Results tagged “rock”

In 2001 The Appleseed Cast found themselves in a sticky situation in Germany. Their booking agent had told some promoters at a record store that the band would do an acoustic set. Lead singer, Chris Crisci explains, "Prior even going over to Europe we had had this discussion with our agent. He wanted us to do an acoustic show. We said no. He asked again. We said no. So we get to this record store in Germany, and they were like "So you're playing this acoustic thing?" I was so pissed. How much more clear could we be? But it turns out that people really liked what we were playing." Crisci decided to try out some of the new material he had been writing on the side, and it went really well. So well, he decided to form his own folk side project, Old Canes.

Some of us were worried that Julian Casablancas had pulled a Dave Chappelle and disappeared from rock 'n' roll forever. The lead singer of The Strokes, a band who defined underground New York cool for half a decade, vanished from the spotlight after the band's third album. Although never officially disbanded, other Strokes band members began releasing their own solo projects and most of us thought it was all over. (For the record: apparently it's not. Apparently the Strokes are still just on hiatus.) Now out of nowhere, after three years of mysterious absence, a newly sober Julian Casablancas has emerged in LA of all places with a brand new solo record, Phrazes for the Young. And get this, it's upbeat.

Despite the fact that their economy was pulverized to bits last year, from a musical standpoint Iceland is coming out on top. In the originality category they're especially strong. It doesn't matter whether you're into Sigur Rós, Múm or Björk you have to admit, they sound like nothing else. Now you can add another name to that list. Sin Fang Bous the new solo project of Sindri Mar Sigfusson, who took some time off from his band Seabear, to write a gorgeous experimental pop album Clangour. Never heard of him? Fair enough, his first show in LA is tonight at the El Rey Theatre, but if you like Animal Collective and Panda Bear, you might want to take a listen. We caught up with Sindri before his show and asked him a few questions.

For those of you who don't know, White Rabbits isn't just a rock band from New York City. It's a band of six drummers from New York City. Watching their live show is like having each note pounded into your chest with a sledgehammer... in a good way. At any given time, three or more members are pummeling their instruments with an energy that is both mesmerizing and terrifying. It's impossible to attend a show without finding yourself clapping along, pounding on your chest, jumping up and down, and desperately restraining yourself from drumming on your neighbor's back. We caught up with lead singer, Stephen Patterson from the road.

“I met and fell in love with a girl in Montreal while on tour with Irving, and just before signing with Dangerbird,” Church recalls. “And then, while touring behind the Sea Wolf record, I spent most of my time off in Montreal with her. Apart from "Wicked Blood" and "O Maria!," which I wrote in Los Angeles, everything on White Water was written in Montreal, holed up in our little apartment, a block away from the river. That was all of last fall, winter and spring, so I was very much influenced by that experience, and a lot of the record is set there in my immediate surroundings, along with remembrances of being home on the West Coast.”

Descriptions of Bedrock Rehearsal Studios sound like fevered pipe dreams of an aspiring musician. The kind you've probably had with your buddies while smoking on the back porch of some house party or in the backseat of a car on the way to a show. Conversations that go something along the lines of, "Dude, when I get enough money. I'm going to have my own recording studio. And there will be rehearsal studios with different themes. And a repair shop for when we break shit...

                     

Monsters of Folk is one of the most honest super groups I've ever seen. What I mean is this: most super groups are so in love with their new project that they pretend that it is their only musical work to date and that the audience is solely there to hear that album. They get so wrapped up in this feeling that they refuse to play the hits that everyone came there to see. I'm pleased to report that Monsters of Folk, a group made up of Conor Oberst, Jim James, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis, did no such thing. They were fully aware that most of the people who packed the sold out Greek Theater were mildly curious about Monsters of Folk's debut but were mostly there to see Bright Eyes, My Morning Jacket, and M. Ward.

