I’m on assignment for SPIN.com this week at SXSW – as well as trying to squeeze in some coverage for the mothership Buzz Bands LA. I filed several bits Wednesday for SPIN, so fans of the Happy Hollows, the Morning Benders and Everybody Was in the French Resistance … Now [that’s Eddie Argos, above], should […]
L.A. septet Shadow Shadow Shade enjoyed a great setting for their “popera” on Tuesday night – the cozy room at the IFC Crossroads House in Austin, playing to a crowd of VIPs and fans who were in town the night before the official start of the SXSW music festivities. The acoustics in the room favored […]
As if Austin doesn’t offer enough at the South by Southwest Music Festival, they hit you right when you get off your plane at Austin Bergstrom Airport. As I trundled, sleepy-eyed, through the concourse on Tuesday afternoon, my fellow passengers and I were greeted by the sounds of the Marshall Ford Swing Band, who were […]
Black leather never goes out of fashion. And to a certain population – represented by the giddy crowd that packed the Echoplex on Thursday night – neither does the music of Black Rebel Motorcycle Club. Revivalists when they first roared into our consciousness early last decade, Peter Hayes and Robert Levon Been have now become […]
By Meriah Doty It was a night of surprises and emotion at the sold-out El Rey Theatre on Friday as a very pregnant Inara George walked onstage with crimped hair, an ’80s-styled frock and an ear-to-ear grin. Joined by her collaborator in the Bird and Bee, keyboardist Greg Kurstin, and an all-star band that included […]
You’re never too old for a growth spurt. At least, that’s what you could have divined from the first hometown show in five months by L.A. quintet Everest. The band of thirtysomethings – whose sophomore album “On Approach” is due April 20 – on Friday night traversed moments convulsive to tender during a 45-minute set […]
Any guy with an outsized personality, a radio hit and the good sense to emphasize his British accent when he says “Los-AN-gel-eeez” can carry a small club in L.A., and Dan Black did last Wednesday at Spaceland. The Paris-via-London electro-pop artist, whose single “Symphonies” might be the unlikeliest add to KROQ-FM’s rotation in recent memory, […]
A packed house at the Echo on Tuesday witnessed a night of exuberant pop-rock headlined by Glacier Hiking and hosted by Buzz Bands LA. Kitten kicked off the evening, with 15-year-old frontwoman Chloe Chaidez affirming her band as a contender; Haim rocked the room with its outsized classic rock songs and rocker-girl attitude; Glacier Hiking’s […]
“I think some of you are too familiar with some of these songs,” James Mercer said with a knowing smile, acknowledging the packed room at the Bootleg Theater on Friday night. Imagine that. In the day when music seems to be teleported straight from the studio mixing console to fans’ iPods, fans are singing along […]
Somewhere between the floor-shaking post-punk on Editors‘ first two albums and the black-polished synth-rock of their third, “In This Light and On This Evening,” there lies a band that could save your life. On Thursday, in front of nearly full house at the Wiltern, the British quartet fought mightily just to save the night. They […]
