Ever feel like, in today’s oppressively digital age, you’re just shadow-boxing with your own paranoia? That’s what’s conveyed in “Revolutionary Interface,” the buzzing first single from fledgling Los Angeles quintet New Technology (who, perhaps in a statement about new technology, have no website or Facebook page). The band is the brainchild of Miles Marsico, bassist […]
Much of Nic Hessler’s debut album “Soft Connections” was informed by his battle with an autoimmune disorder that sidelined him in 2012 just as his music (then made under the name Catwalk) was gaining some steam. That makes “I Feel Again” feel all the more triumphant. In director Adam Neustadter’s video for the song, the […]
I have no idea what could be more fun, the debut EP from the all-star quartet Broken Bats or the party that one imagines got the ball rolling. Formed in Nashville, Broken Bats merge the talents of Matt Friction (Pink Spiders), Denver Dalley (Desaparecidos, Har Mar Superstar and his own project Statistics), Tony Smith (Sleeper […]
Transplanted Austinites Erik Flores and Amelia Rose Logan debuted their collaboration Fairbanks — now Fairbanks & the Lonesome Light — a couple of years ago, weaving the elements of traditional Americana into life-affirming songs that, as the chorus to their new single goes, make you “feel lucky to be here at all.” The Echo Park couple […]
Like a lot of would-be “songs of the summer,” Golden Coast’s synth-spiked ditties have the staying power of a Sno-Cone. (Note to self: Try to recall 2014’s “songs of the summer.”) But damned if they aren’t catchy — full of mood-elevating hooks and falsetto that are completely of the moment, as long your moment lasts 3 […]
L.A.-based quartet Monarch debuted in January with the bursting-with-bombast single “Stay.” The second volley from the band — singer Brennan Strawn, guitarist Taylor Johnson, keyboardist Brian Willett and drummer Joel Plotnik — is “Snow White,” a down-tempo meditation articulating a heart full of regrets. It’s produced by Brent Kutzle (the OneRepublic bassist) and appears on the foursome’s […]
Roots-rockers Infantree are making their new album … in the most literal sense. The Valley-bred quartet, now independent after releasing a couple of full-lengths on Neil Young’s Vapor Records, recorded their new album “Return to Zero” themselves. And now the band — Alex Vojdani, Donald Fisher, Matt Kronish and Jordan Avesar — are hand-cutting their own […]
Los Angeles duo The Bad Years, the project of Sami Akbari and Aaron Mort, put out their debut double A-side single in the fall, and are back with the eclectic but cohesive four-track “Beautiful Liar” EP, which is a departure from their previous material insofar as expanding their sonic palette and switching up their tempo. […]
Translator had an excellent four-album run from 1982 to ’86. Formed in Los Angeles in 1979 and then based in San Francisco after signing to Howie Klein’s 415 Records, the quartet fused the sound of British Invasion rockers with punk and psychedelia, taking off with the college radio-then-MTV hit “Everywhere That I’m Not.” The foursome […]
Kodak To Graph is the nom de tune of Michael Maleki, a transplanted Floridian whose almost-anything-goes compositions combine organic instrumentation with electronic wizardry and samples. The L.A.-based artist just released a full album for free download — “ISA” runs the gamut from intensely filmic to whimsical and wonderful. Either way, it’s powerful stuff, as is the […]
