Wearing badges is not enough for Ted Leo. A committed live performer, treading the boards for more than a decade now with his dynamic brand of agit-pop, Leo has a new release “The Brutalist Bricks” coming out on Tuesday on Matador, and the album, his sixth, packs a familiar one-two punch – brash new wave […]
[It’s John Frusciante’s 40th birthday today; think I’ll revisit one or two of his solo albums to mark the occasion. Which should put me in the mood for this busy weekend …] Today: The Clientele’s fifth full-length album, last fall’s “Bonfires on the Heath,” provided another sylvan scene in the U.K. quartet’s pop dream; the […]
[Birthday greetings today to Evan Dando. … Here’s what’s on tap tonight:] It’s been a minute since we’ve heard something new from HoneyHoney, the musical pairing of Suzanne Santo and Ben Jaffe. “First Rodeo” came out in 2008, and “new material is en route,” they disclose on their blog. Might HoneyHoney play some tonight when […]
There are people who know Jack Gibson as an aspiring filmmaker, as an untiring supporter, and even as a perspiring drunk. This week, with the release of “Shelters,” his third album as Tenlons Fort, Gibson has solidified his identity as an inspiring songwriter. Whether “Shelters” – a startlingly beautiful, strikingly intimate collection of 10 songs […]
Texas quintet Midlake [pictured] hits town behind its new album, the very genteel and almost meticulous-to-a-fault “The Courage of Others.” Matthew and the Arrogant Sea open the show at the El Rey. … Shrinebuilder, which includes members of the Melvins, Neurosis and Om, make a ruckus at the Echo in the first of a two-night […]
[Karen Carpenter would have turned 60 years old today. We’ll pause a moment. And now take a look at tonight’s shows:] The sold-out Magnetic Fields show with Mark Eitzel at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre is the ottest ticket in town – unless you’re a George Thorogood fan, which means you’re heading to the House of […]
Back in the early part of last decade, a group of sharp-dressed guys who called themselves the 88 started playing their roughed-up power-pop around town. Some reviews, especially of their first two albums, fingered the Kinks as an influence. The 88 may have lost the suits that were their trademark early on, but the quartet […]
[Who stole my Feburary?] March isn’t exactly coming in like a lion, show-wise, but there are some reasons to get off your couch. Two residencies kick off tonight, including shoegaze foursome Seaspin [highlighted last summer] at the Silverlake Lounge with Corridor and Yours Til Death supporting, and the Delta Mirror [highlighted last week] at the […]
It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before I started running across bands who are getting compared to Silversun Pickups. Twin Tigers are one of those – not that anything the Athens, Ga., quartet does constitutes Xeroxing. But like SSPU – and Sonic Youth, Primal Scream and assorted popgazers before them – Twin […]
The Morales brothers could feel resentful. The core members of the rock quintet Astra Heights moved to L.A. over five years ago and quickly got signed to Universal Records, only to have the release of their debut album bog down in a major-label quagmire. For two years they spun their wheels, the album “Good Problems” […]
