The best thing about KG Bird’s folk music is how it doesn’t settle for just being folk music. The sextet – anchored by former Cue the Moon bandmates Chris and Tim James and Ryan Parmenter – can play aching balladeers one moment and tortured indie-rockers deftly playing the loud/soft dynamic the next. Their debut EP […]
First off, happy birthday Eric Burdon. The lead Animal turns 72 today, and that soulful voice of his keeps on giving. The Rock and Roll Hall of Famer, who in January released a new solo album titled “’Til Your River Runs Dry,” has teamed with L.A. siren Jenny Lewis for a remake of the Animals’ […]
[pictured: his view from Griffith Park, via Instagram] We’ve heard Danny Choi’s smooth chops before when we became smitten with the warm R&B tune “Blow.” Now Choi – aka Ghost Loft – has a new track on the new compilation from the French label Kitsuné, “America 2.” Ghost Loft’s “So High” emits such euphoric summer-night […]
The land of sunshine and giant palms seems a strange breeding ground for the rustic sounds of the Record Company, but as the L.A. trio’s “Superdead” EP testifies, the blues can happen anywhere. Director John Cizmas’ video for “This Crooked City” flashes to the alluring and the hardscabble while singer-guitarist Chris Vos, bassist Alex Stiff […]
If this item seems a little discombobulated, that’s because it’s … hard … to type … when … you’re … on … the floor. That might be the destination for longtime followers of Bleu, the pure pop craftsman born William James McCauley III. The Berklee-educated, magnificently sideburned songwriter, whose first four albums pretty much put […]
Steelwells resurfaced in 2012 with the same lineup but with a slightly different sound on their “Cool Kids” EP. The Orange County-based quintet continue to work within this bold, new sound palette and share another new track titled “Dead Song.” Recorded live at Lost Ark Studios in San Diego, its tone is, again, less jovial […]
L.A.-based singer-songwriter Maxime Sokolinski – who’s played in his big sister Soko’s band, as well as with Daniel Johnston, Adanowsky and L.A.’s Sweaters – stepped out of the shadows in 2011 when he released a little bedroom pop gem, “Feels Like,” anonymously, to YouTube. The 25-year-old has spent recent months back in his native France, […]
For days now I’ve been holed up with “Trouble Will Find Me,” the forthcoming sixth album from the National (out May 21 via 4AD). It’s the latest opus in what has become a 12-year hexalogy from the NYC-via-Cincinnati quintet of Matt Berninger, Scott and Bryan Devendorf and Bryce and Aaron Dessner. The literary allusions are […]
Not to obsess, but Cillie Barnes’ single “Brainwash” possesses about everything you’d want in a pop song, except maybe an easy way to categorize it. Razor-sharp lyrics, alternately sung and rapped (reminiscent of the Neighbourhood), a spry melody, a rhythm you’d imagine crowds could bounce along with – the woman behind the Cillie Barnes persona, […]
Anybody else looking forward to Make Music Pasadena? The Saturday of free shows at multiple venues throughout Old Pasadena is coming June 1, and last week the festival announced a lineup featuring the likes of Tanlines, YACHT, We Are Scientists, Robert Delong, Taken by Trees, Superhumanoids, Las Cafeteras, Hunter Hunted and more (with a local […]
