The Two Tens’ “Sweet As Pie” is quite possibly the most blissful two minutes you will spend all day, because hooky power-pop can do that and because the L.A. duo have shown they can get in and out of a song faster than it takes you to order your exotic soy latté. And because … […]
It’s been a while since we’ve heard from Drug Cabin, or so we thought. Since 2012’s self-titled EP featuring tunes “Barracuda” and “Whatever Never,” Nathan Thelen (of Pretty Girls Make Graves and Moonrats) and Marcus Congleton (of Ambulance LTD) have not only released full-length “Wiggle Room” in November but they also previously (albeit quietly) released […]
Not to get too hung up on nomenclature, but there’s something sexy about the sound of “SDM” (that’s Soft Dance Music), the descriptor used by the artist going by the name Taste Nasa. It’s all disco, of course, and the new single “I’d Like to Be Your Girl” – owning the same homoerotic feel as White […]
Utah ex-pats Spencer Petersen and Thomas Carroll have a wealth of musical ideas, and as the core duo of L.A.-based quartet Sego they have packaged them smartly in their debut EP, “Wicket Youth.” Art-punk, dream-pop, lo-fi indie – they’re all wedged into a thrill-a-minute five songs. If the agit-rock guitars don’t get you, the slacker vocals […]
After winning the U.K.’s Mercury Music Prize in October for their sophomore album “Dead,” Young Fathers have released a new track called “Soon Come Soon.” Over a buzzing mid-tempo groove informed by multiple genres, the Scotland-based alternative hip-hop trio composed of Alloysious Massaquoi, ‘G’ Hastings and Kayus Bankole trade verses and layered harmonies, filled out […]
Brady Erickson’s rock band the Ross Sea Party released a 2010 EP and 2012 full-length of perfectly fine anthemic rock ’n’ roll, but in 2013 the singer-guitarist closed the books on the that project and assumed the persona of Life Leone, desert mystic. The sonic difference is striking; Life Leone’s debut EP “Comes Crashing In” […]
There’s a 15-year-old inside me that wants to love “Karaoke,” the new single from Smallpools, despite its heavy scent of formula, lyrics seemingly cribbed from a schoolgirl’s notebook, its assembly-line tidiness and the overall aura, thanks to the onslaught of bands like Fun., Passion Pit and Foster the People, of Been There Done That. But […]
Act As If has come a long way since their 2012 EP “The Iron Is Hot.” The quintet led by songwriter Peter Verdell released their second full-length “Steady” in November; although it’s still got that innocent romantic undertone, the new sprawling sonic soundscape is impressive. Early singles like the youthful “Uh Huh” and the sweeping […]
Eastern Conference Champions’ noisy elegies to the human condition draw equally from classic rock and the abrasive alt-rock of the 1990s. Over a decade that has seen the core duo of singer-guitarist Joshua Ostrander and drummer Greg Lyons (now joined by guitarist Melissa Dougherty and bassist Phillip Munsey II) release two full-lengths and four EPs, […]
It’s intriguing that the L.A.-based trio Lady Low chose to debut with a cover of a 37-year-old song, “Baby Baby” by U.K. first-wave punkers the Vibrators. It’s impressive that Lady Low completely owns it, subtracting the original’s restrained snarl and Spector-izing it with lush boy/girl vocals and strings. Taking a song from 1977 and transporting […]
