Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

EMMA RUTH RUNDLE – ” Marked For Death “

Posted: December 28, 2016 in MUSIC
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Emma Ruth Rundle is a doom-folk/ambient folk singer/songwriter and visual artist from Los Angeles. You may know her from her work with the post-punk bands Marriages and Red Sparrowes. She’s also released a few solo recordings. First was the Electric Guitar One EP in 2011. That record is thirty minutes of continuous instrumental ambient electric guitar in six chapters. It was written and recorded during the Red Sparrowes tour of Europe in 2010. In 2014, she released her first proper solo record called Some Heavy Ocean. That one is still plenty ambient, but leaning towards folk. In some ways, it’s reminiscent of the first two Mazzy Star records.

Emma Ruth Rundles lives in LA and participates in music (Marriages, Red Sparowes, The Nocturnes – but alone) and visual/video art. Managed by Sargent House.

In September of this year, she released her sophomore album “Marked for Death”. As the album title suggests, there’s a lot of death imagery and other explorations on the issue of mortality. It’s dark and a bit heavy, but it’s a lovely record that demands a thorough listen. A lot of the songs are about a relationship gone wrong. The word on the street is that all of the songs are connected by that thread, and that it’s actually a narrative about the same failing (or failed) relationship. Frequent readers of the blog know that I’m a real sucker for that kind of sad gal stuff. I’m reminded a little bit of Cat Power, and also of the great Torres.

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The whole record is really good, and I think it should be listened to, with no distractions. That said, I really like this song:“Protection” by Emma Ruth Rundle.

I like the fact that it’s low-end heavy. I love the chorus or delay or whatever on the vocals. I adore the fact that it’s relatively quiet for each of the verses, but louder in the chorus, and at the end of the chorus, it’s thunderously loud and fuzzy. I love that loud and fuzzy bit, but what I love even more is when it comes to a rapid halt and is juxtaposed right up against the quiet verse. Rundle’s voice is beautiful, soft and sweet, but also very strong. We shouldn’t lose sight of that even with all the talk of the glory of the noise and the fury brought on by the effects pedals.

 

Marked for Death was released on September 30th via Sargent House Records. You can buy physical copies via Hello Merch here. It’s also available for download from Bandcamp here.

thanks to https://thisisthatsong.wordpress.com

BLEACHED – ” Wednesday Night Melody “

Posted: December 20, 2016 in MUSIC
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NICOLE ANNE ROBBINS - Bleached

Sometime toward the end of last year, Bleached’s singer-songwriter Jennifer Clavin and her friends wandered around Echo Park Lake in Los Angeles — after eating psychedelic mushrooms. It was around 9 a.m., and the park in northeast L.A. was already bustling with activity.

Their senses heightened from the psilocybin, Clavin and her friends wandered the one-mile perimeter of the man-made lake, fascinated by the commotion and bizarre cast of characters.

“It’s really insane being on mushrooms at that time of day at that location,” Clavin said in a drawling, extended vocal fry.

The morning peaked when they stumbled upon a couple handing out free zines with cut-and-paste text and imagery about Jesus. As Clavin flipped through one, she noticed a page emblazoned with the phrase “Welcome The Worms.” And she laughed. Through her magic mushroom–fogged brain, she knew she had just found the title for her band’s upcoming album.

“I was like, ‘Holy fuck. That totally explains this album to me,’ ” she says. “It was so ridiculous, but I knew I had to use it.”

Welcome The Worms, Bleached’s upbeat second album of pop-rock, was released on April 1st. Though it is sprinkled with hints of punk and heaps of guitar, its instrumentals — created by bassist Micayla Grace and guitarist Jessica Clavin, Jennifer’s younger sister — belie the album’s dark origins.

Throughout the entirety of the writing and recording process, the Clavin sisters struggled with their own personal dramas. Evicted from her Los Angeles apartment, Jessica started living in her windowless practice space. Meanwhile, Jennifer, who had been in a long-term, emotionally abusive relationship, was struggling with depression and a crippling addiction to drugs and alcohol. She would stay up all night partying and taking drugs and then roll into the studio the next day high and exhausted. Said Jennifer: “Life got real.”

By the time the album was finished in mid-2015, both sisters had miraculously sorted their lives out. Jessica was no longer homeless, and Jennifer, realizing how far she’d plummeted, got clean with help from her friends and family.

Welcome The Worms is a reflection of this tumultuous period and is self-described as the band’s most personal and introspective work to date.

“It’s about embracing the dark side of life and realizing that without the bad, we wouldn’t know when things were good,” Jennifer said. “It’s about accepting that people you love will pass away, your pet will die, you’ll get a parking ticket, and you’ll have a pimple on the day of your first date. That’s just part of life and it’s all beautiful.”

Jennifer and Jessica grew up in Northridge, an L.A. neighborhood in the San Fernando Valley about 20 miles north of downtown. The sisters started playing bass and guitar at a young age and credit living in the suburbs with their early dedication to music.

