Here’s to the time-honored bromide that the best things in life are free. In April, while everybody was busy paying attention to Coachella, psych-poppers Strange Babes released their self-titled album for the mere cost of a click, quietly and without the fanfare it deserved. In fact, it’s still available for free, just by clicking here. […]
Nightmare Boy is the nom de tune of Barrie-James O’Neill, a Scotsman who forsook Glasgow for L.A. about a year ago and whose debut EP, “Hate,” which came out in March, is drawing comparisons to the likes of Elliott Smith. Such parallels are not to be taken lightly, but it is apt here: O’Neill’s mostly […]
The Bird and the Bee’s sophisti-pop imagines a world where meticulous application of eyeliner is favored over face paint, designer cocktails trump designer hallucinogenics and “retro” is something of a class distinction. The duo — singer Inara George and multi-instrumentalist/all-star producer Greg Kurstin — haven’t released any original music since 2009’s “Ray Guns Are Not […]
Director Rebecca Thomas found the perfect protagonist for the music video for The Moth & The Flame’s “Young & Unafraid” — 58-year-old Neal Unger, something of a hero for coming to skateboarding late in life and embracing it as if he were, well, young and unafraid. A funny thing happened en route to the video […]
Have a solid Monday: ► The Bird and the Bee, their new album “Recreational Love” coming in July, does the first of two sold-out nights at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. ► The Moth & the Flame and Freedom Fry continue their co-residency at the Echo, with Irontom warming things up. ► At […]
Incoming: KROQ Weenie Roast, Joshua Tree Music Festival, L.A. Vegan Beer & Food Festival, the Bird and the Bee, Cillie Barnes, the Moth & the Flame, Lapsley, Golden Coast, A House for Lions, Dead Sara, Sepultura, Reggie Watts, Sick of Sarah, the Wombats, Nick Mulvey, Waka Flocka Flame, Torres, Elvis Perkins, Thrice, Froth, the Temperance […]
Friday’s fun: ► Purity Ring visits the Fonda Theatre behind their new album “Another Eternity,” with Born Gold supporting. ► The Acid headline the El Rey Theatre. ► Stephin Merritt of the Magnetic Fields does the first of two nights at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever. Joined by bandmate Sam Davol, he will perform […]
Leading up to the release of his next project, La Habra’s Wes Period has already dropped a pair of smooth new tracks this year. “Lilac Rose” was crafted by frequent collaborator Colin Baylen, chopping up soul samples over a boom-bap beat, while Wes trades verses with Houston’s Fat Tony about respective playful seductions, rapping with […]
Much of Nic Hessler’s debut album “Soft Connections” was informed by his battle with an autoimmune disorder that sidelined him in 2012 just as his music (then made under the name Catwalk) was gaining some steam. That makes “I Feel Again” feel all the more triumphant. In director Adam Neustadter’s video for the song, the […]
Your Wednesday show options: ► Other Lives [see “Reconfiguration”] do the first of two L.A. shows behind their new album “Rituals,” this one at the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. ► U.K. pop songer Mika plays the Belasco Theatre, with Astronautica supporting. Above, the video for his new single “TAlk About You.” ► Great […]
