Did you catch the Division Day reference in the '90210' premiere?
L.A.'s indie scene has long been fertile territory for teen-soap-opera music supervisors, but who else caught the lengthy Division Day aside on Tuesday's premiere of the new "90210"? In it, protagonist/perpetual grinner Annie Wilson (Shenae Grimes) is enduring a rough day at West Beverly High when new frenemy Silver (Jessica Stroup) spots a certain sticker on her school folder advertising a gauzy local post-punk quartet. "Don't they have, like, eight fans total?" she asks Annie, which means that whatever twentysomething Highland Park-residing scriptwriter assistant working on the show truly knows the scene of which he or she speaks.
Hopefully, it'll earn some traction for the band, who have been pushing various editions of their proper and worth-revisiting debut, "Beartrap Island," for what seems like forever. This pretty hackish revision of "90210," if it lasts, might eventually do for the local rock scene what "Gossip Girl" has done for the swirling vortex of Gawker microcelebrity. Cory Kennedy even showed up at one of the girl's birthday parties about two years too late to matter!
-- August Brown
P.S. Full disclosure: Division Day drummer Kevin Lenhart once played drums at a studio session of a mercifully short-lived country band I was in a few years ago.
Photo courtesy of divisionday.com
Friendly Fires gaze at their shoes, find them dancing
On Tuesday night, I showed up a little early at the Mayan for Bloc Party, whose intricately austere set confirmed they are rapidly becoming contemporary post-punk's ELO, which is needed and awesome. Opener Does It Offend You, Yeah? (whom I've covered before, and liked) surprised me yet again, because, judging by the audience squeals of hormonal delight at the "Let's Make Out" intro, they seem to have fully crossed over into L.A.'s idiosyncratic sorority-punk mainstream.
But the big surprise of the night was the first opener Friendly Fires, who pulled off a trick I've been waiting for a band to fully realize -- that cowbell-heavy Liquid Liquid dance beats would sound fantastic with gigantic shoegaze-ambient guitars and the shimmering house synths that too many peers, such as M83, can't seem to use right.
Buzz Bands: Under the Influence of Giants gets a new start in Silver Lake
Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.
Buzz Bands: The Forward’s new direction
Before setting out to make their mark on the post-punk landscape, Leonard Jackson and Ian Schaeffer -- pals from their day jobs at Guitar Center -- left their marks on plenty of bottles of beer. “We were drinking buddies first, and we’d sit around and philosophize about how things should be,” Jackson says. “Once we’d created our utopian band model, we realized there was no other solution but to do it.”
Now, singer-guitarist Jackson and bassist Schaeffer, along with guitarist Greg Smith and drummer Tom DuPree III, have moved forward as the Forward. Their debut album, “Nothing But Teeth” (due Sept. 9), showcases the quartet’s quick-hitting guitars, agitated rhythms and the wry, literate songs Jackson conceived during long hours of hawking merchandise that helped other artists realize their dreams.
Exclusive: Hard Festival lineup to make for some hard choices
Steve Aoki or N.E.R.D.? DJ A-Trak or MSTRKRFT? Kid Sister or Danny Masterson?
Those and other weighty questions (OK, so two of them were difficult, anyway) face attendees at the inaugural Hard Summer Music Festival, scheduled for July 19. An exclusive preview of the event's two-stage lineup reveals some interesting head-to-head match-ups. One stage will be erected outside the Shrine Auditorium in downtown L.A.; the other will be indoors. The all-ages event -- staged by the same folks who put on the Hard New Year's Eve fest in downtown L.A. -- will feature ambitious visuals and demonstrations from street skater Terry Kennedy and friends.
Capacity is 7,500 and ticket sales are said to be brisk.
After the jump, the schedule for Hard:
Buzz Bands: Hearts of Palm U.K.’s sly electro-pop
Everything about electro-pop trio Hearts of Palm U.K. seems a little coy, except the music.
The group hails from Echo Park, not England (keeping the “U.K.” appellation draped in mystery), and isn’t even a band but more a project of songwriter Erica Elektra — whose surname, of course, is merely something she adopted after almost being electrocuted while playing bass in the basement of her New York City apartment. Friends Frankie Rose and Billy Kaye (ahem .... not their real names; they’re to Elektra’s right in the photo) have come aboard to help Elektra shape the songs that emerged from “the sorts of things that come with the end of a long-term relationship,” she says.
Buzz Bands: Little Ones sign to Chop Shop; album due in September
The Little Ones, who lost their U.S. record deal with EMI/Astralwerks early this year, have been signed to Chop Shop Records, the year-old imprint that was spun off Chop Shop Music, the music supervision company that has curated the soundtracks to television shows such as "The O.C.," "Grey's Anatomy," "Gossip Girl" and "Boston Public," among others. Look for the Little Ones' debut album, "Morning Tide," to finally be released in September -- more than two years after their "Sing Song" EP marked the L.A. outfit as a band to watch.
"They're growing and we're growing," singer-guitarist Ed Reyes says. "It's back to basics for us -- it's great to deal with a group of people who are enthusiastic about our music."
Buzz Bands: The 88 readies its big release (with stream of the single ‘Coming Home’)
I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.
