Singer-songwriter Meiko may have been reared in the rural South, but in many ways she got her education at the Hotel Cafe, where she worked as a server. As a fellow veteran of the food service industry, then, Buzz Bands LA submits to you this necessary song, “You Gotta F*ckin’ Tip.” Meiko, by the way, […]
After his two- (and sometimes four-) piece the Voyeurs went quietly into the night, singer-keyboardist Jonathan Hylander embarked on a solo project that would be come to known as Honey Loving Cells. He released a song per week this summer, culminating in this debut EP – and also collaborated with Wendy Wang (the Sweet Hurt) […]
[I had hoped to post this early in the week to preview the Charlatans UK’s L.A. show, but as you may have read, the band’s U.S. tour, including a scheduled stop tonight at the El Rey, has been postponed after drummer Jon Brookes collapsed onstage in Philadelphia last week. He is being treated for a […]
There’s nothing very black-metal or goth about Dark Dark Dark, a chamber-folk band from Minneapolis. Using clarinet, strings, accordion and banjo the band ventures into spooky territory from time to time, but it’s the stuff of dreams more than death, and love more than monsters. Songwriters Nona Marie Invie (piano) and Marshall Lacount (banjo) create […]
Red Fang deal in the kind of bone-crushing heavy rock that might have more sensitive types running for cover. It is somewhat surprising, therefore, to hear that the Portland, Ore., quartet has recorded its sophomore album with the Decemberists’ Chris Funk. It’s probably safe to say that no mandolins were used in the tracking of […]
No band was more unfairly saddled with the tag “one-hit wonder” than Harvey Danger, whose catalog of whip-smart indie rock (three albums and handful of excellent EPs) never escaped the shadow cast by 1998’s “Flagpole Sitta.” After 15 years, Sean Nelson and crew called it quits in August 2009, but they’ve left a little something […]
How Vanaprasta has rocketed from the rookie leagues to the precipice of being an All-Los Angeles Guitar Band in just over a year and a half seems preternatural. “Sounds funny,” singer Steven Wilkin says with quiet confidence, “but I really think the universe opened up and gave us a gift.” Even more of a wonder, […]
Hollywoody quartet the Dance Party makes the kind ’70s-leaning synth-rock that past generations used to take right up the nose. And who knows, maybe they still do, but the foursome, fronted by singer-schoolteacher (now there’s an alter ego) Mick Coogan, have dialed into to a pretty undeniable party vibe, executed more with a smile than […]
For Funeral Party, the young East L.A. dance-punks who seem ready to take the world by storm, the wait must be agonizing. The band turned heads in late 2008, toured supporting the likes of Trail of Dead and Julian Casablancas and finished an album bearing the studio fingerprints of Lars Stalfors (the Mars Volta) and […]
