Tagged: katharinemorales

NICO VEGA :     I have been remiss in my duties as a music lover and a native Los Angeleno. Nico Vega was a name I'd always heard tossed around with positive reinforcement, but for some reason had slipped through my curiosity meter.     I repent!     Dressed as members of the chorus from Jesus Christ Superstar, the band took the stage in the afternoon sun and spread the good word. They make a lot of noise for having only three people on stage, and they infuse the air around with a curiously spiritual [...]

Mikal Cronin sounds like a really cool guy. They say you’re not supposed to judge the character of an artist by his artistic out put, but I can’t help it. Saxophone, flute and melodica are all employed judiciously on this album, as well as whistles and Brian Wilson-esque harmonies complete with chunky bass and gravelly guitars. And anyone with that caliber of finely tuned decision making skills has got to be a stand up dude in other respects. It's dangerously campy territory, dabbling in silly, unorthodox instrumentation and playing in a variety of musical styles. It can come [...]

Photographs of The Shins at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent. For more coverage of the DeLuna Fest, check out our Day Two review

Photographs of Manchester Orchestra at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent. For more coverage of the DeLuna Fest, check out our Day Two review

Photographs of Big Boi at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent. For more coverage of the DeLuna Fest, check out our Day Two review

BIG BOI : Every festival that lays on the indie music this thick, that has the stages crawling with sought after DJ’s after 10 pm, that caters to the people who like to bop and jump around has to give us something so we can also bump and grind. Thank you, De Luna Fest, for bringing us Big Boi. It seems that on Saturday you were either most excited about seeing Jane’s Addiction or Big Boi, if I may be so bold as to split the world into two distinct camps. And he killed it. [...]

DINOSAUR FEATHERS : Dinosaur Feathers are a big surprise. As a dino-phile, I expect to certain things from fans, such as complete and accurate Jurassic Park references at their disposal, comparable tattoos, and a childlike reverence for the vast unknown. What I didn’t expect were heavy drums, screechy vocals, fabulous attitudes and insatiable energy. It may have been my first day, but Dinosaur Feathers could easily go home as my favorite festival stumble upon since Anathallo at Coachella 2008. What is it about bands from Brooklyn that make everything about life bigger, noisier and more fun? [...]

Photographs of The New Pornographers at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent. For more coverage of the DeLuna Fest, check out our Day Two review

Photographs of The Sounds at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent. For more coverage of the DeLuna Fest, check out our Day Two review

Photographs of Bettye Lavette at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent.

Photographs of Kermit Ruffians at the 2011 DeLuna Festival held during the middle of October in Pensacola, Florida. All photographs taken by Katharine Morales and may not be reproduced without consent.

Wavves sound like a fairly violent acne outbreak. Wavves sound like scooping up a loose brick from your parent’s new driveway and throwing it through the window of the other new Starbucks. Wavves sound like that time you tried miserably to roll a joint with fumbling hands and then made out with the guy who sold it to your friend – with fumbling hands. I’m not sure how they get away with being this bratty and lazy, but I’m really glad they are. I thought I’d left my emo/punk, greasy angst phase behind me, [...]

Kristen Chenoweth can sing . Only an autopsy will reveal where, in the cavity of her stunted frame, she manages to store all the air necessary to wail like she does on “Change,” “I Was Here,” Borrowed Angels,” and pretty much in general. And her first solo album, a mix of rock and pop paying heavy homage to Nashville’s signature twang, will surely grace karaoke halls from Riverside County to Mississippi, West Virginia to Walla Walla, Washington. The plaguing question that arises is, Why this type of country? She explained as a guest judge on So You Think [...]

In preparation and anticipation of the upcoming DeLuna Fest in Pensacola, Florida, I got Felix Rodriguez of The Sounds on the phone last Thursday, and we both took time off of work to have a little chat. Ready to embark on the first chunk of their billionth American tour, the interview began with a rather bumbling and perhaps overexcited (I really like The Sounds) “Hey dude! So…where are you?” Felix: I’m in LA doing some writing. (Oh well, that’s good because I’m sitting in my [...]

Father, Son, Holy Ghost is an unlikely title choice for an album that stays true to the modern musical standards of sex, drugs and rock and roll. Then again, Girls are a band comprised entirely of males so maybe outright contradiction is their thing. Or maybe for their title they exchanged the international garage band triumvirate for the paradigm of trinities because they’re just that clever. And maybe Girls is a nod to those who obviously inspire some of their most interesting tunes. I’m going with the latter of my hypotheses because I want to believe that [...]

The Asteroid Shop’s self titled debut is going to make a lot of people really happy. Fronted by a relatively unknown, yet impressively credentialed Eric Brendo, Asteroid lays on the indie sound pretty thick, and tempers it expertly with clean electric guitars and Jonathan Koya’s crisp drumming approach. The band hails from Austin, TX, and the proof is in the eclectic stream of cult influences found in their product. Every moment is like turning a page in the who’s who of underground rock of the past decade, including but not limited to, Explosions in the Sky, The Dismemberment [...]

This is music for the hot morning shower after you’ve been up too late, up to no good. This is music for the pre-game pump up or the post-break up meltdown. Basically, emotions had better be running high or in immediate need of amplification. I do most of my music listening in gigantic headphones as I frantically rush from train to train, perpetually late for my overbooked life, or playing on repeat on the lowest volume setting of my Macbook in a futile effort to fall asleep at a reasonable hour. This is not music for those times. [...]

At its outset, Juliana Hatfield’s “There’s Always Another Girl” sounds exactly how you might expect. It opens with a female, solo voice and an acoustic guitar pretty much completing the image of singer/songwriter her name evokes. The lyrics are brimming with a lazy angst, and halfway through she tops the track with an easy little piano melody. At best, people will be grateful that the album is delivering exactly what they imagine. Getting what you pay for feels good – at least that’s the reason people go to Chipotle. Then suddenly, like a flower unfurling in a high [...]

Balam Alcab, the delicately crafted brainchild of a 20 year old college student, debuted an aptly titled full-length album August 30, Wander/Wonder. The whimsy and disregard of traditional album trajectory contribute to a feeling of not only wandering but floating. Down a river, through the clouds, past the time-space continuum, wherever you want to be this album can take you there – slowly. The sound is surprisingly sophisticated for somebody with hardly two decades of life to his name. Wander/Wonder has an ethereal feel that gives you the sense it’s been always festering in a locked away place, [...]