Category Archives: Music

Adam Green & Binki Shapiro’s New Late 60′s Inspired Folk-Pop Album

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Photo by Lauren Dukoff

Former Moldy Peaches singer and artist Adam Green has teamed up with Little Joy‘s Binki Shapiro and made a sun-drenched, late 60′s inspired folk-pop album. Adam Green & Binki Shapiro‘s self-titled record is out January 29th on Rounder Records and is really just the perfect little summertime album. The short, but sweet record is filled with catchy arrangements and beautiful vocals, but only clocks in at just under 28 minutes in length. I know I’ll be wearing it out in no time just like I did with the Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger and Smokey & Miho, both wonderful duet projects as well.

The collaboration came about when Adam who’s released a number of successful solo albums sang back up vocals on Little Joy’s debut record. That led to a supporting slot on their tour in Brazil where he got to know Binki better and the idea blossomed from there, “I really, really liked Binki’s voice – it’s just amazing — and she was the number-one person I wanted to collaborate with.” 

The duo is about to embark on a mini West Coast tour starting on January 27th at the Griffin in San Diego and ending on February 2nd at the Chapel in San Francisco. Tickets are also still available for their record release show at Los Angeles’ Bootleg Theatre on January 29th via Ticketfly. Definitely pick up their new album next week as well as a ticket to one of their upcoming shows before they sell out, which should be any day now.

 

New Music: Dog Bite Premieres Single and Readies Debut LP, Velvet Changes

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Photo by Katherine Cooper

Washed Out keyboardist Phil Jones’ Dog Bite is about to release their debut LP, Velvet Changes on Carpark Records on Feb. 5th. Paste Magazine recently premiered the second single Forever, Until and I’ve been playing it non-stop since I first heard it. If you like your dream-pop and 90′s lush sounds like I do, you’ll love what Dog Bite is doing.

Dog Bite will be heading out on the road with Toro Y Moi starting on January 30th at the Crescent Ballroom in Phoenix, AZ and ending on March 3rd at the Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles with a ton of dates in between. Definitely check out the new song and grab some tickets to an upcoming show via Ticketmaster.

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Video Watch: Scotland’s Django Django Hand of Man

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Photograph by David Drake

Django Django released their self-titled debut record last fall on Ribbon Music and was not only nominated for a Mercury Prize, but was also listed in Rolling Stone and NME‘s top 50 albums of 2012. They’ve been touring since last January when their album was initially released overseas. I missed them when they performed at Bardot in Los Angeles for School Night last September and they unfortunately had to cancel their Iceland Airwaves appearance due to illness. Lucky for me and you, they are back on the road with dates across the U.S. starting in March including two nights at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg with the last show of the tour arriving on March 23rd at LA’s Fonda Theatre.

Last week they premiered their new video on Nowness for the Hand of Man directed by Bafta Award winner John Maclean, brother to Django drummer/producer Dave Maclean. Way to keep it in the family guys! Check out the video and grab some tickets for an upcoming show via Ticketmaster.

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Video Watch: Sky Ferreira’s Lost In My Bedroom

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Sky Ferreira is back with a new video for Lost in my Bedroom directed by Grant Singer. This is the third video from her Ghost EP along with Everything is Embarrassing and Sad Dream. The video comes with a warning that it may induce an epileptic seizure so be careful out there.

New York Magazine just named Everything is Embarrassing their song of the year for 2012. You can see her perform tonight on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon backed by the Roots and you can look forward to the release of her debut LP later this year and hopefully an extended tour.

Angel Olsen’s Voice Shines Bright on her New Album, Half Way Home

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Angel Olsen has one of those rare voices that deserves to be heard. You might actually have already heard it and didn’t even know it from her work with Bonnie “Prince” Billy and The Cairo Gang, but when I first heard her debut Strange Cacti a while back, I was instantly mesmerized by her unique voice. She self-describes it as, “Never changing, always changing” which makes perfect sense after listening to her newest album Half Way Home from Bathetic Records. I was lucky enough to ask her a few questions regarding what she’s learned from being on the road, as well as how she came up with the cover art for her new record.

In regards to the cover art for Half Way Home… “The cover work for the album began as a photograph of a girl looking out into the mountains from a high point. It was taken from the top of Knapps Castle, just outside of Santa Ynez. I asked Steve Krakow/Plastic Crimewave  to make a drawing based upon that image. I’ve always been a fan of his magazine, Galactic Zoo Dossier, and his column in The Chicago Reader “The secret history of chicago music”.  He’s been a friend for years and I thought if anyone should work on this, it should be him.” As for why she didn’t use a photo… “I didn’t want to use a photo of myself in the end. I felt that I shouldn’t be framed this time around, something else should be.”

