Posts Tagged ‘Los Angeles’

A.O. GERBER – ” Another Place To Need “

Posted: December 26, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

Three years in the making, and A.O. Gerber’s debut album, “Another Place to Need”, could not have come along at a better time. It’s a collection of songs that envelop and surround the listener, but there’s an ethereality at play that suggests a haunting or, even, haunted presence – dreams and fantasy over cold, hard immediacy.

For all the explosive news and fanfare this year brought us, it’s funny that much of our days were pushed into a more muted, understated version of existence. Expansive and warm-toned, Another Place To Need is an album that balances these two oppositional poles with a lot of grace and insight. “What is there left to do but fall into the labyrinth of my mind?” her honey voice asks on “Every Time,” and we just get to sit there and be lucky she let us fall with her for a bit. A.O. Gerber is a singer-songwriter based in Los Angeles, CA.

released May 22nd, 2020

Produced by A.O. Gerber and Madeline Kenney

The Band:
A.O. Gerber – bass, guitar, piano, synth, vocals, wurlitzer,Alex Oñate – drums and percussion Madison Megna – bass, guitar, synth GG – guitar, vocals Chris Pucher – guitar Madeline Kenney – bass, guitar, percussion, synth, vocals, wurlitzer Noah Weinman – trumpet Sasami Ashworth – french horn Haisem Khalfani – saxophone Marina Allen – vocals on “Strangers”
Phil Hartunian – clarinet on “Full Bloom” Philippe Bronchtein – pedal steel on “In the Morning” Jacob Goldman – guitar, piano, synth, vocals on “All I’ve Known”
Scott Brown – bass on “Every Time” and “Old Blue”

A.O. Gerber’s debut album ‘Another Place to Need’ out now on Hand In Hive/Copper Mouth Records

DUMMY – ” EP2 “

Posted: December 20, 2020 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Dummy is five people in Los Angeles making music informed by motorik pulse and minimal composition like the Velvet Underground and Cluster before them. Across five tracks, experimental noise and ambient soundscapes intertwine with hypnotic drone-pop and avant-folk.

Earlier this year, Los Angeles noise-pop band Dummy shared their debut release, “Dummy EP”, via Pop Wig Records. In November, the group put out their second release, EP2, available now on cassette via Born Yesterday Records. They shared the song “Pool Dizzy”—which was the first taste of EP2. Their debut was rooted in krautrock and synth-laden noise pop, and they even threw in a foggy folk tune and an eight-minute new age-esque closer. EP2, on the other hand, leans more on hypnotic synths than driving guitars—apart from “Pool Dizzy.” The track’s throbbing beat, murky guitars and retro keyboards are rejuvenating, and their heavenly, overlapping vocals are the cherry on top. It’s the sound of droning pop euphoria.

Dummy returns five months later after “EP1” with “EP2”, their second release of 2020. Featuring a mix of screeching feedback-laden pop songs woven with non-sequitur ambient soundscapes, “EP2” sees the band further developing their drone-pop style with inspiration taken from kosmische, Japanese ambient, new age, and video game music. Recorded mostly at home using freeware and a smartphone, the six tracks forgo polished production in favour of a kaleidoscopic collage of improvisational sketches. Mixed by Joo-Joo Ashworth and mastered by Greg Obis. Available on cassette from Born Yesterday Records.

Dummy – Dummy EP2 (2020) Thursday Morning 00:00 Pool Dizzy 04:35 Nuages 07:31 Mediocre Garden 10:38 Second Contact 14:52 Prime Mover Unmoved 17:04

COREY HANSON – ” Pale Horse Rider “

Posted: December 19, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0
Large_dc752_coryhanson_palehorserider_mini

“I’ve been driving through the darkness…through the smoke and fire on the ground”

Lingering at the remains of a campfire before dawn, with the politics of the personal burnt into ash, running his stick through what’s left, Wand singer/guitarist Cory Hanson is reflecting on moments of stepping further into himself, finding the ultimate big sky country on the inside of his skull. It’s a combination of songs and sounds that journey through bleak and broken territory and places of sweet, lush remove and it adds up to the best record he’s been involved in yet: his second solo album, “Pale Horse Rider”.

