There a lot of cooks in Holy Folk’s kitchen – the collaboration features songwriters Keith Waggoner, Josh Caldwell, Ryan George and Jonathan Hylander (in no particular order, Les Blanks, the Voyeurs, Amateurs and Honey Loving Cells), who between them have probably done enough L.A. club gigs got earn some sort of accreditation. Begun as the side […]
Melissa Ann Sweat makes small things seem like big things. As Lady Lazarus, the poet-artist-musician deals in minimalist compositions that seem like folk tunes afloat in a slow-moving current – music that, like the new video for “Gleam,” seems to suggest a certain detachment from a world that’s moving too fast. It’s a relatable sentiment, […]
Rainbow Jackson’s “Rippin’ Off the Rails” EP, released last year, announced the L.A. quartet as happy, hair-flyin’ purveyors of hooks – not quite consciously messy enough for the local surf-garage-punk scene but too scuzzy to fit in with L.A.’s next-wave hard rockers. Named in homage to Bo Jackson (“the greatest American athlete to ever play […]
Some may call it vibrato in Laura Stevenson‘s vocals, but that delicate quiver in the Brooklyn-based singer-songwriter’s voice moves one so deeply it’s beyond a technical music term. With every tremble, she picks at her songs’ subject matters until every human flaw is exposed – and this is just one factor that makes her latest […]
Particularly loving California today? Then you’ll have to make sure you crank up the Blank Tapes‘ latest single “Holy Roller.” Matt Adams, the brainchild behind the psychedelic trio (which includes Pearl Charles and D.A. Humphrey) continues to dispense sunny ’60s vibes, and this track suggests the days of touring the country in VW vans with peace […]
Landon Marcus has graduated from house parties to a stylish lounge in the video for his new song “Love Shield.” When we met Marcus last October, the L.A.-based singer, songwriter and theatrical force was out of his mind, thanks to “The Drugs,” the song itself a raging rocker that screamed neurosis with every note. In […]
Back in 2011, singer-multi-instrumentalist Robert Fleming was dealing in wine and song, in that order. Juggling a day job servicing oenophiles with his passion for songwriting, Fleming – working under the name Victory – released an EP called “Demonstrations” that demonstrated he knew his way around a pop song. This week, Fleming released his debut […]
As noted last August, singer Tracy Marcellino and multi-instrumentalist Hanford Pittman raised the bar in both emotional intensity and electronic complexity when they debuted their new venture Oh Boy Les Mecs. Their newly released “Nurture Nature” EP wraps up their knob-twiddling experiments and world-wary (though not necessarily world-weary) meditations into five dreamy songs, with Marcellino […]
A lot has happened since Brit-pop heroes Travis last released an album in 2008, and precious little of it is pertinent to the principals’ discographies. Sure, main man Fran Healy released the lovely solo album “Wreckorder” in 2010, but beyond that, Healy and bandmates Andy Dunlop, Dougie Payne and Neil Primrose were largely minding their […]
The storyline in director Joey Sinko’s video for “Love Jam” is pretty compelling – ambitious waitress solicits audition from club owner, hijinks ensue – but it’s not quite as dramatic as this question: Who are those fellows in the dark glasses? They are twins Jordan and Adam Sabolick, Richard Thiessen, Johnny Wilson and Tony Tancredi, […]
