You have to hand it to Ben Heywood. When the frontman of the L.A. indie-rock band Summer Darling found himself confronted by writer’s block last year after the release of his band’s well-regarded album, he didn’t break out by dashing off some 3-minute pop ditties. He dug deep. He imagined a chaotic, environmentally devastated American […]
Nik Freitas, the L.A. based singer-songwriter whose new album “Saturday Night Underwater” came out in June, will headline the September edition Buzz Bands LA’s SecondTuesday songwriter night at Lot 1 Cafe in Echo Park. Joining Freitas will be Marlon Rabenreither of the Sister Ruby Band and Ben Heywood of Summer Darling– each doing solo sets […]
Tonight in our fair city: ‣ Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, their new album “Mirror Traffic” out today, play a 6 p.m. in-store at Amoeba that will be streamed live on the Internet. ‣ Local psych-rockers Xu Xu Fang have some new music in the works, and a show at the Satellite with Alain Johannes […]
On Summer Darling’s self-titled album, released one year ago this week, the L.A. quartet wound prickly guitars and passionate lyrics into powder-keg indie-rock that seemed loosed from the ’90s. If flashbacks to the darned-near-mathematical precision of bands such as Cursive and Braid weren’t reward enough, Summer Darling exuded a working-class, no-frills aesthetic that ran counter […]
This installment of our intermittent mixtapes, The Buzzsicle, Vol. 13, is devoted to the weekend’s second annual Silverlake Jubilee, which gives you a lot of bang for 5 bucks. I’ve compiled an hour’s worth of music from 18 of the artists playing the festival. Enjoy. ||| Download: The Buzzsicle 13 (84 MB) After the jump, […]
The Silver Lake Jubilee, the neighborhood festival that debuted last year with 50 bands on three stages (along with an army of food trucks and art exhibits), will be back at its Sunset Junction-adjacent locale May 21-22. The set-up, along Myra Avenue between Santa Monica and Sunset Boulevards, will be similar to last year’s – […]
The latest video concoction from OK Go is a change-of-pace from their live-action clips, but then again so is the song, the acoustic “Last Leaf.” Directed by the band Serious Business Design founders Nadeem Mazen and Ali Mohammad, the video was shot with a Samsung NX100 camera (the behind-the-scenes is pretty cool) and animated by […]
Yes, this video’s a year old now, but I’ll use it to reinforce a familiar Buzz Bands mantra: early arrival recommended. If you are subjecting yourself to the overwrought strains of Kings of Leon tonight at the Hollywood Bowl (or if you’re there for indie-rock veterans Built to Spill), get to the amphitheater early for […]
[This belated Monday missive is brought to you by my holiday weekend hangover:] Top 5 reasons to mumble “Hawl-uh-day, what hawl-uh-day?” and venture out tonight: Four promising residencies kick off: Folk-rockers Mississippi Man at the Echo (Rumspringa opens); Summer Darling (whose debut is coming out digitally Tuesday on Origami) at Spaceland (Twilight Sleep supports); the […]
[Happy 30th birthday to Norah Jones …] Nico Stai’s residency at Spaceland this month has been a high-energy affair, owing first to his quartet’s squeezing every ounce of juice out of his ’90s-vintage pop-rock, and second, to a lineup of buzzy opening bands that got things tingling. Tonight’s Flaunt Magazine-stamped finale (which follows Stai’s taping […]
