Here’s your Monday fun: ‣ The Joy Formidable – its new album “Wolf’s Law” is on the way in the new year – rocks the Troubadour tonight. Opening is Orange County-bred five-piece J. Thoven. Above is the Joy Formidable’s video for the song “Cholla.” ‣ The Record Company will premiere a new video at their […]
Incoming: Rush, the Joy Formidable, Rachael Yamagata, the Gaslamp Killer, the Internet, Mayday Parade, Pierce the Veil, Deftones, Patrick Wilson, Cypress Hill, Dom Kennedy, Tamaryn, No Doubt, Counting Crows, Horse the Band Above: Here’s one for the shoegazers. “The Garden” is from California dream-pop duo Tamaryn, whose album “Tender New Signs” is out now on […]
‣ Jackson Browne and friends perform a benefit for KCSN at the Valley Performing Arts Center ‣ Latin Grammy nominee Ana Tijoux heads up a night at the Echoplex, supported by Kamasi Washington and Chicano Batman. That’s her video for “Volver,” above. ‣ Omaha dance-rockers the Faint [see last week’s post] headline the Fonda Theatre, […]
Tucked away about halfway through Lavender Diamond’s “Incorruptible Heart” is probably the most surprising song on the L.A. quartet’s sophomore album. “Light My Way” is a hopeful synth-pop number that’s a couple shades brighter than the gorgeous but lovelorn chamber-folk on the album. Of course, Becky Stark has a way of making sad sound like […]
Yo La Tengo’s new album “Fade” will be out Jan. 15, and in today’s announcement it is said to recall 1997’s “I Can Hear the Heart Beating As One” and 2000’s “And Then Nothing Turned Itself Inside out.” Well, that’s a mouthful, and it would be an earful. Few artists have covered so much sonic […]
Swedish director Johan Renck, who has done visuals for the music of Fever Ray, Madonna and Robyn (among others) and has helmed episodes of “Breaking Bad” and “The Walking Dead,” takes the Beach House song “Wild” to a dark place, where sex and betrayal beget anger and violence. Beautifully done. Not much else to say, […]
This Thursday schedule is so good it oughta be a Saturday: ‣ If you have never seen El Ten Eleven, tonight would be a very good opportunity. No, really. There’s no duo like Kristian Dunn and Tim Fogarty, and there’s no instrumental rock band like them. They bring their mesmerizing live show to the Echo […]
Visual reverb? Yes, the ghost images in Charles Mallison’s video are perfectly suited for “Reactor,” the single from Crown Plaza’s initial eight-song EP. The story here is that Nima Kazerouni – whose “day band” is So Many Wizards – embarked on his Crown Plaza electro side project in a particularly heartbreaking time period during which […]
Things for a wonderful Wednesday: ‣ Ben Gibbard visits the Wilshire Ebell Theatre behind his solo album “Former Lives.” Damian Jurado, whose own recent release “Maraqopa” is equally moving, supports. That’s the pretty-damned-funny video for Gibbard’s “Teardrop Windows,” above. ‣ New Orleans quartet Generationals and L.A. sextet Races team up for a night at the […]
I propose that we simply stop salivating over every little Smiths reunion rumor and simply play the title track to Johnny Marr’s new album about 10 times in a row. The 49-year-old guitar god known for his work with Morrissey and later in Modest Mouse and Cribs (not to mention dalliances with the likes of […]
