Incoming: The Rolling Stones, the Killers, Metallica, Los Lobos, Paramore, HIM, Built to Spill, Metz, Alice Russell, Robyn Hitchcock, Marnie Stern, Killing Joke, Chad Valley, Big Black Delta, Clinic, Vietnam, Keaton Simons, Adam Green & Binki Shapiro, Javelin, Maps & Atlases, Little Boots, Pyyramids, Os Mutantes, Lisa Germano, Armin Van Buuren, Helmet, K's Choice, Saint Motel, Sleepy Sun, Tenacious D Above: British soul singer Alice Russell released her latest, "To Dust," in February on the Tru Thoughts label, and director Steve Glashier's video for the song "Heartbreaker" features a very [...]
The spring pledge drive winds down this weekend on KCSN , and on tonight's L.A. Buzz Bands Show , I will again be asking that you become a contributing member. If you've had your ear to the ground (and the airwaves) the past two years, you know that KCSN has become a player in L.A. radio, thanks to a listener-supported, non-commercial format that gives you a diverse playlist and music 24/7. It's been my privilege to host the L.A. Buzz Bands Show for 93 weeks now, doing what I enjoy, supporting the local scene. [...]
Post-Stones Sunday things: ► Derde Verde celebrates the release of their "Let Me Be A Light" EP at the Bootleg. [ Check out "Secret." ] Simone White and the Brian Walsh Set Trio join in on the fun. ► This week's Grand Ole Echo lineup features the Eagle Rock Gospel Singers , Ronnie Fauss , RT N' the 442s and Andrew Sheppard at the Echo. ► The Lonely Forest and Now, Now team up at the Constellation Room at the Observatory. [...]
Rock and Roll Hall of Famers the Rolling Stones will play a surprise show at tonight at the Echoplex. The gig, a warm-up for the band's "50 And Counting Tour" that kicks off May 3 at Staples Center, was announced today via the band's GRRRegory Twitter feed . Tickets go on sale at 1 p.m. at the El Rey Theatre box office via a random lottery. They cost $20 and there is a limit of one per person. No word on exactly how many tickets would be available. News of the gig was [...]
Don't you love these surprise show things? Here's the line (as of 10 a.m.) at the El Rey Theatre to buy tickets for tonight's surprise Rolling Stones show at the Echoplex. Official details have not been announced, but people in line are being told that tickets are $20, limit one per person. An announcement is expected via the band's @GRRRegory Twitter feed . So until that announcement is made, everything is second-hand. Stay tuned.
The Rolling Stones , whose "50 And Counting" Tour kicks off May 3 at Staples Center, will play a surprise show tonight at the Echoplex, according sources and various information on Twitter. New Build, the U.K. electronic band originally scheduled to play the Echoplex tonight as part of Brit Week, tweeted (from @newbuildband) early this morning: "The Rolling Stones have nicked our gig tngt at the Echo. This time it's personal. Going down to have a word with Mick." And the Rolling Stones, tweeting from @GRRRegory, tweeted yesterday: "Grrrreat things are brewing! Watch this space [...]
As they say, you should watch this space for further developments. There's The Granddaddy of All Surprise Shows in the works and we're trying to get details: ► Brit Week, which kicked off Friday night at the Echo, continues tonight at the First Unitarian Church (the show originally was scheduled for the Echoplex) with New Build — the Hot Chip/LCD Soundsystem side project — headlining. Splashh, No Ceremony, Blood Red Shoes, Swim Deep, Various Cruelties and Virals are also on the bill. That's New Build's video for "False Thing," above. ► [...]
The Central Social Aid & Pleasure Club , a beacon for live music west of the 405, will be closing in June, and the new ownership of the Santa Monica nightspot is expected to remodel the room and make it a lounge, multiple sources say. At the location of the former 14 Below, the Central SAPC made its mark in the rock, hip-hop and electronic worlds, hosting Tuesday night indie residencies and welcoming artists such as Skrillex, ?uestlove, Javelin, Penguin Prison and myriad others to its cozy room and offering shows precious few Westside L.A. venues could [...]
Particularly loving California today? Then you'll have to make sure you crank up the Blank Tape s' latest single "Holy Roller." Matt Adams, the brainchild behind the psychedelic trio (which includes Pearl Charles and D.A. Humphrey) continues to dispense sunny '60s vibes, and this track suggests the days of touring the country in VW vans with peace signs painted on the sides. Appropriately titled "Vacation," the Blank Tapes' new record is an ode to their trek back to SoCal, where Adams spend his time when he's not up in the Bay Area. It's the first album recorded outside of his [...]
Landon Marcus has graduated from house parties to a stylish lounge in the video for his new song "Love Shield." When we met Marcus last October, the L.A.-based singer, songwriter and theatrical force was out of his mind, thanks to "The Drugs," the song itself a raging rocker that screamed neurosis with every note. In director Caiti Hawkins' slick video for "Love Shield" (filmed at the Speakeasy at the Townhouse in Venice), Marcus' only intoxicant is his music, which seems to be enough to affect the lovely protagonist, played by Madeleine Hamer. As much as the video, [...]
