I’m not sure when L.A. electro-pop quartet Casxio is going to start getting the attention they deserve, but the video they just released for the song “Boiling Point” might help. It’s a stark short film with a cast of six, directed by Hilton Carter and made by his production team Fresh Kill. Casxio has consistently […]
Before I introduce Buzz Bands’ tour diarists for the next six weeks, I feel it is only appropriate to spring a pop quiz on you faithful readers: 1. The name “the Airborne Toxic Event” is a reference to: a) A drummer who passes gas in a tour van b) An album review on Pitchfork that […]
[Happy birthday, Roberta Flack …] Cat Power, with local purveyors of tropicalia Fool’s Gold opening, plays the Avalon. .. The Gutter Twins – that’s Greg Dulli and Mark Lanegan – hold forth at the Troubadour. … The Parson Red Heads swoop into the Echo for their first show of 2009 – frontman Evan Way says […]
[That Grammy telecast was as long as the Super Bowl – and the halftime show wasn’t nearly as good. Here’s a small offering of shows to assuage your awards-show hangover. I’m going to dig out some Carole King vinyl in honor of her birthday …] Wouldn’t be surprised if somebody who was in town for […]
[Happy birthday to Duff McKagan, rock star, online columnist and … mountain climber.] My, what a diverse music menu you have tonight, Los Angeles. Let’s start with a couple intriguing small shows, like at the Silverlake Lounge, where Andy Friedman & the Other Failures are in from Brooklyn. Friedman is a New Yorker cartoonist-turned-poet-turned-folk singer […]
Los Angeles quartet Red Cortez has been selected as the sole supporting act for 12 U.S. dates on Morrissey’s tour. Moz, crisscrossing the country behind the Feb. 17 release of his new album “Years of Refusal,” will be joined by the L.A. rockers starting Feb. 28 in Florida and ending March 17 in Pittsburgh. Dates […]
[Hide the live chickens, Alice Cooper is celebrating a birthday today …] Matt & Kim’s latest album, “Grand” (released in January on Fader), is pretty lightweight stuff, but the duo [pictured] can charm an earflap beanie off a hipster and they always draw well in L.A. With the Mae Shi on the bill, the sold-out […]
Sounds like a gimmick – a rock band anchored by the three Berlin brothers making an album in Berlin – but the nine months the Living Things spent in the German capital rate as the most exciting and profilic of the quartet’s young lives. “We went to Berlin with a bunch of songs and an […]
[Catching up on a batch of album releases by SoCal artists …] Go West Young Man, “Go West Young Man”” (today, One Cell Records) – Melody merchant Damin Suarez (ex-the Fictions) has crafted an homage to classic pop that pushes the same buttons as the likes of Elvis Costello, Ben Folds and a host of […]
On the day one of the United States’ preeminent music festivals, Bonnaroo, announced a formidable lineup that includes Bruce Springsteen, Nine Inch Nails [Trent Reznor, pictured], Snoop Dog, Wilco and Phish, another mega-gathering, the Langerado Music Festival scheduled next month in Miami, was canceled. Langerado was to have featured the likes of Death Cab for […]
