[File under: Random transmissions that have caught my ear.] Tennis, “Origins” – The Denver trio of Patrick Riley, Alaina Moore, James Barone recently announced that their sophomore offering of mood-elevating pop, “Young and Old,” will be out in February on Fat Possum. “Origins” will brighten any wintry day. Tennis plays the Satellite on Dec. 7. […]
Ever since she hit L.A. on the circuitry of her band Electrocute, songwriter/producer Nicole Morier has had a lot of irons in the fire. She juggled collaborators in Electrocute, putting out two albums and handful of other releases, and segued into the songwriting world, co-authoring tunes for the likes of Britney Spears, Tom Jones, Junkie […]
Just an Animal’s debut album “Lonely Hunter” (out Tuesday) marks a radical turn for the Los Angeles quartet formerly known as Red Cortez, and it’s almost all for the better. Gone is the self-conscious, guitar-heavy rock ’n’ soul of the foursome’s early recordings, which (first under the name the Weather Underground) produced a series of […]
[Updates on three bands we’ve previously covered:] Heywood, “Spectacular Violence” – In August we reported that Summer Darling frontman Ben Heywood had completed a solo album, “Skills for the Long Emergency,” a concept record about the societal chaos that ensues after the West depletes its natural resources. The album has been picked up by SoCal-based […]
Hirishikesh Hirway, the songwriter behind L.A.’s the One AM Radio, had a simple proposition: If anybody donated $500 or more to the Internet radio station and DJ collective Dublab, he’d cover a song of the benefactor’s choice. He issued the challenge on Facebook, and a fan named Gerard Cronin stepped up. (Cronin’s employer matched the […]
Santa Barbara quartet Howlin’ Woods oscillate in the space between spacey psych-pop and simmering, soulful folk, and one of the notable qualities about their self-titled debut album is that there is space in their music. The band – singer-guitarist Jordan Chetakian, guitarist Griffin Chetakian, keyboardist-bassist Brian Chandler and drummer Matthew Farrington – has been cultivating […]
No matter what its stylistic explorations – and there have been many – Lambchop’s music has been sneaking up on me for the better part of 20 years. Today the band anchored by singer-guitarist Kurt Wagner announced that on Feb. 21 they will release their 11th album, “Mr. M,” a string-laden collection dedicated to the […]
The soundscapes on Julia Holter’s debut album “Tragedy” are equal parts hallucination and incarceration. Oh, and mythology, too, since the Cal Arts-educated Los Angeles composer’s work is based on the Greek play by Euripedes. Holter’s collages are glued together by synth, harmonium, percussive field recordings and her plaintive voice, and at times you’d feel like […]
As we reported back in June, Shana Halligan has moved on from her work in the trip-hop duo Bitter:Sweet and found fertile soil – most of it European – for her sultry vocal stylings. Halligan, who has spent the past year collaborating with the likes of Nouvelle Vague, System of a Down’s Serj Tankian, Thievery […]
There is retro-pop that’s retro first and pop second, and there’s retro-pop that abides the song over aesthetic. On “Try Again,” the new single from Nicholas Ruth, the L.A. composer-songwriter doesn’t tumble into any production morass; he merely lets his Motown mojo take over, and to great effect. Ruth is the former guitarist/backing vocalist in […]
