Our Black Friday show specials: ► Crooked Fingers , the long-running project of Archers of Loaf singer Eric Bachmann, headlines the Echo behind their sixth album (and first since 2008) "Breaks in the Armor." Strand of Oaks and Graham Lindsey support. ► L.A. indie-pop quintet Walking Sleep , joined by the Shirley Rolls , play the Satellite in a show that will be headlined by a special guest. Who? Well, it's somebody who hasn't played live in a while, and it'll be a nice surprise. Admission is $5 [...]
Walking Sleep' s series of EPs, Tarp Sessions , will be released as a full length on collectable orange 123 vinyl on November 1st. They'll have some pre-order bundles available next week. If you're a frequent reader, you're aware of my weakness for finely tuned indie pop with guy/girl vocals. Walking Sleep is no exception, rocking it out and romancing with the essence of the dreamy fifties. Grab your beau and catch them tonight at The Bootleg with Radical Face . Walking Sleep goes on at 8:45 so make sure to get there early.
It's a good day to get off to an early start: ► The Gourmet Music Carnival — part food fair, part flea market and part music festival — goes off at Los Angeles State Historic part from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m., with Letting Up Despite Great Faults, Walking Sleep, Francisco the Man and Mad Planet among the bands performing. Set times here . ► Sparta's Jim Ward (pictured) headlines the Satellite behind his solo release "Quiet in the Valley, On the Shores the End Begins & the Electric Six," [...]
► Prince continues to takes over the Forum. ► Shoegaze dream-poppers, Asobi Seksu headline the Satellite tonight with Scattered Trees and Useless Keys opening. ||| Download: Asobi Seksu, "Perfectly Crystal (Beach Fossils/Spirit Animal Remix)" ► Daniel Lanois' Black Dub , featuring drummer extraordinaire Brian Blade and soulful singer Trixie Whitley, plays the Music Box tonight with Rocco Deluca as support. ► London's Allo Darlin' (that's their video for "My Heart is a [...]
Click on the artwork to download the free EP There are two more Mondays left in April and on one of them, I will be heading over to The Satellite to check out Walking Sleep's residency show. I can tell you right now it's most likely going to be the free one, But at any rate, I just downloaded this EP and so far I dig it so I thought you might too. Groovy bass-heavy indie rock with guy/girl duo vocals (man, I'm a sucker for that). See you on Monday? 4/18 Marvelous Toy, [...]
[April has come quickly, soliciting our ears and filling our concert calendars. On the occasion of a new week and Miranda Lee Richards' birthday, here's what's up:] The best of Monday's madness: ► Big evening at It's a School Night at Bardot, where Crowded House frontman Neil Finn (who headlines the El Rey on Tuesday) previews material from his forthcoming "Pajama Party" CD and L.A. songwriter Jim Bianco celebrates the release of his third [...]
In March, L.A. quintet Walking Sleep unveiled the first of three digital EPs the band has crafted in a tarp factory. The idea was to resist over-finessing their new songs in a studio, and so far, the industrial space has ever-so-subtly rewarded the indie-poppers' sweet/sharp dynamic. It's evidenced in "Someone Who Could Be Loved," the first track from "Tarp Sessions, Vol. 23 — Hunter Curra and Sara Radle are spot-on with the sugary tag-team vocals, but lurking behind them is a nice serrated guitar line from Adam Schary. All rather imperfectly perfect and organic. The full [...]
L.A. indie poppers Walking Sleep shed their long name ( the Flying Tourbillon Orchestra ) in 2010, added Sarah Radle of the Rentals to the lineup, put out their debut album "Measures" and now have come back with new material, less than a year later. Only this time, they've opted for more of an acoustic sound to capture the spontaneity of their songwriting. The forthcoming collection of songs appropriately bears the title "Tarp Sessions" as the group abandoned polished studio sounds for live acoustics inside an industrial tarp factory, and the track "She's Been Lying" from [...]
Few community festivals outside of Silver Lake can boast a better music lineup that this weekend's edition of Lobsterfest at the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro. Oh, the waterfront affair still has a family-friendly vibe — it's just that thanks to music curator Mark Sovel, the former music director of the sorely missed FM outlet Indie 103.1 (Dec. 21, 2003-Jan. 15, 2009, for you newbies), you can see some of SoCal's top bands onstage rather than the random tribute act. This year's lineup mixes great up-and-comers (Saint Motel, Fitz & the Tantrums, the Growlers, [...]
Sara Radle is one busy lady. She recently completed an album ( Measures ) for her band Walking Sleep, which was released May 25, and now she's got a new solo album, Four , set to drop September 14. Combining precious, sugary vocals (almost too sweet, to be honest) with an odd (but cool!) blend of rocking guitar alongside strings and choral ahhhs, "Song For Adam", the promo track off Four , is sure to excite lovers of female singer/songwriter fare. The album is a mix of Radle's Texas [...]
