More than a decade ago, before he moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in film, singer-guitarist Evan Dickson minded the store for Austin indie-rockers Hidden Speaker, who released two well-regarded albums. Dickson’s bandmates went on to form the core of the equally well-regarded instrumental rockers the Octopus Project, while the aspiring screenwriter shelved […]
After a banner year recording and touring with cohort El-P as the dynamic duo Run The Jewels, Killer Mike returns to his last solo album, 2012’s widely-praised “R.A.P. Music,†and presents a video for the excellent deep cut “Ghetto Gospel,†also produced by El-P. Directed by Carlos Haynes and Trevor Kane, we find Mike donning […]
Blame the “Hunger Games” franchise, but the sweet, innocent, mandolin-wielding sextet Run River North (f/k/a Monsters Calling Home) gets a little Battle Royale in their music video for “Fight to Keep.” Also starring actor-comedian Diedrich Bader (“The Drew Carey Show,” “Outsourced”), the Zak Stoltz-directed clip begins with a simple camping trip. It’s when they huddle around […]
[Part 2 of 2] John Schmersal played in two beloved indie bands, Brainiac in the 1990s and Enon, which he co-founded in ’99 and helmed through 2011. Now based in L.A., he’s been busy. Besides diving into a raw guitar project as Vertical Scratchers [see Part 1], Schmersal has teamed up with former Enon bandmate […]
[Part 1 of 2] John Schmersal played in two beloved indie bands, Brainiac in the 1990s and Enon, which he co-founded in ’99 and helmed through 2011. Now based in L.A., he’s been busy. Besides indulging his experiemental pop side as part of the trio Crooks on Tape [see Part 2], Schmersal has teamed up […]
The last time we saw Kera and the Lesbians, they were stealing the show at FOMO 2014. If Kera Armendariz and her crew seem to have more energy than you can handle, it’s because they’ve got a couple big things happening this year. After building some buzz around their rollicking, supernatural-like New Orleans folk with […]
Our affection for Big Black Delta’s “Huggin & Kissin” goes back almost three years now, to when progenitor Jonathan Bates first self-released an EP of his spacey, industrial-strength synth-pop. And now, speaking of spacey, comes this video for the song, which imagines an alternately idyllic and nightmarish life of Mars. It’s the stunning work of […]
If you’ve alighted anywhere near Echo Park in the past couple of years, you probably know Rainbow Jackson, the housemates/beer swillers/rock antagonists who take power-pop and turn it into a bar fight. By way of reintroduction, they are singer-guitarist Chad Carlisle, guitarist Sam Dagger, bassist Laith Khalaf and drummer Andy Ford, and after better than […]
Equal parts Brooklyn, Detroit and Los Angeles in origin, the trio Tiny Hearts makes music that is equal parts electro-soul, jazz-hop and synth-pop, like a cross between Poliça and Portishead. Composed of vocalist Dede Reynolds, composer/producer Tim K and producer Waajeed (one of the founding members of Platinum Pied Pipers and Slum Village), the three […]
Hospitality expresses no regrets about their indie-pop debut in 2012, but they surely are looking forward to abandoning the term ‘twee’ from here on. The Brooklyn-based trio found a serendipitous home in Merge Records back in 2011, perfectly defining their sunny and charming flair and garnering quite a bit of attention for their self-titled album. […]
