In the Mountain In the Cloud is finally here to reaffirm my ongoing love affair with Wasilla, Alaska’s very own Portugal. The Man. Out today, this is this hardworking band’s 6th studio album—they’ve been cranking out one album a year since 2006 (with each album of impressive quality, no less). In the Mountain In the
It’s not often that as a musician that you can brag about touring with Wilco, Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam and The Black Keys, but Liam Finn has done exactly that. Perhaps helped by his impressive pedigree (his father is legendary Australian musician Neil Finn of Crowded House), the indie rocker’s second proper studio album (along
It seems like the hardest thing to find these days is a band that sticks to the roots of what made rock music popular in the first place. At least in the Los Angeles scene, it seems as if every band wants to do the spaciest, indie-est thing while denying that they are trying to
Let me preface this review with this: I know little about electronic music. I’m working with basically Daft Punk, a little bit of Justice and Deadmau5, Air, and Hot Chip as my main references/points of comparison. However, I look at this as a good thing because, with electronic music, I either love it and dance
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,
I last wrote about Bozmo after seeing their live show back in May. Their set was so fun and energetic that I was stoked to receive a copy of their full length, Hosanna in the Highest, which they are releasing on cassette. The band just played their record release show last night at O’Brien’s Pub
Big Spider’s Back, aka Yair Rubinstein, has interesting music taste. He expands on the dreamy, psychedelic sample-based pop from his Warped EP, and pushes his unique sound into a mind-blowing array of new territory. Incorporating everything from British library music to Indian film soundtracks and field recordings, the album flows gracefully between ambient avalanches of
It is no surprise that Wayward Fire has been looping through my iPod over the past few days, as I am huge fan of the recent resurgence of lyrically driven electronic music. Multi-instrumentalist producer Kamtin Mohager (The Chain Gang of 1974) does an absolutely fantastic job of leading the listener on an emotional journey
This month saw a double album release from Portland’s Redwood Son, a self-described ‘West Coast Americana’ band. New Beautiful Day and Summer of ’77 are, admittedly, somewhat minimal and lyrically simplistic, but isn’t that kind of the point? Filled with songs of love, loss and redemption, Redwood Son’s albums are highly personal and filled with
The principal duo of Kevin and Anita Robinson, better known to the masses as Viva Voce, is back on the scene with their first new record since 2009’s Rose City. The Future Will Destroy You is the outfit’s first album with Vanguard and for the Portland-based via Muscle Shoals band, this is one of their