Like any other genre, if a rapper wants to break big, they need to get a swell of underground support through mixtapes or his/her crew, then get noticed, then capitalize on the buzz and finally parlay that into big money. Last year around this time, people were talking about Black Hippy and Kendrick Lamar, and
As we highlighted last week in our Artist of the Week section, Long Beach, Calif.-natives Rival Sons are on the cusp of something big. Granted, they already are big internationally in Europe and even Canada, which is what makes their latest album, Head Down, so important to their career Stateside. Needless to say, after giving
Over the past few years, actually nearly a decade if you were really, truly deeply entrenched in the scene, indie skater-punk music has flourished in Los Angeles, making it one of the major music hubs for the genre. One of the cooler new bands to emerge in the past year and a half from the
We warned you two weeks ago, but Los Angeles sister trio Haim is on the cusp of big things. Their blend of indie, pop and a strong knowledge of harmony has made them blog and fan faves. Today, they released on Soundcloud a remix of “Send Me Down,” which was done by Dan Lissvik. The
BestNewBands.com faves Alt-J have had a big 2012 and beginning of 2013, which outlined yesterday when we said they were nominated for 3 Brit Awards, including British Breakthrough Act, British Album of the Year, and British Group of the Year. The Brit Awards are the British Phonographic Industry’s annual pop music awards and the British
Generally when people think of supergroups, they think of mega rock bands along the lines of, but not limited to, Derek and the Dominos, Velvet Revolver, Monsters of Folk and as of last month, Sirvana (Paul McCartney and the surviving members of Nirvana for those of you who don’t know). For whatever reason you don’t
We have a lot to look forward to in 2013. While things may seem a bit quiet for now, we’ll be laughing at this lull when new bands emerge from seemingly nowhere with much buzzed about South-by-Southwest showcases that makes most insiders head’s spin. But that’s where we can help, or at least provide a
New York-based rapper Outasight has been talked about for some time now. After building a strong following, he released his first major label album, Nights Like These, on Warner Bros. back at the end of November. Last year proved to be a breakout year for him as he performed his single, “Tonight Is The Night,”
As 2012 draws to a close, I’ll take some time now to reflect on some of the best festival performances of the past year. There were an abundance of festivals and as the concert biz continues to sputter, these gargantuan events give attendees the opportunity to check out some of their favorite bands along with
British singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding added an interesting event to her resume last year: performing live at the request of the future king and queen of England. So how did she top that in 2012? Her brilliant album, Halcyon, featured a well-received single, “Anything Could Happen,” and a reissue of her earlier overseas hit, “Lights,” reached