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. […]
Your Wednesday show picks: ‣ Portugal. The Man, which recently wrapped up another big tour behind last year’s album “In the Mountains In the Clouds,” visit UCLA’s Royce Hall for a concert also featuring Haim and The Ten Thousand. ‣ Rocco DeLuca headlines the Satellite behind his haunting new album “Drugs ’N Hymns.” ‣ Xander […]
On this Sunday, some of the good stuff starts early: ‣ Philadelphia trio Good Old War visits the Avalon Hollywood behind its new album “Come Back As Rain,” with L.A.’s own the Belle Brigade and Family of the Year opening. ‣ Big doings at the Bootleg Theater, where KXLU’s LA Psych Fest brings the Entrance […]
With brother and sister Ethan and Barbara Gruska at the helm, humorous bits are bound to seep into all live sets from the Belle Brigade. But even as charming jokers, the duo’s close bond is apparent through both their musical gifts and stage banter. Their new video for “Where Not to Look for Freedom” takes […]
Philadelphia trio Good Old War seems to have struck a chord with its third album “Come Back As Rain,” which is charting well after its release earlier this month. Theirs is an easy-breezy take on folk music, with Keith Goodwin, Dan Schwartz and Tim Arnold punctuating saccharine melodies with acoustic plucking and buoyant harmonies. They […]
Your to-do list for the evening: ‣ With a new EP “Headcage” out in January and the album “Beams” on the way this spring, Matthew Dear visits the Eagle Rock Center for the Ars, supported by Mini Mansions and ESP. [You can download Dear’s the title track to “Headcage” here.] ‣ Ra Ra Riot, whose […]
Your fantastic Friday night: ‣ GV30 – the Goldenvoice/Gary Tovar celebration of 30 years of Los Angeles punk – kicks off three big night at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium with Social Distortion, X and the Adolsecents. ‣ Guitar virtuoso Charlie Hunter (pictured), on tour with drummer Scott Amendola, starts a two-night stand at the […]
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 […]
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 […]
The name of KCRW’s holiday benefit show posed the so-rhetorical-it’s-silly question “Are Friends Eclectic? Gee, waddya think? You’d be hard-pressed to find the fare at Saturday’s four-plus-hour concert in the same time zone, let alone on the same spot on your FM dial. While “Eclectic’s” genial host, KCRW music director Jason Bentley, repeatedly marveled about […]