"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."
No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.
||| Stream: "Coming Home"
||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.
After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.
--Kevin Bronson
Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
Warped Tour: See you later, Pomona
Trenton Guinta, left, of San Dimas, and Ian DeLucca of Long Beach work their exit strategy as the opening day of Warped Tour comes to an end.
||| See: After a show Saturday in San Francisco, the Warped Tour returns to the Southland on Sunday for a date at Seaside Park in Ventura. And the tour comes to a close Aug. 17 at the Home Depot Center in Carson.
--Kevin Bronson
Warped Tour: Technical problems dog Say Anything
There's not much to say about Say Anything's first Warped Tour set except: better luck next time.
Savaged by technical problems, the emo sextet was reduced to playing only a handful of songs -- the final two solo efforts by frontman Max Bemis, who handled the sticky situation with as much aplomb as could be expected. "This didn't happen to Angels & Airwaves," he said, referring to the band that preceded him onstage.
He thanked the audience profusely for its patience. And his solo renditions of "Baby Girl, I'm a Blur" and "Walk Through Hell"? Pretty darned memorable.
--Photo and post by Kevin Bronson
Warped Tour: Katy Perry’s balloon takes off
One down, 45 Warped Tour dates to go.
If you were 14, female and near the rail for Katy Perry's set, you probably thought the fresh-faced 23-year-old had a pretty killer debut on the Warped tour. You could see the pink eyeliner ("I'm bringing pink to the Warped Tour," she declared), the "Jesus" tattoo on her wrist (she's the daughter of pastors from Santa Barbara); and you might have caught one of the strawberry balloons her minions threw to the crowd.
Warped Tour: The Aggrolites, the Briggs get warm
The L.A. contingent at this year's Warped Tour isn't quite as deep as in past years, but it's always interesting to see bands outside of the Southland club environment, where they are taking aim at new fans.
Two of those local heroes, the Aggrolites and the Briggs, pushed themselves to the limit.
Warped Tour: Got shade?
Warped Tour producer and founder Kevin Lyman put attendance for Friday's opening date at 16,000.
That's fewer than the 20,000 that packed the grounds last year (for a bill a bit heavier on veteran, big-name punk bands) but more than the 14,000 from two years ago. Lyman reasons that having the tour start a week earlier, along with the general economic doldrums, kept attendance down.
Warped Tour: Gym Class Heroes, Against Me! play opposite ends of the field
If you walked briskly Friday afternoon in the 102-degree heat (and dodged the kids with squirt guns), you departed the northern main stage at the Pomona Fairplex just as Gym Class Heroes were finishing their catchy but kitschy low-brow anthem "Clothes Off!" and arrived at the southern main stage in time to hear Against Me! break into its strident anthem "Stop!"
Warped Tour: Only the volume is the same for Story of the Year, the Bronx
Nothing against Story of the Year, but the excitement generated by the St. Louis quintet -- and several like it every year on the Warped Tour -- makes me think it doesn't pay for artists to stay true to much of anything in the way of influences or roots. The commercial formula seems to be: Throw all kinds of stylistic variations against the wall; produce it so it sounds really, really big; and perform it as if the world's angst were on your shoulders.
Warped Tour: 50-plus bands, 100-plus degrees
Welcome to the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, where peace (but precious few other things you can't get in a mall) is in fashion.
It's the first of 46 dates on the annual punk rock traveling show, and, about 10 minutes through the gate, you wished maybe you would've waited until Sunday's date at Seaside Park in Ventura, where cooler breezes are likely to prevail.
Buzz Bands: New heights for Everest
On “Black Covers,” one of the sylvan gems on L.A. quintet Everest’s debut album, “Ghost Notes,” frontman Russell Pollard sings, “Sometimes you’ve gotta step out of line to be seen.” Ain’t it the truth.
Buzz Bands: Ravens & Chimes’ literate New York noise
Despite having earned accolades from both Leonard Cohen and the blogosphere tastemakers, New York group Ravens & Chimes are still hunting for their Big Apple break. "I naively assumed the record would speak for itself," says frontman and songwriter Asher Lack (pictured in front). Indeed, "Reichenbach Falls" (the sextet's 2007 debut) has garnered comparisons to the Arcade Fire with its blend of bombast and impassioned lyricism. Cohen's approval came after hearing a Ravens & Chimes cover of his "So Long, Marianne." The reclusive singer-songwriter -- one of Lack's idols -- "e-mailed us about it and said your record is really good," he says.
But pats on the back don't sell records: "Reichenbach Falls" has only scanned 2,000 copies -- hardly Vampire Weekend numbers. "We quit our day jobs and got new day jobs and quit our new day jobs," Lack says. The band fits work in between a hectic tour schedule that's seen them play over 60 dates this year. Several members live in Brooklyn, a hype tornado where the local scene can be a fickle mistress. "There's a little bit of the too-cool-for-school attitude," Lack says. "The neon pants to the big beards, it's a costume." Still, with an album under their belts and a national tour underway, the band can't help but be confident.
