Well, well, well … three brothers named Blackwell and a single called “Farewell Well Well.” Not a bad introduction to Canto, a teenaged trio taking on gritty blues-rock. Siblings Seamus (vocals/guitar), Aidan (bass) and David (drums) seem to like things in threes – their debut album is titled “Ha Ha Ha,” and it mashes Zep-inspired riffage […]
The Helio Sequence’s exercises in Eno-influenced pop peaked with 2008’s gorgeously cinematic “Keep Your Eyes Ahead,” but longtime collaborators Brandon Summers (vocals/guitar) and Benjamin Weikel (keys/drums) have reloaded for their first album in four years. Judging from the first two singles, “Negotiations,” due Sept. 11 via Sub Pop, furthers the Helio Sequence’s explorations in deeply […]
The “Nuggets” boxed sets are more fun than this. Really. The exploration of 1960s surf-rock by the Los Angeles quartet Allah-Las feel like a laboratory experiment. They’ve nailed the sound, perfected the vibe and aced the test – much in the same way pop genius Todd Rundgren did in 1980 with his recombinant Beatles chords on […]
The Peter Kaaden-directed video for the Raveonettes‘ latest single “She Owns the Streets” is a rather literal interpretation. But on a hot summer day like this, it’s nice to see a clip where someone still owns their surroundings no matter the people or the location. The song brings the Danish duo back to their dream-pop […]
Singer Greta Valenti invokes the adage “Rode hard / and put away wet” in Well Hung Heart’s first single “Devil,” and you could certainly say that about the electric blues in general. It’s all been done, with varying degrees of fury, fuzz and filth, right? Maybe, but the form is in pretty capable hands here, […]
The New Limb have grown by leaps and bounds since the Orange County-bred, L.A.-based quintet released “Sounds People Can Hear” in 2010. Their lushly orchestrated indie-pop, riding the sky-blue boy/girl vocals of Joey Chavez and Lauren Salamone Perez, goes straight for the jugular and mostly hits the mark. Chavez certainly does with his emotive falsetto […]
The Peach Kings, the L.A.-based duo of Paige Wood and Steven Trezevant, had us reaching for another bottle of something strong with last year’s “Trip Wop” EP, a mash-up of influences that no matter how much you stirred added up to something sexy. Their space age lounge-ready blues gets sharper on their new “Handsome Moves” […]
Seems as if two or three generations of Silver Lake musicians have come and gone since the neighborhood last heard from Earlimart, one of the early (and most enduring, owing to the many bands who have recorded at Aaron Espinoza’s studio The Ship) denizens of the scene. Long known as torchbearers for the lush intimacy […]
With its glossy cinematography and nifty animation, the video for Max and Moon’s “Out of My Head” tugs on a lot of heartstrings. Under the direction of Kamell Allaway, the L.A. quartet’s buoyant paean to lost love is at turns playful and tragic. The video was filmed by Jonathan Pope, with lush production design by […]
Oh Boy Les Mecs – the post-Twilight Sleep adventures of collaborators Tracy Marcellino and Hanford Pittman – sets its sights on altitudes the duo’s dark electro-pop never reached. Beat-laden synths and arching (and for Marcellino, stronger) vocals conspire with rich lyrics to give Oh Boy Les Mecs – French slang for “oh boy you guys” […]
