[No pranks today, it’s Susan Boyle’s 50th birthday, after all. And a busy night in L.A.:] Top show picks on the first day of a new month: ‣ It’s time for the monthly meeting of mammals – First Fridays at the Natural History Museum goes off tonight with San Francisco’s the Fresh & Onlys (that’s […]
Top music picks on a night everyone will be curious who comes out on top at the “Air Sex Championships” at the Satellite: ‣ The Echo and the Echoplex will be going off thanks to Dub Club’s Japan Benefit, with the Chris Murray Combo and Queen P and the Apologies performing. ‣ South African quartet […]
Nothing against Benjamin Hoste’s excellent video for this song, but Canadian chillwaver Teen Daze has taken a kitchen appliance to Seven Saturdays’ “True Romance,” turning Jonathan Haskell’s perfectly languorous composition into a palpitation-inducing mess. The track is part of “Secret Things,” a free six-song EP that offers retooled Seven Saturdays material (the Sun Airway, White […]
The solo debut of Aska Matsuyima – aka ASKA – started innocently enough: The pianist recorded the song “There Are Many of Us” and shared it with friends, one of whom was filmmaker Spike Jonze, who used the track in his short “I’m Here.” That’s enough to inspire anybody, right? The Japanese-born, L.A.-based songstress, a […]
Just in time for the sure-to-be-hazy days of summer, Morgan Kibby and friends spend a day at the beach in the video for “Mountaineer,” the poppiest of the songs off White Sea’s debut EP, “This Frontier.” With its de rigeur face-painting and sun-splashed vibe, the Gigi Nicolas-directed clip (which premiered over the weeked on mtvU) […]
Top Tuesday touts: ‣ The Australian songstress who goes by Washington – already a platinum-selling breakthrough artist in her native country – visits the Bootleg Theater behind her U.S. debut, an EP titled “How to Tame Lions.” Young Hunting and Annie Stela support. That’s Washington’s video for the EP’s title track, above. ‣ Norwegian electro […]
The Henry Clay People released “Somewhere on the Golden Coast” in 2010 only to take off on the road with Silversun Pickups and the Drive-By Truckers for the rest of the year. So, it was surprise to hear they’ve already got a new material in the works. Their forthcoming EP, “This Is a Desert,” is […]
Brian Wright is no stranger to the L.A. music scene as he and his backing band, the Waco Tragedies, have also gained a loyal following across the nation. However, hometown fans will see Wright boldly stepping into the spotlight all on his own as he gets ready to release his solo debut, “House on Fire.” […]
On several occasions, the music of Rainbow Arabia has sent me running from the room, its mish-mosh of beats and seemingly willful abrasiveness adding up to hipster posing rather than anything truly avant-garde. (Their theater-clearing supporting set for Julian Casablancas in late 2009 was evidence my ears were not alone.) That said, the husband-and-wife team […]
What to take away from LA Font’s video for its very good single “Fine Lines?” That being an indie-rock band is no walk in the park? The clip, sprung from the apparently vivid imagination of director Hank Friedmann, includes guitar weaponry, a rocket-powered dog, Sasquatch, knife-throwing, watermelon, floating gear and somebody’s untimely demise. All very […]
