Top shows to take the chill off your Monday night: ‣ Richard Swift makes magic as much as he does music. The former SoCal resident, now ensconced in Oregon and releasing music on Secretly Canadian, deals in various strains of baroque, chamber, ragtime, lounge and folk pop, making it all sound timeless. I can recommend […]
This is either a publicity stunt or a stroke of genius, but we’ll bite: Robotanists, the L.A. quartet doing this month’s residency at the Silverlake Lounge, have covered Radiohead’s “King of Limbs” and released it digitally. Well, that was quick. Robotanists’ take on the latest from Thom Yorke and gang simplifies the arrangements – no […]
Best stuff from tonight’s embarrassment of show riches: ‣ The legendary Gang of Four wind up a 13-date U.S. tour tonight at the Music Box behind their new album “C O N T E N T.” Opening are energetic Canadian pop-rockers Hollerado – their one-take video for “Americanarama,” above, has gotten them a bunch of […]
So much free music, so little time: ‣ Red Cortez kicks off its residency at the Satellite by releasing the first of this month’s four free EPs. [Watch this space for a link later today.] Supporting tonight will be Herman Dune (frontman David-Ivar performing solo), the Silent Comedy and Rocco Deluca. ‣ Very good lineup […]
When we last checked in with L.A. quartet Robotanists, Sarah Ellquist, Daniel de Blanke, Keith Boyarsky and Preston Scott Phillips were dazzling us with a covers EP. They have not been idle. Their second full-length, “Plans in Progress” – the foursome’s first new material since 2008’s “Close Down the Woods” – comes out Feb. 25. […]
Just when we’d hoped the five minutes for boy-obsessed girl groups had passed, Wet & Reckless spring their first single on the world, and it’s “New Guy.” The L.A. quartet trades in wry, undercooked garage pop with some nifty lyrical subterfuge, but this first single – released as part of a 7-inch split single (b/w […]
Back in April, we told you about “Shapes and Variations,” the covers EP by L.A.’s Robotanists that takes material by the likes of Joe Jackson, the Black Keys and Lykke Li and treats it like silly putty. Included there was “Exiled State of Mind” – a rather shapely variation of Jay-Z’s “Empire State of Mind” […]
Top 3 reasons to go out tonight (after watching “Paul McCartney: In Performance at the White House” on KCET at 8): ‣ Laura Marling, the U.K. folk singer who’s nominated for a Mercury Music Prize for her sterling sophomore album “I Speak Because I Can,” plays the El Rey Theatre. That’s her video for “Rambling […]
L.A. trio Pollyn’s languid, atmospheric electropop sounds as if it were made on slow simmer – not even the disco beats on its debut album “This Little Night” seem to faze singer Genevieve Artadi, whose sultry vocals recall the David Arnold-composed “James Bond” soundtracks. The soundscapes laid down by guitarist Anthony Cava and beats/effects guy […]