Most people spend New Years Day wallowing in self pity under the weight of a beastly hangover or trying desperately to piece together the foggy series of events from the previous evening. The three members of The Low Anthem: Jeff Prystowsky, Josie Adams, and Ben Knox Miller set off to a tiny cabin on Block Island, RI on the first day of 2008 to record an album. The result was Oh My God, Charlie Darwin a folk album released in June of this year, which is chocked full of intelligent lyrics inspired by America's past and present laid gently on top of harmonies that make your heart ache. We caught up with bassist, Jeff Prystowsky, in Seattle as he was waiting for his pancakes this morning to talk about his latest album. Here is some of what was said.

       

New York-based As Tall as Lions opened for Mutemath last night at Club Nokia at LA Live. After chatting with lead singer and guitarist Dan Nigro last week, it was a treat to see the band dive headlong with gusto into their 45-minute set which showcased the best of their latest full-length release, You Can't Take it With You, and one indulgence into the back catalog (the wonderfully haunting "Ghost of York" from their 2006 self-titled release).

Elvis Perkins is back with a brand new sophomore album, Elvis Perkins in Dearland and this time he's ditching the solo act and bringing his band with him. The result is this delightfully eloquent collection of songs about live, love, and death is inspired by the New Orleans tradition of having a raucous band follow a funeral march. We sat down with Perkins before his show at the Troubadour and asked him a few questions about his new EP Doomsday and the end of the world.

                     

Wrapped in a thick blanket of Sunday morning fog, Hollywood Forever Cemetery looked magical. In the soft darkness, palms trees and graves emerged on either side of the path, and there was a miraculous quiet that hovered over the cemetery. And then out of the gloom...a beacon of light. No, not the stage, the coffee vendor! Some enterprising folks had thought to put up a stand selling coffee and treats to the bleary eyed masses, which had a huge line trailing behind it of desperate people with cash already in their outstretched hands. Caffeine addiction is no joke.

"We were bums without jobs or anything to do, so we decided to form a band." Wye Oak's lead singer, Jenn Wasner giggles. "We really didn't want to do the typical acoustic stripped down duo type of band. It was really important to us that we had a range. Andy pretty much brainstormed his whole set up. I was pretty skeptical that he could pull it off. He wanted to create this whole bass drum thing. He disappeared into his basement for months and finally emerged with this instrument and was like, "Check it out! I can do it." And we had a band." Three years later, these unemployed bums have emerged as one of the most interesting bands out of Baltimore in a long time. Their hypnotizing vocals and hazy shoegaze melodies soon attracted the ears of Merge Records and the band took off.

              

There is no denying that Karen O. of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs is a rock god. If it hasn't been written in stone, let's do that right now. Ask anyone who was in the sold-out crowd on Thursday night, and they will tell you that she was mesmerizing. Granted she comes with a lot of props and costumes, but even if Ms. O had come out wearing a burlap sack and stood there doing nothing, every eye in the place would be on her. Sure there are singers with better voices. Sure there are lead singers who can dance better than her. Sure there are people who wear more outrageous clothes. But Karen O. has got "it" whatever that intangible thing may be. That certain something that makes a giant zebra striped headdress/hoodie adorned with a circle of green tape in the middle and blue striped tights, look badass rather than utterly ridiculous.

The Soft Pack is officially screwed. Originally named, The Muslims, this hot garage band from San Diego (recently located to LA) , caught about the same amount of attention for their name as for their music. Eventually it got to the point where the band thought it would be better if they just changed it to the Soft Pack. As guitarist Matty McLaughlin explains, "We were sick of the shit people would say about the old name. I guess they were trying to be funny and some things that were said came off as racist… It just became fucking stupid." So they changed it, and were rewarded with a torrent of disapproval like a city under siege. Fans accused them of being lily-livered sissies and not sticking to their guns. Damned if they did, damned if they didn't. Whatever their name, they rock, hard, so we'll ignore all this nonsense about names and labels and whatnot, and focus instead on their music. We had a chat with Matty McLoughlin about The Soft Pack's sophomore album, which they just finished recording in Brooklyn a few weeks ago. Here is some of what was said.

