With its cerebral eloquence, maze-like song structures and insistent atmospherics, the music of Australian quintet Dappled Cities is not exactly Pop 101. It reminds me of the widescreen romanticism of Britpop bands such as Suede and Gene, though without as many hooks. The band’s third album, “Zounds” is out this week on Dangerbird Records, and […]
About one year and more than 800 posts ago, I launched Buzz Bands LA to shake myself out of my post-L.A. Times stupor, not to mention an almost comic obsession to share music and my thoughts on music in a somewhat journalistic fashion. Since it seems to be de rigeur for bloggers to celebrate themselves, […]
Ruby Friedman has the eyes of somebody who’s lived a little, the writing chops to make her experiences compelling and a voice that makes it all sound larger than life. The siren of the L.A.-based Ruby Friedman Orchestra is part damaged diva, part drama queen and all exposed nerves. How she came to to be […]
[One in a series highlighting new music from L.A. bands …] L.A. quartet Shiloe is 50% drumming and 99% inscrutable. The foursome’s dense, gothic-leaning shoegaze, underpinned by rhythms from dual drummers Daniel Clifford and Dan Moore and bassist Melissa Pleckham, fairly buries guitarist Ken Ramos’ vocals, but it’s the aesthetic that counts here, wide swaths […]
[My e-mail is overflowing with notable new music, so in a probably vain attempt to try to catch up, I will start by highlighting new tunes from old friends …] There’s no understating the Cocteau Twins’ influence on the dreampop and shoegaze bands that followed them; to this day the band’s ability to project emotion […]
Along with a penchant for combining elements of this decade’s hitmakers (think Franz Ferdinand, the Killers and the Bravery) into one explosive rock package, the four guys in Los Angeles quartet Saint Motel have a sense of humor. “We tried to get married in a chapel in Las Vegas,” drummer Greg Erwin says, before frontman […]
The Happy Hollows’ debut album “Spells” is at turns exhilarating, experimental and excruciating – as if the Pixies, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Bikini Kill and Bis got together to compare anxiety attacks. Its yelpy, guitar-spiked sketches, couched every so often by unfailingly catchy shout-along choruses, are at least nervy, if not downright neurotic. It’s far too […]
But how does Max Bemis really feel? The 25-year-old hellion behind the L.A. band Say Anything cuts loose in the first single from his band’s forthcoming fourth album, “Say Anything” (due Oct. 13). Bemis’ sharp songwriting, displayed on 2004’s “… Is a Real Boy” (which is virtually an album of classic rock) and 2007’s “In […]
Spider Problem is a trip to the ER waiting to happen. The L.A. quartet’s thrashy spazz-rock is a throwback to the days of unhinged punk – yeah, maybe like the Germs, whom Spider Problem has supported this year on tour. (At least, it’s the 2009 incarnation of the Germs, with actor Shane West channeling Darby […]
The Highland Park assemblage known as Seasons are a glorious mess. The seven- or (sometimes) eight-piece makes lovingly off-kilter neo-psychedelia full of palpable energy and exposed nerves, startlingly pretty one moment and earplug-worthy cacophonous the next. Their new “Summer” EP, recorded with Timothy James (the Movies), arrives just in the time for the end of […]