"I was super anxious about the future," Lack says. "Now I feel like I've got a handle on the process."
||| Live: Ravens & Chimes will join Afternoons' free residency at Spaceland on Monday along with Neil Young-approved local quintet Everest.
||| Listen: "January"
||| Also: L.A. duo the Submarines -- their sophomore album "Honeysuckle Weeks" just released -- play the Echo on Friday (along with Castledoor)... Easygoing L.A. indie-popper Devon Williams celebrates the release of "Carefree" at Amoeba on Tuesday.
--David Greenwald
Photo by Elizabeth Perrin
Beck, back again — with update
No, this post is not redundant -- for the second time in three days, Beck trotted his new band onstage at the Echo on Wednesday night for a surprise show. With three new band members joining him and keyboardist Brian Lebarton, Beck obviously wants to work some things out before the release of his new album, the Danger Mouse-produced "Modern Guilt," and the summer tour supporting it.
Wednesday's musical calisthenics spanned 12 songs and 43 minutes. The players seemed more comfortable and spirited, and if the energy seemed a notch lower than Monday's set, it was only due to the fact that the room was only about one-third full, word about the show not having leaked as it did earlier in the week.
Nobody on Wednesday's regular bill seemed to mind that Beck crashed the party. It was the EP release show for singer-songwriter Daniel Ahearn's "Pray for Me by Name." Once he got started, Ahearn (a familiar face in the venue since he pays some of his bills by tending bar at the Echo) thanked the man who preceded him onstage ... with a wink.
"Good local artist," Ahearn said. "I think he's going places."
-- Photo, post by Kevin Bronson
JUST IN: A few moments ago, Beck fan club members were alerted that he's performing at the Echoplex tomorrow. Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. today at ticketweb.com. The password is CHEMTRAILS; two-ticket limit. Looks like Beck can't stop showing off those sunglasses in the Eastside clubs.
Brand-new Beck, mostly new band
Beck's invitation-only show Monday night at the Echo not only stoked the buzz for the upcoming release of his 10th album, "Modern Guilt," but it also was a toe-wetting experience for a largely new batch of side players -- who will have their work cut out for them if they're along for the ride on a world tour that begins later this month (and, down the road, includes a Sept. 20 stop at the Hollywood Bowl).
The frontman acknowledged that it was "only about the fifth time we've played together" as he led his charges through a 14-song, favorites-laden set occasionally punctuated by technical clatter. None of those woes mattered to the Beck faithful; the show was mainly for "family and friends," management said, and surely many of those were keen to the 37-year-old's new material, right? Ahem.
For the record, the four new numbers -- "Modern Guilt," Gamma Ray," "Replica" and "Profanity PrayersPlayers" -- won't bend the ears of anybody used to Beck's sonic adventurousness. Solid guitar rock, all, especially the set-closing "Profanity," a pedal-to-the-metal blast seemingly made for highway driving with the windows rolled down.
Besides longtime band member Brian Lebarton on keys, Beck was joined by guitarist/backup singer Jessica Dobson, a twentysomething from Long Beach who has created some ripples herself as a singer-songwriter; bassist Bram Inscore, who has played in local outfits such as Colorforms and Electrocute and is finishing a solo album; and drummer Scott McPherson, who has played with Earlimart, Sea Wolf, several national acts and, once upon a time, Elliott Smith.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo of Beck, with Jessica Dobson, by Kevin Bronson
Buzz Bands: I See Hawks in L.A.’s California Country
Despite rumors of its untimely demise, L.A. country is, in fact, still alive and well. It's just gone underground - or rather, taken to the skies. I See Hawks in L.A. is that rare local bird, an Americana act in a city where rock rules the roost. "[We're] sort of mavericks," states lead singer Rob Waller (at right, with Shawn Nourse, left, Paul Lacques and Paul Marshall). "Sometimes people will say, 'Oh, I see hawks' and you tell your hawk stories."
With a sound as harmonic as it is twangy, the band is a throwback to the early days of the Golden State. "Bands like the Byrds, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens are people who we definitely feel kinship with," says Waller. And not just kinship: The Byrds' own Chris Hillman played mandolin on I See Hawks' aptly titled third album, "California Country," in 2006. Their fourth and latest, the just-released "Hallowed Ground," adds fiddles and pedal steel, the kind of orchestration all but absent from the current Nashville sound.
"Modern country music ... is really formulated," crows Waller. "Let's have a song where the girls are geting wild and going out tonight. It's all been vetted in a focus group. That's the opposite of what we do." Despite the band's thick local roots - they're regulars at the Echo's weekly "Grand Ole Echo" concerts - they've managed to escape SoCal long enough to play two national tours, where they've found a small but welcoming audience.
"People in these towns, they take us to [their] barbecues, we go on hikes together," he says. "It's really part of their lives."
||| Live: I See Hawks in L.A. celebrate the release of "Hallowed Ground" at the Echo on Sunday.
||| Listen: Stream several tracks from "Hallowed Ground" on MySpace
||| Also: Critical darlings No Age play an afternoon show at old stomping the Smell on Sunday... Former Modern Lovers frontman Jonathan Richman plays two sets a night at the Mint tonight through Saturday... and the Living Legends attempt to live up to their name at the Glass House on Saturday.
