If we had a buck for every recent press notice that touted “your new favorite psych-rock band,” we could buy enough psychedelics to be trippin’ for the summer. Based on their new single “Golem,” though, L.A. five-piece the Ambient Light might be a contender. From their roots as a post-rock band, the San Gabriel Valley-bred […]
L.A. native Marlon Rabenreither returned from art school in London a few years ago with a ravenous appetite for music as well as the visual arts. His Sister Ruby Band released the solid if overlooked “In Cold Blood” in 2011, an album that fans of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club would love, but the his musical […]
It’s been 2 1/2 years since Dan Chang and Michael Garner, who were two-thirds of a cappella-group-guys-turned-pop trio Lady Danville, forged ahead as Hunter Hunted. They jumped into the pop fray with a 2013 EP boasting the still-omnipresent single “Keep Together,” and now, as bands who jump into the pop fray are wont to do, […]
This new collaboration between Franz Ferdinand and Sparks is sounding more enticing with every tease. FFS, as they are calling themselves, will release their self-titled album June 9 via Domino Records. The video for the single “Johnny Delusional” is the work of French directors AB/CD/CD (Royal Blood, Lily Allen, Kasabian and the Postal Service). From […]
Mirror Talk’s steeped-in-sentimentality synth-pop comes star-dated from some time in the mid-1980s, although the Los Angeles quartet’s sophomore EP is titled “1997.” It’s true that the the band — singer Court Alexander along with synth-wielding multi-instrumentalists Steven Lopez, Sean Krell and Dave Lewis — are in many ways moving forward, refining the next-wave new wave […]
Courtney Love has a new single — her second in as many years — and it’s a good bit of straight-outta-the-1990s snarling. Last year, in an entertaining and wide-ranging interview with Pitchfork, she made it sounds as if music was on her back burner (she recently joined the cast of the James Franco film “The Long […]
JJAMZ are back, minus a J, and with a new all-caps moniker, PHASES. And as passing fancies go, the L.A. quartet have now entered the currently commercially thriving dance-pop phase, having unveiled three lightweight wafers of sleek synths and tuned-up vocals. The band harnesses the talents of four musicians well-known on the L.A. scene — Z […]
Singer-songwriter Moses Sumney spent better than a year captivating L.A. audiences with his soulful folk music and club performances built around his heavenly voice and live-looping skills. He released just a trickle of songs, including last summer’s bedroom EP “Mid-City Island,” made on a 4-track cassette loaned to him by TV on the Radio’s Dave […]
Is there an app yet that pings you every time Open Mike Eagle opens his mouth? Because the L.A. rapper does not disappoint. His new jam is a broadside at idol worship titled “Celebrity Reduction Prayer” [I got to this late, I know, but think of it as a great companion piece to yesterday’s […]
Albert is a new band fronted by singer-songwriter Nolan Bryan, who you imagine spent the better part of his youth rooting around in his family’s vinyl collection to find classic roots-rock, soul and California country. The debut album “Businessman” follows up a solo EP that Bryan released in 2013 backed by some of the same […]
