Three years ago, weary from touring and wan from the chasm separating their dreams and reality, Jim Evens and his bandmates in L.A. trio Helen Stellar decided to take a little break. They’d just had a song in the Cameron Crowe movie “Elizabethtown” and released “A Prayer to Myself,” a compilation of their first three […]
Cleveland two-piece Mr. Gnome has a weirdly psychedelic approach, spare and collage-y. Their sophomore album “Heave Yer Skeleton,” out earlier this month, was recorded in L.A. at Josh Homme’s studio (and mixed at Butch Vig’s digs in Wisconsin). The tracks below will give you an idea why bloggers are scratching their heads, but listening. ||| […]
Dave Dupuis is a familiar figure to Eastside clubgoers, and not just for his head of hair, which seems to occupy the whole room. Dupuis, who plays guitar in Film School and was a sound man at Spaceland and for several bands (including Silversun Pickups), recently debuted his new band, the trio Nightmare Air. It […]
Dear Ian Fleming & the Secret Agents: You made my Friday afternoon, dudes. Best, Bronson P.S.: Yeah, yours is better than this.
Has any Los Angeles band been more productive this decade than Rilo Kiley? Probably not if you count solo projects its members have undertaken. Let’s see: four albums by the Silver Lake quartet itself, two by singer Jenny Lewis (one with the Watson Twins), two by guitarist Blake Sennett fronting the Elected, one by bassist […]
Colorado’s Monolith Festival is in trouble. Organizers of the three-year-old event, plagued the past two years by fractious Rocky Mountain weather, told fans in an e-mail “the future of the festival is very grim,” and that they have “been unable to secure any options” that dig the fest out of its financial hole. Included was […]
All Smiles – the nom de tune of songwriter-guitarist Jim Fairchild – this week released a new EP, “Fall Never Fell,” the follow-up to his sophomore album “Oh For the Getting and Not Letting Go” (which is also finally seeing physical release). Fairchild, the former Grandaddy guitarist who is now touring axeman in Modest Mouse, […]
Beach House, the Baltimore duo of Alex Scally and Victoria Legrand, has teased its forthcoming third album by releasing the single “Norway,” a woozy ballad built on a wobbly organ line that’s sure to elevate the indie crowd’s warm-and-fuzzies to pure delirium. [Yes, after I posted this I checked some other blogs to tabulate the […]
L.A. indie rockers Radars to the Sky have been at work on a new album with producer David Newton (who’s worked with the Little Ones, the Happy Hollows and the Blood Arm, among others), but they’re not messing with the formula that made them Eastside favorites: stabbing guitars underpinned by big rhythms and synth flourishes, […]
In her persona as Dee Dee, guitar-slinging frontwoman of SoCal garage-rockers Dum Dum Girls, Kristin Gundred has gotten in touch with that little girl who used to sing along to pop classics. “I’ve always been a fan of more straightforward pop music, and of all the oldies,” she says. “I probably know all the songs […]
