Los Angeles – Shannon and the Clam’s record release show on Wednesday night at Los Angeles’ El Rey Theater was a bit of a West Coast punk rock extravaganza. While the theater is most well-known for hosting larger indie-rock shows and even the occasional mainstream concert, it was a down-and-dirty night of DIY retro-style garage-punk
San Francisco – As one of the first pioneers of the recently popularized genre of chillwave, Alan Palomo’s Neon Indian has been a steady source of entertainment, mixing glitchy electronic beats with catchy hooks and airy, heavily reverberated vocals. Neon Indian’s next LP VEGA INTL. Night School—released next month via Mom + Pop—is perhaps his
Los Angeles – Willis Earl Beal approaches his live show as a phantom might. Dressed all in black, with his eyes masked and a black cape slung over him emblazoned with a dead-looking smiley face, the logo from his 2013 album Nobody Knows. Beal clearly doesn’t try to make the audience feel comfortable. He actually
Los Angeles – Up until about the mid-2000’s, bands that fell under the categorization of “indie pop” typically had to spend years on the road while releasing barely-noticed records in hopes that eventually they would be able to quit their day jobs and make music their full-time gig. The internet changed all that, with blogs
Los Angeles – While Béatrice Martin, AKA Cœur de Pirate has toured the United States several times in the past, this year’s set of American dates are the most likely to bear the most impressive results. Fresh on the heals of her third full-length release, Roses, the French-Canadian singer-songwriter for the first time is offering some English
Chicago – The Windy City was invaded by Brits and New Englanders, and it was glorious! We gladly surrendered to the rock of Highly Suspect and The Struts. Brooklyn based, Massachusetts born and bred trio Highly Suspect and English foursome The Struts played not one, but two, sold-out shows at Lincoln Hall. Excited fans packed
London – So, just when you thought the world was running out of great tunes, along came Alvvays. There are nine of them on its self-titled 2014 debut album while four new songs worked in to the band’s brisk hour-long set heralded more to come. The Toronto five-piece was in London town to shower affection
New York – Thursday in the city was a blustery night, but firekid brought the heat with a packed show at Irving Plaza. A voluminous crowd of rain-drenched New Yorkers turned out in droves to catch firekid’s set, filling the venue to capacity ahead of closing act Moon Taxi. Dillon Hodges is the face of
Chicago – The final day of Riot Fest was a beaut! The sun was shining, the mud was drying, the temps were rising, and the legendary Jimmy Cliff graced Douglas Park with his presence. (I know, right, Jimmy effin-cliff! His set was fantastic, by the way.) More importantly, Sunday proved to be one lucky band’s day, earning them my
Nashville – As the final weekend approaches for “Live On The Green” here in Nashville we are slowly reminded that summer is coming to an end. The festival is giving us a three-day, two stage send off this year with some big acts showing their stuff. This event was established in 2009 by Nashville’s local