Los Angeles – Watching Hozier perform at Immanuel Presbyterian Church on a recent night was divine. The sound that spilled from his unassuming persona was like a holy adventure on its own, but the addition of his thoughtful lyrics, cellist, and old-school back-up singers got the audience to their feet in awe. With the help
Austin – This headline guarantees Charli XCX a spot on a pink card in some future edition of Trivial Pursuit. More immediately, it seems like a looming, hilarious instance of the career-launching/overshadowing single—“Creep” and “Smells Like Teen Spirit” come to mind. Before “Boom Clap” and the Icona Pop collaboration “I Love It,” British pop singer
San Francisco – This year’s Treasure Island Music Festival boasted one of the most interesting lineups of the year, promising sets from a lot of seasoned veterans across a multitude of genres, including OutKast, Massive Attack, TV on the Radio, and The New Pornographers, just to name a few. The festival’s two stages—named the Bridge
Chicago – Last week Foxygen took the Windy City by storm. The LA psychedelic rockers sold out two shows at Lincoln Hall, and their performance on Chicago’s WGN Morning News was the talk of the town. Even English rockers Temples swung by Lincoln Park to watch frontman Sam France put “the LA in Chicago.” With
Brooklyn – Wednesday night at the Music Hall of Williamsburg boasted a sold-out bill and a whole heap of alt-folk rock lovers, some still drenched from the night’s rainy temperaments. On deck to ease the mid-week blues was Sydney’s own Boy & Bear, supported by Nettwerk Music Group label mates Run River North. The night
San Francisco – Treasure Island Music Festival has been a staple of the bay area ever since its inaugural event, held in 2007. Since then the festival has seen headliners such as Beck, Belle and Sebastian, Modest Mouse, and LCD Soundsystem. This year they’ve tapped Outkast and Massive Attack as headliners, and while they both
Austin—Another weekend of ACL brings another weekend of Late Night sets. This time I wound up on 6th Street west of I-35 to see Poliça, the Minneapolis electronic group that has been releasing music for two years, starting with 2012’s Give You the Ghost and following that up with last year’s Shulamith. Their music is
Seattle – “Sunday night!” artists kept shouting onstage at Chop Suey on a recent weekend. It was the running joke all night long and those who made it to the Capitol Hill venue on a brisk Sunday evening were fortunate to take in great music by three Pacific Northwest indie bands. Headlining the night was
Austin—For someone signed to Atlantic Records, Max Frost still feels a lot like a local artist. His debut EP, Low High Low, couldn’t carry him out from under the shadow of his breakout single, “White Lies.” Add to that the Pentecostal enthusiasm of his hometown audience, the extra helping of love he’s gotten from local
Chicago – At 6 p.m. the line snaked down the block, around the corner, and coiled in a factory lot. A redline train whipped by, ushering in a chilling breeze. The temperature began to dip into the 40s. Kids were anxiously waiting in the cold to see Twenty One Pilots, MisterWives, and Vinyl Theatre. The