Sometimes I feel like this: It’s your world, kids – I’m just watching your silly painted faces in it. So it was when Blondfire’s Aurelien Levitan-directed video for “Where the Kids Are” oozed its way onto my browser. It’s R-rated (for excessive violence and candy). And it features and young lad who forgot his meds […]
Judging from the sleek sophistication, island undertones and precise arrangements on the debut EP from Montë Mar, it’s immediately apparent the Los Angeles quintet didn’t just fall out of their bedrooms with a few chord progressions and lovelorn lyrics. Three members met while playing in and around the USC jazz community – in fact, Brian […]
With artists such as Guineafowl, Gotye and the Bleeding Knees Club recently coming through town, it’s been somewhat of an Australian invasion for L.A., but we don’t mind when rock bands like the Jezabels swing by again. Even after we caught the quartet at SXSW, songs such as “Mace Spray” and “Endless Summer” still have […]
Riding the wave of giddy, falsetto-addled electronica created by the likes of Foster the People, MGMT and Passion Pit, Athens, Ga.-based Reptar injects off-kilter elements, and that weird X-factor works for them. Synthesizers forward, Ryan Engelberger, William Kennedy, Andrew McFarland, Graham Ulicny and latest member Poof Daunghty have no shame in focusing on indie dance […]
Fonda, “Some Things Aren’t Worth Knowing” – Since we premiered the title track from their EP “Better Days” back in May, good things have happened for Fonda. The release has been picked up by Chicago-based label Minty Fresh, which will release and expanded version of “Better Days” on vinyl on Nov. 28. Yes, that means […]
Phantogram first burst on to the scene in 2009 with two EPs that eventually led to their seductive debut album “Eyelid Movies,” and they’re finally back with some new material after two long years of touring. Although the new batch of songs on “Nightlife” (out now via Barsuk Records) don’t stray too far from their […]
Young San Fernando Valley trio Aftergloam likes things big and loud and spacious, and their single “Silencer” roars away with post-rock abandon. The juxtaposition of guitarist Elvis Galvez’s guitar textures and drummer Tianna Nicole’s beats sounds like a duel, but everybody wins here. It says on Bandcamp that the track was actually released last October, […]
When we last heard from U.K.-bred, L.A.-based songstress Carina Round, she was releasing an EP as part of the Early Winters. She’s been busy; Round has a full-length in the works for next spring – collaborators include Billy Corgan, Dave Stewart and Brian Eno – and she’s guesting with Maynard James Kennan’s Puscifer, with whom […]
I spent some time on my recent vacation thinking about whether indie-rock is dead, or whether its frazzled head is merely bobbing in an ocean of couture music – the waves of preening electro, faux folk and calculated retro-pop that proliferate. My long drives in the desert were accompanied by a handful** of CDs (remember […]
Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, aka First Aid Kit, return with a follow-up to 2010’s “The Big Black & Blue” with the track “The Lion’s Roar.” The signature close-knit harmonies, which earned them tour spots with artists such as Lykke Li in the past, are still present in the title track off of their […]
