, Goldberg’s tweaked-out psych-pop makes sense, even on editable excursions like “Don’t Grow,” “The Heart Grows Fonder” and “Mother Please,” […]
Will Schwartz has been singing memorable hooks since the first term of the Clinton Administration, first with indie rockers Imperial Teen, then in the dance-pop duo Hey Willpower (and then again with Imperial Teen when they re-emerged in 2007). He’s taken to the keyboards for his new project Psychic Friend, a trio that sees him […]
Evening sets from the likes of Baths side project Geotic, Summer Darling, Sister Crayon, Mia Doi Todd and Ceci Bastida (all on Saturday), and Races [pictured], We Are the World, Crystal Antlers and the Little Ones (on Sunday) highlight the second annual Silverlake Jubilee on May 21-22. The festival, held on Myra Street between Santa […]
In early 2009, we introduced you to John Wood, who, as Learning Music, had embarked on the audacious project of recording and releasing one album per month, available via Learning Music Monthly on a pay-what-you-can basis. His staggering body of work eventually spanned all genres and included contributions from some 50 musicians. Now, after 36 […]
Five-piece electro-folk band Barbara released their “Robopopironica” EP last summer, but it wasn’t until they released their cover of Kid Cudi’s “Pursuit of Happiness” that they’ve perked some ears up. The song itself has been covered numerous times, but unlike most versions, Barbara’s is nowhere near amateur. Derek Stephens is a classically trained pianist and […]
Black Flamingo describes its music as equal parts Beach Boys and Bauhaus, and although the year-old Los Angeles sextet is flying a flag that says “tropical goth,” that seems a little too pat for the shadowy, surfside fuzz concocted by principals Amberlie Bankoff and Kimi Recor. Last year’s “Luau in the Graveyard” EP sounds like […]
Angela Correa says it’s just evolution. But for the songwriter and compelling voice behind the L.A. quartet Correatown, her new musical direction – which finds her winsome, Americana-oriented folk-pop suddenly elevated to the cumulus of dream-pop – represents education as much as anything. “This has the sound and textures and soundscape-y elements that I was […]
Carlos Michael Gutierrez hails from Harbor City Gateway, works as a longshoreman in San Pedro, skates and likes to spend idle time “driving through my area’s gang neighborhoods to translate the graffiti. They are communicating to each other in code.” The songs on “Golden Ghosts,” the debut album from CMG & We Are the Night, […]
Augmenting acoustic pop music with a beat machine isn’t revolutionary these days with the likes of artists such as Ellie Goulding propelling the “folk-tronica” genre. However, L.A. band yOya still writes playful songs of chipper guitar riffs boosted by complex rhythms that tug their whimsical lyrics in memorably pleasant directions. Falsetto harmonies from Alex Pfender […]
