The moniker is Cillie, as in “silly,” and Barnes, from a family name. But Cillie Barnes is not a new, honey-voiced angel dropped from the heavens – it’s just the new musical incarnation of Vanessa Long, co-founder of the L.A. folk-pop outfit Family of the Year. The O.C.-bred songstress departed FOTY last year, deciding after […]
In the first song on Harriet’s debut EP, the audaciously titled “I Slept With All Your Mothers,” you can almost feel Alex Casnoff releasing his pent-up frustration. Casnoff, who spent the past couple of years playing in L.A. bands Dawes and Papa, has struck out on his own as Harriet (the band name honors his […]
Singer-songwriter Matthew Kaner owes it all to wine – well, his band name Liquid Love Letter, anyway, not to mention his alliances with many of the people who inspired and collaborated on LLL’s debut album “If/Then,” released today. The seeds of Kaner’s earnest, finely honed Americana, which recalls a duskier Grant-Lee Phillips, were planted when […]
Leave it to a white boy from Chewelah, Wash., with nerdy red glasses to disguise a letter addressing politics as a love song in the style of D’Angelo. In fact, it wouldn’t be a surprise if a first-time listener already mistook 24-year-old Allen Stone for the infamous soul singer. But even with heavy influences that […]
Seamless harmonies and soft pop melodies are difficult to deny when they’re delivered with such grace, and that’s exactly the case with L.A. band the Young Romans. Pianist Brad Hooks and guitarist Sari Mellafe trade in the kind of shimmering riffs and vocal interplay that appeal to pop sophisticates and romantics alike. Their 2010 “Yesterday […]
If the nimble guitar work doesn’t get you, the falsetto will. And if those don’t work, give in to the hook, and the beats. Yes, they’re all in four minutes’ work for Flora & Fauna, the new L.A. quartet whose early songs seem equally beholden to post-punk and soul-pop. The foursome of Matt Bernstein, Adam […]
The cosmic country-meets-dirty blues of the nascent duo 7Horse is not, as one of their songs might suggest, the sound of two guys on a “Low Fuel Drug Run.” It is, however, the the psychedelic excursion of two veteran players eager to take flight while their main band idles on the runway. The new album […]
If you’re battling the crowds today and of a mind to give the gift of music, you’re probably already aware that it’s Back to Black Friday, brought to you by the folks behind spring’s annual Record Store Day. (And if you’re like us, you’re patronizing your local, independent stores.) There are a slew of special […]
Raw Geronimo’s platter of goth-y surf-pop comes with side orders of audacity and whimsy, all captured in Jacob and Clyde Blunt’s video for the sextet’s new 7-inch single “Faustine.” Raw Geronimo is the brainchild of Laena Geronimo, aka Laena Myers-Ionita, the bassist for the Like and a multi-instrumentalist who plays or has played with Swahili […]
This is one of those times a band’s description of its own music fits: “Like swimming in soft flannel,” Derde Verde says of the tunes on its new “Moon/Mirror” album, and it’s true. The Los Angeles trio of Jon Schwarz, Dylan McKenzie and Matthias Wagner trade in the subtle melodicism and warm textures to craft […]
