But how does Max Bemis really feel? The 25-year-old hellion behind the L.A. band Say Anything cuts loose in the first single from his band’s forthcoming fourth album, “Say Anything” (due Oct. 13). Bemis’ sharp songwriting, displayed on 2004’s “… Is a Real Boy” (which is virtually an album of classic rock) and 2007’s “In […]
Thanks to LA Record, I was turned on to the Polyamorous Affair’s video for “White Hot Magic.” [Caution: The version above has some dirty words in it.] Like the duo’s Manimal Vinyl debut, “Bolshevik Disco,” it’s the product of the vivid and slightly warped imagination of Eddie Chacon (he of 1992’s “Would I Lie to […]
First thing you need to know about His Orchestra is that “Field Guide to the Wilds,” the debut album that saw a quiet digital release back in February, is one of the most enchanting indie-pop albums you’ll hear this year. Its winsome mix of string-, glockenspiel- and keyboard-flavored confessionals reminds me of the likes of […]
Had to chuckle when I received the blast about the Duke Spirit’s “new” single, “Lassoo.” I think I had that track (which first appeared on the U.K. band’s “Ex-Voto” EP) on my Best-of-2007 mixes. The rivulets that carry music toward the mainstream run slowly sometimes. I’ve seen the band perform “Lassoo” live at least four […]
Austin quartet the Octopus Project has quietly – well, maybe not so quietly – been making some of the most charmingly spaced-out instrumental music of this decade. I remember marveling at their Coachella-opening slot in 2006, which they followed up with a solid 2007 album “Hello, Avalanche.” Now husband-and-wife Josh and Yvonne Lambert and bandmates […]
Les Paul, the guitarist and inventor whose innovations included the development of the solid-body electric guitar and the evolution of recording techniques that helped change the face of music, has died. The man born Lester William Polfuss, who has been called the “father of modern music,” was 94. Here is CNN’s obituary. And a story […]
The Voyeurs debuted this video for “Things People Say” on Tuesday at the Echo – fun stuff, directed “on no budget” by John Duarte, involving a disgraced scientist and a 60-foot giantess. The song is off the band’s January release “Well Known Drag,” [My interview with them, and a download, way back when.]
Nothing like a little nerdcore to brighten the day. This is the new Richard Barham-directed video for “True Player for Real,” a track off MC Lars’ new album “This Gigantic Robot Kills.” I’ve been a sucker for MC Lars ever since I heard “Signing Emo.” This generation’s Weird Al? Yeah.
[Notes gleaned on a gorgeous Saturday morning in L.A. …] Half of me wishes I were in Grant Park in Chicago for Lollapalooza – the other half thinks that it’s OK that I missed a rain-soaked Day 1. Of local interest: The Henry Clay People (recommended by the likes of MTV) played early and didn’t […]
I’m no expert, but I find the cinematography in director Judah Switzer’s video for “Psychic City” to be stunning. As for YACHT, or Yacht, or yacht, or however Jona Becholt and Claire L. Evans want me to render it, they scare me.
