Missouri-born, Denver-based singer-songwriter Nathaniel Rateliff pens songs as provocative as novels, thick with details, characters and unexpected twists. His new album “In Memory of Loss,” out now on Rounder Records, is a collection of vivid memories and naked words about the future, produced by Brian Deck (Iron & Wine, Califone). Sparse, organic instrumentation and gorgeous […]
The new single from Kisses – the collaboration between Princeton’s Jess Kivel and his girlfriend Zinzi Edmundson – is even better than the first (which we took a shine to back in March). “People Can Do the Most Amazing Things” (out next week digitally and on 7-inch vinyl on IAMSOUND Records) is a sleek, simmering […]
[Raising a glass to Juliana Hatfield on her birthday …] Five mp3s, with tonight’s corresponding shows: ‣ Polls, “Executive Toys.” The L.A. noise-pop trio celebrates its EP release at the Bootleg Theater. [See last week’s feature for more.] ‣ Jesca Hoop, “Feast of the Heart” (e-mail required). The songstress and former Tom Waits nanny celebrates […]
It’s been two-plus years since I happily stumbled upon Funeral Party at the Echo, and more than a year since I talked to James Torres about how fast the L.A. quintet was growing up. Since then, they’ve been busy – polishing their previously DIY sound, preparing their debut album “Golden Age of Nowhere” (which won’t […]
Villagers is the nom de musique of Dun Laoghaire poet and songwriter Conor O’Brien. His debut album “Becoming A Jackal” (out now on Domino) is on the shortlist for this year’s Mercury Prize, garnering rave reviews from heavyweight press and topping the charts in his native Ireland. O’Brien stilled a garrulous media audience at the Mercury nomination […]
Adding more feel-good entries to this summer’s retro-pop parade is New Jersey’s Slow Animal, whose theFUNsun 7” was just released on L.A.’s own JAXART label. Full of jangly, surf-style guitars, fuzzed-out vocals and a smattering of vintage-sounding oohs and ahs, Slow Animal’s blissed-out tunes feel right at home with the likes of Surfer Blood and […]
The Answering Machine are a U.K. quartet that does its Manchester heritage proud – brightly biting, melodically inviting, their 2009 debut album “Another City, Another Sorry” races through 36 minutes of punky Britpop as if the Libertines, Arctic Monkeys and Cribs were thumb-twiddlers. They aren’t, of course, and TAM will sound familiar to you Anglophile […]
When Chris Newcomer left film school and moved from Baltimore to L.A. six-plus years ago, his guitar seldom left his apartment, and when he did play in front of people he was something of a one-trick pony. “I’m such a big fan of the Who that sometimes it’s annoying to my friends,” he says. “Every […]
You’ve likely heard Sara Radle, if not a few years back in the last incarnation of the Rentals then recently as the distaff vocalist in the L.A. indie-pop outfit Walking Sleep. Her solo career, three releases strong before she moved to L.A. from her native Texas in 2005, displays an affection for folk-flavored power-pop and […]
[Delta Spirit’s sophomore album “History From Below” is one of the strongest releases by a SoCal band in 2010, combining tender folk balladry with urgent anthems such as “Bushwick Blues” (performed live, above, at the IFC Crossroads House at SXSW in Austin). Two weeks ago, I did a story on the Long Beach-based band for […]
