There were a whole lot of mammals at the Natural History Museum on Friday, and just a Little Dragon. Little Dragon, the electro-soul quartet from Gothenburg, Sweden, didn’t exactly breathe fire, but with singer Yukimi Nagano cooing and aahing they laid down 45 minutes of ambient grooves that got plenty of the bipeds dancing amid […]
Billygoat can transport you far from the madding crowd – via both audio and visuals. The Portland duo of David Klein and Nick Woolley (who are joined live by drummer Corey Nelson) craft fragile instrumental music arranged with guitar, keys/synths, harp, accordion and glockenspiel. Even more compelling, though, are the twosome’s stop-motion movies, the first […]
Can’t make it to the Natural History Museum tonight for First Fridays? Watch the webcast of performances by Little Dragon and Sister Cray here, courtesy of POP-AUT.
When I saw Grouplove (then operating under the search engine-stumping moniker “Group”) play their first live show at El Cid, I had them pegged as the indie-pop response to Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros. To a room filled with their well-scrubbed but dressed-down friends and a remarkable number of label A&R folks they seemed […]
[What a strange and wonderful batch of shows this first weekend of 2011 offers. It’s even Dave Matthews’ birthday on Sunday, so celebrate responsibly …] Top 5 weekend outings: ‣ It’s a long story involving a broken back, Enrique Iglesias, and time in Australia with Ben Harper and in Russia with Cossacks, but Scott Thomas […]
Ever since the globetrotting phenomenon known as Sam Sparro first hit Los Angeles, he’s captured fans fancy with his slinky electro-soul. Now the Australian ex-pat is dishing out a free EP to tide listeners over until his new album “Return to Paradise” is completed. “Pink Cloud” offers a mostly instrumental title track, in all its […]
Scottish singer-songwriter Gerry Rafferty, whose hits such as “Baker Street” and “Stuck in the Middle With You” informed much of my teenage years, has died at age 63, the Guardian is reporting. He had been stricken with kidney failure.
When the Wombats landed on U.S. shores in 2008, I figured their music would hang around a while. The Liverpudlian trio had pockets full of catchy pop-punk that was heavy on hooks and humor – “Moving to New York,” “Backfire at the Disco” and “Let’s Dance to Joy Division” are songs that should not have […]
[Nels Cline, Michael Stipe, Bernard Sumner and Beth Gibbons celebrate birthdays today – must be something special about Jan. 4 …] Three local shows tonight to lighten your load (and bide your time until you watch Local Natives on “Late Night With Jimmy Fallon): ‣ Torches in Trees are young, really young, but they’ve won […]
Top pre-New Year’s Eve places to rock it tonight: ‣ London five-piece the Duke Spirit [previewed here], joined by L.A. trio Crash Kings and Orange County’s Free Lions, visit the Roxy. Above, one of four sessions Liela Moss and crew did for Nic Harcourt’s LiveBuzz [watch all of them here]. ‣ The Growlers headline the […]
