It’s hard for me to even type David Kilgour’s name without getting a warm-and-fuzzy. The music of the iconic (and I don’t think it’s stretch to use that word here) New Zealand indie-rocker first flew onto my shelves via early-’90s mixtapes traded with friends from far-off lands – packed as they were with artists from […]
Early in their L.A. infancy, White Arrows were slapped with the “electro Strokes” tag, not an entirely inaccurate shorthand for their wiry, synth-addled garage rock. But judging from their new single “Get Gone,” they’re evolving toward something distinctly their own. Here, White Arrows let the synths and beats (rather than the guitars) scratch the itch, […]
Stone Darling were just acquiring their L.A. darling status when we last checked in with them. Fast forward four months, and their hook-laden folk tunes have landed them a residency where they are set to play songs they’ve primped and polished in their short time together. Their finesse in crafting flowing harmonies is no secret, […]
Mariachi .. really. When the Bronx – one of the most deliciously uncompromising hardcore punk bands to emerge in the last decade – first donned their charro suits and morphed into Mariachi El Bronx, it felt like they were kidding. They weren’t, embarking on a foray into south-of-the-border flavors that turned out to be both […]
You’d think the hills of Silver Lake and Echo Park were Appalachia judging from the amount of big-hearted folk music coming from the scene. The tunes of Count Fleet are exemplary – earnest and winsome, they feel like a hedge against high-tech city life, illusory social media friendships and button-pushing marketing campaigns. The duo of […]
When they began, Michael Garner, Dan Chang and Matthew Frankel – the three college buddies who make up Lady Danville – pretty much couldn’t “play” anything. Except their weapons of choice, of course, their voices. And those are three pristine instruments that, wielded individually or as one, have quickly earned the Los Angeles trio comparisons […]
There are a trunk full of layers in Ladytron’s video for “White Elephant,” the first single off the U.K. quartet’s suprisingly dreamy fifth album “Gravity the Seducer.” What’s the burden here, and whose burden is it? Where we can get the number of their costume designer? And how did we not get an invite to […]
[The weekend is just around the corner. Prepare yourselves with some new remixes below…] M83, “Midnight City (Christian Strobe Remix)” – The new single from Anthony Gonzalez has been getting M83 fans in a tizzy with anticipation for the upcoming album, “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming.” The original track boasts the French artist’s fine skills of […]
There’s a console full of slick production tricks on “The Fall,” the new album from L.A. electro duo Public Jones – so many, in fact, that the debut (out Aug. 2) from the team of Asghar Husain and Peter Kerekes gets lost in the ether somewhere between the synth-rock of today and techno-rock of the […]
First as a solo artist on Sony and now fronting the rock quintet Of Verona, Toronto-born Mandi Perkins plays the vulnerable/steely strong rocker-grrl game to the hilt, packing plenty of emotional punch into the band’s radio-ready rock. The project began after Perkins – a former literature major at UC Berkeley with a thing for the […]