The session was loose and flowed onto tape well. First takes were mostly best takes. Fuelled with DNA lifted from country-rock cut with native psych and prog strands, Cory Hanson guided his craft toward the cosmic side of the highway, a benevolent alien in ambient fields hazy with heat and synths, early morning fog and space echo spreading the harmonies wide. Pale Horse Rider eyes the city, the country and the fragile environment that holds them both in its hands – a record as much about Los Angeles as it can be with its back to the town and the sun in its eyes; as much about nostalgia as new music can be with the apocalypse over the next rise…

On “Pale Horse Rider”, Cory Hanson moves ceaselessly forward. The old myths weave and waft, the shadows of tombstones flickering in the mirages and the light that lies dead ahead. Watch the video for “Paper Fog” now and get ready to saddle up and ride – reserve your copy before it touches down, on March 12th, 2021.

Hanson directed the “Paper Fog” video with Casey Hanson, and it’s a weird one. In the video, Cory Hanson stands on a sand dune, playing his acoustic guitar and looking nightmarish, with red face paint and unnatural contact lenses. Meanwhile, a disoriented Santa Claus wanders through the desert and then rips his own skin off. 

Pale Horse Rider released March 12th, 2021 through Drag City Records

MIDNIGHT SISTER – ” Foxes “

Posted: December 6, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Midnight Sister, the Los Angeles-based duo of Juliana Giraffe and Ari Balouzian, are releasing a new album, “Painting the Roses”, on January 15, 2021 via Jagjaguwar. This week they shared another song from it, the glam-sounding “Foxes,” via an Oliver Bernsen-directed video for the single. Midnight Sister – the project of intense creatives Juliana Giraffe and Ari Balouzian – is brought to you by the isolating landscape of the San Fernando Valley – its colours, its diners, its lunatics, its neon lights. Both lifelong residents of this storied valley, Giraffe and Balouzian have only become more inspired by the area’s mythology over the years, its two-faced magical wonderland and tragic circus. And Saturn Over Sunset works almost as an album version of Altman’s Shortcuts, each song a character study of the valley’s odd personae. Giraffe, 23, the daughter of an LA disc jockey, was raised almost exclusively on disco and Bowie. Her lyrics and lyrical melodies, informed very much by her film-making background, were composed gazing out from a tiny retail window on Sunset Boulevard. Her Rear Window-like longing allowed her imagination to run wild and cook up the wild narratives that would fill Balouzian’s compositions. Balouzian, 27, is classically trained and already a go-to arranger for odd-pop names like Tobias Jesso Jr. and Alex Izenberg. Midnight Sister represents a first for both of them. It’s Giraffe’s first time writing and performing music. And it’s Balouzian’s first foray into playing true pop music. 

“The album culminated into what felt like an interesting movie of dramatized characters that were around us for 

Giraffe had this to say about the song in a press release: “The song and video explore the relationship between performer and performance. Dissecting what it means to feel trapped by someone’s/something’s gaze and how the inherent invasive nature of the camera corners the performer through a dance of reality.” When Painting the Roses was announced in October the band shared the first new song from it, “Doctor Says,” 

Painting the Roses also includes “Wednesday Baby,” a new song first shared in September via a video for it. Painting the Roses is the duo’s second album, the follow-up to their 2017-released debut album, Saturn Over Sunset, also released by Jagjaguwar. Midnight Sister’s art-pop would appeal to fans of Broadcast, influential ’60s pioneers such as The United States of America and The Free Design, and Charlie Hilton.

Midnight Sister  ‘Panting the Roses’, out January 15th 2021 on Jagjaguwar Recordings.

SOFT BLUE SHIMMER – ” Heaven Inches Away “

Posted: December 2, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , ,
0

Disposable America Record’s appearance on this list – god, those guys are smashing it right now – comes in the form of Los Angeles quartet Soft Blue Shimmer. On ‘Fruitcake,’ the aptly named group fuse dreamy vocals and spun gold guitars to make a sound that’s quite simply heaven made. Written about not being able to shut off your thoughts, contrastingly ‘Fruitcake’ provides an illusory island of calm where worries are dispelled as soon as your feet hit the beach. 

Seasonal reminder that your average nine-track shoegaze album is cheaper than a new sweater! The debut from Los Angeles Soft Blue Shimmer arrived just in time for the temperatures to drop freakishly late in the year, with Heaven Inches Away providing the audio equivalent to throwing on the biggest top in your closet and spending an unreasonable amount of time just sitting next to your radiator, thinking about getting up to do something productive. Upon early inspection, the album’s climax appears to be the hazy sendoff, recalling the same cosmological space warbled about by Cocteau Twins with the cool, laid-back demeanor of someone who could only be unstuck in time in the frantic year 2020. 

http://

Noisy dream pop from LA, CA. Charlie, Kenzo, & Meredith.

