Listening to Beats Antique is like immersing oneself into a musical melting pot of cultures. Combining Middle Eastern styles and other world music with dubstep, electronica, and roots music, Beats Antique sounds like nothing you’ve ever heard before (Check out Daniel Burnett‘s review of their performance at Seattle’s Decibel Festival here). The trio of isn’t
I admit, it was the name that originally piqued my interest in Elizabeth and the Catapult. But after listening to their Myspace page, I adored the group’s music as much as the thought-provoking moniker. When I got an opportunity for a phone interview with Elizabeth herself, I jumped at the chance. She was delightfully spunky
Ben Becker’s project Gamble House has blossomed from a one-man-show to a full throttle indie rock band. While I cringe at the blithely tossed around term ‘indie’, Gamble House is the absolute definition of independent or perhaps that other seemingly amorphous word ‘alternative’. They frequently dabble in ambient rock, pop, noise, surf without giving away
Since moving to L.A., I’ve wondered about the lack of movement and social interaction in the audience at live shows. It seems that everyone comes as a couple or in a small group and sticks to themselves. Last night at The Roxy was an exception; last night felt like I was back home in Denton,
I could tell that it was going to be a good show when I saw the abundant notices posted outside of Club Nokia warning patrons of the flashing strobes inside. The candy kids were out in full force, a sea of neon and plaid with the more than occasional feather accent. The pit and surrounding
Walking into The Viper Room last night to see the much heard about and highly underrated (as of yet!) Parlotones- I had literally crossed into a whole other country, South Africa to be exact. After parking in Siberia, Laurel Kathleen and I had managed to wander into S.A. without knowing it- who knew a passport
When you listen to music using headphones, you’re forced to really listen to music. With no other sounds but uplifted notes, your attention is focused exclusively on deciphering the message being delivered to you. Actively digesting this message allows you to experience music in new and often profound ways, even if you’re revisiting a song
When watching a live performance, we often get a feel for the artist’s personality and intentions; it like we’ve gotten to know them a bit better by the end of the show, and we categorize them as ‘this’ or ‘that’ kind of person. But not AA Bondy–he keeps you guessing. Last night was the third
I first heard Eastern Conference Champions at the ultra hip Sunset Junction Street Fair several weeks ago, and though the sound quality was poor it did not restrict the size and scope of their sound. I hadn’t realized the kind of the waves the trio from PA was making until I checked out their Myspace
Last night at The Music Box in Hollywood, three Los Angeles bands competed for the coveted title of ‘MTV VMA L.A. Breakout Artist’. The artists included rock/hip hop duo The Divine, power pop quintet It Boys (recently featured in an interview with Lauren Novik), and rapper/hip hop artist Steve Liriks. In addition to a young,