[Happy Monday. Here are some new sounds that reached my ears:] What does O+S equal? The duo – a seemingly unlikely collaboration between Azure Ray’s Orenda Fink and Scalpelist (Cedric LeMoyne of Remy Zero) – has given birth to a self-titled album (due March 24 on Saddle Creek) of understated but cinematic pop. Many of […]
[Happy birthday to Nancy Wilson from Heart … Now, to a great slate of shows:] Bands, bands, from distant lands: The Soundtrack of Our Lives [pictured], those Swedish purveyors of psychedelic power-pop, are back with a new album, “Communion” (on Yep Roc), their first effort in four years. And quite an effort it is – […]
For all the serious tones, goosefleshy emotions and half-whispered meditations on Great Northern’s sophomore album, the title came to songwriters Solon Bixler and Rachel Stolte as they sat in a darkened room brainstorming on that very issue. “I went to find a pen to write some of them down,” Stolte says, “and couldn’t find the […]
[New flavors for your iPod, have a taste …] Matthew Houck, who makes music as Phosphorescent, creates sepia-toned Americana that’s seemingly wired straight to the soul. His February release “To Willie” is a musical homage to Willie Nelson, much in the same vein as was Nelson’s 1975 nod to Lefty Frizell, “To Lefty From Willie.” […]
Sometimes Andrew Lynch seems like he’s everywhere. And maybe he is. The multi-instrumentalist has played alongside, or worked in the studio with, Afternoons, the Amateurs, the Black Pine, Castledoor, Earlimart, the Poor Excuses and Radars to the Sky, to name a handful. The Alaska native’s solo work merits attention too, for its occasionally playful and […]
Please excuse this self-promotional interlude: I will be in Austin next week at South by Southwest, hoping to open my ears to some new flavors and blogging as much as humanly possible – as well as co-hosting the “Buzz Bands at Cheers” party Friday afternoon at Cheers on 6th. The party features sets by seven […]
[Here’s a sampling of some of the best stuff to hit my e-mailbag recently …] Loney Dear‘s new album, “Dear John,” was released in January but for those of you that haven’t gotten to it (or who missed their L.A.show with Andrew Bird), this is for you. Hailing from Sweden, Loney Dear’s frontman” Emil Svanängen and […]
Singer-guitarist Tim Scanlin would be the first to admit that he and his bandmates in Actionslacks no longer belong in the peer group “Kids With Guitars.” But that doesn’t mean the quartet is trudging quietly into middle age. On the contrary, considering their new digital EP with that very name. “No, I don’t think we’re […]
This week marks the three-year anniversary of the Buzz Bands show on Little Radio. If anybody in listenerland can tell me the name of the first song I played on my show on March 8, 2006, I will send you a three-CD gift pack (you’ll choose 3 from a list of 20 titles). E-mail guesses […]
Neil Schield is standing on Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, smiling and saying, “I’m an oxymoron.” And if you were more cynical and knew he was opening a record store, you’d think he could lose the prefix. In about three weeks, Schield is indeed opening a brick-and-mortar shop, Origami Vinyl, in a 400-square-foot space at […]