–David Greenwald
Photo by Katie Williams.
[Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson has the week off.]
Buzz Bands: Say yes to Uh Huh Her
Bands naming themselves after the songs of their musical predecessors is a time-honored tradition, from Eric’s Trip (a Sonic Youth reference) to Radiohead (Talking Heads). But L.A. duo Uh Huh Her has gone one better, naming themselves after both an obscure PJ Harvey song and her 2004 album. “I don’t think we thought it through,” admits singer Leisha Hailey. “We love PJ Harvey but we never thought we’d have a tribute band.”
They don't: Uh Huh Her's sleek, synth-infused sound is closer to "Adore"-era Smashing Pumpkins or Metric than it is to the moody English alt-rocker. The band's debut album, "Common Reaction" (out Aug. 19), is an electro-pop feast characterized by layers of overlapping vocals. "We like the way our voices blend together," says Hailey. She's no stranger to harmonizing: Before taking a music hiatus to play Alice Pieszecki in Showtime’s “The L Word,” she strummed and sang in Lilith Fair pair the Murmurs, who had a 1994 hit with "You Suck." "The sound is really different," she says of the quirky Murmurs. "I was much younger [then]."
Camila Grey, former Mellowdrone bassist and the band’s resident multi-instrumentalist, is happy for the chance to stretch out. “I was always a hired gun, so I was never allowed to be as creative as I wanted to be,” she says.
Now, a few European dates under their belts and a national tour underway, the band is looking forward to making a mark on their home turf. “We’ve played one show [in L.A.], at the Knitting Factory,” says Grey. “I’d love to be a local band.”
||| Live: Uh Huh Her rocks the Roxy on Saturday.
||| Download: "Not a Love Song"
||| Also: Brother-sister act the Fiery Furnaces heat up Spaceland with a two-night stand on Friday and Saturday, while ex-Irving members Afternoons kick off the month’s Monday residency… The two-man band Rumspringa starts its Echo residency on Monday… And if that’s not enough partnership for you, lovable folk-parodists-turned-HBO-stars Flight of the Conchords play for the ladies of the world at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday and Sunday.
-- David Greenwald
Photo by Lisa Eisner
[Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson has the week off.]
Buzz Bands: James Pants gets fancy
Most high school seniors spend prom night spiking the punch and trying to make nice with their dates. James Pants was too busy convincing Peanut Butter Wolf to come record shopping.
"We met up and I chauffeured him around Austin," says the DJ-musician, who goes by James Singleton when he's not spinning vinyl. A few years and a handful of mix CDs later, Peanut Butter Wolf - he head of Stones Throw Records - asked him to a record a cover of goofball '80s jam "Grandmaster Lover," and a record deal soon followed. For Singleton, a hip-hop aficionado with jazz roots who plays drums, guitar and keyboards as well as manning the turntables, it was a perfect fit.
"They had elements of weirdness that I really liked. It seemed like the label didn’t take itself too seriously," he says. Neither does the humble Singleton, whose DJ name stems from his wife dubbing him "fancy pants," even if his debut album, "Welcome," is too gritty and offbeat to be runway-ready. It's also mostly sample-free, with the instrumentation provided by Singleton himself "out of necessity."
"I live in Spokane, Washington," he says, "There’s really no scene here." Equal parts hip-hop, dance and soul grooves, the album's 16 tracks were hand-picked by Peanut Butter Wolf out of 100 recordings.
"I’m not very good at finishing songs," Singleton says, "but I'm pretty good at starting them."
||| Live: James Pants will open for Jamie Lidell at the El Rey on May 29 and 30, with a "Welcome" release party at Turntable Lab that Friday afternoon.
||| Listen: "Ka$h"
-David Greenwald
Photo by Jake Green.
[Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson has the week off.]
Sunset Junction adds some punctuation — !!!
Dance party on Sunset Boulevard -- alert the authorities.
Brooklyn eight-piece !!! (Chk Chk Chk) will be announced as a Sunday headliner for the Sunset Junction Street Festival, sources say. The two-day, three-stage fair -- with carnival rides, food booths and plenty of toasty pavement -- goes off Aug. 23-24 in Silver Lake.
Isaac Hayes and Stephanie Mills will join the party too -- along with the likes of Langhorne Slim, Menomena and Health. Previously confirmed for the festival were Cold War Kids and Broken Social Scene on Saturday night, and Sister Nancy, Kinky and the Black Keys on Sunday night, as well as a reunion of psych-rockers Beachwood Sparks.
The Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra will be headlining the Sanborn Stage on Saturday night.
The annual steamy shindig always offers a pretty decent barometer of the local scene too, with SoCal bands occupying the afternoon and early-evening slots on the rock-oriented Bates Stage. This year's no different -- besides ascendant noise-rock outfit Health, the Happy Hollows, Radars to the Sky, the Henry Clay People and Gram Rabbit are a handful of the locals said to be playing the festival. Stay tuned for more.