Released November 27th, 2020

MARVIN ETZIONI – ” Marvin Country! “

Posted: November 29, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,
0

Marvin Country is Marvin Etzioni’s ambitious fourth album. The two-record set hits the streets on April 17, 2012 and features Lucinda Williams, Steve Earle, John Doe, Richard Thompson, Buddy Miller, Maria Mckee, and more. Marvin Etzioni is an American singer, mandolinist, bassist, and record producer, Etzioni is best known as a founder of, and bassist for, the band Lone Justice.

In 2012, Marvin Etzioni released a double album extravaganza: Marvin Country! It featured guest appearances from folks including John Doe, Lucinda Williams, Buddy Miller, Steve Earle, The Dixie Hummngbirds, Murry Hammond, and Richard Thompson. Even old Lone Justice cohorts Maria McKee, Shayne Fontaine, and David Vaught were along for the ride. But, the origins of some of those songs go back two decades.

Marvin issued Marvin Country: Communication Hoedown himself, on cassette in 1992, saying “I was single-handedly trying to bring back cassettes at a time when the industry said they were done. I still liked the analogue sound versus the high glossy digitalness (to coin a new word) of CDs.” It has never had an official release until now.

http://

There’s country, there’s alt. country, and there’s Marvin Country. It’s a magical place, way off the map, populated by back-porch philosophers, hobos, brokenhearted lovers and spacemen and presided over by the man the L.A. Times called “one heck of a songwriter.” Grammy award winner Marvin Etzioni has been known over the years as producer (Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket, Peter Case), sideman (T Bone Burnett, Dixie Chicks, Grey Delisle) and songwriter (Cheap Trick, Victoria Williams) Even before there was No Depression, Marvin was a co-founder of the seminal roots-rockers Lone Justice. It’s safe to say Marvin is revered in Americana circles worldwide. “Marvin Country!” is his ambitious fourth album, and first in over a decade. The two-record set hits the streets on 16th April. The mandolin man is back. “(Etzioni’s) material ranges from stark folk-based tunes to raw Stone’s-like rockers.”

http://

This time around Marvin lacks his mind blowing poetry & almost makes up the CD set with simple repeatable blues refrains. Yet he is his normal playful self with analogue sound effects, inner jokes, & songs about death & salvation. I hear more Blues & a few Cajun songs than the number of any country style of music. Some other songs are beyond categorization. There are many references about past Country greats as with Pasty Cline & Gram Parson, even the death of Bob Dylan. Don’t worry Bob is still around, but Marvin is thinking about that day that all of us shall meet.

SPIRIT PALACE (Doe Paoro, Maiah Manser) – ” Someday Soon “

Posted: November 21, 2020 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , ,
0

Maiah and I wrote this song during the first lockdown and recorded, produced, and released it ourselves (so thank you to all of you on Bandcamp who continue to support independent musicians – this is very meaningful to us and allows us the privilege to continue doing what we do).

When we wrote this song back in late March, we had no idea we would be going into a second wave and a second lockdown when this song was released, on November 20th, 2020. For us, the delivery of this song into the world at this particular moment, is aligned with our intentions. We wrote this song as a tribute to the non-linearity of time and love, which is to say: 2020 has been a year of distance, but those who are in our hearts are there forever, regardless of time and space, and we will see each other on the other side of this.

http://

As we dip into the holiday season, which is likely a more charged time this year than others as many of us will not be with loved ones celebrating, we hope this song reaches you, lifts your spirits, reminds you that nothing is forever, and we will get through this and be together again.

Released November 20th, 2020
Written and performed by Doe Paoro & Maiah Manser

The SPYRALS – ” Same Old Line “

Posted: November 14, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Los Angeles-based group The Spyrals are gearing up to release their new album ‘Same Old Line’ on October 30th. Taking cues from The Velvet Underground, 13th Floor Elevators and The Stooges by way of Neil Young, Bob Dylan and Muddy Waters, the record sees the band carve out eight songs of raw, back-to-basics rock’n’roll that marries white-knuckle garage-blues, psychedelic repetition and sun-baked alt-country to create “something new with an old soul”. The record is their fourth full-length to date and their first since signing to London-based label Fuzz Club.

