In the first 22 seconds of his new power-pop nugget “Anyone Listening,” Nik Freitas articulates the recurring frustration of just about every songwriter we know: “I opened my mouth up to say how I felt / but all I heard was everyone else / talking about photos of themselves / the louder they get then […]
Oakland-based songwriter Jackson Phillips is one half of the electro-pop duo Carousel by day, and creates sun-kissed, melancholy indie-pop under the moniker Day Wave by night. Day Wave has only been Phillips’ alter ego since the fall of 2014, but thanks to the singles “Drag” and “Total Zombie,” he has already been generating quite the […]
I’d bet the proverbial farm that L.A. trio Tashaki Miyaki has about 50 dreamy demos laying around somewhere gathering digitial dust, waiting for their moment to be properly captured in all their fuzzy glory. Last month, though, more than a year after their “Cool Runnings” 7-inch, the band released their second set of cover songs, […]
Ever since they thundered down the 101 from Templeton a couple of years ago, Night Riots have lived by the go-big-or-go-home credo. Their 2015 EP “Howl” boasts the bombastic single “Contagious,” a swathed-in-seriousness emotional purge that puts the quintet — singer Travis Hawley, guitarists Nick Fotinakes and Matt DePauw, bassist Mikel Van Kranenburg and drummer Rico […]
There is not much to boast about the small town of Lathrop, Calif. The town used to lay claim to a popular water park called Manteca Waterslides, which now lays buried under an artificial lake and housing development. Recently Tesla Motors bought a huge chunk of land there but, other than that, Scott Bartenhagen might […]
The new album from Honeyhoney is indeed sweetsweet, but also tarttart, hothot and smartsmart. “3,” out this week via Rounder Records from the L.A.-based duo of native Ohioan Suzanne Santo and native Bay Stater Ben Jaffe, is a Southern-fried, made-in-Nashville affair that covers a lot of turf. Santo, the singer/violist/banjo-picker, is adept as both a […]
If you got all tingly when Veruca Salt did their reunion shows last year, you’re liable to shake with uncontrollable joy upon hearing the quartet’s new songs from their comeback album “Ghost Notes.” The album, the band’s fifth, comes out July 10 and is the first since 1997 to feature the original salty ones — singer-guitarists […]
It’s no surprise that after slowly entering into the world of polyamory with his wife and a live-in fan, Unknown Mortal Orchestra frontman Ruban Nielson would title the band’s third album “Multi-Love” — a theme that both grabs you by the hand and also peeks around the corner throughout the album. “Multi-Love” (which came out […]
The bold new single from L.A. indie-pop quintet Trapdoor Social boasts a most unusual collaboration. The big-band sound on “Fine On My Own” comes via a big band — the Mesa Ridge High School marching band from Colorado Springs, Colo., in fact. Trapdoor’s frontman Skylar Funk explains that the group met members of the award-winning […]
California has a rich country music history. While it may not always or ever be at the forefront of the hip and cool, it’s been rumbling at the fringes of L.A. life for as long as there’s been booze, broken hearts and sunsets to sing about. Every once in a while someone announces a country […]
