Ever since he fronted his band the Wheel and was no more than a local phenom in Denver, Nathaniel Rateliff stands apart from all the bearded wonders making folk music. There’s an groundedness to his music that begets intimacy in its more restrained moments; a soulfulness that fans the flames when he and his quintet […]
We’re not sure how much Merseybeat can be found in the music of the Mercy Beat, but we long ago learned not to divine anything from band names, punny or otherwise. The Mercy Beat surfaced last April, doing a co-residency with DWNTWN at the dearly departed Santa Monica club the Central SAPC. As we reported […]
Over three albums, the first released when he was still a teenager, Robert Francis has proven a special, though slightly incrutable, talent among folk singers. His mellifluous vocals, knack for unpredictable arrangements and exacting lyrics have made those albums true long-players rather than singles machines, although “Junebug,” off 2009’s “Before Nightfall,” did well in Europe. […]
It’s all a house of cards, what we’re doing in this life. That’s the takeaway from the new video for DWNTWN’s single “Til Tomorrow.” Directed by Lenny Beckerman and shot by Kevin Hayden, it was filmed at the Elks Lodge in Playa Del Rey (score one for the location too). The synth-pop outfit – Jamie Leffler, […]
That tastiest bit of Torches’ 2012 album “Heads Full of Rust” was the propulsive rocker “I Want Something,” an insistent plea to find some semblance of meaning in a scene populated by dressed-up affectations masquerading as art. (At least, that’s how we read it.) The trio’s lineup changed last year, and the core duo of […]
It’s a bit odd to hear a “guitar-less” Wye Oak song, since the instrument was half of vocalist Jenn Wasner’s arsenal from the beginning. Yet, sounds evolve and what we have from Wasner and drummer Andy Stack are two new synth-pop songs. Now, if you know anything abut BBLA, we’ve heard our share of synth-pop […]
You never know when your dental hygienist from Topanga Canyon could be putting out the most recently anticipated albums on Asthmatic Kitty Records. Yes, that’s Sufjan Steven’s label, and no, we’re not talking about a new and upcoming young artist – not technically anyway. Linda Perhacs, who released her album “Parallelograms” back in 1970, has been […]
Toronto jazz-hop trio BADBADNOTGOOD are one of the most diverse and interesting young bass-drum-keyboard outfits out there. Their love for hip-hop is evident in their sound, having backed Frank Ocean and Tyler, The Creator on stage, produced for Danny Brown and Earl Sweatshirt, and covered A Tribe Called Quest, Gang Starr, Gucci Mane and Kanye […]
If there’s one thing to be said about Liphemra, the solo project of L.A. artist Liv Marisco, it’s that she doesn’t stay inside the lines when she’s coloring her music with jazz and trip-hop elements. When we first discovered Liphemra back in July 2012, it was interesting to see how a drummer of many familiar […]
Singer-songwriter Alaska Reid has decided to adopt the band name Alyeska, but the teenaged singer-guitarist is still the writer behind the trio’s beyond-their-years folk-rock. Reid, who hails from Livingston, Mont., and is now based in L.A., deals in raw, forthright confessionals that sound like they could have been birthed in a Laurel Canyon backyard back […]
