Spring has sprung, and that means it’s time for the semiannual KCSN Pledge Drive. For this week’s drive, we’re keeping the chatter to a minimum so we can keep the music at a maximum — on tonight’s L.A. Buzz Bands Show, which kicks off at 9 p.m., I’ll be telling you briefly about all the […]
Not every band will allow time in their show for the audience to take selfies with the members on stage. But electro-pop group Big Data are conscious of such social trends and obsessions with technology. Powered by NYC’s Alan Wilkis who plays, produces, and mixes everything on the recorded tracks, Big Data performed live as […]
Less than two months after his last rager in Los Angeles, Baltimore’s Dan Deacon returned for another go-round, bringing his “Gliss Riffer” tour to the Echoplex. It was a typically sweaty affair, with Brooklyn art-poppers Prince Rama doing their best to steal the show with a memorable opening set. Photos by Carl Pocket, courtesy of […]
Mexican rockers Kinky and local folk/tropicalia/dance fusionists Salt Petal brought a Latin flavor — and a huge crowd — to the May edition of First Fridays at the Natural History Museum. Their two sets in the North American Mammal Hall capped a night of science, dinosaur sightings, food, drink and DJ sets from Raul Campos […]
Sunday’s shows: ► All Time Low rock the Palladium behind their latest album “Future Hearts.” Issues, Tonight Alive and State Champs support. ► Translator [see Friday’s post] celebrate the release of their new retrospective compilation “Sometimes People Foreget” with a show at Molly Malone’s. Marvin Etzioni opens. ► Noise-rock duo Lightning Bolt [pictured] bring their guerilla-style […]
A fine Saturday to you: ► Desert Daze, the one-day festival at the Sunset Ranch Oasis in Mecca, Failure, Warpaint, RJD2, the Budos Band, Dan Deacon, Minus the Bear and more to the Coachella Valley. [Set times.] ► OK Go visits the Wiltern, supported by White Arrows. ► Manic Street Preachers [pictured] bring “The Holy […]
Seminal rockers Sleater-Kinney returned as intense as ever Thursday, playing the first of back-to-back nights at the Hollywood Palladium and blazing through 90 minutes that included seven songs from their new album “No Cities to Love.” That album, released to much deserved acclaim in January, marked the first in 10 years from the trio of […]
Translator had an excellent four-album run from 1982 to ’86. Formed in Los Angeles in 1979 and then based in San Francisco after signing to Howie Klein’s 415 Records, the quartet fused the sound of British Invasion rockers with punk and psychedelia, taking off with the college radio-then-MTV hit “Everywhere That I’m Not.” The foursome […]
Waxhatchee — the indie-rock articulation of the music of Katie Crutchfield — headed up a strong lineup at the Roxy on Tuesday night, playing songs from the new album “Ivy Tripp” to a sold-out crowd that arrived early for Upset and Girlpool and knew all the songs and most of the words. Photos by David […]
Kodak To Graph is the nom de tune of Michael Maleki, a transplanted Floridian whose almost-anything-goes compositions combine organic instrumentation with electronic wizardry and samples. The L.A.-based artist just released a full album for free download — “ISA” runs the gamut from intensely filmic to whimsical and wonderful. Either way, it’s powerful stuff, as is the […]