Brody Dalle’s post-Distillers project Spinnerette kicks it into high gear this month – the band’s self-titled debut is out June 23, and the song “Rebellious Palpitations” alone is almost enough to make you forget the Distillers, if you hadn’t already. The frontwoman [pictured with bandmate Tony Bevilacqua] brings her live band to the Troubadour on […]
[In L.A. this week, we’re having a spate of June Gloom. That’s Californese for “clouds.” Here are a couple of singer-songwriterly things that may lighten the mood, if not cause the sun to break right through …] The secret link between KCRW and Perez Hilton? Butterfly Boucher, who, according to her people, is endorsed by […]
Post-punk/new wave quartet Stellastarr* reminds me of better times. “Jenny” occupies the No. 3 slot on my “Popular With Me 2003” mix, and the New Yorkers had another hit with “My Coco” before taking a drubbing in the backwash of other mid-decade post-punk bands who seemed to have more industry horsepower. Although label-less, they have […]
It seems like Paul Larson has been a familiar figure on the Silver Lake scene before there was even a Silver Lake scene. Larson, the lead singer and principal confessor in the Minor Canon, made an album with Jimmy Tamborello (Dntel, the Postal Service) and Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks) during the Clinton Administration, and has […]
On one hand, everything you need to know about War Tapes is right here in “Dreaming of You,” the first song to put the quartet on the Los Angeles landscape. Over urgent beats and ringing guitars, singer Neil Popkin gives it his best Depeche Mode-meets-She Wants Revenge, making his girl reverie sound as foreboding as […]
[Nifty and new from L.A. artists, first of two today:] One tour through the Rhone Occupation’s new EP, and you feel as if the sun has just broken through the clouds. On “Would It Kill You to Talk This Out?” the L.A. quartet weaves guileless melodies into gentle textures to fashion pop that feels like […]
A couple of weeks ago at the Los Angeles United Film Festival, I caught a screening of “Strictly Background,” director Jason Connell’s poignant documentary that looks into the lives of 10 people who chase The Dream by working as movie extras. [Here’s the trailer.] The film, just released in North America in March, not only […]
[Another installment in Buzz Bands’ new local music series …] Silver Lake quartet the Capshuns have been busy making new recordings in the Eagle Rock studio of producer Kiyoshi Graves, and a sneak preview reveals the same infectious, ’60s-influenced power pop that earned them a tour last year with Swedish lads Mando Diao. Well, that […]
Brooklyn-via-Columbia, Mo., sextet White Rabbits’ sophomore album, “It’s Frightening” (streaming on MySpace), comes out Tuesday on TBD Records (the U.S. home to Radiohead). One thing for certain: The album is the sonic kin of its producer, Britt Daniel of Spoon, with its racehorse piano lines and caffeinated drumming. If you liked the frenetic stuff on […]
[New sounds from L.A. artists:] Genre-mashing L.A. duo Looner is gearing up for the May 26 release of a new single, “I Love My Tamagotchee!” – based on the obsession with the Japanese Tamagotchi toy, the song is streaming on the band’s MySpace page – and, later this year, an EP executive-produced by Ziggy Marley. […]
