[It’s been a scorching hot week in Los Angeles. Take a listen to these new summer jams to help cool things down.] Flight Facilities, “Foreign Language feat. Jess” – Sydney, Austalia-based DJ/producer duo Flight Facilities first took everyone by surprise when they unleashed “Crave You feat. Giselle” back in 2010. Not only did the pop […]
Funeral Party’s “New York City Moves to the Sound of LA” roared back in the days of the dance-punks’ “Bootleg” EP, and three years later on the East L.A. band’s major-label debut “Golden Age of Knowhere,” it’s no less of a scorcher. In spirit, anyway, it reminds me of the 1977 song by the Randoms, […]
The 2nd New Los Angeles Folk Fest goes off Saturday in a strange, wonderful and probably overheated place known as Zorthian Ranch in Altadena. To give you a taste of the event’s deliriously eclectic lineup – the music ranges from old-timey to fractured folk to psychedelia, with a lot in between – this edition of […]
Considering Tim Rush’s experience in editing TV and films like the documentary “DIG!,” his foray into songwriting hasn’t been too far of a stretch in terms of his storytelling skills. Strange Markings, Rush’s project with current bandmates Zach Miller, Ryan Hailey and Chris Lovejoy, initially caught the ear of songwriter and producer Linda Perry, and […]
You don’t need an instruction manual to get hooked on the hooky power-pop of Ari Shine – ever since his power chords tied us in knots way back in 2007, Shine has been growing new sounds from the roots of classic rock songwriting. His latest album “Ghost Town Directory,” made with producer Noah Shain (As […]
For Harley Prechtel-Cortez, Ryan Kirkpatrick, Diego Guerrero, and Calvin J. Love – the guys Los Angeles knew as Red Cortez – it was a matter of “recalibrating our ears.” That’s how Kirkpatrick described the quartet moving on and becoming Just an Animal, whose music bears only a faint resemblance to the amped-up rock-and-blues Red Cortez, […]
Depending on your weather patterns, the gothic dream-pop of Cerise Leang – who just goes by Cerise, thank you – can be haunting or enchanting. It is at the very least cinematic, which is no surprise given that the Brooklyn-based songstress’s acting career and that her first foray into the arts was in film school, […]
George Ellias’ debut EP aspires to basest troubadour traditions – harmonica blaring and vocals wobbling, the L.A.-based songwriter trades in back-porch melancholia and sharp vignettes told in their rawest form. Ellias, who lived the Bay Area and New Orleans before landing in L.A. three-plus years ago, is working on a full-length album for a fall […]
Musicians are showered with accolades when they reinvent the wheel, but sometimes the mere basics can provide the firmest of foundations for songwriting. Athens, Ala.-based band the Shakes has provided wonderful proof of this by stirring things up with only a handful of demos. Fronted by the remarkable Brittany Howard, whose soulful vocals express a […]
With last spring’s “To the Alps” and this week’s digital single “Clamoring for Your Heart,” Santa Monica-bred indie-pop quartet Princeton continues to evolve toward a sleeker, Euro sound that’s not far from Jesse Kivel’s side project Kisses. The spare, brooding new song sounds like something Stephin Merritt would’ve done on the classic “69 Love Songs,” […]
