Remember when the future of the Sunset Junction Street Fair appeared in jeopardy? Doesn’t seem that way now. The 30th anniversary event, its name now shortened to the Sunset Junction Fair, has announced a lineup that’s fittingly all over the map, and with a bigger map – an expansion to five stages of music –to […]
L.A. songstress Juliette Commagere goes a little bit tropical – with very good results – on the first song to emerge from her new album, “The Procession” (due Sept. 20). The electro-flavored number showcases the supple voice that has earned her collaborative work with the Bird and the Bee, the Tool side project Puscifer and […]
[The man born Richard Starkey, whom you know as Ringo Starr, turns 70 today. That don’t hardly seem possible. Happy milestone.] Top 4 ways to service my midweek power-pop jones: ‣ Halsted [pictured], the nom de tune of Bay Area-based singer-songwriter Ryan Auffenberg, hits the Silverlake Lounge behind his sophomore disc “Life Underwater.” Comparisons: Mellow […]
Wake Up Lucid’s no-frills blues feels like a breath of fresh air amid all today’s tricked-out psychedelia and hybridized noise. The project of cousins Ryan, Ian and Jamie Baca, the trio’s debut EP “Look Alive People,” recorded to 2-inch tape at the Village in West L.A. a year ago, crackles with bite-sized riffs and taut […]
There’s a lot of the sun-splashed Sixties in the music of A B & the Sea, the Bay Area quintet that was founded in Wisconsin by guitarists Koley O’Brien and Joe Spargur. Two years after O’Brien and Spargur packed up the van and headed west, they’ve combined with Troy Lawton, Zak LaVigne and David Hunt […]
One of indie-rock’s finest husband-and-wife teams, Mates of State, are stretching out a bit for the summer. Their recently released digital collection, “Crushes (The Covers Mixtape),” is a surprising tour de pop that features the Kansas-bred duo of Jason Hammel and Kori Gardener taking on songs by Daniel Johnston (“True Love Will Find You in […]
Admiral Radley’s debut album “I Heart California” is out today digitally, and the band – a collaboration between Jason Lytle and Aaron Burtch of Grandaddy and Aaron Espinoza and Ariana Murray of Earlimart – plays the Also I Like to Rock series at the Hammer Museum next Thursday, July 8. I talked to the principals […]
Eagle Winged Palace doesn’t just sound like the ’60s – the L.A. quintet sounds like the ghosts of that decade, rattling around in your closet and maybe your consciousness. The folk-noir made by Eric “Cashew” Harding and bandmates is a patchwork of acoustic guitar, spacey keyboards and boy/girl vocals, at times enchanting and at others […]
It’s not just the news of the Vaselines’ return that has a smile on my face, it’s the squalid bite of their new single “I Hate the ’80s.” The Vaselines slipped away too quickly after releasing one album and a handful of singles in the late ’80s and early ’90s (famously compiled on Sub Pop’s […]
So as a means of introducing you to Judson & Mary – whom you’ve probably met, if you’ve been to a show in Silver Lake or Echo Park recently – I thought I’d share the postscript from the June 15 Buzz Bands LA show at Spaceland. I’d initially planned to have a “special guest” play […]