“I feel like the isolation made Jen and I play music all day because we didn’t have cars and we didn’t have anywhere to go,” Jessica said. “So we’d just sit in our garage and play.”

In 2003, when they were 13 and 15 years old, they started a garage-punk band called Mika Miko that became so successful — landing them copious mentions in music publications, a cameo in a documentary, and tours in Europe and Japan — that Jessica dropped out of high school. (Jennifer had already graduated.) For seven years Mika Miko operated as a quintet until the other members of the band decided they wanted to do other things with their lives, like attend college.

It was then that the sisters realized they wanted to dedicate their lives to music.

“When I was younger, I was never like, ‘One day, I’m going to be in a rock ‘n’ roll band,’ ” Jennifer said. “But after Mika Miko broke up, I was like, ‘Wait, this is what I want to do: play music.’ ”

Looking back on Mika Miko, the Clavins are grateful that they had the chance to figure out their sound and try new things before starting Bleached. Jennifer: “We always say, ‘Everyone needs their first band.’ ”

Jessica: “Yeah, if we never broke up, I would feel like I was still dating my first boyfriend.”

In addition to Welcome The Worms and the band’s upcoming tour (their first in two years), 2016 has marked another milestone for Bleached:

EMMA RUTH RUNDLE – ” Marked For Death “

Posted: December 18, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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This is a record that decisively indicates what’s to be found within then duly delivers with a thundering, fearsome bout of heavyweight indie rock. Marked for death? You better damn well believe it.

Something like Cat Power battling her way through the heaviest of thunderstorms, the new record is a marked stride forward in to the abyss from her 2014 ‘Some Heavy Ocean’ LP, the eight tracks on ‘Marked For Death’ positively burn with intensity, even before you dig in to the wildly striking set of lyrics that accompany these dramatic compositions. Indicative of the soaring, stifling nature of the record as a whole, the opening, and title, track stands as one of the year’s most ominous tracks; “Who else is going to love someone like you that’s marked for death?” Emma Ruth Rundle bellows with all the fiery ferocity of someone who sees the world a little differently to most. A monumental effort not for the weary-hearted; but a monumental effort all the same.

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Emma Ruth Rundle lives in Los Angeles and participates in music (Marriages, Red Sparowes, The Nocturnes – but alone) and visual/video art. Managed by Sargent House.

DAWES – ” Somewhere Along The Way ” Sofar Session London

Posted: December 10, 2016 in MUSIC
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The Los Angeles rock band named Dawes took a sharp turn without signaling on their latest work. The group’s earlier releases cemented their role in the neo-Laurel Canyon folk-rock scene, along with acts like Jonathan Wilson, Jenny Lewis and Rilo Kiley. They all riff on the work of acts like Jackson Browne, CSN and the Byrds. Dawes‘ leader, Taylor Goldsmith, has gone the furthest in that direction, aided by the similarity between his wan timbre and that of Browne. But for ‘Die,’ Dawes killed their darlings, swerving sharply from folk-rock to the warm, ’70s pop-soul of Michael McDonald and early Steely Dan. In the process, they downplayed their guitars and drums, focusing instead on the funk of their bass and the soul in their keyboards. The result offered a fascinating parallel to the trajectories of Wilco and My Morning Jacket. Both bands made their own leaps from traditional folk, rock and country to something more inventive. At the same time, the new songs by Dawes prove catchier than anything produced by either of those acts. You’ll find more melodically-sweet tunes on ‘Die’ than on any rock album released the year.

Dawes performing “Somewhere Along The Way” at Sofar London on November 5th, 2016

The DOORS – ” London Fog “

Posted: December 9, 2016 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
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The Doors are to release a new album, London Fog 1966, which will consist of recently discovered live recordings, the earliest known to exist.

Available From Rhino/Bright Midnight Archives on December 9th, they will be released in a Collector’s Edition Boxed Set on CD And Vinyl along with 8 x 10 prints of unseen photos and replica memorabilia.

The music was recorded during the Doors tenure as the house band at the London Fog, a Sunset Strip dive bar located close to Whisky a Go Go. The seven song set has been remastered by Doors engineer Bruce Botnick.

The set includes covers of standards like Muddy Waters’ “Rock Me” and “I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”. The set also includes performances of “Baby, Please Don’t Go” (Big Joe Williams), “Don’t Fight It” (Wilson Pickett) and “Lucille” (Little Richard) alongside two originals: “Strange Days” and “You Make Me Real”, which wasn’t officially released on a studio album until Morrison Hotel in 1970.

