It's been quite a long time since I've done an interview on here, mostly because I haven't had the time or energy to really devote to interviews (they used to be the bread-and-butter of this site - in 2005, we had almost 50 interviews!). However, when I heard about Origami Vinyl , Echo Park's newest vinyl-only record store, I knew I had to interview the owner, Neil Schield. The thought of a new record store opening up in this economy, and in this state of a music industry, intrigued me, and a quick visit to the store [...]
The buzz for Phoenix 's new album Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix has been growing more and more recently, and now they've just released the video for the first single from the album, "Lisztomania." For those of you wondering, "1901" was not an actual single, it was just a free download to give people a taste of the album. The video is adorable, fairly hip, and well suited to the song. Damn the French and we-are-fashionable-without-eve n-trying looks. The album is out May 25th. Phoenix [...]
Even though we're all music-obsessed folks who are going to Coachella this weekend mainly for the music, we all have a little voice inside telling us to just PARTY ALL THE TIME (don't deny it). Thankfully, although there will be a ton of bands and DJs at Coachella this coming weekend, there will also be plenty of parties! Here's a few of the better ones, for those of you too lazy to look them up yourselves. And yes, there's free booze at almost all of them I believe, as well as an ample supply of anorexic girls [...]
Most of LA is pretty much just gearing up for Coachella this weekend and the influx of bands, VIPs, and everything associated with a music festival, but that doesn't mean there still isn't stuff to do in LA until then. Tomorrow has a few events that may be of interest. During the day, there will be the 3rd Annual Powersliding Championships at the Santa Monica Pier, where Matt & Kim will be playing as the competition goes on. Of course there will be the hipster standards of photobooths, screenprinting, and [...]
Considering the influences that everyone has been citing for Salem , it's not surprising that this new song of theirs that landed in my inbox is called "Mogel Stank." When was the last time you saw the word "stank" in a song title that wasn't a rap song? The chopped-and-screwed, hip-hop-inspired vibe to Salem's songs comes through once again in this song, not just in the title, although unfortunately I only have the instrumental version. It's a taste of their new material to come (there is a new release in the works [...]
Photo from All That Sparkles party at SXSW 2009 by Victoria Jacob Bands come and go on the internet, where a million are thrown to the wall and readers see what sticks in the end. Well, you can never truly predict what will be a hit and what won't be (I mean, people could clearly see Arcade Fire would be a hit, but can anyone REALLY explain some of the bands that make it big?), but you can always try, so here's one for you: Suckers . You [...]
As I did a couple of months ago , I'm posting on record covers I like when I have writer's block. This record cover took me by surprise; I got a copy of The Big Pink 's "Too Young To Love" single, the Japanese import on Big Love Records , in the mail the other day. It came as a 12" and while I was really looking forward to getting it (Big Pink being one of my favorite new bands), it was really the cover that surprised me [...]
You remember The Horrors ? Those kooky, anorexic-looking guys from the UK who came out a couple of years ago and won the hearts of countless Hot Topic girls and other swooning soon-to-be-obsessed-with-Twili ght tweenies? They had it all - ridiculous hair, legs the width of my wrist, and the fanbase. The only thing they were missing was good songs. Seriously, they were a pretty vacuous band in terms of actual songs, so when I was told at SXSW that their sophomore album Primary Colours was actually brilliant, I found it pretty [...]
This post is just an excuse to post this picture, kind of. These days, you can't be just an actor, just a DJ, just a blogger, or any one singular thing. Multi-tasking is what gets you the dough, and the people in my current favorite show (well, it's up there with Top Chef) Gossip Girl are taking that to heart. Taylor Momsen (Jenny) has taken up singing as lead singer of the band Pretty Reckless (myspace profile is yet to come, apparently), and will be going on tour in May, [...]
Los Angeles singer-songwriter Anya Marina was at Hotel Cafe last week, on the 2nd. Now, you know that I'm not a huge singer-songwriter kind of person generally, but this year I've taken a liking to a few (Marissa Nadler, if she counts, Florence and the Machine, Jesca Hoop, etc.), and Anya Marina is the latest that I've been enjoying. HSB photographer Andrew Oliveros attended her show and loved it. It came complete with a T.I. cover and funny banter between the songs, with the standout being "Afterparty [...]
