Blog: Buzz Bands

Thursday's shows, with two very big and very worthy charity events happening on the same night (somebody needs to coordinate these things, right?): ► Stones Fest LA salutes the music of that little band that recently played the Echoplex. The benefit for the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund, tonight at the Fonda Theatre, will feature the likes of Butch Walker, Cyle Barnes of the Weeks, Juliette Lewis, Jason Sudeikis, Will Forte, Michelle Branch, Emily Armstrong of Dead Sara, Ethan Miller, Danny Masterson & Adam Busch, Matt Sorum & Ace Harper, Ewan Currie of [...]

There’s a new rock quartet in town whose sophisticated pop may include your next breezy summer melody. You can go ahead and thank Northern American for songs like the shimmering “Record Forever” to go with your ice-cold beer beside the pool and the bluesy “Don’t Be a Star” to  go down with that warm whiskey as you look over L.A.'s nightscape. They should know a good soundtrack to the City of Angels after all; Nate Paul, Shane Alch, Augusto Vega and Bruno Calenda all grew up in L.A. and after playing together for three years, they've finally released [...]

• buzzbands - Northern American - Record Forever

Songwriter Robert Fleming's now-out-of-the-bedroom project Victory made its full-length debut in April with "Victory Is Music," a declarative that rings true over the album's 10 tracks of groove-laden, electro-tinged blues. All kinds of influences come to mind — Spoon, Beck, the Dandy Warhols — but what Victory has done is mind its songs, keeping them concise, smart and often lean. Director Cameron Dutra (who's done videos for Foxygen and Cayucas) takes the song "Bad Man" to the lot of a Long Beach used car dealership, where an odd assortment of characters help Fleming, bassist Dave Beste [...]

Since they appeared on the landscape in 2011, L.A. quintet Y LUV have embraced a so-romantic-it's-almost-squish y take on synth-rock, with diminutive frontman Freddy Janney's boyish, pleading vocals leading the way over saccharine melodies and danceable rhythms. Their new EP "Take the Ride" (released this week) aims high — lead single "All I Wanna Do" seems ready for an arena (ostensibly full of young women), and the Members Only jacket-ready "Fire" imagines U2 kids with synthesizers. Included is an edited version of "Driftin'," the sweet piano-driven single from 20122s "It Doesn't Have to Make Sense" EP. It's another in [...]

• Y LUV - All I Wanna Do
• Y LUV - Driftin (Radio Edit)

Bloody Death Skull makes music that doesn’t quite match up with their very metal-sounding name, but in no way does that imply Daiana Feuer, Gerard Olson, Beth Breen, Donna Suppipat (also of Tommy Santee Klaws) and Andres Renteria are shy with the subject matters on their latest EP “Oh My Gosh.” From “Girls Like You” (a song about prostitution) to “Will Ya Willyam” (a demanding punk marriage proposal) to “Betsy’s Back” (a toy-tinkering and possible response to “My Boyfriend’s Back”), the quintet’s self-labeled “creative absurdity” is subtle in the same manner circus music is creepy yet supernaturally enticing. Underneath [...]

• Bloody Death Skull - Will ya Willyam

Your slat for Wednesday: ► Las Vegas radio rockers Imagine Dragons , whose debut album "Night Visions" has gone platinum, does the first of two nights at the Palladium, supported by L.A.'s Nico Vega. That's Isaac Halasima's video for "Demons," above, which is dedicated to the memory of band friend and 17-yera-old cancer victim Tyler Robinson. ► Swedish psych-rockers Junip are doing back-to-back nights as well. The trio having just released its sophomore album "Junip," they visit the Troubadour, supported by On An On and Barbarossa. ► It's a [...]

On the final day, the rains came. The Sasquatch! Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre squished to a soggy finish on Monday, with the skies spitting drizzle and the occasional downpour until early evening. There were complications — Gold Fields and Azelia Banks both didn't make it to the festival, causing set times to be off. On the Bigfoot Stage, POS slipped and fell hard (after which, he just went into the crowd). Death Grips just crawled around in the puddles on stage. Cake brought out the disco ball and even dusted off the classic "Rock and Roll [...]

There's a certain anxiety in composer Julia Holter's electronic experimentations — the feeling that, at any turn, a pop song could break out. And, probably, ruin the vibe. Holter, the Cal Arts product who came on the radar two years ago with the Euripides-inspired "Tragedy" and last year followed it with the mystical, devastating (in a good way) "Ekstasis," this summer will release her third album in as many years. On "Loud City Song" (due Aug. 20 on Domino), Holter graduates from bedroom artist to a proper studio, where she made the album with co-producer Cole Marsden Grief-Neill [...]

"Semi-Sweet" ... Well, that's about right. "Semi-Tart" would be acceptable too. And, perhaps, "Semi-Tough," although Tijuana Panthers' new album doesn't quite pack the punch that the Long Beach trio's off-the-chain live shows have wielded. The new album, out today via Innovative Leisure Records , mixes beach bunny-inspired surf pop with tallboy-propelled garage rock. It seems forever ago that Chad Wachtel, Phil Shaheen and Dan Michcoff rattled our cages with "Max Baker," and since that summer of 2010, garage- and surf-rock bands have sprouted up like 7-Elevens on the Los Angeles landscape. Right down to the cover of the [...]