[Happy birthday, Geddy Lee ... and here's what's up on our happy Thursday:] Top 4 shows to not-so-surreptitiously tweet from: ☛ Brooklyn's Here We Go Magic , whose thicket of hypnotic beats, dizzying synths and spry melodies coalesce nicely on their sophomore album "Pigeons," visits the Troubadour (with Beach Fossils opening). That's HWGM's video for "Collector," above, and you can download it here . ☛ Nite Jewel (new EP "Am I Real?" just out digitally) is joined by [...]
This just in: The music lineup for the 2010 Port of Los Angeles Lobster Festival — Lobsterfest to everybody who got buttery fingers in past years — is its most impressive yet, featuring John Doe & Exene Cervenka anchoring a roster of some of SoCal's most promising up-and-comers and genre-diverse indie artists. The three-day shindig in San Pedro is Sept. 17-19. With the likes of Dengue Fever (Cambodian psych-pop), Fitz & the Tantrums (amped-up revivalist soul), Saint Motel (theatrical dance-rock), Gram Rabbit (desert-fried electro), [...]
You've likely heard Sara Radle , if not a few years back in the last incarnation of the Rentals then recently as the distaff vocalist in the L.A. indie-pop outfit Walking Sleep . Her solo career, three releases strong before she moved to L.A. from her native Texas in 2005, displays an affection for folk-flavored power-pop and girl-group stylings with orchestral sweep, and, as a diarist/storyteller, Radle falls somewhere in between Jenny Lewis and Juliana Hatfield. Her forthcoming album," Four" (due Sept. 14), includes contributions from, among others, ex-Le Switch violist Maria DeLuca and Walking Sleep [...]
Here's an encouraging note for the bands around town who try and try and try some more: Leslie & the Badgers' self-released album "Roomful of Smoke" (which we loved when it came out last year ) has been picked up by Nashville-based label Thirty Tiger (home to Elizabeth Cook, Justin Townes Earle, Jim Lauderdale and Those Darlins). A slimmed-down, re-sequenced version will be out on Aug. 17. Heck, the press release even called Leslie Stevens a "starlet." ☛ More than 25 venues across the country — four in L.A. — will be hosting [...]
If only the world were a pop place. Hunter Curra looks like a guy who's spent long hours wrestling with that notion, and no matter how he tries to whitewash it, or what melody it's set to, the vagaries of day-to-day life are fraught with noxious subtext. "All those sweet and saccharine songs — that's not what the world is like," the frontman of the Los Angeles six-piece Walking Sleep says. "I've never seen why you can't have pop songs from a darker or more humanistic viewpoint." That's the dichotomy explored on the band's [...]
[Birthday shout-out today to Colbie Caillat, all of 25. Enjoy your weekend, everybody.] Top 6 things asterisked on my concert calendar this weekend: ☛ Flight of the Conchords swoop into the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday to tickle your funny and musical bones. ☛ Also Sunday, Miike Snow plays the first of 2,721 sold-shows in and around SoCal. Well, actually three. There are still tickets available for next Friday's show in Pomona if you miss them Sunday at the El Rey and Monday and [...]
Los Angeles' Walking Sleep unveiled its first full-length album, Measures this week. Recorded at the Ship Studio in Eagle Rock, CA with Aaron Espinoza (Earlimart, Admiral Radley) behind the boards, Measures , features 10 tracks showcasing the scope and breadth of Walking Sleep's unique sound. From the fast and tight garage rock of 'Final Chapter' to the expansive strings (played by members of The Section Quartet, among others) and Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra vocals of 'Let It Go On', the songs offer a variety of textures and hooks while maintaining a strong [...]
Every day, Daily Downloads offers 10 free and legal mp3 downloads, plus free and legal live sets from around the internet. Today's free and legal mp3 downloads: Coltrane Motion : "I Forgot There Was a War on" [mp3] from Hello Ambition! (out June 1st) Coltrane Motion : "Please Call It a Comeback" [mp3] from Hello Ambition! [...]
Note: Album streams and MP3s may only be available for a limited time. Beach Fossils - Beach Fossils Listen: Vacation (mp3) Buy It: Amazon | iTunes Bettye LaVette - Interpretations: The British Rock Songbook Listen: Full Album Stream Buy It: Amazon | iTunes Damien Jurado - [...]
Walking Sleep "In a Dream" from Measurs Release Date: May 25, 2010 Buy at Amazon Buy at iTunes
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The Inner Flame: A Tribute To Rainer Ptacek
