[Birthday wishes go out today to Karen O …] Top 3 shows/events for your divergent musical interests: ‣ New Zealand quintet the Naked and Famous (taken from a Tricky lyric and not the Presidents of the United States of America song) seem to have taken MGMT’s ball and run with it. Well, the part of […]
Family of the Year has had a pretty good year. The Silver Lake quartet followed up their album “Songbook” with the “Through the Trees” EP in March, created a nice little buzz for their winsome folk-pop at SXSW, toured a bunch, did a bang-up residency at the Silverlake Lounge in September and recently booked their […]
Dear Rumspringa: I keep waiting for something to click between you and me, but it just hasn’t happened. I feel like it should, so many of my friends are in your corner and keep telling me that if I like psych-rock (and I do) and blues-rock (and I do), I should be keen on your […]
Top 7 choices from the embarrassment of show riches tonight in Los Angeles (and a handful of recommended downloads to boot): ‣ Greg Dulli and Carina Round at the sold-out Troubadour. The Afghan Whigs/Twilight Singers main man is doing his first-ever solo tour, and reviews have been great. “Dynamite Steps,” the first Twilight Singers album […]
Badly Drawn Boy’s strangely mercurial career seems upward bound again. The Mercury Prize winner (in 2000, for “The Hour of the Bewilderbeast), who went on score the movie “About a Boy” and proceeded to go through two record labels in the middle of last decade, in October released the first of a three-album trilogy, “It’s […]
The Thermals get into your head, even when your head is somewhere else. I think I spent a good part of 2006-07 waking up in the morning with “Here’s Your Future” (from the excellent “The Body, the Blood, the Machine”) echoing in my ear parts. It was the hook, and something in the way Hutch […]
Top show that’s probably worth the road trip: ‣ Blonde Redhead (with Olof Arnalds opening) plays the Glass House in Pomona. The trio’s new album”Penny Sparkle” is more ambient than “23” (the Buzz Bands album of the year in ’07) – easy stuff in which to lose yourself, as the five songs they perform in […]
[Rounding up the weekend while waiting to hear Best Coast talk about cats on “Morning Becomes Eclectic” at 11:15:] Top 5 shows compiled while stewing over why Stars and the Pains of Being Pure at Heart aren’t playing their L.A. concert together: ‣ There some pretty amateurish choreography in the gleeful video for Mayer Hawthorne’s […]
It’s quite possible that I will tire of posting new videos from the Polyamorous Affair – L.A. expatriates Eddie Chacon and Sissy Sainte-Marie now stationed in Europe. But not if they continue to be this good. “New York City” was cool; “Softer and Softer” was cooler; now comes “Rebel” (off their most recent release “Strange […]
[Birthday greetings go out today to L.A. roots legend Dave Alvin …] Tonight’s top picks on a night making top picks is damned hard: ‣ The Soft Pack (that’s their Gia Coppola/Sam Freilich-directed video for “More or Less,” above) return to their home based for a show at the Echoplex with Kurt Vile & the […]
