Artist: Dusty Rhodes and the River Band

The new SoCal five-piece Warships set sail about a year ago, after Eric Chirco and Edson Choi — both of the dearly departed Dusty Rhodes & the River Band — teamed up with Satellite Crush's Elliot Craig and Timothy Pai, and John Ransom Tucker. Theirs is an expansive and exuberant take on indie-rock, with big choruses gliding along on scratchy guitar lines and '80s-vintage atmospherics. They have no formal releases as yet (and have only revealed three demos on their website), but melodies like theirs won't stay under wraps for long. Bob your head accordingly. [...]

[Some Internet demons are confounding us at Buzz Bands HQ this morning, so this post is a bit late-arriving. Please remind me to update my 2006 technology.] Lots and lots to consume tonight. Be voracious, my friends: ► Friendly Fires , their new album "Pala" just out on XL Recordings, play to a sold-out Music Box. They were electric in February at the Roxy (and they're on KCRW's "Morning Becomes Eclectic" at 11 a.m.) Wise [...]

christine hale Dusty Rhodes & The River Band "All One!" (From their self-released self-titled LP out now) Dusty Rhodes & the River Band is a swinging, preaching, liquored-up California Dream taking the lord's name in vain. The band has its knees in church and its elbows resting on a saloon bar. "Branch Davidians" opens the album with a somber funeral rhythm. This nostalgic song describes an insider's POV on the raid on David Koresh's WACO compound. It begins: "Please watch over the children. Please don't [...]

• Dusty Rhodes  The River Band All One! » dustyrhodes-allone.mp3

The Band performed a good number of newbies, songs about drinking, traveling, sunshine, massacres and cults, exploring American roots music with a modern pop temperament. "Street Fighter Opus" feels like when Queen did the theme song for the Flash Gordon movie.

Really wish I hadn't thrown all my bell-bottoms away. It'd help to be in uniform for Dusty Rhodes & the River Band , the Orange County sextet who continue their winsome bear hug of classic rock on their third album. The self-titled, self-released collection is their first after parting ways with SideOneDummy Records , and although it's more stripped-down than last year's "Palace & Stage," it's no less jubilant. Bluesy stomps, gospel laments, country romps, glammy explosions (and, yes, a very good Brian Jonestown Massacre cover) — exuberant frontman Dustin Apodaca and his mates pour their [...]

[Birthday greetings to Earlimart/Admiral Radley keyboardist-singer Ariana Murray. Now, on to our steamy agenda for the evening:] It's Week 3 of the Also I Like to Rock series at the Hammer Museum (curated by this very blog), and it's going to get hot. Doors at 7 for KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad, followed by local soul sensations Fitz & the Tantrums [that's Fitz, above] at 8 and the U.K. funk-soul quartet the Heavy at 9. Early arrival recommended. [...]

Wearing a visor over his turban, Venice all-star Harry Perry welcomes us screaming into the world of Dusty Rhodes and the River Band. Director Michael Alvarez did a great job. Epic back-lighting, Dustin Apodaca's unflinching stare, a tastefully psychedelic background, and classic melodies saying not-sure-what but be damned if "All One" doesn't kick some uplifting [...]

Wearing a visor over his turban, Venice all-star Harry Perry welcomes us screaming into the world of Dusty Rhodes and the River Band. Director Michael Alvarez did a great job. Epic back-lighting, Dustin Apodaca's unflinching stare, a tastefully psychedelic background, and classic melodies saying not-sure-what but be damned if "All One" doesn't kick some uplifting [...]

[It ain't Radiohead — which raised over half a million dollars at its Haiti relief benefit on Sunday night at the Fonda — but here's tonight abbreviated show menu:] It'll be their last SoCal appearance before Coachella — San Francisco quartet Girls [pictured in August at the El Rey Theatre], still getting all kinds of love for their creatively titled debut "Album," play the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. ... Meanwhile, the January resident bands bid farewell in raucous fashion: Year Long Disaster's stint at Spaceland [...]