Armed with a guitar, harmonica and fuzz pedal, band-leader Jeff Lewis formed The Spyrals when he was living in San Francisco in the early 2010s. Now, though, he’s based in Los Angeles and finds himself backed by a new line-up of musicians. ‘Same Old Line’ was cooked up in new drummer Dash’s garage and recorded over the course of a few days and nights straight to a Tascam tape machine. Jeff recalls: “This is the first album recorded with a new line-up after I moved from San Francisco to Los Angeles. At the time of recording we werenʼt sure if this would be a Spyrals album or something under a different name. At some point during the mixing process I decided to keep moving on under the Spyrals name, so to me this album is a real turning point in the band’s history.” The result is a record that’s just as rooted in the sounds of Nashville and the Mississippi Delta as it is the band’s West Coast garage-rock forebears. 

http://

“Same Old Line is a great addition to the blues canon and sits well up against some of the great records of the genre, both by the past masters and their modern acolytes” – Louder Than War

“The latest offering Same Old Line features influences from The Stooges, The Stones and classic era Creedence all distilled through a haze of Crazy Horse smoke and mirrors.” – Shindig Magazine

Nothing like a bluesy thrasher to lift you up and rock your spirits back to life. … The Spyrals are coming in hot with the thrasher blues tunes, their fresh take on a vintage rock ‘n’ roll sound. “ – Backseat Mafia 

released November 14, 2020

DREAM PHASES – ” Helen Highway “

Posted: November 8, 2020 in MUSIC
Tags: , , , , , ,
0

Raised in California and steeped in the unique elements of the West Coast, Dream Phases filters the magic that emanates from all that surrounds them. From the sun-soaked beaches, verdant valleys, and soaring mountains, to the hard-boiled legacy of Los Angeles and the bright, neon promise of Hollywood, the band is a reflection of the environment in which they are immersed.

Dream Phases began with a vision of evolving the sounds launched by legendary L.A. bands such as The Byrds, The Beach Boys, and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as those who followed, including The Rain Parade, Elliott Smith, Darker My Love, and Autolux. As the synths on the song attest, ‘Helen Highway’ was written while listening to a lot of Gary Numan, with the synthesizer tracks layered in a way that lets the listener fall into the song and be swept along. The lyrics relate how we only get one chance at life, reminding us not to be complacent and to remember we can change continually, pursuing the life we truly want to live. With the influences of not only Gary Numan, but The Verve and The Velvet Underground, the song builds to an ending of pure release. ‘Tandy’ is about reflecting on a past relationship and questioning its outcome. Written with a garage-psych feel influenced by L.A.’s Paisley Underground movement (The Rain Parade, The Dream Syndicate, The Three O’Clock), it’s a song writer Brandon Graham envisions being played by DJ friends at local psych club nights. Like The Creation, the band uses a bow on some of the guitars to create an especially unmistakable psychedelic sound. A 12-string Rickenbacker overdub on the bridge is evidence of Brandon’s immersion in a massive book on The Byrds (especially their 1965-68 heyday) while making the song.

http://

Releases October 30th, 2020

Recorded by Dream Phases Spring/Summer 2020
Written by Brandon Graham

Brandon Graham – Vocals, guitar, bass, synths, engineer
Shane Graham – Drums, percussion, engineer
Keveen Baudouin – Bass, guitar, synth

DUMMY – ” EP2 “

Posted: November 6, 2020 in CLASSIC ALBUMS, MUSIC
Tags: , , , , ,
0

Exclusive: L.A. Noise Pop Band Dummy Announce <i>EP2</i>, Share New Single "Pool Dizzy"

Earlier this year, Los Angeles noise pop band Dummy shared their debut release, “Dummy EP”, via Pop Wig Records. Now the group has put out their second release “EP2”, Last month, they shared “Pool Dizzy”—the first taste of EP2. Their debut was rooted in krautrock and synth-laden noise pop, and they even threw in a foggy folk tune and an eight-minute new age-esque closer. EP2, on the other hand, leans more on hypnotic synths than driving guitars—apart from “Pool Dizzy.” The track’s throbbing beat, murky guitars and retro keyboards are rejuvenating, and their heavenly, overlapping vocals are the cherry on top. It’s the sound of droning pop euphoria.

Dummy returns five months later with “EP2”, their second release of 2020. Featuring a mix of screeching feedback-laden pop songs woven with non-sequitur ambient soundscapes, “EP2” sees the band further developing their drone-pop style with inspiration taken from kosmische, Japanese ambient, new age, and video game music. Recorded mostly at home using freeware and a smartphone, the six tracks forgo polished production in favour of a kaleidoscopic collage of improvisational sketches.

Available on cassette from Born Yesterday Records.

Dummy – Dummy EP2 Thursday Morning 00:00 Pool Dizzy 04:35 Nuages 07:31 Mediocre Garden 10:38 Second Contact 14:52 Prime Mover Unmoved 17:04

Older Entries
Newer Entries