The schedule so far is posted here.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo/collage of !!! courtesy of Warp Records
Buzz Bands: Shwayze gets things buzzin’
He’s the kid with the easy smile and the ball cap tugged crooked — the one who sticks out among his hard-partying friends because, as he likes to joke, he’s “the only black kid in Malibu.” But over the last 2 1/2 years, Shwayze learned quickly where the party stops and work begins: in the studio of producer Cisco Adler.
It was with Adler at the controls that the aspiring rapper made “Shwayze,” his debut album (due July 15 on Suretone/Geffen). “Malibu’s a small town, and I knew Cisco was a rock ’n’ roller and I knew he had helped Mickey Avalon” as producer of two of Avalon’s singles, says Shwayze, born Aaron Smith. “I only knew him as a partyer, but he is one hard-working dude. Still, we would not have guessed this two years ago.”
Shwayze’s humorous, easy-going rapping might not venture much further topically than weed and women, but combined with Adler’s sticky musical backdrops, it’s made the 22-year-old a hot commodity. The single “Buzzin’” has hit major radio; Shwayze played the lead-in set to Miley Cyrus at Saturday’s KIIS-FM blowout Wango Tango; and an MTV reality show launches in July.
Most rewarding, Shwayze says, is how the album came together. “We made the record before we were signed,” he says, noting the absence of multiple producers or scads of guests (Dave Navarro appears on one song, “Flashlight”). “We were just doing our own thing.”
Indeed, it’s the handiwork of the 29-year-old Adler — the Whitestarr frontman, son of entertainment impresario Lou Adler and unofficial captain of the Malibu party squad for which Shwayze is now the unofficial spokesman. Says Shwayze: “Cisco is one talented dude.”
||| Live: Shwayze plays Crash Mansion on Friday and is a headliner on this year’s Warped Tour (June 20 in Pomona; June 22 in Ventura).
||| Listen: To Shwayze's single "Buzzin'."
--Kevin Bronson
Photo of Shwayze and Cisco Adler courtesy of Big Hassle Media
Reunited Beachwood Sparks to join Cold War Kids, Broken Social Scene at Sunset Junction
Beachwood Sparks, the L.A.-based band that breathed some new life into California psychedelia in the early part of this decade, will play the Sunset Junction Street Festival in August as part of a reformation that will see the group begin work on its third full-length album.
"It just feels like everybody involved, including the audience and the fans, are ready for it," singer-bassist Brent Rademaker says from Tampa, Fla., the hometown to which he returned two years ago. "We started the process a while back, and when Chris [Gunst] came down for my wedding, we said, 'You know, we've got to get Beachwood Sparks started again.' "
According to the festival's website, Cold War Kids, Broken Social Scene, the Black Keys and Kinky are acts confirmed so far to play Sunset Junction, the annual street fair on Sunset Boulevard in Silver Lake. This year's dates are Aug. 23-24.
Beachwood Sparks never actually broke up, but the band has been idle since 2003. It released two albums and an EP on Sub Pop, which announced last spring that the group would reunite to play July 13 in Seattle in honor of the label's 20th birthday. It turns out -- and Rademaker acknowledged the band wasn't quite certain of this -- that Beachwood Sparks is still under contract to Sub Pop for a third album. Now he says the band is aiming to hit the studio this winter -- somewhere around an Australian tour, the details of which have not yet been announced.
During Beachwood Sparks' down time, its members have been involved, variously, with bands such as Mystic Chords of Memory, the Tyde, Frausdots and All Night Radio, among others. The reunion shows will likely go off without key member Farmer Dave Scher, who is working as the touring keyboardist for Interpol. The lineup will look something like this: Rademaker (vocals/bass), Gunst (vocals/guitar), Aaron Sperske (drums), Jen Cohen Gunst (Gunst's wife and collaborator in Mystic Chords, on keys), Ben Knight (guitar) and Dan Horne (pedal steel).
No word yet on which night Beachwood Sparks will play. Stay tuned for lineup updates.
||| Download: Beachwood Sparks' "Confusion Is Nothing."
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo courtesy of Sub Pop
Buzz Bands: The Morning Benders’ tuneful innocence
Rarely has a debut album sounded so fresh and endearing — without your suspecting the writer copped somebody’s songbook — as the Morning Benders’ “Talking Through Tin Cans.”
The Berkeley-based quartet metes out three-minute dollops of youthful pining as if love songs were something they just sprang on the Internet. “We’re just looking to do something that sounds authentic,” says frontman Chris Chu, an unabashed fan of classic pop who, at 21, appears years away from his first encounter with a razor. “Most of the music I look back on [fondly] has an honest emotion.”
The Benders’ formula of scratchy-but-tasteful guitars, agile melodies and wizened-not-whiny sentiment evolved as if by fate. Chu, a Santa Monica native (in fact, three of the four Benders have SoCal roots), “picked up a friend’s guitar when I was home sick from school one day and started playing,” he says.
Off he went to Cal, where he eventually found Joe Ferrell (guitars, keyboards), Julian Harmon (drums) and, now, Tim Or (who has replaced original bassist David Perales). “After I moved up to Berkeley, I just started writing songs — yeah, I had some girl troubles, but I had some good things happen too,” Chu says. “All the songs are kind of a snapshot of what was going on at the time.”
