Few boy/girl duos have negotiated the sometimes vast chasm between boy and girl as Annalee Fery and Christian Stone have on their self-titled debut album as Howls. On the album, which came out in May, the longtime collaborators – once of the Lonely Trees, and separately of Monsters Are Waiting and Campfire Girls, respectively – fashion brooding […]
Summer’s not over until Goldroom releases a new single, it seems. Songwriter/producer Josh Legg teams up with Australian vocalist Mammals on the breezy new “Till Sunrise,” a song that already has 30 remixes because of a campaign Legg did called “The Premix” – offering the song’s vocal stem for free download. The song, Goldroom’s first original […]
With the release of last fall’s self-titled EP, L.A. quartet Dear Boy distanced themselves from the alt-rock masses, with singer-guitarist Ben Grey and mates Austin Hayman, Nils Bue and Keith Cooper affirming their new band identity by injecting some Anglophile-friendly edginess into their pop grandiosity. And so it goes with the anthemic “Hesitation Waltz,” a […]
Outside Lands 2014 roared to a big finish on Sunday, with the Killers closing out the main stage (but not allowing photographers) by covering “Bad Moon Rising” and welcoming Danielle Haim to guest on drums for “On Top.” Jenny Lewis delivered a winning set, as did Brooklyners Lucius. Chvrches canceled their set due to travel […]
Here’s what’s up on a fabulous Monday: ‣ It’s a night of female singer-songwriters at at the Greek Theatre – Sara Bareilles headlines behind her latest album, 2013’s “The Blessed Unrest,” with Canada’s Hannah Georgas and the soulful Emily King opening. ‣ Australian DJ/producer Flume, who rocked two shows in L.A. last week before detouring […]
Incoming: Echo Park Rising, Pacific Festival, Flume, Sara Bareilles, Queen Caveat, Panama, Bettye LaVette, Justin Timberlake, Us the Duo, FKA Twigs, Sugar Ray, Dear Boy, Dilated Peoples, NONONO, Mike Stinson, Lykke Li, Casey Veggies, ZZ Top, Harper Simon, Reignwolf, Evan Voytas, Eric McFadden, Death From Above 1979, Imelda May, Foxygen, La Santa Cecilia, Flaco Jiménez, […]
The heat of the summer is feeling … well, awfully hot, at least here at Buzz Bands LA headquarters. Tonight’s L.A. Buzz Bands Show on KCSN (88.5 FM, streaming at KCSN.org) will lean toward cool electro-pop, and there are plenty of new flavors to share. In that department, I’ll have fresh tracks from Banks, Pr0files, […]
Chinatown Summer Nights went off in a big way on Saturday night, with Moving Units’ ferocious dance-punk stoking a rabid crowd into dancing, moshing and crowd-surfing as the midnight hour approached. The set was interrupted briefly when one miscreant disobeyed security, but in the end music prevailed, and there was plenty on this final installment […]
By Molly Bergen Bright orange clouds reflected the glamor of Hollywood and the hidden sheen of a full moon down upon the cemetery stones. Friday night was one of the brightest of the summer, giving the Hollywood Forever Cemetery an eerie glow, bathing picnickers on the Fairbanks Lawn in half-twilight. The warm air was perfumed […]
The sun barely shone on San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park during Saturday’s second day of Outside Lands, but there was no gloom in the festival’s big performances. Macklemore & Ryan Lewis packed the Twin Peaks stage, playing opposite main-stage headliners Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers, with Macklemore [top photo] sending a few good-natured jibes that […]