The Doors band in 1968

Many of the countless Doors live albums are far from essential, but this one feels genuinely important. The recently discovered 1966 audience recording from a gig at the London Fog in Los Angeles, captures the band in their lesser-known embryonic period. Their sound is already in place and Jim Morrison is on the verge of becoming the Lizard King, using the near-empty Sunset Strip venue to develop the necessary stagecraft to get his mojo rising. The various covers range from smouldering, sensual blues (BB King’s Rock Me) to raw, roughhouse rockers (Big Joe Williams’ Baby Please Don’t Go). The two originals – a tightly wound, thrillingly focused You Make Me Real and a particularly ominous, spooked and spooky Strange Days – may be respectively two and four years away from their studio versions, but already sound eerily fully formed. Throughout, disinterested audience chatter and the chink of glasses belies the fact that within months, the London Fog’s unknown house band would be among the hottest groups in the world.

London Fog 1966 track Listing:

“Rock Me”
“Baby, Please Don’t Go”
“You Make Me Real”
“Don’t Fight It”
“I’m Your Hoochie Coochie Man”
“Strange Days”
“Lucille”

 

CLAIRE CRONIN – ” Black Legs “

Posted: December 8, 2016 in MUSIC
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Claire Cronin is an artist from Los Angeles (currently living in Athens, GA) who makes poems, songs, and performances.
For Over And Through cassette on Ba Da Bing Records: this EP was recorded at my parents’ house in Pacific Palisades, California, except for “The Moon” which was recorded in my apartment in another part of LA.

viola and mixing/mastering by Ezra Buchla.

Claire Cronin’s beautifully brooding collaboration with John Dieterich (Deerhoof), “Came Down a Storm” is now available through Ba Da Bing Records. It reaches Jason Molina-like levels on the sadness scale, but Cronin’s raw, unwavering vocals soar amongst Dieterich’s arrangements, creating a folk-like album that’s as wondrously hopeful as it is dark. You can catch Claire touring the release this May with Ezra Buchla, playing alongside the likes of Palehound, Chris Cohen, Katie Von Schleicher, Cassandra Jenkins and TALSounds (Good Willsmith).

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KILO TANGO – ” Psychedelic Heart “

Posted: November 25, 2016 in MUSIC
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Some of the best bands are the ones that I’d want to call friends. Kilo Tango is a prime example of that – their magical garage rock is so effortlessly fun that it makes me want to befriend each of the band’s four members. And if their gritty and glittery pop wasn’t enough for you, then frontwoman Katie Mitchell vocals are a perfect pop vocal.

Their newest single “Psychedelic Heart” might sound lighthearted on the surface but is about things getting tough and needing to run away from all of life’s problems. Coasting along by with surfy guitar riffs , terrific drum sound and jangly tambourines, this escapist song makes for the ultimate summer dream.

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Vocals/Guitar: Katie Mitchell
Backup Vox/Rhythm Guitar: Brianna Peterson
Drums: Caden Clinton
Bass: Dadolfo Calero

DIAMOND HANDS – ” Just Another Day “

Posted: November 14, 2016 in MUSIC
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diamondhands

Very cool power pop track that will get stuck in your head for day. You’ve been warned.

Debut album by Los Angeles duo Diamond Hands. Both members are audio engineering grads, capable of imbuing their music with organic tones reminiscent of The Beatles, and the Stones; Bowie, Nilsson, The Kinks, and The Other Half. (2016)

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ALYESAKA – ” Lose My Place “

Posted: November 13, 2016 in MUSIC
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If you’re looking at the word Alyeska and thinking that sounds like Alaska, you’re not far wrong for it is the archaic spelling of that big cold state near Russia. Alyeska is also the name that singer sonwriter and Montana native Alaska Reid chose for the band she formed after relocating her life to the bustling climes of Los Angeles.

The quartet make retro-leaning, guitar-powered alternative rock fronted by one of the most unique and powerful female voices out there today.

Just this year, Alyeska finished their debut LP with producer John Agnello at The Magic Shop in NYC, whose credits include Dinosaur Jr, Kurt Vile, Sonic Youth and Phosphorescent– all artists that inspired the band.

This week Alyeska, a three-piece with Alasaka augmented by Ben Spear and Enzo Scardapane, have shared their new single, Lose My Place. From an intro of rolling toms and mathsy guitars, Alaska’s vocal arrives, it’s a little jazzy, but also raw, easy and anxious, somewhere between Margaret Glaspy and Torres. The track ebbs and flows, from noisy and complex, to sweet poppy choruses and an immense outro that could be Rilo Kiley or Field Mouse. The track is taken from the band’s upcoming John Agnello produced album, which doesn’t have a release date or a title as yet, but we’re already marking down as one of 2017’s most anticipated releases.

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WHITNEY – ” No Woman “

Posted: November 11, 2016 in MUSIC
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The fabulous Los Angeles. based outfit Whitney rose from the ashes of the Smith Westerns, and they prove that a tune doesn’t need a brash, chunky riff to be thoroughly enjoyable.
This song is effortlessly beautiful with it’s stripped back vocals diced over foot-tapping guitar work. A lot goes on beneath this track, with strings, piano and a few big band brasses. However, it’s the simple, funky guitar riffs laced throughout which brings all the elements together. You could honestly take out every other instrument and the song would still shine.

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