with Seth Pettersen

Friday, January 20th - Club Mercy at the Soho Music Club - Santa Barbara, CA - $13 - 9:30 - 21+

To all my fellow Los Angelinos, as you may or may not know, the avant-pop outfit Gardens & Villa will be playing at The Satellite THIS Saturday, October 15^th.  The Santa Barbara-based quintet makes music similar in mood to its locale—chill, relaxed, and stone-y—making the band’s self-titled July debut on Secretly Canadian a perfect fit for beach bonfires and bike rides. Heading back to California from a two-month long tour, Friday’s show will be a welcome homecoming for the outfit, as well as a nice farewell to summer.

Gardens & Villa is the project of five college friends from Santa Barbara, formed following the collapse of a noisier post-punk band and a hitchhiking journey up the west coast. Members Chris Lynch, Adam Rasmussen, Levi Hayden, Shane McKillop began playing in earnest as Gardens & Villa in 2008. The band recently recorded their 10-song, self-titled, debut album for Secretly Canadian on July 19 and this is the result.

In the music world, everyone is always looking for something new. We get nostalgic about the past and enjoy the present, but what really excites us always the thought of what will come next. In truth, most new music piggybacks off of ideas that were established long ago, and its rare that we find ourselves listening to a track that doesn’t remind us of something else. When we hear a band like that, it’s important to really cherish it while it is still that unique and beautiful flower. In the case of Sleigh Bells, that flower is truly gorgeous, and completely covered with thorns.

They’re Locals, they’re Natives, they’re Local Natives and they are a freakish quintet of preposterous talent. If you can’t enjoy their music, or at least recognize the skillful precision and emotional force of their sound, then you, my friend, probably have something wrong with you. I hate to be so brazen, but their performance at Soho on Monday was a tour de force, knocking me off my feet and onto the cold hard floor of the venue. I’m actually still on the floor, laying in shock and probably some stale spilt beer, barely able to write this and publish it via cell phone. I’ll get up eventually – after all, I bought their vinyl and want to get home to listen to it. For anyone who did not see the show and is somewhere much more comfortable (e.g. on your couch at home or in a chair at your office), here are some video highlights from their Soho set on 9/20. The included videos are live performances of their excellent cover of the Talking Heads’ “Warning Sign,” and their original track “Airplanes,” which Taylor Rice talks with me about in detail in an exclusive interview. Watch the second video after the jump.

If I could only keep my eye on one band that released an album in 2010, Local Natives would have to be the one to truly hold my attention. The quintet is almost too talented, and after seeing their performance last night at Soho, I’m feeling a little freaked out. The fact of the matter is that any of the five members could carry a band of their own, but when you compound that amount of talent into one act, the results are astonishing. The drums where driving and energetic, the guitars were mellow and melancholy at times, while powerfully rocking at others. Local Natives seem to have no “frontman,” and during their set vocalists Taylor Rice, Kelcey Ayer, and Ryan Hahn continuously switched positions, instruments, and roles for different songs. Their live show feels incredibly organic, like each member of the band is putting everything they’ve got into it and it all fits perfectly into the picture painted by their music. Songs like “Airplanes” and “Wide Eyes“ translate beautifully live, and when they closed with their rocking epic “Sun Hands,” the crowd was left more or less speechless. Luckily, I got a chance to sit down and talk with singer/guitarist Taylor Rice before their set left me helplessly awestruck.

Vocal harmonies are the name of the game for these rising stars hailing from Los Angeles. The rest of the locals (or the natives) of Los Angeles are certainly showing plenty of love for the band, as they are preparing to play two sold out shows at the Henry Fonda Theater in their hometown before playing a gig in San Diego and then heading up to Santa Barbara for their show on the 20^th. The Santa Barbara gig is being put on by local promoter Club Mercy, which has recently announced that tickets are almost gone for their Soho performance as well. It would certainly appear that Local Natives are having no trouble carrying their buzz from LA elsewhere, and I can’t say I’m surprised.

When I first “discovered” Phoenix (actually, more like when I found out that I was the last one of my friends to realize how awesome they are), I was awestruck. It was like the feeling that you get when you realize that someone you see all the time but barely know is actually awesome, and you should have been best friends ages ago. Sure I had heard of Phoenix, but their impenetrable hype kept me from listening to them for some time. Once I hit play, I realized what many people already knew: no one on earth can resist the danceable grooves of these French rockers. The tracks off their 2009 album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, are way too easy to love. The first time I heard “1901” and “Fences,” I thought it wasn’t possible for songs to be that catchy from first listen. Some time has passed since then and I have fallen into the same “Lisztomania” as the rest of the world, but still haven’t seen their live act. Well, something has got to change.

Last night the Spanish quartet arrived at Soho with a beat in their heads and more than a little pep in their step. Their upbeat indie-dance tunes head everyone on the dance floor cutting loose, including themselves (see keyboardist Unai Lazcano rocking out in the video below). Everyone had a lot to be excited about. Besides the fact that Club Mercy was bringing Delorean to make their first appearance ever in Santa Barbara, the show also featured two great opening acts that it would behoove us to keep an eye on for some good music in the future. Local indie-dance act Gardens and Villa played a dance worthy set for an impressive first appearance at Soho, followed by the Los Angeles based indie rockers Foster the People. The second opener had some very melodic tunes and catchy whistling grooves, especially in their track “Pumped up Kicks.”

First things first: this band has absolutely nothing to do with awesome stainless steel sports cars from the early ‘80s, nor do they mean to reference Doc Brown’s time trekking contraption from Back to the Future. Although, it would be easy to assume that some time travel was involved in the recording process of the Spanish four piece’s latest album Subiza. I stumbled upon Delorean like a musical tourist, but it ended up being one of the best music finds I’ve had in awhile. Like so many before me, I’m sure, I was reading music blogs and noticed the name Delorean making some headlines following their latest album release, and all I could think about is how awesome that car looked and how subsequently awesome this band must sound if they dare to evoke 1980s nostalgia. Luckily the name wasn’t their greatest strength, but rather their ability to bring some of that old school dance-club groove to an indie-pop record is what makes them a real discovery.