Phantogram first burst on to the scene in 2009 with two EPs that eventually led to their seductive debut album “Eyelid Movies,” and they’re finally back with some new material after two long years of touring. Although the new batch of songs on “Nightlife” (out now via Barsuk Records) don’t stray too far from their […]
Young San Fernando Valley trio Aftergloam likes things big and loud and spacious, and their single “Silencer” roars away with post-rock abandon. The juxtaposition of guitarist Elvis Galvez’s guitar textures and drummer Tianna Nicole’s beats sounds like a duel, but everybody wins here. It says on Bandcamp that the track was actually released last October, […]
Los Angeles can be such a divisive place. Natives can see its every flaw, chart its sprawl and decay. Emigrants can forever be awestruck by its wonder. Count Massachussetts native Hrishikesh Hirway, the force behind L.A. trio the One Am Radio, among the latter. He wrote “In a City Without Seasons,” off this year’s album […]
When we last heard from U.K.-bred, L.A.-based songstress Carina Round, she was releasing an EP as part of the Early Winters. She’s been busy; Round has a full-length in the works for next spring – collaborators include Billy Corgan, Dave Stewart and Brian Eno – and she’s guesting with Maynard James Kennan’s Puscifer, with whom […]
Others really have no say in what anyone chooses to do in his or her spare time, and if you happen to be wealthy and successful, there are more (albeit sometimes unnecessary) options for passing the time. In Foster the People‘s new Ace Norton-directed video, we see the L.A. electro pop band lying around a […]
‣ Stones Throw Records’ Dam-Funk brings his music diplomacy – he has, after all, earned the nickname “Ambassador of Boogie Funk” – to the El Rey Theatre, where he will team up with Master Blazter for an evening of sizzle. Above is the video for “It’s My Life,” which the duo recorded, without editing, direct […]
I spent some time on my recent vacation thinking about whether indie-rock is dead, or whether its frazzled head is merely bobbing in an ocean of couture music – the waves of preening electro, faux folk and calculated retro-pop that proliferate. My long drives in the desert were accompanied by a handful** of CDs (remember […]
Swedish sisters Klara and Johanna Söderberg, aka First Aid Kit, return with a follow-up to 2010’s “The Big Black & Blue” with the track “The Lion’s Roar.” The signature close-knit harmonies, which earned them tour spots with artists such as Lykke Li in the past, are still present in the title track off of their […]
Tennessee’s Those Darlins bring a lot of ’tude with the punk-rock twang on their sophomore album “Screws Get Loose,” but it turns out Jessi, Kelley and Nikki Darlin (who conspire with their long-ago rock ’n’ roll camp counselor Linwood Regensburg) have a fascination with all things mystical too, in a Spector sort of way. “Mystic […]
Tops for your Wednesday: ‣ Tune-Yards, the vehicle for Merrill Garbus and her powerful voice, bring their beat-crazy experimental pop to the Music Box along with Cut Chemist. Garbus has come a long way since her January appearance at First Fridays at the Natural History Museum. She now performs fronting a four-piece; her album “w […]
