Los Angeles – Francisco The Man explodes onto the indie rock circuit with Loose Ends. It’s a towering, triumphant record that excites the listener’s mind. Throughout this transition, one’s thoughts are ruminating with questions of their own self-examined life. While the LA-based quartet has been creating music for several years with numerous singles and EPs,
New York – After a bout of laryngitis, a cancelled show in Pawtucket and several days of vocal rest, vocalist/guitarist Mikel Jollett was given a clean bill of health and just in time for The Airborne Toxic Event’s show at Terminal 5. The indie rock band made sure their return to the stage was a
Seattle – The most important fact you need to know about Foxygen’s new album …And Star Power is that it is not simply just a record. It is a complete musical experience. Sam France and Jonathan Rado have come back strong after the success of their first full-length last year and produced a double album
Sacramento – The last day at TBD Fest drew a larger crowd than I had seen all weekend, especially during the evening sets. (Ed., Best New Bands’ Day One coverage is HERE; Day Two is HERE.) The festival was clearly coming to a close, and while I was exhausted, my lungs were full of dust,
Austin – One of the biggest names in music festivals is getting bigger this year, growing to a second weekend to accommodate a larger lineup, and, maybe more importantly, a larger crowd. Austin City Limits presents a mix of pop music’s biggest new names and some welcome reunions (Outkast and The Replacements? My mind has
Chicago – The three-piece family band Tiny Moving Parts is becoming known for making marvelous math rock. Brothers Matthew and William Chevalier and their cousin Dylan Mattheisen grew up in the small town of Benson, Minnesota. With not much to do for fun in the middle of nowhere, they started making music. They’ve been playing
Austin – “Are you going to ACL this year?” Since 2009, my answer was always “No.” I could never remember which day I’m supposed to spend refreshing the page for ticket sales, and I could never remember to save the money for scalped/second-hand tickets. For the scatterbrained and the sweat-averse, the ACL Late Night circuit
Chicago – Let’s face it, weekday concerts are usually a bit subdued, but HOLYCHILD and MØ proved that a Tuesday night in Chicago can seem like a Saturday night in Vegas if you’ve got all the right moves. Liz Nistico of Holychild and Karen Marie Ørsted – aka MØ – danced, jumped, and skipped all
Sacramento – This first weekend of October is turning out to be a hot and sunny one here. With temperatures rocketing up to the mid-90s, it feels more like summer in the desert instead of autumn in California’s capitol city. Nonetheless, the few devotees willing to brave this Indian summer of sorts to bask in
New York – Hesitant Alien opens with the jarring beeping of “Bureau.” The track sounds vaguely like My Chemical Romance, perhaps only because it features lead vocalist and co-founder Gerard Way’s unmistakable yowl, but there is also something unmistakably different. Like really different. This observation may seem a little “no duh” to some; however, it