The Baseball Project, who showed us their stuff at SXSW in 2011, has done a great job on two albums in combining two our two favorite things, pop music and the national pastime. Recent developments in San Francisco inspired the Baseball Project’s Scott McCaughey to write and record “Why Melky Why? – a lament directed […]
“Doom soul” may sound a little scary and a bit more dreary than you’re ready for, but when you realize it’s a type of blues music the term “doom” seems appropriate. Canadian singer-songwriter Al Spx, aka Cold Specks, a soul singer who currently resides on the other side of the pond in London, England, even […]
There’s something about Sean Rowe‘s baritone that are so charmingly inviting no matter what emotion he conveys. Always paired with conviction, Rowe could be an a cappella artist and tell a story with just his burning tone and peculiar melodies. But the musician, whose journey with music began around the same time with his fascination […]
Audio-engineers-turned-synth-pop-maestros Father Tiger got ambitious with the video for the single “Shell,” off the L.A. duo’s first EP. The clips stitches together more than 5,000 images processed through Instagram (including 400-plus fan submissions), dozens of original pieces of art and a bunch of iPhone footage. It’s the work of director/editor Jeff McHale and artist John […]
Django Django sound like the best of two decades, wrapped up in one kaleidoscopic package. The quartet of David Maclean (drummer, producer and brother of the Beta Band’s John), singer-guitarist Vincent Neff, bassist Jimmy Dixon and synth man Tommy Grace met in art school in Edinburgh and began their psychedelic adventures in London. Their self-titled […]
Post-Britpop trio Animal Kingdom has been making waves with their latest album “The Looking Away” (out now on Boombox and Mom+ Pop) with shimmering songs like “Strange Attractor.” Produced by David Kosten (Bat For Lashes), the record follows up their highly regarded 2009 debut “Signs and Wonders” (produced by Phil Ek, who’s worked with Fleet […]
LexiconDon, as well as many of their Binary labelmates, have been at the forefront of the Los Angeles chillwave movement, refining and honing a distinct blend of blurry synths and infectious melodies into dreamy pop songs on their debut release, 2010’s “Pink + Blue.” “Burn” is the second single off the trio’s follow-up to that […]
On their debut album “An Aside,” Black Swan Runners manage to sound like the best of the indie-rock ’90s without sounding dated. The quartet, formed from the ashes of CoCo B’s, relocated from Orange County to the Humboldt County burg of Ferndale to make the album, which simmers with tense bass lines and stabbing guitars […]
Dead Can Dance – the long-running collaboration between Brendan Perry and Lisa Gerrard – were one of the artists that made 4AD as much of a genre as a record label. The duo’s explorations into the dark, worldly and ethereal set the bar high for their many followers, and now DCD returns with their first […]
Gangi’s “Railways no. 1-27” is one of those sound collages that threatens go off the tracks and at any minute but never quite does. The spacey, sample-added excursion is the lead track on the L.A. duo’s sophomore album “Gesture Is,” which will finally be released on Oct. 2. We say “finally” because it’s taken Matt […]
