Los Angeles – At this point, the idea of contemporary surf rock has lost the novelty it had when it was first being unearthed by a new generation of underground artists. From The Sadies of Toronto, to Grass Widow of San Francisco, to Guantanamo Baywatch of Portland, it seems as if surf rock has been
San Francisco – The dulcet tones of Mac DeMarco’s gentle, cooling ballads continue this summer with Another One, the miniature follow-up to last year’s wonderfully successful Salad Days. Clocking in at just under a half-hour in runtime, Another One lies somewhere in the space between an LP and an EP, described by the Canadian-born musician
Los Angeles – “Modern World” is the first song released by Birmingham, Alabama’s Future Elevators. The band will release a debut self titled album in 2016, but this is a little taste of what is to come. Frontman Michael Shackelford found inspiration watching old episodes of Carl Sagan’s legendary documentary Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. The celestial
Chicago – Some time ago I had the pleasure of sitting down with Good Graeff. Truth be told, I hadn’t heard of the Graeff sisters till I got an email suggesting I check out their show. I took a listen to their indie-folk and thought, “Not bad.” So I found my way to Lincoln Hall
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