And to gauge from Chu’s enthusiasm, the album, released this week by fledgling label +1 Records, is just the start. “We love playing music, and so far everything about it is exactly how I wanted it to be,” he says. “We want to make another album already.”
||| Live: The Morning Benders play their album-release show Thursday night at the Echo (free to those who buy the album at Virgin Megastore or at the label's website). (They will also be back in L.A. on May 19, opening for the Kooks at the Wiltern.)
||| Download: "Boarded Doors."
||| Watch: The Morning Benders' new video for "Boarded Doors" is the brainchild of Daniel Stessen, creative director of the L.A. art-film-music collective People Food. Given Chu's boyish looks, it's, um, a perfect fit.
Upcoming in L.A.
Speaking of Stessen, he and his People Food cohorts (including the Gray Kid) will perform Saturday night at downtown's Redwood Bar. ... Local psych-poppers the Parson Red Heads celebrate the release of their new EP, "Owl & Timber," with a show Friday at Spaceland. ... And Saturday at Spaceland, Sky Parade marks the release of its new EP, "High on Desire," with a show supporting impressive U.K. newcomers Air Traffic. ... The Donnas' 15th anniversary show Friday at the Viper Room is sold out -- as is Saturday's show at the Troubadour featuring the Duke Spirit, whose new album, "Neptune," measures up as one of the most solid rock records so far this year. ... Electro-poppers Casxio just released a free four-song digital EP (go to their website for the goods) and have a show tonight at UC Riverside (and May 15 at the Continental Room in Fullerton). ... With its second EP, "Bloomsbury," just out, Princeton plays a support slot for Le Switch's residency on Monday at the Echo. ... And it's a big night in store Monday at Indie 103.1's weekly shindig at the Viper Room -- Everest (its debut "Ghost Notes" just out) and Film School are on the bill.
-- Kevin Bronson
Morning Benders photo by Timothy Norris
Buzz Bands: Le Switch flips on the soul
Aaron Kyle sings as if he’s never five minutes from his last whiskey, or five minutes from his next, occasionally lurching into a down-deep growl you wouldn’t think could come from an angular white dude in a collared shirt and old browline spectacles.
But it’s that voice, and the woeful tales it conveys, that have endeared L.A. fans to the distinctly vintage soul-pop of Le Switch. “We’re not the fashion police,” Kyle says. “I think if you write a good song, people are going to respond, no matter whether it’s gonna end up in Vice magazine. Besides, I’d trade soul for cool any day.”
There’s plenty of that on “We Are Le Switch,” the debut album due this month on Autumn Tone Records (a local imprint run by Justin Gage, the man behind the Americana-leaning blog An Aquarium Drunkard).
Le Switch’s sound, which nods to the likes of Leon Russell, Dr. John and Randy Newman, first began to take shape when Kyle fell in with drummer Joe Napolitano in 2005. Maria DeLuca (trumpet, viola, vocals) joined next, and by the time keyboardist Josh Charney and bassist Christopher Harrison had come on board, Kyle was eager to “make the Leon Russell or Harry Nilsson album we wanted to make,” he says. “Everybody in this band listens to a huge assortment of ’60s and ’70s music — there’s not a lot of new music I can drive with."
||| Live: Le Switch plays every Monday this month at the Echo.
||| Download: "Pristine."
Photo by Charlie Chu
Five more L.A. residencies you'd do well to see this month
Mezzanine Owls, whose noisy pop suggests the unlikely collision of Jeff Buckley and Ride, play Mondays at Spaceland. Download: "Snow Globe"
Local six-piece Castledoor is honing (and maybe even adding a bit of edge) to its contagious indie pop every Monday at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa.
Party-pop trio Porterville does Mondays at the Silverlake Lounge.
Gran Ronde, the local post-punk quartet whose debut, "Secret Rooms," came out this spring on Filter, rocks out Tuesdays at Spaceland (and, just to pile up the miles, Thursdays at the Beauty Bar in Las Vegas).
And Camp Freddy -- five famous dudes (Billy Morrison, Dave Navarro, Matt Sorum, Donovan Leitch and Chris Chaney) who like to remind you why they're famous -- demonstrate on Thursdays at the Roxy why they might be the best cover band ever. Sugar Ray's Mark McGrath is joining them this month, and last Thursday's first installment of the residency featured guests such as Lemmy Kilmister, Steve Jones, Paul Cook, Poe and Nuno Bettencourt. That's some guest list.
-- Kevin Bronson
Buzz Bands: BIGBANG aims for a big splash
It isn’t as if fans at the Silverlake Lounge never heard an epic guitar solo, but some were surprised on a recent weeknight to see Oystein Greni’s — played after he hopped atop the bar at the Eastside club. “We’re from Scandinavia; we’re allowed to be weird,” the singer-guitarist for the Norwegian trio BIGBANG says good-naturedly.
Not that the band’s roots in Oslo — where they were stationed for six albums over the last decade-plus — have given them much else in the way of traction. Greni and bandmates Olaf Olsen and Oyvind Storli Hoel moved to L.A. in September and “got severely punished,” the frontman says from his Echo Park home studio. “It’s like going to a weird school. You’re so naive and blue-eyed. ... There have been many people here who talk so much and do so little — it seems you can make a good long career out of eating lunch, drinking coffee and talking to people.”
