The first single from Spectacular Spectacular is a pulsing, dark-disco number with one of those watch-what-you-wish-for choruses: “Show me the monster inside of you,” singer Jessica De Grasse sings forebodingly amid a swirl of pained backing vocals. It’s the first song from an album-in-the-works titled “Blur” from Grasse, Isley Reust and Millie Chan. Originally based […]
Hanni El Khatib is all about moving on. This week the L.A.-based musician/graphic artist/skateboarder unveiled the title track to his third album, “Moonlight,” which is a departure from his savage 2013 album “Head in the Dirt,” which was a departure from his 2011 debut “Will the Guns Come Out.” In announcing the new record – which […]
The four noiseniks in Drinking Flowers straddle the space between two raging scenes in L.A. right now – the hyperkinetic garage-rockers and the ’60s-mining psychedelic rockers. The quartet’s new EP “Shadow Show,” which follows up last year’s “Sanity Restored 1972” and is out now on Lolipop, roars either way. The foursome of Alexander Galindo, Jade Christensen, […]
The first single from new L.A. quartet Crook is as beautiful for what it isn’t as what it is. “Fault” inhabits the modern synth-pop world that allows its purveyors to transform four-minute songs into widescreen cinema. But absent much of the squishy production gimmickry that make what are ostensibly soul songs sound machine-made, “Fault’s” skeletal […]
After putting out a mixtape a year since 2011, and guesting on multiple tracks from Common, Earl Sweatshirt and Mike G, Long Beach rapper Vince Staples put out his first official release last week, an excellent EP entitled “Hell Can Wait,” via Def Jam Recordings. Its first track, “Fire,” finds him spitting rhymes over an […]
This one’s for anybody who misses early Rilo Kiley. New L.A. quintet Tiny Stills bring that kind of unvarnished energy and directness to their debut album “Falling Is Like Flying,” self-released last week. The band is spearheaded by singer-songwriter Kailynn West, a Pennsylvania-bred multi-instrumentalist and audio engineer who narrates her cherub indie-rock with a punky […]
Thankfully, there’s Butch Walker. The 44-year-old singer-songwriter, who counts six albums, a Grammy nomination and a host of production credits on his resumé, has seduced with his keen sense of melody, deft lyrcism and everyman charisma dating back to his days in Marvelous 3. Last week he announced that his seventh solo full-length, “Afraid of […]
The minimalist, up-tempo electro of Fujiya & Miyagi are just as likely to inspire dance-floor moves as they are to soundtrack any of your daily mundane tasks – and they’re brain-teasers as well. The Brighton, U.K., trio once wrote a paean to the “Photocopier,” after all, and the krautrock-inspired stylings of Steve Lewis, Matt Hainsby […]
When Kate Boy first came on to the scene, their song “Northern Lights” caught the attention of the Knife fans with its moody, minimal beats and shrill yet catchy choruses. The comparison may have also come by-way-of Australian singer-songwriter Kate Akhurst finding producers Markus Dextegen and Hampus Nordgren Hemlin (also of Rocket Boy) in Stockholm, Sweden. […]
After a five -plus year hiatus, L.A.’s psychedelic brooders Xu Xu Fang are back and plenty of people are happy about it. Others are so glad they’re back that the band’s latest album has some special touches from special guests. As we previously mentioned, Queens of the Stone Age bass player Michael Shuman has contributed to […]
