What do you do if you’re a Los Angeles ex-pat living in a distant city and a band from your town comes to play? Why, you go support, of course. Photographer Kristy Sparow caught Avi Buffalo in Paris on Tuesday night as the young Long Beach quartet made the rounds on their European tour. The […]
“This is sort of like a talent show,” keyboardist Rebecca Coleman laughed on Saturday night as she and her bandmates in Avi Buffalo responded to shout-outs from the audience at the Troubadour. Indeed, the sold-out album-release show for the young Long Beach quartet had the friends-and-family feel of a high school assembly. Frontman Avi Zahner-Isenberg […]
Avi Buffalo, “Avi Buffalo” (Sub Pop) – There are a lot of “out-of-the-mouths-of-babes” moments on the unblinkingly frank and heartrendingly tender debut album from the mostly teenaged Long Beach quartet. From the stains in “Summer Cum,” to the dialogue with death in “Where’s Your Dirty Mind” to the confessions in “Jessica,” singer-guitarist Avi-Zahner-Isenberg (his vocals […]
[On this final day of April, birthday wishes go out to Amanda Palmer, who, according to her Twitter feed, was last seen in a taxi in Germany searching for lodging. Now, on to our regular programming:] Tonight: The Antlers’ album “Hospice” is moodier than sleep-deprived blogger with a slow Internet connection. Which is to say […]
Most-heard question last week: “So how was your South by Southwest?” Me: “Kind of a blur … I think … I mean …” My assignments for SPIN.com kept me beyond busy, so the week was a parade of bands, sleep deprivation and more bands, and I didn’t get to catch a lot of the buzzy […]
Austin is just getting warmed up. I covered seven bands Thursday while on assignment for SPIN.com: ‣ Band of Horses played a resplendent set to a full house at Stubb’s outdoor theater. ‣ L.A.’s Radar Bros. [that’s Jim Putnam, pictured] playing to a packed Merge Records showcase at the Cedar Street Courtyard, previewed their sixth […]
There are people who know Jack Gibson as an aspiring filmmaker, as an untiring supporter, and even as a perspiring drunk. This week, with the release of “Shelters,” his third album as Tenlons Fort, Gibson has solidified his identity as an inspiring songwriter. Whether “Shelters” – a startlingly beautiful, strikingly intimate collection of 10 songs […]
Lou Barlow, who was there at the beginning when Dinosaur Jr. and Sebadoh started making noise back in the day, visits Spaceland tonight – his Lou Barlow & The Missing Men support the residency of his former bandmate in the Folk Implosion, Imaad Wasif. The final night of Wasif’s Silver Lake stand promises to be […]
It’s a night to celebrate sibling pop at its best – the Watson Twins’ new album “Talking to You, Talking to Me” came out this week on Vanguard, and the follow-up to 2008’s “Fire Songs,” made with Everest guys J. Soda and Russell Pollard, finds sisters Chandra and Leigh exploring territory that’s a bit less […]
Wesley Eisold and Cold Cave are coming back to town this week, so I thought I’d round up the available tracks from the Philadephia-based artist. The band’s debut album “Love Came Close” was one of the surprise hits of 2009 – self-released during the summer, then picked up and released by Matador in November. Cold […]
