The lean-and-mean indie rock on the first EP from L.A. trio Chop Love Carry Fire is deceptively straightforward – stabs and flicks of guitar, sturdy rhythms, biting vocals tinged with just enough angst, all courtesy of three guys who know what they’re doing and have the resumés to prove it. Singer-bassist Jeremy Toback (pictured) co-founded […]
Not having the resources in our travel budget to actually attend, we shed a few tears reading the tweets and reports from the weekend’s Outside Lands festival. But contributing photographer Scott Dudelson sent along his highlights, which made queue up “Ready to Start,” at least. (And check out the crowd for L.A.’s Grouplove.) Concert photography […]
Mad Planet’s first album, 2010’s “All Elephants,” was more about the beats and textures than the shreddy guitars of principals’ previous bands, Bang Sugar Bang in singer-bassist Cooper Gillespie’s case and the Nervous Return in drummer Greg Gordon’s. But the beguiling trip-hop of that first record is almost nowhere to be found in “Pieces of […]
The Black’s gritty garage-Americana is like a slightly rusted saw that still works, cutting deep into whatever needs cleaved – in this case starry-eyed romance and not a little bit of rock ’n’ roll history. The Austin quartet, featuring Matt Simon (ex-Voxtrot) and Dave Longoria (ex-Trail of Dead) along with Bryan Mammel and Amy Hawthorne, […]
Five observations about “Miracle Worker,” from the über-super-duper-group SuperHeavy – Damian Marley, Dave Stewart, Mick Jagger, A.R. Rahman and Joss Stone: 5) Pretty sure I saw five dudes in knit caps in Venice doing this song in 2003. 4) This is all for charity, right? How many structures could have been rebuilt, or people fed, […]
Last week’s installment of Buzz Bands LA’s SecondTuesday songwriter night at Lot 1 Cafe in Echo Park proved to be a special affair – four artists pouring out a wide range of music to our biggest crowd yet for the series. Radical Face (aka Florida’s Ben Cooper) played some of the character-rich folk from his […]
Mountains of midweek show options: ‣ Big day for L.A. legends the Go-Go’s: This afternoon they’ll be inducted into the Greek Theatre’s Rock Walk, and then they will celebrate Belinda Carlisle’s birthday. Then – and what better way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the release of their album “The Beauty and the Beat” – […]
So Many Wizards has always offered a sound that has been difficult to pin down in terms of genre, and even after expanding his project to a three-piece band including Erik Felix and Warren Woodward, Nima Kazerouni’s playful yet untamed melodies have only been able to fall under the “bedroom pop” umbrella. However, this is […]
Quite a tease, that Cut Chemist. The former Ozomatli/Jurassic 5 dude is busy working on an as-yet-untitled album due next year, but to stir the pot for his current Tunnel Vision Tour, he’s released a new collaboration with Blackbird titled “Outro (Revisited).” His album in the works will get previewed on his five-city club swing, […]
Two U.K. greats from the ’90s – Mark Gardener of Ride (pictured) and Adam Franklin of Swervedriver – highlight the lineup for the fifth Clean Air Clear Stars Festival at Pappy & Harriet’s Pioneertown Palace on Sept. 23 and 24. Franklin will be performing with his band Adam Franklin & Bolts of Melody at the […]