Release Date: 03/04/08 more ›

Release Date: January 29th, 2008 more ›

Release Date: 10/02/2007 more ›

Release Date: 02/05/2008 more ›

Release Date: 01/29/08 more ›

Release Date: 01/29/2008 more ›

Release Date: September 2007 more ›

Release Date: 10/23/07 more ›

Release Date: Fall 2007 more ›

Release Date: 10/23/07 more ›

Release Date: November 6, 2007 more ›

Artist: The Real Tuesday Weld Album: The London Book of the Dead Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: Fall '07 Listen to the track "Last Words": The Real Tuesday Weld is the recording project of Stephen Coates and The London Book of the Dead is his third release under the name and his second with the Six Degrees label. The name itself is very interesting because at the Six Degrees website refers to "the late... more ›

Release Date: Fall '07 more ›

Artist: Tom Middleton Album: Lifetracks Label: Six Degrees Records Release Date: 11/06/07 Listen to the track "Shinkansen": DJ, mixologist, and producer Tom Middleton has put out an album in his own name. You may have heard of some Middleton's other projects of the last 15 years: AMBA, COSMOS, Global Communication, and The Jedi Knights or his remixes of Prince, Coldplay, and Jamiroquai but this is his first release of his own tracks with his own... more ›

Release Date: 10/02/07 more ›

Artist: Beirut Album: The Flying Club Cup Label: Ba Da Bing Records Release Date: 10/09/07 Listen to the track "A Sunday Smile": Beirut is the brainshild of the oft-blogged travelling wunderkind 21-yr old Zach Condon. Whereas Beirut's debut release, Gulag Orkestar, was an obtuse and idealized interpretation of Balkan music, this new release is Zach's take on the music of Parisian street minstrels. With multiple vocal and string tracks, in addition to the expected accordion... more ›

Artist: Foreign Born Album: On The Wing Now Label: Dim Mak Release Date: 8/21/07 Listen to the track "Letter of Inclusion" While all of Foreign Born's members may not be native sons of LA, they are emissaries of a Silver Lake music scene with their own, almost classic, West Coast flavor. "Almost classic" because the era of the Beach Boys, and the Mamas and the Poppas (and to a lesser extent the Eagles) is now... more ›

Artist: Herbie Hancock Album: River: The Joni Letters Label: Verve Records Release Date: 9/25/07 I haven't had a chance to review a release from a "living legend" until this album arrived in my PO box. Herbie Hancock seems like someone who has done it all: a jazz icon unafraid of technology, a winner of multiple Grammy awards and an Oscar, and a virtuoso live performer - but he's never been a lyricist, and had never... more ›

Artist: Neil Young Album: Chrome Dreams Two Label: Reprise Records Release Date: October 23, 2007 “An ambulance can only go so fast”, sang Neil Young thirty-three years ago in the stony career meditation “Ambulance Blues.” “It’s easy to get buried in the past/ When you try to make a good thing last.” It’s kind of funny to think about guys like Pete Townshend and Eric Clapton making records about the perils of aging at... more ›

MGMT Oracular Spectacular Columbia Records Release Date: October 2nd, 2007 (digitally) When Vanwyngarden and Goldwasser, the visionaries at the helm of MGMT, met at Wesleyan University back in 2002, neither of them could have expected a four record, six figure deal from Columbia Records. Let alone being hand picked by Steve Lillywhite. Yet somehow they managed to keep those monstrous figures from tingeing their ingenuity. MGMT's Oracular Spectacular is a wondrous, synth-laden extravaganza that... more ›

Let's face it, 2007 was a mediocre year for movies. Although there are still a couple months left for 2007 to prove it's cinema value, overall it was a disappointing year. Sure Hollywood gave us "300", "Zodiac", and "Once", but we also got "The Number 23", "Norbit", and "Code Name: The Cleaner". So I have my eyes set on 2008, which seems to have a wonderful slate of features for us to see at... more ›

Our Classical Pick of the Week is tonight with the Pasadena Symphony and special guest and timpani rockstar, Jonathan Haas, playing American composer Philip Glass' "Concerto Fantasy for Two Timpanists and Orchestra." With that in mind, we decided to check out the album that features Haas with percussionist Evelyn Glennie. Also on the album, but not in tonight's concert is the "Concerto for Cello and Orchestra," an adventurously beautiful piece with some of Glass' trademark... more ›

Bon Iver For Emma, Forever Ago Self-released Release Date: TBA So this is the phoenix which has risen from the ashes of DeYarmond Edison's demise. Emma, Forever Ago plays as though it was excavated from the depths of front man Justin Vernon's emotional quarry. Although initially it was not intended for release, each song is as painstakingly crafted as the next. The raw, experimental approach (lo-fi percussion and clap-along resolves) to conventional bluegrass infused... more ›

Eulogies Eulogies Dangerbird Records Release Date: 09/11/07 Peter Walker did the right thing when he decided to ditch the solo career for his band Eulogies. For some reason or another, his solo career didn't interest me, but Eulogies' self-titled 2007 release has proven otherwise. The new album is a striking and addictive indie rock endeavor, the antithesis of Walker's previous Wilco-compared work. Eulogies is built upon deceivingly poppy premise. The band name, lyrical content,... more ›

Release Date: October 2, 2007 more ›

Release Date: Summer 2007 more ›

Release Date: 09/25/07 more ›

Artist: No Age Album: Weirdo Rippers Label: Fat Cat Records Release Date: 08/28/2007 Perhaps you had a chance to see No Age at one of their shows at the end of the August at the Troubador or perhaps the Fuck Yeah Fest. If you missed them you'll have a chance to see the LA-based duo of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall (frickin' love that name) again but until then you should consider giving their... more ›

Whether you think he's a bumbling hippy, who let his own freak folk gimmick get to his head, or a distinctive innovator devising masterful records, one thing is certain: Devendra Banhart, who plays at the Orpheum on 10/13, is deliberately trying to make his obscure music more accessible to the masses. He's done so on his latest XL released effort by simply making his vocals and his overall tone more digestible. Smokey Rolls Down Thunder Canyon is a mesmerizing collision of free jazz, 70's rock and roll, Brazilian folk, sock hop, and even motown elements. Banhart's prior efforts comprised a tremendously divisive style of singing yet in certain fringe communities he has been regarded as the herald of the freak folk (or to be politically correct Naturalismo) movement. more ›

Release Date: 09/25/2007 more ›