By Amelia Earhart Why do musicians – particularly singer-songwriters – get termed “elusive” just because they don’t relish commenting on their already deeply wrought self-expression? Isn’t the act of putting the thoughts that keep you awake at night to song and then singing them in front of a large room full of people revealing enough? […]
‣ Cass McCombs winds down a busy and profilic year when the folk singer and his band play the Echo behind his new album “Humor Risk,” the second full-length he’s released in 2011. That’s Albert Herter’s video for “The Same Thing,” above. White Magic supports. ‣ At the Bootleg, Duniven celebrates the release of its […]
[Buzz Bands LA and friends were out in force at this year’s FYF Fest. Part 4 of 4:] Twin Sister ”¢ Avi Buffalo ”¢ Cass McCombs ”¢ Pink Mountaintops ”¢ The Olivia Tremor Control ”¢ The Weakerthans ”¢ Yacht ”¢ Dan Deacon ”¢ The Dead Milkmen Photo galleries: Concert photography by Scott Dudelson Below, our […]
A festival and other festivities: ‣ Hard to believe there’s a better bargain than this year’s FYF Fest (especially if you bought your tickets at the screamin’-cheap presale rate). If the involvement this year of über-promoter Goldenvoice eliminates or even alleviates the embarrassing logistical problems of the past two years, FYF 2011 could be a […]
Although it’s still 2011, Domino artist Cass McCombs has already scheduled a second album titled “Humor Risk” for release on Nov. 8 this year. Teaming up again with producer Ariel Rechtshaid, the Foreign Born bassist who has produced McComb’s “Wit’s End” and “Catacombs” in addition to albums for Glasser and We Are Scientists, the new […]
‣ Singer-songwriter Cass McCombs, his new album “Wit’s End” out last month on Domino [preview], headlines the Troubadour, with Frank Fairfield and Residual Echoes supporting. ‣ Sixty-three-year-old “up-and-comer” Charles Bradley, the Daptone singer who is backed by the Menahan Street Band, brings his James Brown-indebted soul to the Echo. That’s his video for “The World […]
Of great shows big and small: ‣ With a new album “Wit’s End” on the way in April, singer-songwriter Cass McCombs plays the Center for the Arts in Eagle Rock, joined by Big Search and Frank Fairfield. ‣ Har Mar Superstar and Marijuana Deathsquads wind up their residency at the Satellite – and it’s been […]
Cass McCombs’ drop-dead-beautiful 2008 album “Catacombs” embraced a welcome candor – intimate and open-hearted, his songs rode in on simple guitar chords and made themselves at home on his velvety vocals. Now the 33-year-old has prepared a follow-up, “Wit’s End,” his fifth album, due April 12 on Domino. Like on his previous record, McCombs worked […]
Tonight’s top 4 reasons to grab an umbrella and go: ‣ It’s the live debut of Middle Brother – the collaboration between John McCauley of Deer Tick, Matt Vasquez of Delta Spirit and Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes [see our post last week] – at the Troubadour as part of the big benefit for Invisible Children. […]
When I talked to Matt Vasquez earlier this year for a story about Delta Spirit, he was pretty aw-shucks about the side project he had in the works with Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and John McCauley of Deer Tick. “We’re thinking about calling ourselves the Traveling Bill Murrays,” he said at the time. “I’m not […]
