The allure of Amy Blaschke’s Americana is in the details – her fragile voice at once exuding strength and vulnerability, lyrical moments that work like weathered photographs, spare arrangements that let her songs breathe. Blaschke, a Seattle native who last released an album in 2007 (under the name Night Canopy), returns this month with “Desert Varnish,” […]
As he displayed last year in some intimate performances, Michael Goldman practices songcraft that belies his 22 years. Goldman has been the bassist for local favorites Chasing Kings – who are going on hiatus because frontman Matt Schwartz has joined up with Cold War Kids as a touring member. Now Goldman, debuting his own work […]
Dawes return this spring to continue its campaign for classic rock that sounds classic. The L.A. quartet of Taylor and Griffin Goldsmith, Wylie Gelber and Tay Strathairn have issued two compelling arguments for their songcraft, 2009’s “North Hills” and 2011’s “Nothing Is Wrong,” in the process becoming Jackson Browne’s favorite young band and winning plenty […]
There are a lot of psych-pop revivalists these days who forget the “pop,” instead settling for slight melodies buried in noodling and reverb. Harper Simon’s new single “Bonnie Brae” is not that. The New York-bred, L.A.-based songwriter, moving away from the amiable Americana on his 2009 debut, engages in some sonic crate-digging on his new […]
Last time it was Body Parts‘ video for “Doing Things” that piqued our interest. Their last album “On Purpose” was just as stimulating, and now the experimental pop quartet led by Ryder Bach gives us a taste from the new album with “Rest While You Sleep.” The new single (“Perfect Water” is the B-side) will […]
The Portland Cello Project, the six-year-old string ensemble that has covered the likes of Radiohead, Justin Timberlake, Kanye West, Rihanna and even Pantera, has expanded its palette to tackle the latest music from Beck. The 42-year-old songwriter, of course, released his latest effort, “Beck Hansen’s Song Reader,” as a book of sheet music. And the […]
The full-length by L.A. quartet Hands won’t arrive until April 30, but their fans now have a little something to tide them over. Their new 7-inch for White Iris finds the art-rockers a bit less arty – “I Want to Know” shelves the band’s characteristically labyrinthine programming and beats in favor of more organic instrumentation. […]
How many drummers does it take to make a rock video? Loads, if you’re Nico Vega. The L.A. rockers enlisted the help of roomful of skins-pounders to make the video for “Beast,” a song that originally appeared on their 2009 album but was granted a second life owing to its use in a video game […]
Each of the four songs on Wires in the Walls’ new EP “Leap, Timber, Leap” is a mini-epic, a snippet of musical cinema that, in between the twinkling guitars, serene melodies and lustrous production, conveys the timeless tug-of-war between melancholy and hope. It’s a refinement of pop-Americana the Los Angeles quintet of Warren Sroka, Denton […]
The Hectors seem as if they come from three-generations-ago Silver Lake – their single “Cold Star” was one of the highlights of the “International Pop Overthrow: Vol. 9” compilation (2006), and the sweet “I Drove All the Way From Bridgeport to Make It With You” is on one of our 2007 mixtapes here somewhere. But […]