You know that giant, gaping hole in your heart where the new Arcade Fire album should be? Might I suggest filling some of it with Fanfarlo's debut disk Reservoirs. The British six piece outfit stuffs their tunes to the brim with horns, glockenspiels, chimes, violins, guitars, bass, drums, and Balthazar's lovely, haunting vocals. Lyrically the album is all about mysterious misfortunes inspired by ghosts, Howard Hughes, and UFOs, weaving stories that are as intricate as the melodies behind them. We chatted with Simon Balthazar last weekend about the new disk. Here is some of what was said.

"I was pretty much just writing songs because they had to come out," Stuart McLamb tells me over the phone as he and his band the Love Language desperately try to navigate the back roads of North Carolina somewhere in the vicinity of Raleigh. "A song doesn't really exist until you record it, and I had all of these songs in my head that I had to put out there. Fuck, we've seen that sign before! " A few years ago, Stuart McLamb recorded the Love Language's self titled debut album in his parents' basement. Reeling from a breakup and carrying around a head bursting with songs he sat down, wrote, played, and recorded the entire disk on a $300 recording device. The result was a brilliant body of work with a gritty, lo-fi sound, which has been winning him fans all over the country.

"If it's a million degrees and the world is on fire, where do we have a show? The desert," Kevin Richard, lead guitarist for the Mannequin Men, laughs from his van heading up Highway 5, "That's how we roll. If there was an epic snowstorm right now we'd be playing Quebec." Humor is what makes these Chicago garage rockers so much fun to watch. Their sound is meat and potatoes garage rock influenced heavily by the Stooges and the Replacements, but underneath the snotty vocals you can hear genuine discontent spiked with a dash of raunchy humor. Like the Black Lips, these guys write about a generation of kids who finished school to enter world to a world which has no employment for them. They write for those who are worn out and frustrated by working dead end jobs with no sign of things turning around. The Mannequin Men harness this rage and turn it into fuel for their songs with some sprinklings of sexual frustration just for kicks.

              

"Brothers and Sisters I have a story for you," announced a skinny man in a white collared shirt. He then relayed to us a tale of a magic man on Hollywood Blvd. who gave him magic coins that got him so high he saw Jesus. He then denounced Jesus and said that the next band would be even better than the son of God, which is a pretty tough introduction to live up to. I'm sure that had electric guitars been around when Jesus walked the earth, he would have been freakishly good at it.

What happens when 100,000,000+ record-selling, synth-pop pioneering, Depeche Mode, go unplugged?

The deaths of James Brown or the Wicked Wilson Pickett left a huge gaping hole in the soul universe, but all is not lost Black Joe Lewis is picking up where they left off. Bursting out of Austin with a eight piece set up, Black Joe Lewis and his Honeybears have been drawing fans like flies to a honey jar with their saucy dirty, blues. The songs of their debut album,Tell 'Em What Your Name Is! get to the meat of what life is all about when you're young: being broke ("I'm Broke"), one night stands ("Sugarfoot"), amour ("Bitch, I Love You") and getting down ("Boogie"). Black Joe Lewis was kind enough to talk with us before his show at the Troubadour. Here is some of what was said.

Some bands are like those brilliant, glowing sparklers that you light on Independence Day. They burn really brightly for a couple minutes and then fizzle out. Promising Nashville rockers Be Your Own Pet did just that. They put out an album, toured for a couple years, and then imploded in on themselves. A year later, rising from the ashes of that band, former guitarist and bassist, Jake and Jamin Orrall have decided to get serious about their side band, Jeff the Brotherhood. Releasing their fifth reverb heavy, garage rock album (and first really serious foray as an independent group) the brothers will be opening for Ted Leo and the Pharmacists at the Echo on Friday.

