My only quibble with “New Tales to Tell: A Tribute to Love and Rockets” is the “tribute” part, which seems a bit presumptive. Call me stuffy, but only the truly seminal bands should get tributes; the good ones can be saluted, and the others, well, covered. In a decade-plus of tailoring the Bauhaus aesthetic to […]
Add another name to the lineup for the Sunset Junction Street Fair – breakout San Diego folk-rockers Delta Spirit [pictured]. The quintet, who supported the Shins on their recent tour and also played Bonnaroo, is still making hay with its twice-released (once by themselves, then last year by Rounder) debut “Ode to Sunshine.” They join […]
[New videos from L.A. artists …] LA Weekly cover guy Busdriver will have to dumb it down a few dozen IQ points if he ever wants to be a hip-hop star, but thankfully we have guys like him to skip stones across the mainstream. The veteran underground rapper shows no signs of being more accessible […]
If I had to guess, I’d say Sunset Junction is going to happen this year. I know its status still seems to be a subject of debate in some circles, but suffice to say things will be worked out in time for the big charity street fair Aug. 22-23. Can’t get anyone to clue me […]
On one hand, everything you need to know about War Tapes is right here in “Dreaming of You,” the first song to put the quartet on the Los Angeles landscape. Over urgent beats and ringing guitars, singer Neil Popkin gives it his best Depeche Mode-meets-She Wants Revenge, making his girl reverie sound as foreboding as […]
[Happy birthday to Neil Finn … Now on to a busy night on the circuit:] Big shows at opposite ends of the sonic spectrum: The Prodigy, behind their muscular new album “Invaders Must Die,” return to L.A., and if Soundcheck’s review of Wednesday’s show at the Grove of Anaheim is any indication, the Palladium will […]
[Notebook entries, once sentence apiece …] Wolfmother [visit the site to sign up for the download of the new single “Back Round”] sure was great a couple Fridays ago in the Natural History Museum’s Mammals Hall (imagine that), but I was surprised that the set started and ran so late, since the museum’s First Fridays […]
[Jane’s Addiction’s Eric Avery blows out birthday candles on Saturday; cheers to him as we rock into the weekend …] Tonight: Seems to be lighter than your average Friday, but in addition to the I Am Treasure benefit at the Roxy (featuring Pigeon John and Rootbeer), you have some other options. She Wants Revenge, paired […]
It’s been too long since I posted a podcast, so this is Step 1 in catching up. This fourth edition of the Buzzsicle features songs from 17 L.A. artists whose names I heard in the aftermath of last month’s South by Southwest Music Festival. In my Austin wanderings, I mostly avoided L.A. bands, figuring I […]
[Belated greetings to John Doe, who celebrated a birthday on Wednesday and lent his voice to the Scott Walker tribute at Bordello. Emcee Michael Des Barres even led the crowd in singing “Happy Birthday.” And kudos to Ann Magnuson for bringing down the house with her rendition of Jacques Brel’s “Au Suivant.”] All seems to […]