Now for something a little bit different: When Olin and the Moon kicks off a Tuesday night residency this week at the Echo, it won't be the usual four-bands-and-a-cloud-of-dust routine. The tangy, twangy L.A. five-piece will basically be serving as hosts of a pizza, beer and bingo party during which only one support band will play. The concept, the brainchild of Echo talent buyer Liz Garo, will be a deviation from the quick-changeover, assembly-line regimen to which most clubs adhere. Will the pizza/beer specials and bingo with prizes be enough to entice the crowd to stay [...]

On Sunday, September 27th Bon Iver is set to play a special sunrise concert at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California - the final resting to place to a who's who of Hollywood elite like Cecil B. DeMille, Douglas Fairbanks, Rudolph Valentino and Jayne Mansfield. The gates will open at midnight on Saturday and will include a variety of entertainment throughout the late night hours leading up to the band's 6am set. Tickets are on-sale now for $25 and include a coffee and pastry breakfast. [...]

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Listen HERE Here's today's playlist... Future Sounds #25 - June 1, 2009 [...]

[Catching up on some recent local releases ...] Dusty Rhodes and the River Band , "Palace & Stage" ( SideOneDummy ) — Dustin Apodaca, Kyle Devine and bandmates show no signs of busting out of their 1970s time warp, and that's a good and bad thing for the sextet's muscular sophomore album. At its strongest — "Blind Lead the Blind," "W.W.M.D.?" and the title track — the O.C. ensemble breathes some badly needed energy into [...]

Call today Giveaway Thursday. Not only does that mean there's just one day to wait for Hot Fudge Friday, but it also means we've got yet more tickets to give away. The Granada Theater has hooked us up... Continue reading "Giveaway: Three Pairs Of Tickets For Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit Saturday At The Granada Theater" >

[Twenty-seven years after the Grammys anointed her best new artist, Sheena Easton celebrates a milestone birthday today. Cheers to her as we rocket into the final week of the month ...] Yes, the Henry Clay People's residency at Spaceland this month has been raging, but they are not all the rage. Two other Monday night stints wind up tonight, and the lineup at the Silverlake Lounge is especially good: residents Dusty Rhodes and the River Band [pictured] play what is likely their last local [...]

[Just got back into town from the desert, and darn if it doesn't feel like the desert here ...] Quickly: The buzziest show of the evening is the Whip's unlikely slot at the Henry Clay People's residency at Spaceland. Not exactly a good fit, bill-wise, but the Manchester, U.K., foursome [pictured] are as good as disco-rock gets right now. ... There's a great local bill at the Troubadour, with Saint Motel , Aushua , Oliver Future and the Voyeurs. ... Also: [...]

[Happy 63rd birthday to the Rev. Al Green ... now for some sermonizing of my own:] As if the heaping helping of Monday night residencies don't have your concert-going plate full, some great touring acts are hitting town: U.K. dance-gazers Friendly Fires (whose self-titled debut was one of my favorite ablums of 2008) play the Troubadour, and Richard Swift [pictured], whose brilliant "The Atlantic Ocean" was just released last week, joins Vetiver for a show at the Eagle Rock Center for the Arts. ... [...]

[Happy birthday to Merle Haggard, good riddance to my jet lag, and let's see if after a few days in a land far, far away I can get back in the swing of things ...] I only need to visit my Midwestern hometown a few days before realizing how good, as a fan of live music, I have it now. I came up empty back home on a Friday and Saturday night; here, on in April, there is a feast for the ears in the Monday night residencies alone. [...]

[Happy birthday to Duff McKagan, rock star, online columnist and ... mountain climber .] My, what a diverse music menu you have tonight, Los Angeles. Let's start with a couple intriguing small shows, like at the Silverlake Lounge, where Andy Friedman & the Other Failures are in from Brooklyn. Friedman is a New Yorker cartoonist-turned-poet-turned- folk singer whose new album "Weary Things"is full of country-fied stuff that'll tickle your brain and tug at your heart. ... At Bordello, ex-Los Abandoned singer Pilar Diaz plays [...]