Back in 2011, singer-multi-instrumentalist Robert Fleming was dealing in wine and song, in that order. Juggling a day job servicing oenophiles with his passion for songwriting, Fleming — working under the name Victory — released an EP called "Demonstrations" that demonstrated he knew his way around a pop song. This week, Fleming released his debut full-length "Victory Is Music," — a smart, crisp 10-song excursion into mostly guitar rock that will appeal to fans of both Spoon and the Dandy Warhols. Though decidedly a bedroom pop effort, the album doesn't much sound like it — [...]
As noted last August , singer Tracy Marcellino and multi-instrumentalist Hanford Pittman raised the bar in both emotional intensity and electronic complexity when they debuted their new venture Oh Boy Les Mecs . Their newly released "Nurture Nature" EP wraps up their knob-twiddling experiments and world-wary (though not necessarily world-weary) meditations into five dreamy songs, with Marcellino inhabiting the music's organic/synthetic dichotomy. ||| Stream: "Nurture Nature" ||| Download: "Nurture Nature" (Math Bishop remix) [...]
Three stalwarts of the 1990s-early 2000s Los Angeles rock scene — Campfire Girls , Plexi and Lifter — will reunite Monday night for a benefit show in memory of one of the bands' ardent fans. Proceeds from the show will go to the family of Denise Franco, who died recently after long battle with cancer, leaving two children. Franco is recognized by music fans as the female lead in the video for the Semisonic's 1998 hit "Closing Time" (above). The benefit, which also features music from Aaron Emby and the Story of Nothing, goes [...]
Now that we've recharged our batteries from Coachella, it's time to turn that energy toward sorting out some of the new music that's been waiting in the Buzz Bands LA mailbox. On today's Buzz Bands LA Show on Moheak Radio , I'll share music from newly released albums by Youngblood Hawke, the Neighbourhood, Victory, Pyyramids, Dawes and Cobalt Cranes , along with songs from forthcoming albums by Touché, the 88, Hanni El Khatib, Holy Folk and Spirit Vine . I'll have the new singles from Cillie Barnes, Tijuana Panthers, Meg [...]
Whimsy begat more whimsy on Thursday night at the Skirball Cultural Center . The occasion was "Gary Baseman's House Party" — the gala opening of the fiftysomething artist's exhibition "Gary Baseman: The Door Is Always Open" — and it had all the trappings of a house party, maybe the kind your parents might kabosh. Local rockers Nightmare & the Cat capped the evening with an hour-long set of music they've been working on for their Capitol Records debut (including a guest turn on one song by Carina Round), while Baseman [...]
Friday, for the people who didn't get tickets from KROQ for Depeche Mode at the Troubadour: ► London rockers the Veils visit the Echo in support of their new album "Time Stays, We Go," supported by Andy Burrows, Pop Noir and Deluka. We like what the Veils do . ► With a summer tour supporting Depeche Mode ahead, Crystal Castles bring it at the Hollywood Palladium, supported by the Invisibles and Doldrums. That's their video for "Sad eyes," above (and you can get a remix of the song here [...]
A lot has happened since Brit-pop heroes Travis last released an album in 2008, and precious little of it is pertinent to the principals' discographies. Sure, main man Fran Healy released the lovely solo album "Wreckorder" in 2010, but beyond that, Healy and bandmates Andy Dunlop, Dougie Payne and Neil Primrose were largely minding their lives as family men, and in different cities at that. Today, Travis announced that their seventh album, "Where You Stand," would be released Aug. 19. The title track will be out as a single next week. In the meantime, the Scottish quartet unveiled [...]
The storyline in director Joey Sinko's video for "Love Jam" is pretty compelling — ambitious waitress solicits audition from club owner, hijinks ensue — but it's not quite as dramatic as this question: Who are those fellows in the dark glasses? They are twins Jordan and Adam Sabolick, Richard Thiessen, Johnny Wilson and Tony Tancredi, now doing business as Mt. Ossa . Yes, it's the same guys who, known as the Union Line, enjoyed a moment of next-big-thing status in 2009 before lousy luck sabotaged their record deal and left them in limbo. The Orange County-bred quintet [...]
Fresh off their rip-roaring performances at Coachella, Sacramento hardcore outfit Trash Talk has been added to the lineup for t he Jubilee Music & Arts Festival. They will be joined at the top of the bill by the Drums, Black Lips, Free Energy and Kitten for the two-day event in downtown L.A. on June 7-8. The bulk of the lineup was announced last week — but a couple more acts are yet to be announced. Weekend passes are $50 and available here . Photo from Coachella by Scott Dudelson
Considering their resumés, it is no surprise that Alex Lilly and Bram Inscore — collaborating as Touché — have transcended garden-variety electro on their first album "It's Fate." Inscore has played with the likes of Beck, Thurston Moore, Charlotte Gainsbourg and, most recently, Twin Shadow ( his solo album shouldn't have been overlooked, either). And Lilly, whose voice has been heard in the Bird and the Bee and the Living Sisters, set the bar high with her pop project Obi Best . With its wickedly syncopated beats and spry melodies, Touché's "It's Fate" (due May 1) [...]
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