Singer-bassist Lorelei Plotczyk knows her way around the moody shoegazers – she handled those duties for the Los Angeles incarnation of Bay Area-bred Film School. Now based in San Diego, she’s fallen in with singer-keyboardist Susie Ghahremani (formerly of the Boston-area indie-pop band Snoozer), singer-guitarist Itai Faierman (The Mashtis, Mu) and drummer Luis Galvan (Galactic […]
With their latest album “Holy Fire” produced by Flood & Alan Moulder, English rock band Foals has had a successful and strong comeback. But their lead single “Inhaler” may be a bit misleading as it diminishes the “tropical prog” and almost completely replaces it with a sinister hard rock foundation underneath the math rock elements. […]
If you’ve been to Mystery Skulls‘ residency this month but still wonder why the guy behind this one-man show looks familiar, it’s because you were probably a fan of Luis Dubuc’s previous project, the Secret Handshake. Although the former moniker gained a following in the electronic realm, Mystery Skulls leaves the soul-influenced bubblegum electro-pop behind […]
The debut album from L.A. trio George Glass harks back to the days when indie-rock was not so self-obsessed, when it didn’t fret so much about being nice, when rawness was less an affectation than a code. Not that “Welcome Home” (out March 12 on vinyl/digital) isn’t drop-dead pretty in places. The trio of Nicholas […]
If you’re a fan of Robyn, the Knife or Purity Ring, chances are you’ve probably already heard of Chvrches. The Scottish trio, whose members consist of Iain Cook, Martin Doherty and Lauren Mayberry, earned a touring spot with Passion Pit after their song “Lies” seeped onto the Internet last year. But the three are not […]
Rival Sons are one of those enigmas – how can a southern California-bred band, so exceedingly competent at what they do, enjoy huge acclaim seemingly everywhere except their home turf? (See also: Vintage Trouble.) To read their press clippings from the U.K. and Canada, the Long Beach quartet of singer Jay Buchanan, guitarist Scott Holiday, […]
The vocals of Suzanne May cover a lot of topography on Dark Furs’ self-titled EP – the higher elevations reached by some of the 4AD singers we used to love, the deeper places of conflicted emotions and insistent longing. In concert with the the understated guitar work of Chad Phillipps (and now the drumming of […]
The music of L.A. duo Night Club emanates from the dark corners of the 1980s, those ostensibly dangerous places that still provide unsafe harbor today for undergrounders with certain special interests. All their synth-and-sin is the brainchild of DJ/producer Mark Brooks, the ex-guitarist for punk-rockers Warlock Pinchers who has done music videos (for the Melvins […]
Jimmy Vincent is recognized these days for his various acting gigs – he’s the guy with the falcon, for one – but back in the day he was an indie-rock explorer with a fetish for gorgeous, ambient drone. In the mid-Aughts, Vincent played in a duo, then a trio, called In Waves, whose goth-inspired compositions […]
Back in November of 2011, the Driscoll siblings, Bruce and Erica – doing business as Blondfire – unveiled a candy-coated video for what was then their seemingly surefire hit-in-waiting “Where the Kids Are.” Since then, the band signed with Warner, tightened the song a little bit, landed it in a TV commercial for Honda and […]