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Synthpop band Y△CHT Celebrates Its 10 Year Anniversary

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YACHT’s Claire L. Evans perfoms at their 10 yr Anniversary Celebration – Echoplex 12/ 8/ 2012

Celebrating 10 years of making music as YACHT, Jona and company played to a sold out crowd at LA’s Echoplex on December 8th, 2012 playing songs from their whole oeuvre. With DJ Jacques Renault warming up the crowd (or was it angering… chants of YACHT could be heard from the first few rows) with an ear shattering, extremely long set.

With YACHT starting almost an hour late, the excited crowd (myself included) got right into dancing as soon as Jona took the stage, with Claire L. Evans and the rest of the band following shortly after. The celebratory performance was a best of set that included crowd favorites The Afterlife, Utopia, and Dystopia (The Earth is on Fire). Let’s hope YACHT has another 10 plus years in them. Check out YACHT’s new single and video, Second Summer in collaboration with ADHD.

Former Fleet Foxes Drummer, Josh Tillman aka Father John Misty

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Father John Misty performing at the FYF Fest August 2, 2012

Father John Misty, aka Josh Tillman left Fleet Foxes in January of 2012 to the disbelief of many fans, myself included. I personally thought he was crazy, I mean he’s been releasing excellent solo albums as J. Tilllman for years, but why would he leave such a successful band like Fleet Foxes? When I first heard his new record Fear Fun under the moniker Father John Misty, I knew why. The album which he produced with Jonathan Wilson is amazing from start to finish and is definitely one of my favorite records of the year. He for one has always stated that he was just a hired hand for Fleet Foxes and just learned the drum parts for their songs.

With his dry sense of humor and imposing stage presence, he stole the show from many an act he was performing with, he definitely stole the show at FYF Fest 2012. I remember Kevin Bronson from Buzz Bands LA telling me after his performance, “he’s like Dean Martin“, which I thought was a perfect compliment. The singer is just hilarious and can rival many a stand-up comic with his quick witted comebacks to any fan that makes a comment out loud while he’s performing.

His humor also extends to his website calling his upcoming tour dates, “Opportunities to Capture Cell Phone Footage of a Live Rock Show You Went To”. Yes, he’s heading back on the road in 2013 with some headline dates as well as support for The Walkmen, before heading to Australia. Tickets are available for all shows including his last show of the year on Dec. 29th at the El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles via Ticketmaster.

Also check out his video for “Hollywood Forever Cemetery Sings” which his website describes as the following, “In this 3 hour experimental film, Aubrey Plaza reprises her career-defining role as Duncan Splays, a retired bounty-hunter and casual naturalist.”

 

Jonathan Bates’ Big Black Delta plays Every Show like it’s his Last

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Photo by James Moriarty

I’ve been a huge fan of Jonathan Bates’ music for a long time. He was in the LA based band Mellowdrone, who I first saw back at the Troubadour in 2003 and loved. I first saw Big Black Delta at the Satellite in Los Angeles in mid 2011 during one of the free Monday night residences. I can’t remember who else played that night, but Big Black Delta made a lasting impression. I didn’t even realize it was the singer from Mellowdrone, since it was just Bates on stage by himself in darkness with a laptop and an array of lights behind him with a harder electronic sound. I did know that I was instantly taken by the music and his intensity. Earlier this year I saw him open for M83 at Club Nokia, this time he was backed by two hard hitting female drummers which definitely made it a more powerful dynamic and I was blown away again.

I was fortunate enough to speak with him the other day and he was nothing more than gracious. When I asked about his intensity on stage, he mentioned the old adage, “I like to play every show like it’s my last, since you never know”. I also asked what was the one record that changed things for him in regards to making music. “Sparklehorse. When I first heard Good Morning Spider… he played all the instruments on that record and I thought, I could do something like that and make my own thing. I even named Mellowdrone after his band, using a three syllable name just like he did”. The “he” Jonathan is referring to is the late Mark Linkous, mastermind behind Sparklehorse. I mentioned that I had known him back in the late 80′s when we worked together at a telemarketing office in LA, he was in a band called Dancing Hoods at the time. Probably dated myself there, but hopefully he got a kick out of my story.

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