Your spectacular Saturday: ‣ The Greek Theatre embraces nostalgia along with the start of summer with radical rock group the B-52s and pop legends Squeeze. ‣ Fool’s Gold continues the summer series in Pasadena with an outdoor show at Levitt Pavilion. ‣ It’s a stacked roster of pop at Universal City walk’s Gibson Amphitheatre with […]
The folks behind the Moon Block Party – who staged the DIY shows Desert Daze in Desert Hot Springs during Coachella – brought the festivities to Pomona on Saturday, bringing about 30 bands to the city’s Art Colony for an eclectic day of psych-rock, garage and indie-rock. highlights included headlining sets by Fool’s Gold and […]
When it comes to suspending your brain somewhere between stoner oblivion and psychedelic bliss, JUJU has mojo. The trance-y rock is the new venture of singer-guitarist Phil Pirrone (Jeffertiti’s Nile, A Static Lullaby, Casket Salesman) and Incan Abraham drummer Andrew Clinco. Over the drummer’s thunderous rhythms, Pirrone loops guitar and bass, building an almost primordial […]
The calendar for free summertime concert series is rapidly filling, but there is one longtime favorite that will be conspicuously absent this year: the Also I Like to Rock shows at the Hammer Museum. Also I Like to Rock had a seven-year run of bringing live music to the Hammer courtyard every Thursday in July. […]
Director Tim Nakashi and Fool’s Gold wade into some hazy, nostalgic psychedelia in their new video for the band’s song “The Dive.” The quintet’s sophomore album “Leave No Trace,” a cross-cultural pop potpourri of frisky beats and prickly guitars topped by singer Luke Top’s croon, came out last year. They have a slew of May […]
An abundance of excellent music came my way from the SoCal community in 2011. My favorite 20 albums follow, with some special mentions/recommendations beyond that. It was an especially rich year for folk-rock and singer-songwriter albums, not so much for hard rock. Most of the nouveau electro and experimental releases left me cold. I didn’t […]
Thursday things: ‣ Black Star, the groundbreaking duo of Mos Def and Talib Kweli, do a makeup gig at Club Nokia for an L.A. date originally scheduled in October. ‣ The first night of the annual Invisible Children benefit concerts at the Troubadour features Jon Foreman (Switchfoot), Matt Pryor (the Get Up Kids), Aaron Gillespie […]
Join me at midnight tonight on KCSN (88.5 FM, or streaming at KCSN.org) as my LA Buzz Bands Show begins a three-week celebration of my favorite local music of 2011. My “Fave 40” countdown will feature the local tunes I had in heaviest rotation this year, and there were plenty to choose from. Tonight’s show […]
Quite a Thursday night ahead: ‣ A.A. Bondy headlines the Bootleg Theater behind his new album “Believers.” [See why we believed.] Nik Freitas, whose new album “Saturday Night Underwater” came out this summer, opens. ‣ Gillian Welch (pictured) headlines the Music Box behind the new album she made with Dave Rawlings, “The Harrow & the […]
[A weekend special: Here are three local bands who have gotten the remix treatment.] Saint Motel – “Puzzle Pieces (Junk Remix)” – Indie rock outfit Saint Motel gets a danceable but darker remix from Junk. Heavier beats warp the vocals and rhythm while also touching on the dark subject matter hidden in between those peppy […]
