After meeting in the Environmental Analysis program at Pomona College, Merritt Graves and Skylar Funk got together to save the world by being involved with Farmscape and Agrisaurus to promote awareness around solar and other renewable energy. However, the sing-along alt-pop songs they write together as Trapdoor Social would never have you thinking about such […]
/iframe> Sam Spiegel’s Maximum Hedrum has released a video for “Keep In Touch,” the first single off the group’s self-titled debut album due on March 19. The video was co-directed by Spiegel and Christopher Neil. Inspiration comes from the story of Javier Silcook, a young man with cerebral palsy and his relationship with his mom […]
Points to Hustle Roses for truth in advertising – there’s plenty of hustle and bustle on her first mixtape, “Bitters.” A combination of dancefloor-friendly synth-pop, wonky interludes and sharp lyrics, “Bitters” is the brainchild of Olivia “Ollie” Stone, aka Hustle Roses, who carved out some space in our playlists as the singer-guitarist in the pop-rock […]
Thursday’s shows: ‣ Indians – the nom de tune of Copenhagen’s Søren Løkke Juul – was a bit soporific at the El Rey back in November when he opened for Other Lives, but now he’s fronting a trio instead of going it solo, and his new album “Somewhere Else” is raking in praise from Pitchfork […]
The first proper EP from Warships’ is so bright and propulsive it’s hard for us to sit still. When the SoCal quintet first brightened our mood last May, they had an album finished and seemingly ready for release, but things apparently take time. “Shadows,” produced by Raymond Richards, came out this week, with Eric Chirco, […]
Pam Shaffer makes chamber-pop for dimly lit chambers. The meditations on her second album, the fan-funded “It Is Happening Again” (out this week) seem to materialize from the shadows of a roomful of old things, illuminated only by a single candle. Piano, guitar, strings and Shaffer’s plaintive vocals conspire to draw slow-mo vignettes on “Orpheus” […]
There’s probably a riveting docu-drama waiting to be made about the life and times of Annie Hardy, the rail-thin singer-guitarist who roared out of Orange County eight years ago as party of grunge-gaze (OK, we just made that up) duo Giant Drag. Hardy’s prickly and hilariously R-rated observations and her wounded-waif persona made Giant Drag’s […]
Your Wednesday night show menu: ‣ Psychic Friend – the new vehicle for the music of Imperial Teen’s Will Schwartz – celebrates the release of its debut album “My Rocks Are Dreams” (out this month on Dangerbird) with a show at the Satellite. Schwartz’s very funny pal Sarah Silverman will open the show. [See “Once […]
With Unknown Mortal Orchestra‘s latest album “//” just out on Jagjaguwar last week, their first L.A. show since Culture Collide was bound to be crowded. However, no one could have imagined how packed the Echoplex would have gotten on Friday night. Of course, the Check Yo Ponytail lineup was also enticing: New York’s spastic pysch […]
Singer-bassist Lorelei Plotczyk knows her way around the moody shoegazers – she handled those duties for the Los Angeles incarnation of Bay Area-bred Film School. Now based in San Diego, she’s fallen in with singer-keyboardist Susie Ghahremani (formerly of the Boston-area indie-pop band Snoozer), singer-guitarist Itai Faierman (The Mashtis, Mu) and drummer Luis Galvan (Galactic […]
