Oakland – This past Monday, ambitious garage rocker John Barrett’s project Bass Drum of Death played a raucous set at the stylishly small Club Leo’s in Oakland. Bass Drum of Death’s set was preluded by sets by local bands War Cloud and Pookie & the Poodlez, but the stars of the show were definitely the
Brooklyn – I’ve known Lucas Nathan, the human body inhabited by the spiritual entity called Jerry Paper, since he was making sci-fi-influenced instrumental ambient music under his birth name. He’s come a very long way since then, evolving into an alternate universe Tom Jones, a sweaty lounge act in the outer space equivalent of Las
Nashville – It’s difficult to pin down Breakfast In Fur, a four-piece outfit from New Paltz, NY. To put it simply, the group is soft-spoken but powerful, and their newest album, Flyaway Garden (via Bar/None), is certainly no exception. As ethereal as the title suggests, their full-length debut is a dreamy escape that combines whimsy
Chicago – Yo New York, I’ma let you finish but you ain’t got nothing on Chicago when it comes to blizzards! Twenty inches of snow? Check. Below freezing temps? Check. Letting winter disrupt our lives? No dice! Monday night was proof Chicagoans refuse to let frigid temperatures and a little bit of snow stop the
Los Angeles – Despite being released on riff-worshiping Exploding in Sound and kicking off with a Nevermind-worthy opening riff, the latest release from Los Angeles’s-by-way-of-Boston band Dirty Dishes is not just 40+ minutes of sheer aggression. Instead, Dirty Dishes follow in the footsteps of a variety of influences throughout Guilty. Of course, like a great
New York – Quarterbacks are based in New Paltz, New York, a cute little college town an hour and a half north of New York City. It’s even smaller than comparable college towns with lively music scenes like Olympia, Washington or Northampton, Massachusetts, but has still managed to support two independent record stores for more
Austin – It was a minor tragedy when, sometime between ’05 and ’08, emo was scorned into early retirement. The label was nebulous in the first place, applied to any rock music with enough juvenile male pathos. On that basis the critics were mostly unfair—exceptions granted only for anyone who questioned the scene’s under-recognized privilege
San Francisco- Washington D.C. Based indie pop band Jukebox the Ghost consists of only three guys, Ben Thornewill (vocals/keyboard), Tommy Siegel (vocals/guitar), and Jesse Kristin (drums.) This power pop indie band has just released their fourth album, the self-titled Jukebox The Ghost. To promote their newest album they have been touring all over the country.
London – With a band name inspired by writer Daphne du Maurier’s affair with actress Gertrude Lawrence, British female duo Eyes For Gertrude bring with it the promise that all might not be quite what it seems. Band mates Hannah Dean and Chantelle Pike appear respectively as ambivalent bride and groom on the cover of
Los Angeles – On Friday night at The Forum bluesy folk-rock musician George Ezra opened for pop sensation Sam Smith. While both artists are from England (Ezra from Hertford, Smith from London), their musical styles are enormously different. Smith gave an expected larger than life performance to a massive crowd. However, at just the age