The spirit of the garage-rock explosion in Los Angeles seems even stronger than our winter’s endless summer. The latest trio to poke their heads out from behind their vintage riffs are Jammy and the Smack (kudos for the band name, by the way), who on their first single “King of the Last Minute” (kudos to […]
If you thought Nashville only strummed their stories into ballads, then indie-pop outfit Wild Cub will pop that stereotypical bubble. Comprised of members Keegan DeWitt, Jeremy Bullock, Dabney Morris, Harry West and Eric Wilson, Wild Cub’s use of colorful synths, warm harmonies and clap-happy sing-a-long choruses invoke only the happiest of teenage memories. Perhaps this […]
Confessor, dreamer, lover, screamer, joker, schemer – Meg Myers has been all those things on her releases dating back to her first “Daughter in the Choir” EP two years ago. In sum, the Tennessee native and former Jehovah’s Witness has posited herself as someone not to be trifled with, even in her vulnerable moments. Which […]
A big part of the allure of Tall Tales & the Silver Lining is that the L.A. ensemble doesn’t try reinvent folk music, or play dress-up so you know what they’re all about. There’s a sweetness and purity to what songwriter Trevor Beld-Jimenez and his gang of (as many as) nine bring to the table […]
There seems to be a lot of alternative boys heading into the R&B game these days, and Brandon Wronski, aka Roy English, is one of them. After his former band Eye Alaska saw its demise in 2011, Wronski teamed up with former bandmate and guitarist Cameron Trowbridge to produce music together as Canary Dynasty. However, it’s Wronski’s […]
Caught a Ghost’s strain of vintage R&B – a soul-man-meets-machine aesthetic that marries organic instrumentation with elements of EDM – has been a work in progress for going on three years now. And on April 1, singer-songwriter-producer Jesse Nolan will have a full-length to show for it; “Human Nature” will be out via +1 Records. […]
Indie-rock provocateur Sarah Negahdari can be a shreddy, yelping, guitar-tapping agitator when she is fronting the trio the Happy Hollows, but her side project Pisces is not that. Here she explores psych-pop that occupies spacier, wall-of-sound territory. After releasing promising singles in 2001 and ’12, Pisces fell silent – Negahdari was busy with the Happy […]
Gardens & Villa’s sophomore album “Dunes” occupies much of same space claimed by dozens of contemporary indie artists – the soft-rock ’70s, the new-wave ’80s, the smoove neo-funk that spilled into both decades. “Dunes” (out Feb. 4 via Secretly Canadian), however, is absent the bombast that dates a lot that music; in its place is […]
Here’s some Seven Saturdays on a Sunday: The ambient rock of Jonathan Haskell grew into its new skin with last year’s self-titled album, which saw the composer/multi-instrumentalist incorporate vocals prominently into his music for the first time, nabbing guests such as Jim Evens (Helen Stellar), Jacqueline Santillan (Wait. Think. Fast.), Rain Phoenix and Vanessa Fernandez. […]
Sure, they may have named their band after a scene in the film “Half-Baked,” but you can’t assume everything about the guys in the Inland Empire band Bodegas. After playing numerous skate parks and house parties, the trio of Chris Swanson, George Pantoja and Angel Aldana are heading west from Covina to the City of […]
