Los Angeles – Ever-growing, ever-popular, and ever-crowded, Los Angeles’ FYF Fest is now entering its 12th year in existence, and its second year at the Los Angeles Memorial Sports Arena & Exposition Park. The 2015 edition once again features an exciting and diverse lineup of indie, punk, electronic, hip hop, and dance music. Headliners include
San Francisco – Leonard Cohen once sang, “I was born with the gift of a golden voice.” Anyone familiar with the man’s whispery, ragged delivery knows he was being a bit facetious when he wrote this line (Cohen? Facetious? Unbelievable). Strip away the irony, however, and this lyric perfectly describes the stunning, indeed golden, voice
London – Lovers Know is the third album from Laura Burhenn’s solo project, The Mynabirds. The first thing that strikes you about the new record is that it is as divergent as the first two were from each other. Her 2010 epigrammatically titled debut, What We Lose In the Fire We Gain in The Flood,
New York – Silversun Pickups will herald their much-anticipated fourth studio album with an array of high profile activity. Better Nature will be released September 25th via the band’s own New Machine Recordings. Better Nature is preceded by the incandescent new single, “Nightlight,” debuting Thursday August 6th. “Nightlight” also arrives accompanied by a hallucinatory music film, written and directed
Los Angeles – Casting themselves as young misfits from the blue-collared macho south coast of Massachusetts, Brandon Hagen and Drew MacDonald of Vundabar have created a sophomore album that mostly fits into the contemporary indie rock scene. On Gawk, riffs crash over each other with unexpectedly shifting and lurching pacing; the result is a wonderfully unwieldy set
Portland – Struggling between contrasting identities of real and unreal, Insects Vs Robots dives into a realm of manic mystery, constructed from a flurry of multi-instrumentals and an attitude built from a creative nonchalance. The band played a free show for the Doug Fir Lounge’s “Pickin’ Sundays” that saw them playing acoustic. The Venice, CA
Los Angeles – Despite spending years as the bassist of Woods and the co-leader of “super group” The Babies, singer-songwriter Kevin Morby still seems to be flying under the radar. His debut album, Harlem River, was a collection of songs he had written over the course of his early 20s and was released in 2013.
Portland – Alaskan transplants to Portland, Animal Eyes, are gaining traction as a psych rock band to watch. Their first two EPs, Found In The Forest and Ursus focused heavily on their roots in Alaska, but also provided an outlet for their experimental pop sound which borderlines folk and rock. They try to never stick
Los Angeles – From the very beginning, Adrien Reju had a specific thematic vision for her debut full-length. Unconventional Love Songs was the title Reju chose for her Pledgemusic.com fundraising drive and it runs as a common thread on the tracks that make up Strange Love and the Secret Language. The Woodstock, NY based singer
Chicago – Seeing as a Chicago music festival just wouldn’t be complete without rain, the weather gods nailed it to Lollapalooza on Sunday. Early in the afternoon, the park was evacuated due to a severe approaching storm. Luckily, the rain didn’t last long and within an hour the festival reopened. Kids rushed to the Samsung Stage