Still, the trio that played to thousands in their homeland remain undaunted, releasing their “Wild Bird” EP, paying dues in small clubs and readying the September release of their debut U.S. album, which will mix new material with old. Therein lies another hurdle. BIGBANG’s sound could loosely be described as classic rock played with skate-punk ferocity, but comparisons are all over the map: the Allman Brothers, Bad Company, Rush, the Byrds, to name a few.
“Most American bands are very aware of their demographic, and we’ve never worried about playing to a specific genre,” Greni says. “I love all kinds of music ... and a good song is a good song.”
||| Live: The trio plays tonight at Crash Mansion, Wednesday at the Silverlake Lounge and Thursday at the Viper Room’s pre-Coachella party.
||| Download: "Wild Bird" from the trio's EP of that name.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo by Jan Erik Svendsen
The Airborne Toxic Event signs with Majordomo
The Airborne Toxic Event, whose danceable, literate rock-noir captured the fancy of L.A. audiences (and radio programmers) over the last year, has signed with Majordomo Records, the indie imprint affiliated with the burgeoning reissue/DVD label Shout! Factory.
The Los Feliz-based quintet, which will release its debut album, "The Airborne Toxic Event," on July 15, becomes Majordomo's second signing. The label debuted in August when it released Earlimart's fourth album, "Mentor Tormentor"; on July 1, the label will release Earlimart's follow-up, "Hymn and Her." Although Majordomo is new to the new-release business, its products have major-label distribution through Sony BMG.
"At the end it just felt like Majordomo were the smartest kids on the block," says Airborne frontman Mikel Jollett, whose band was courted by labels big and small. "You look at it, and you think it's a new venture, but there is a lot of experience in that room. ... They came in with the smartest, most aggressive offer."
Airborne's album was made in the Eagle Rock studio of fledgling producer Pete Min, a friend of the band. It will include reworked versions of the three songs on the band's self-released EP, as well as the single "Sometime Around Midnight," which vaulted into regular rotation at radio outlets such as KROQ-FM (106.7) and Indie 103.1 (KDLD-FM).
The band has been slotted to perform on "Last Call With Carson Daly" on Tuesday, and has several festival dates lined up for the summer.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo of the Airborne Toxic Event by Jeff Koga
Buzz Bands: A lot to like about Sara Lov
The steely, smoky tones in which Sara Lov narrates the rapturous songs on her debut, “Seasoned Eyes Were Beaming,” hint at old wounds viewed through new resolve. For Lov — and yes, that’s her real name — it’s the sound of a thirtysomething finding her own voice while Dustin O’Halloran, her longtime collaborator in the L.A. band Devics, advances his solo career.
“When Dustin started having all these great things happen with his career, I thought, ‘Maybe I should do something myself,’ ” Lov says. “I feel confident as a singer, but I don’t feel like I have a lot of vocabulary musically.”
While Devics’ albums and their Mazzy Star-like shimmer resonated with burnished textures and what Lov calls “Dustin’s complexities,” her own material keeps it simpler “and maybe a little bit darker,” relying on experiences and images culled from a high-mileage life. Lov was kidnapped by her father at age 4 and lived in Israel and then Minnesota until landing in L.A. at age 12 to be reared by an uncle. She met O’Halloran at Santa Monica College, and after Devics was signed to the Bella Union label by the Cocteau Twins’ Simon Raymonde, the duo spent several years in a small town in northern Italy writing and recording their 2003 album, “The Stars at Saint Andrea.”
It was in Italy, where Lov kept an apartment until recently, that she first penned “a few tunes that didn’t feel like Devics songs,” she says. When O’Halloran’s “Piano Solos” gained traction (and earned him a slot as tour opener for k.d. lang), Lov began flushing out more songs, with the help of producer-multi-instrumentalist (and sideman for the likes of Fiona Apple, Alanis Morissette and Gnarls Barkley) Zac Rae.
“He’s done it as kind of a labor-of-love-type thing,” she says. “I’m very lucky that a lot of really great musician friends have come in and played on the record.” Release plans for the album are uncertain. "I've learned not to have too many expectations about that sort of thing," she says. “I’m just happy that I made something that I feel good about."
--Kevin Bronson
||| Live: Lov is playing tonight, and the remaining Wednesdays in April, at Tangier.
||| Download: "A Thousand Bees."
Buzz Bands: Ryan McPhun’s fun with the Ruby Suns
Just think of the Ruby Suns’ sound — an arrestingly wide-ranging palette of psych-pop, island flavors, Asian exotica and traditional African music — as influenced mostly by frontman Ryan McPhun’s dual citizenship.
McPhun, 25, was reared in Ventura, the son of a Kiwi father and an American mother, a fan of bands such as the Beatles, Sloan, Jason Falkner, obsessive about the Beach Boys and Nirvana, “and a little bit too shy for a lot of the emo and hard-core stuff” that was popular with his friends, he says.
