Cage the Elephant did everything a good rock band should do on Wednesday night at the Mayan Theatre – the pride of Bowling Green, Ky., played their radio hits, and they played them hard. Matthew Shultz reasserted himself as one of the most explosive and athletic frontmen around, throwing his voluminous hair around as if […]
“Do you love burgers as much as we do?” asked Kyle Thomas, aka King Tuff, after going head-first into a few garage-rock numbers full of psychedelic licks. It might sound like a funny question to ask during a concert, but they were playing Burgerama, after all. Put on by Fullerton-based label Burger Records, the Observatory […]
@KRBronson on Thursday at SXSW (also see: Jesus and Mary Chain review): Arms makes indie-rock for people who like indie-rock, with sharp guitar and bass lines, sharper lyrics and arresting shifts in tempo and mood that toggle adeptly between nice and gnarly. Mastermind Todd Goldstein once played in Harlem Shakes, who had their 15 minutes […]
[The South by Southwest Music Festival, now 2,500-plus bands strong and spanning five-plus days, keeps growing and growing – music events started on Tuesday this year. Buzz Bands LA will be covering with “daily diaries.” Here’s an abbreviated one from what we saw after arriving, already sleep-deprived, in Austin:] @KRBronson on Tuesday at SXSW: Richie […]
So what’s your flavor, South by Southwest? Because these southern California bands are doing battle to get their music on your plates. On Friday we posted a 44-song mixtape featuring SoCal bands performing at SXSW, and frankly that wasn’t enough. Buzz Bands LA, of course, has nine bands who tickle our fancy playing our “Dear […]
Nine SoCal bands are playing Buzz Bands LA’s “Dear Austin: Love, L.A.” day party next Wednesday on the first day of the South by Southwest Music Festival. It seems like 999 SoCal bands are actually headed to Austin. When we started culling music from those artists, our uploader begged for for mercy. So we called […]
Happy sunny Sunday: ‣ Rowdy garage rockers FIDLAR, who are preparing for their new “No Waves/No Ass 7-inch, headline the Echo tonight. [See their video “Oh” here.] Pangea, the Lovely Bad Things and Anus Kings also round out the boisterous lineup. ‣ Mad Planet brings their electro-rock over to the Central S.AP.C. where the Open […]
FIDLAR returns with the fourth and final music video in support of their “DIYDUI” EP, and if you thought a sand-boarding Grim Reaper was odd in the clip for “Wake Bake Skate,” the plot for “Oh” will make that seem like a pleasant daydream. Directed by Ryan Baxley, a day at Joshua Tree gets out […]
Ah, FIDLAR are at it again. And we’re not referring to whatever Zac Carper has going on in the press photo. The quartet is leading the charge among the cadre of young L.A. bands doing stripped-down garage-pop that’s skate-, surf- and party-friendly. From their early digital singles to last year’s “DIYDUI” EP for White Iris, […]
Saturday night’s show menu: ‣ Alkaline Trio frontman Matt Skiba, who released an EP via his side project The Hell (with ex-Angels & Airwaves drummer Atom Willard) in December and has another side project in the works with AFI’s Hunter Burgan, visits the Troubadour on a solo acoustic tour. Mike Park, the veteran punk rocker […]