                            

Remember Motely Crue? Sure you do. So do the thousands who packed arenas around the country to catch Vince Neil, Tommy Lee, Nikki Sixx, and Mick Mars doing what they do (due?) for this summer's Crue Fest 2: The White Trash Circus. LAist fave protographer, and Tommy Lee's pal, Drew "Rukes" Ressler joined the tour to catch a dose of the 1980s Sunset Strip. And yes, Pam Anderson is still smoking hot.

Three weeks ago, someone handed me a copy of Frankel's latest album, Anonymity Is The New Fame. I was floored. Here was a songwriter who wove intricate lyrics in between lovely melodies that captured your imagination. It was the sort of album that required you to lie on the floor, stare at the ceiling, and absorb its stories. Naturally, my next move was an internet search for the date of his next live show. As it turns out, it's "never". That's right - never. I figured I must have heard wrong. I mean, what kind of artist puts out a record and then doesn't tour?

       

If Guy Garvey was half as pretty as Chris Martin, Elbow would have been at the top of the charts a long time ago, neck in neck with Coldplay. As it is Elbow's richly melodic rock, powered by Garvey's transcendent voice has long made them the darlings of critics and music geeks everywhere, but not as celebrated as they should be be the mainstream. Such is life. Over the past ten years, Elbow has gathered an extremely diverse and loyal base, which poured into the Wiltern on a Wednesday night, selling out the house. There really is something magical about standing in between a behomoth of a man, covered in tattoos, in a jean jacket with the sleeves cut off, and a tiny scrap of a girl, who couldn't be more than sixteen, wearing tons of glittery eyeshadow, and hearing them both unabashedly belting out the same song at the top of their lungs.

Some people go green by driving Priuses. Others brag about their bio-diesel conversions. Don't get me wrong. These are both admirable attempts at meaningful earth friendliness, but when you really want hardcore bragging rights, nothing beats abandoning the auto altogether. For their first West coast tour, The folk-pop duo known as Blind Pilot decided to head from Vancouver to San Diego by...bicycle.

Don't judge a pop band by it's cover. Yes okay, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart, is a heartbreakingly silly name for a band (I mean I don't think they'll be tattooed on anybody's chest anytime soon) but man they've got a sparkly debut disk. Chock full of 80s inspired pop, the kind that would fit in the background of any John Hughes movie, the self-titled offering has already have generated some most impressive buzz. Lead singer, Kip Berman was kind enough to answer our questions while he was running around Pitchfork Festival this weekend. Here is some of what was said.

Sometimes music comes from the least likely of places, but 'lo and behold, three siblings have recorded an album that would make Fats Domino smile. Kitty (16) Daisy (21) and Lewis (18) have made an album that includes playing 40’s/50’s R&B and country, western and swing, Hawaiian and rock ‘n’ roll...basically anything that your grandparents danced to...and made it fresh again. And who doesn't like to groove to oldies (even if they're really newies?)

Like so many teenagers before him, when Ryan Sollee was fifteen he asked his parents for a guitar. Due to his less than perfect grades, they turned him down, but young Sollee was not to be deterred. He went down to the garage and built one from scratch with some of his dad's fishing line and some balsa wood. "It sounded horrible," he admitted, "But my parents were so impressed, that they broke down and got me one. Either that or the noise was getting to them."

                     

It takes, frankly, balls, to name your album as an homage to a man whose music has remained popular for almost three centuries. Touring in support of Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix, French import rockers Phoenix took to the stage at the Wiltern Sunday night not just as alt-rock stars, but rather as alt-rock gods, playing a remarkably high-energy, finely-tuned show that gripped the worshiping crowd with every note.

It was all an accident. All he originally wanted to do was start a swimwear line with his girlfriend for kicks. Sean Bones had no intention of forming a reggae-influenced pop band or acting in a film, let alone shouldering the responsibilities of holding down the lead role. In fact he's not entirely sure how it all happened. One minute he was happily playing with his indie rock band, Sam Champion, in Brooklyn, the next minute he's got a movie, Wah Do Dem, premiering at LAFF and a reggae album dropping in July. How did this side project spiral into a brand new band? We caught up with Sean this weekend to find out.