Thursday, your new Friday: ‣ Got soul? The legendary Al Green headlines the Greek Theatre, with upstart crooner Allen Stone opening. No, you can’t call them Al. ‣ Missy Higgins and Butterfly Boucher hold forth at the Troubadour. ‣Â Boston pysch-folk trio Quilt visits the Echo behind their self-titled album, out on Mexican Summer, with […]
Even with lyrics like “F**k the world / F**k the law / F**k the kids,” Mrs. Magician‘s repertoire still has a sunny slacker charm, and the Derrick Acosta- and Dusty Peterman-directed clip for “The Dead 80s’s” may bring another meaning to the title of their album “Strange Heaven” (out now on Swami Records). The psychedelic […]
Of the recent wave of young artists exploring vintage music, few pull off the blues with such aplomb as L.A. trio the Record Company. Singer-guitarist Chris Vos’ sublime vocals (and his aw-shucks attitude) and the tight rhythmic backing of Alex Wood and Marc Cazorla only tell part of the story – there’s a timelessness, and […]
[Editor’s note: Re-posting this amazing video from a few weeks ago because we had inadvertently published an unfinished version:] Avant-folk ensemble Little Red Lung’s single “50 Fingers” is a dark, dramatic little number, with singer Zoe-Ruth Erwin’s vocals prancing through a labyrinth of horns, keyboard, guitar and percussion. The video for the song creates a […]
Highlands like things big and mysterious, dark like the Black Angels, strange like A Place to Bury Strangers. The Long Beach quartet of Scott Holmes, Chris Figlewicz, Beau Balek and Travis Cheney, bonding over a mutual of love My Bloody Valentine (of course), pile on layers of guitar, distortion and reverb in the best shoegazer […]
Your shows for Wednesday: ‣ Singer, songwriter, provacateur and online sensation Amanda Palmer, her new album “Theater Is Evil” due Sept. 11, swings through L.A. for two events this week. Tonight, Amanda Palmer & the Grand Theft Orchestra play to a sold-out Roxy Theatre, and on Thursday she’ll appear at the Pop Tart Gallery, where […]
If the orchestral sweep at the beginning of “Forever Found” doesn’t make your heart skip, the rest of the song’s labyrinthine 4 1/2 minutes – with its restless rhythms, arching strings and ascensive vocals – will send it into overdrive. The song is the first outing for the L.A. sextet Oren Lyons (ostensibly named for […]
Bahamas? Jamaica? With Pulp? All aboard. The S.S. Coachella website is now live. Ticket go on sale Saturday, July 21. The rooms look like your typically nice cruise fare, and staterooms and suites range from $500 (for a four-person room) to $1,500 (plus fees, naturally, and not including the cost of getting to Florida, where […]
Coachella, which via Twitter teased a big announcement for 6 p.m. today, will be setting sail with a music-themed cruise, according to a report this morning. Reporter Todd Martens has details on the L.A. Times’ Pop & Hiss blog. Stay tuned for the official word at 6 o’clock.
[Auckland, New Zealand-based writer Keith Shackleton, an occasional contributor to Buzz Bands LA, is a native of the U.K. who was around for The Beat – known as The English Beat in the U.S. – and all the other music he discusses in this essay:] By Keith Shackleton Late-’70s British post-punk music can be characterized by […]