Since the announcement back in May that Spoon’s Britt Daniel, Wolf Parade/Handsome Furs’ Dan Boeckner and New Bomb Turks’ Sam Brown formed a band, Divine Fits have been on everybody’s radar and rightfully so. Though its members are highly influential in the indie music world, this is not your typical “supergroup,” and that was proven
Brian Lopez, a soulful, curly-headed, Tucson-raised singer-songwriter has made his way on to my music radar and left a great first impression with his first solo, full-length album, album, Ultra. Branching out from his role as the leader of experimental three-piece group Mostly Bears (which, according to Wikipedia, [awesomely] sounds like “Radiohead circa 1996 getting
The boys of fun.–lead singer/songwriter Nate Ruess, Jack Antonoff, and Andrew Dost–are back with their second studio album, Some Nights, which drops today. As a long time Nate Ruess fan, from his Format days, I feel qualified and obligated to review this record. People who are just beginning to listen to fun. might be
Saturday was a day of great excitement in the Bay Area. Dr. Dog was playing at the Regency Ballroom, the Chinese New Year Parade was in full effect and Social Distortion was coming to the Fox Theater in Oakland for the second night in a row. That’s the one that intrigued me most, because of
Ideals are a conundrum. On the one hand you have their debut EP that so many thought would launch them into the stratosphere are Britain’s answer to the Killers. On the other you have this return to what made Britain the musical epicenter of the post punk revival in the early to mid eighties. Do
Ideals were originally called It’s a Trap, which is a great name for Star Wars or Family Guy fan boys, but for everyone else leaves them wondering what the band might be referring to. As Ideals they’ve released a brand new seven song EP entitledLet Your Anger Leave You that is guitar centric, much more
Thursday night, the Troubadour had a killer lineup of L.A. Locals: Kid is Qual and thatwasthen co-headlined, introduced by Acidic and Bikelock. The crowd consisted of a lot of music veterans and industry people, mainly because Kid is Qual and Bikelock are offshoots of the band Jack’s Mannequin. This also meant that Jack’s Mannequin lead
The Background: Ah, White Denim. I remember the very day when my love affair with their distinctly deft sounds began. ‘Twas a chilly October night last year. I was at the El Rey, seeing Portugal. The Man for the first time (read about my second time seeing them in Anaheim here!). Unsuspectingly, I stood in
If you have a heart, you will like Kina Grannis. If you do not like Kina Grannis, you either have not heard of her or you kick puppies. This is what I learned from going to see her play her impossibly cheery live set last night. On this oddly warm night, I headed down Wilshire