Quit Mumbling

Metal is alive and well. A culture of heavy riffs blasted through huge stacks has become the stuff of legend and cultish fandom. Adult Swim’s joyful lampooning and a new exhibit at the Grammy Museum featuring metal icons serve as proof to the genre’s enduring magneticism. Nevertheless, for a generation weaned into music on the lukewarm breast milk of indie [...]

Skaters (Michael Cummings, Noah Rubins, Joshua Hubbard) showed serious promise during their Saturday night set at Pianos. The transnational band (Los Angeles and London by way of New York) has only been together for a few months but they were able to seamlessly incorporate funky, avant-garde sounds into their lively, punk numbers. Their set mostly [...]

Breathe Owl Breathe‘s latest release is a 7” held between the pages of a children’s story book.  The book is split up into two stories, one for night and one for day , each flowing seamlessly into the next.  This is the world of the Michigan trio.  An innocently fantastical planet made up of dragon/princess [...]

For all intents and purposes, one could easily take a look at Vinnie Ferra – Californian singer/songwriter residing in Los Angeles, rockin both the banjo and the semi-indie, semi-hipster look, perhaps a fan of Fleet Foxes and Edward Sharpe – and dismiss him at first glance as another nothing-special SoCal crooner. Don’t be someone who [...]

Admittedly, I spent the majority of 2011 ignoring most releases in the ever-expansive “rock” genre. Before I get pelted with virtual cries of blasphemy, allow me to elucidate on the aforementioned statement. In all sincerity, there were few albums that excited me more than the ones coming from the hip-hop and electronic communities, and I [...]

At one point during the show, Joey Ryan from the LA based folk duo The Milk Carton Kids, remarked how worried he was to play the Largo for fear of no one showing up.  Well that fear was quickly put to bed last Thursday at the sold-out hometown show for the two troubadours.  Let me [...]

Cass McCombs makes you feel good about feeling bad. Somewhere along the line a cheery cabal of pop musicians got together and agreed that music’s role in contemporary society was to cheer people up. Upbeat songs in major chords with saccharine sweet lyrics are there to make you feel bad about feeling down. You should [...]

American/Australian affinity has grown as of late.  Barack Obama recently toured the island continent and announced the opening of a new military base in Durban, Australia alongside his counterpart, Ms. Julia Gillard.  At around the same time, in the spirit of ANZUS cooperation, Sydney outfit The Jezabels performed a gig this past Monday evening at [...]

Last night Dawes concluded their co-headlining tour with Blitzen Trapper at the Music Box in Hollywood. The band’s return to their hometown seemed to be perfect timing, as lead singer and guitar player Taylor Goldsmith hardly had a voice after the 2-month stretch. Somehow though, Taylor’s voice was hardly affected, and his incredible tone and [...]