• Tijuana Panthers - Boardwalk

"What if Ty Segall were to come out tonight?" asked a fan in the sold-out Echo on Friday night. This was seconds before someone rammed into his body and pulled him into the mosh pit. His possible scenario didn't have to come into fruition because the bombastic bill of Mikal Cronin , Pangea and Gap Dream didn't give anybody much time to think. There were only two choices: Move along with the music or have someone else accidentally knock a beer out of your hand for taking the night too seriously. [...]

Tuesday things: ► John Fogerty of Creedence Clearwater Revival headlines a solo night at the El Rey Theatre. ► Legendary rock band Fleetwood Mac continues their tour over at the Honda Center in Anaheim. ► Lissie stops by the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery for an intimate show featuring new songs off her forthcoming album due this September. ► Over at the Echo, Red Bull Sound Select presents DIIV , Bad Suns , Cillie Barnes and Harper Blynn . That's [...]

The third day at the 2013 Sasquatch! Music Festival got a little wild and woolly — and wonderful too, thanks to Elvis Costello's value-added but under-attended set that included a cameo from Wild Belle. (There was also an impromptu cover of "The Ghost of Tom Joan" backstage, courtesy of Costello and Mumford and Sons, but precious few witnessed that.) Mosh pits raged during sets by Torche and Fang Island. Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros did a set in the now not-so-secret tent that was so packed the crowd wouldn't let them move off the stage without an [...]

Happy Memorial Day, y'all... ► UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival continues today with Ziggy Marley , Barrington Levy , Mr. Vegas , Marcia Griffiths, Kes the Band and more at UCLA Intramural Field. ► This week's It's a School Night installment at Bardot features Mystery Skulls , Mars Argo , Gothic Tropic and Emika . ► And your local residencies on this fine Monday night are: Robert Schwartzman with Army Navy and Juliette Commagere [...]

Incoming: Make Music Pasadena, Lissie, John Fogerty, Cary Brothers, DIIV, Rainbow Jackson, Trixie Whitley, Fleetwood Mac, Junip, Imagine Dragons, Scott Weiland, Bilal, Stone Temple Pilots, Fear, United Ghosts, Suuns, John Talabot, Tame Impala, Chvrches, Tijuana Panthers, Peace, the Aggrolites, the Psychedelic Furs, !!!, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, the Tenors, Flying Lotus, Bjork, Mumford & Sons Above: Lissie swings by the Masonic Lodge at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Tuesday night. That's the video her track "Shameless" off of her forthcoming album due this September. Our staff picks [...]

From the massive theater provided by Sigur Ros and Empire of the Sun to the sweet sounds of Michael Kiwanuka and Devendar Banhart, the second day of this year's Sasquatch! Music Festival at the Gorge Amphitheatre had plenty of highlights. Photographer Carl Pocket , who found time to check out the acoustic sets from Black Rebel Motorcycle Club and Divine Fits in the "secret tent" (a radio station-sponsored locale), sent along this gallery.

Doing some grillin' and chillin' today? As your holiday weekend party winds down, tune into KCSN (88.5 FM, streaming at KCSN.org) for this week's L.A. Buzz Bands Show . Starting at 7 p.m., I'll have new music from Tijuana Panthers, Rainbow Jackson, the Hallucinations, White Dove, Seven Saturdays, Kisses, Ten Brutes and Hobart W. Fink — plus, some other songs I haven't been able to resist lately, by  the 88, the Happy Hollows, Bad Suns and Victory . After the jump, my menu for the most jam-packed local music [...]

Elena Tonra is so soft-spoken, the few words she uttered between songs at the Troubadour on Wednesday night were barely audible. Once accompanied by a melody, though, the singer-songwriter and mastermind of London folk-rock trio Daughter was anything but bashful, her voice ringing loud and true. ||| Photos by Carl Pocket Returning to L.A. for the first time since the release of their debut "If You Leave" (out now via 4AD), Tonra and her bandmates Igor Haefeli and Remi Aguilela were greeted by [...]

Great things for the middle day of your holiday weekend: ► It's "Jam Day" at the UCLA Jazz Reggae Festival with Santigold [pictured], Common, the Grouch & Eligh, Jhene Aiko, Ryan McDermoot, the UCLA Gluck Jazz Ensemble (directed by Kenny Burrell) and the Street Hearts. It goes off starting at noon at UCLA Intramural Field. ► Dance music leading man Paul Oakenfold does it up big at Avalon Hollywood. ► 1970s punk torchbearers the Damned roar into the El Rey Theatre, with 45 Grave opening. ► And [...]

The 12th annual Sasquatch! Music Festival kicked off Friday at the Gorge Amphitheatre in Washington state, highlighted by rip-roaring performances by main stagers Macklemore & Ryan Lewis and Arctic Monkeys ; shoulder-to-shoulder throngs flipping out to Vampire Weekend and Youth Lagoon ; strong showings by Northwest favorites Built to Spill and Telekinesis , some shredding from Red Fang and Japandroids [top photo]; and a little SoCal flavor from Father John Misty and Sea Wolf . Buzz Bands LA [...]

Quite a Saturday we have for you: ► Say you love ’em? Fleetwood Mac play to a sold-out Hollywood Bowl. ► Norwegian punk outfit Turbonegro rock the El Rey Theatre, supported by Tweak Bird. ► Bay Area indie-pop quartet Imperial Teen returns to the Satellite — their great 2012 album "Feel the Sound" is coming out in the U.K. and they're headed overseas for some shows — with Frightwig Churches opening. [ Last spring's show at the Satellite was a good time.] ► Smoke Season [...]