Did you see Phoenix on SNL this past weekend? One of the better performances I've seen on SNL this season, considering how poor the performances have been (not because of the performers though...one bad performance is one thing, but a string of them means a problem with the show), so that either means that Phoenix are that great live or SNL sound guys finally got their shit together. Phoenix - 1901
Ok I live in LA so besides just posting about Brooklyn and London bands that I like, I suppose I should post more about stuff in LA. I go to so many events that it'd kind of stupid for me not to share! So let's start things off with something nowhere near the kind of stuff I normally post on here but whatever. Snoop Dogg (and surprise guests) is playing a private show Tuesday night at the Avalon. There's no tickets for sale; the only way to get in is to show up tomorrow, [...]
A little more than a week after I talked about Micachu and the Shapes on a More Music Mondays post , the band have released their new video for "Lips." It's a bit of a DIY video (or at least was professionally shot to give it a DIY feel), shot between gigs at CMJ 2008 in New York. Micachu is one of the shining stars of experiment pop at the moment, and their debut album Jewellery is out next week, on April 7th. [...]
LA's Rainbow Arabia have released their new video for "Omar K"...it may be possibly one of the weirdest videos I've seen in a while. Don't get me wrong, I think it's great, but it's just genuinely weird (which is what I think I like about it). Not weird in a trippy psychedelic way (we'll leave that to the Animal Collectives of the world et al), since if you count those then obviously there are weirder videos, but weird in the way that characters interact within a normal environment. It's unique [...]
Next in my woeful series on artists I didn't know about in 2008 (regretfully so) is Zomby . I'm not exactly sure where I heard about Zomby really, but I think it's something to do with someone sending me his song "Spliff Dub (Rustie Rmx)", which I thoroughly enjoyed. At first, it was kind of like "Okay, he's from London, he's a producer, he does dubstep, how many more of these do I need?" I'll give it to you that once I got a couple other songs from him (none of [...]
La Roux is jokingly (or maybe seriously?) referred to as the new Little Boots , which theoretically means that I shouldn't post about her because I'm squarely in the Boots camp, but oh well. I've seen Little Boots perform live literally about nine times now (and DJ probably another six times or so), so being excited to see La Roux at least once only barely balances it out. But anyway...La Roux is finally hitting America, releasing a three-track Quicksand EP sometime this month (for some reason, I can't find an exact [...]
Just because he's moved to Malaysia doesn't mean that HSB's Akmal Naim isn't still shooting shows. Battles recently played at the Orange Club in Kuala Lumpur with opening act Killeur Calculateur , and you can find the pictures below and after the jump. Battles Killeur Calculateur
This isn't a comprehensive list of what I really have liked so far, but this is what I've been spinning a lot (in no particular order). I realized, after I typed the rest of this post, that almost everyone has female vocals...maybe my taste in music is not as diverse as I had thought. Bat for Lashes - Two Suns The sophomore album from Bat for Lashes is exactly what you would want and expect from a second BFL [...]
I've never really been that big on the whole re-release thing; I'll chalk it up to the fact that I'm relatively young, because when I'm 50 years old, I bet I'll be jumping for joy when certain classic albums are re-released. I never really pay attention to ones that are announced, and I think that's because I was raised in the digital age, the concept of an album being out-of-print or hard to find is an odd one, I can probably find one on eBay or Craigslist if I look hard enough. However, that doesn't mean to [...]
Micachu and the Shapes were one of my favorite performances of SXSW last year, led by 21 year-old Mica Levi, who is essentially a musical prodigy (she builds her own instruments and has composed for the London Philharmonic). Being a prodigy, you would think her music would be hoity-toity obscure indie music which is amazing but not even remotely accessible, yet Micachu (with her band, The Shapes), play some of the catchiest experimental indie-pop you could imagine. It's the kind of music which I've grown into the past few years - music that redefines what [...]
Hate Something Beautiful
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the Weekender ::: New music from Catcall // the National // Summer Camp
KNIFE PARTY – RAGE VALLEY EP