Off McPhun went to New Zealand, where after a short stint at university, he traveled the world and settled in Auckland. He fell in with pop artists on Kiwi indie label Lil’ Chief and played with the Brunettes and the Tokey Tones while finishing up his own album, a 2005 Beach Boys paean released under the rhyme-alicious name Ryan McPhun & the Ruby Suns.
“Some of the songs I had written before I moved, but I was changing very quickly,” he says. “I started getting into less straightforward stuff ... other music from all over the globe. I became less worried about style and more concerned with rhythms and earth sounds.”
That’s reflected on the Ruby Suns’ sophomore album, “Sea Lion” (a March release in the U.S. on Sub Pop), whose miasma of instrumentation, sweet melodies and sounds found in places like New Zealand’s South Island, southern Africa and Thailand make for meditations that border on hallucinations.
“It’s a very broad album,” McPhun says. "Geographically speaking.”
||| Live: The Ruby Suns perform with Le Loup and Princeton on Saturday at the Echo.
||| Download: "Tane Mahuta"
||| Download, from the Ruby Suns' debut album: "Look Out SOS!"
Photo courtesy of Sub Pop
-- Kevin Bronson
Prince to be added to Coachella bill? Or not…
No word on which day he will crash the party, but Prince will be added to the lineup for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, which runs April 25-27 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, sources tell me.* No confirmation from the artist's websites, which seem to be down (or under construction) at the moment. But this certainly adds some meat to the the festival's slightly protein-starved roster.
Goldfrapp and Aphex Twin were recently announced as additions to the lineup, as well as Serj Tankian, Redd Kross, Kate Nash and Adele (update: Adele, according to Goldenvoice, "is no longer performing.")
Only 37 days until the desert.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo: L.A. Times files
*Correction: Coachella co-producers AEG Live have responded to this post. Brandon K. Phillips, CEO of AEG Live, writes in an email: "Paul Tollett, the head of our Goldenvoice division and our partner in the festival, just called to tell me that the LA Times put on their blog that Prince was playing Coachella. This is absolutely not true... Regardless of what the Times was told, there is no commitment from Prince to play Coachella." Stay tuned.... this is the Purple One we're talking about, so anything could happen.
UPDATE 4/9/08: Prince to play Coachella
Neon Neon brings bright lights to Sunset Strip
The lookie-loos Monday night on the Sunset Strip probably thought another installment of "Back to the Future" was in the works, what with the two sleek DeLoreans parked in front of the Viper Room. Drivers slowed to snap photos from their cars, and club patrons hopped in to get their pictures taken.
But the real story was inside the Viper Room, where Neon Neon was playing only its fourth live gig in support of today's release of "Stainless Style." It's a concept album chronicling the life and times of engineer-entrepreneur-playboy John DeLorean in smart, neo-'80s dance-pop songs.
No surprise that the album succeeds; it's a side project of Super Furry Animals front man Gruff Rhys and L.A.-based producer Boom Bip, and it features vocal contributions from Cate Le Bon, Naeem Juwan from Spank Rock and Yo Majesty. But studio ventures -- and especially side projects -- have a habit of getting messy when the music is finally staged.
There were some rough edges Monday, but not anything you'd think was a mess. Rhys, fully backgrounding most of the songs for the almost-full house, presided calmly over the proceedings, which included tight disco numbers and bouncy guitar pop rendered tightly -- if a little short of full throttle -- by a five-piece band comprised of Rhys, Boom Bip, Le Bon, guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and drummer Eric Gardner. With the hip-hop contributors absent, Har Mar Superstar stood in as rapper, and his kitschy showmanship applied a deserving smile to the end of the evening.
"Stainless Style" might end up merely being fodder for iPod DJs, or maybe it signals the birth of a new band. One thing for sure: It's nice to see electro in the hands of real musicians.
-- Kevin Bronson
Photo: Gruff Rhys (left), Boom Bip, Cate Le Bon and Har Mar Superstar feed the meter on Sunset Boulevard. Courtesy of Mark Sovel / Indie 103.1
Incoming: Neon Neon, Oppenheimer
[The post-South by Southwest tsunami of bands is headed toward Los Angeles, beginning tonight. Here are quick first impressions of albums from two of them -- and, really, wouldn't we all want to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with a guy named Rocky O'Reilly?]
Neon Neon, "Stainless Style" (Tuesday, Lex Records): Out of the brine of this era's dancefloor vacuousness comes ... an electro concept album? Sleek disco, hip-hop lite, fuzzy guitar pop -- this collaboration between Super Furry Animals main man Gruff Rhys and L.A. electronic guru Boom Bip has a little bit of everything, including a story line: The album traces the life of auto magnate and hard-partyer John DeLorean. "Stainless Style" is more than just a vehicle for a single or two. Nice.
Oppenheimer, "Take the Whole Midrange and Boost It" (June 3, Bar/None Records): The sophomore release from Belfast, Northern Ireland, duo Shaun Robinson and Rocky O'Reilly walks a tightrope -- to one side bone-rattling squalor, to the other primary-colored pop. Subtract the fuzz, and the twee-pop nation would have another happy citizen. With it (and with guest touches like vocals by Matt Caughtran of L.A. punks the Bronx</