I’m a sucker for a band with a good horn section (no Hillbilly Jim). I don’t know what it is. Maybe the brass fanfare reminds me of Renaissance Faires. Or maybe it reminds me of brass monkeys, both alcoholic and Beastiefied. So when I heard the Minor Canon’s doleful, soulful, and horn-ful (if that isn’t […]

No self-respecting music journalist writes an article on the British five-piece, Art Brut without comparing lead singer, Eddie Argos’ archly ironic demeanor to Jonathan Richman of the Modern Lovers. So let’s just get it out the way. Yeah, Argos has that underachieving but highly intelligent, smirking in the back of the classroom vibe that made […]

Ian Cohen inadvertently cursed me before I even had the chance to play the Twilight Sad’s Fat Cat debut LP, Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters, telling me: “I really like this record, but the lead singer’s voice reminds me an awful lot of Groundskeeper Willie.” “Nonsense,” I scoffed (because when I scoff, it always involves […]

Jerry Garcia is halfway through his second set on a cold midnight in December, San Francisco, 1977. Or at least a very high-quality simulacrum (no Sr. Spielbergo) is singing “Scarlet Begonias” to a swarming El Rey crowd in Los Angeles, thirty years later. I’m in the middle, surrounded on both sides by withered drunken ex-hippies […]

Jason Molina is the most underrated singer/songwriter in music. Sure, he’s somewhat of a critical favorite, but nowhere near the level of Iron & Wine, Bright Eyes, or Sufjan Stevens. He’s never been called the new Elliot Smith, or the new Bob Dylan or the new “magical angel fairy wings pixie dust snowglobe” (or whatever […]

Joe from Radio Free Silverlake has things fairly figured out. Or so it seemed last night at his packed monthly Let’s Independent night at Boardner’s in Hollywood, when the cute pixiesh lead singer of The Happy Hollows broke mid-set to regale a story about a blog-obsessed friend of hers, who begged her to meet the […]

Before I’d even listened to British songwriter, Sam Duckworth’s music I was wary of the guy thanks to his nom de plume, Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly. And the funny thing is, it wasn’t even because he took on that moniker for the dorkiest of reasons ( “Get Cape, Wear Cape Fly” was an instructional […]

1. Wow, this is really boring. 2. Is this boring like According to Jim boring or boring like Mind of Mencia boring? 3. Is there a difference between the two? 4. How can a bands album be that good, but their live show so incredibly fucking dull? 5. I believe that’s what the Doctors call […]

It’s too bad for that whole Wilco thing. Because chances are if that if John Stirrat and Pat Sansone didn’t have a day job in one of the greatest bands on earth, you’d probably know a lot more about their time moonlighting in Autumn Defense. Of course, these guys aren’t anonymous, several blogs have written […]

Today marks the debut of a new occasional column, the not-so-creatively titled, Local Band Watch. Its intent is to provide mini-snapshots of the myriad unsigned bands currently floating around the Los Angeles basin, in an effort to provide more fleshed out-coverage of the vibrant local scene. If you’re looking for more in-depth analysis of other […]