It’s not hard to imagine that East L.A. kids Funeral Party played their first show under circumstances like this. Find a house, plug in, play. The quintet’s debut album “Golden Age of Knowhere” comes out in January, and it’s been serving most of Buzz Bands’ dance-punk needs ever since the promo landed in our laps. […]
The new music made by the hands of Hands – the L.A. quartet of Geoffrey Halliday, Ryan Sweeney, Sean Hess and Alex Staniloff – feels more like a cumulation (rather than derivation) of the a lot of the last decade’s indie-rock. Synths and samples do battle with insistent beats and tricky polyrhythms, with Halliday’s tenor […]
Hipsters who like their rock-Americana stripped-down, deconstructed or freaked-out should move along quietly. Truth & Salvage Co. get folky the classic-rock way, with sturdy, clean guitar lines, crafted arrangements and stadium-sized four-part harmonies. Not unlike their sonic brethren the Black Crowes (Chris Robinson produced their debut album, released in May), the L.A.-based sextet [previewed last […]
It’s been a rockin’ year for Eastern Conference Champions. The L.A. trio of Joshua Ostrander, Melissa Dougherty and Greg Lyons landed their song “A Million Miles an Hour” in the soundtrack to “The Twilight Saga: Eclipse.” They did a bang-up Spaceland residency. They finished work on their next full-length “Speak-ahh” while entertaining dalliances with record […]
At the risk of provoking a few afternoon tears, I’ll give you a short preview of “Tear the Fences Down,” the forthcoming album by L.A. quartet Eulogies. It is a eulogy, in a manner, or at least songwriter Peter Walker’s meditation, on the all-too-short life of Pablo Castelaz, the son of Dangerbird Records co-founder Jeff […]
In “Fields of Green,” the first song on the new Giant Sand album “Blurry Blue Mountain,” legendary desert-rock explorer Howe Gelb muses about being over 50, and those inevitable times he is sought out as some sort of swami: “I tell them with a crinkled smile / and a smoldering spark eyed glisten / to […]
It’s no surprise that Pepper Rabbit has charmed the socks off indie-pop fans this year – not if you’re heard the L.A. duo’s debut album “Beauregard,” and especially not if you’ve seen frontman Xander Singh’s instrument-juggling during his live shows. What’s remarkable is that, after releasing two EPs in 2009 and “Beauregard” last month on […]
Top 3 shows to improve your possibly flagging midweek disposition: ‣ NYC indie-pop quartet Bear Hands [pictured] are pals of MGMT whose debut album “Burning Bush Supper Club” is full of downright infectious tunes. They headline Spaceland with Cantora Records labelmates Rumspringa. ‣ Fitz & the Tantrums wind down an amazing year by playing to […]
Dear Rumspringa: I keep waiting for something to click between you and me, but it just hasn’t happened. I feel like it should, so many of my friends are in your corner and keep telling me that if I like psych-rock (and I do) and blues-rock (and I do), I should be keen on your […]
Whatever shape her solo music ended up taking, Morgan Kibby was determined not to play to expectations. “I’m a woman who plays keyboards, and there’s the whole Tori Amos sensibility,” says Kibby, the singer-keyboardist who joined French popgazers M83 for their last album “Saturdays = Youth.” “I know I could have written the girl-at-a-piano record, […]
