Palma Violets roared out of the U.K. in 2013 with “180,” their debut album of raging guitars and shout-along choruses. The quartet — Alexander “Chilli” Jesson, Samuel Thomas Fryer, Jeffrey Peter Mayhew and William Martin Doyle — today announced their follow-up, “Danger in the Club,” would be out May 5. It was produced by John […]
L.A. quintet Folk Riot are far from the explosion of twang their name might suggest. No, the a band trades in gothic Americana, with simmering songs rich in atmospherics and storytelling. The Silver Lakers are fronted by singer-guitarist Brandon McCulloch, once of the underrated band Silver and then at the helm of Brandon McCulloch and […]
The newest single from Max and the Moon sees the SoCal quartet frolicking in familiar indie-pop territory, populated by myriad young bands bound and determined to give the world another Passion Pit whether it needs it or not. “Modern Love” is well-crafted and hooky, and it’s a meditation (a danceable one at that) on whether […]
The Black Ryder’s long-awaited sophomore album “The Door Behind the Door” is like floating down a slow-moving river on a murky night, all surroundings amorphous and the shoreline indistinct. After 50-plus minutes, though, you’ve gone nowhere, but it was a helluva ride. Like dozens of now-anonymous dream-pop bands who’ve issued long-players since shoegazing emerged as […]
Alien space babes, black-dressed men and a hairless cat—we’ll have some of whatever Panthar is drinking, thank you. The L.A. psych-rock/new wave quintet of Sheila Louise, Jared Caldwell, Douglas Hargrave, Lauren Kop and Colin Ambulance collaborated with director Jessy Jamboree (aka Jessy Meeker) and makeup artist Heather Galipo on the video for the debut single […]
Archis are a singer/producer duo, but not the chanteuse-and-synthesizer variety that proliferate in the pop marketplace. No, on Archis’ self-titled EP, due Feb. 23 via Nettwerk, there are strings and horns involved, and it sounds sublime. The music is the latest vehicle for Dia Frampton, who emerged as a teenage wunderkind a decade ago with […]
The desert-fried electro of Gram Rabbit has always a wacky, subversive streak — after all, the Joshua Tree denizens’ debut a long decade ago was titled “Music to Start a Cult To” (and there is one, in a manner of speaking, the fan group “The Royal Order of Rabbits”). In her solo guise, the quartet’s alluring […]
The title of Talk in Tongues’ forthcoming album is “Alone With a Friend,” but it could just as easily be “Together Through History” — the Los Angeles psych-rock upstarts cover a lot of ground on their debut. They invite comparisons to the Byrds, and for that matter any number of “Nuggets”-era artists, the independent U.K. […]
If you haven’t fallen completely into a rabbit hole by the end of “Rabbit Hole,” you are undoubtedly far too grounded to be hanging out here. It’s the rapturous first song from the duo Riothorse Royale, who leaked the song last year when they were going by the name Riothorse and added the Royale part […]
SoCal trio Their Wedding grew from the ashes of Inland Empire indie-rockers the Motel Life, who disbanded in 2012 after releasing two EPs and a full-length. In their new guise, singer-pianist Michael Escanuelas, guitarist Al Hernandez and bassist-vocalist Celese Hernandez are in the middle of an EP trilogy — the second, “Wine,” is out as […]
