[Here's an installment of Ears Wide Open, a periodic series highlighting two of the unsigned acts that populate the sprawling little soundboard we call the Southland:]
More than two years ago, Sky Parade caught the ears of the L.A. underground with the song "Losing Control," a joyride of dense, churning guitars that sounds like Primal Scream getting Spiritualized. You figured good things were in store for the quartet if there were more where that came from. Now, a couple of drummers, a lot of sweat and a back injury later, Sky Parade is emerging with a new album. Appropriately, "Love Is Forever" will be self-released on Valentine's Day.
Simple concept here: "Every song is a modern indie rock-inspired love song," says front man Tommy Dietrick, who spent much of last year fine-tuning the record -- when he wasn't laid up with a back injury.
Dietrick, a former member of the Brian Jonestown Massacre, credits new drummer Joel Patterson, who joined a lineup that includes bassist Bobby Bones and guitarist Mathew Lindgren, with helping him put the pedal to the metal and get the album finished. Featuring guest vocals from Miranda Lee Richards and Guylaine Vivarat-Goodich (Molecules), "Love Is Forever" figures to hit the spot for fans of British psychedelia, or anybody else who misses the Verve.
Photo: From left, Bobby Bones, Matthew Lindgren, Tommy Dietrick and Joel Patterson.
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There's no shortage of musicians who toot their horns in Silver Lake. Ah, but those who play horns -- they're noticeable. Take the Minor Canon, a six- or seven-piece (depending on the night) that have been crowding onto club stages to dispense a brassy orchestral pop that, while no threat to make the Top 40 charts, ought to find its way into the hands of an indie filmmaker in need of a soundtrack.
Singer-songwriter Paul Larson has roots in the indie scene that date back to the '90s, when he was a member of Strictly Ballroom with Chris Gunst (Beachwood Sparks) and Jimmy Tamborello (the Postal Service, Dntel). In fact, Larson contributes guitar work to the forthcoming Dntel album "Dumb Luck," due in April.
"No Good Deed Goes Unpunished," the Minor Canon's initial foray into the shadows of pop melancholy, will be self-released on Feb. 20, and even at its birth the debut album has a history, since it was recorded at the Silver Lake house where the Postal Service's "Give Up" took shape (and, Larson points out, where the movie "Heathers" was written). Larson and bandmates Ryan Blake, Ben Eisen, Erik Soderstrom, Mario Frias and Mike Richardson will play the April residency at Spaceland.
||| The Minor Canon performs Feb. 15 at the Echo; the band also performs a record-release show at Sea Level Records in Echo Park on Feb. 20.
Photo of the Minor Canon by Erin Barajas.
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Tonight's touts: Japanese fun bunch Polysics entertain at the Knitting Factory, with support from L.A.'s the Outline. ... Kaki King brings her distinctive guitar work to the Hotel Cafe. ... And Helmet begins a two-night run at the Troubadour.
Time for our weekly trip to the record store. Here are a few of my picks, and one tout by a friendly neighborhood record-store employee:
Top shelf
Youth Group, "Casino Twilight Dogs" (Epitaph/Anti-): Don't hate these Aussies because they're beautiful ... well, their music, that is. Cut from the same emotional cloth as contemporary bands such as Snow Patrol, the quartet's winsome, driving pop sounds as if it could come out of London in 1992 rather than Sydney this decade. Canny guitar work and singer Toby Martin's uncanny vocal resemblance to Tim Booth of James give the album a Britpop feel, but Martin's imagery is more intimate and his delivery less theatrical. Listeners who discovered Youth Group because they heard its cover of Alphaville's "Forever Young" on "The O.C." won't be disappointed by the band's own stuff.
Other recommendations
Busdriver, "RoadKillOvercoat" (Epitaph/Anti-): Project Blowed MC makes good with a flow all his own, rapping of a wild variety backing tracks.
Young Love, "Too Young to Fight It" (Island): Maybe the 17-year-old in your household hasn't discovered disco pop. Or maybe your inner 17-year-old still has a sweet tooth. Hum through the cliches; this is your sugar.
The Early Years, "The Early Years" (Beggars Banquet): Reverb-drenched British trio make me long for the early days ... of Spiritualized, Spacemen 3.
From behind the counter Today's recommendation comes from Sylvia Villarreal, known for the past 3-plus years as "the other person who works there" at Sea Level Records, 1716 W. Sunset Blvd., Echo Park:
Lily Allen, "Alright, Still" (Capitol): Dominating the U.K. in 2006, Allen promises to be the hottest female clogging the airwaves this spring. Filling a much-needed void left by the likes of the Spice Girls, her witty lyrics and steady beats are sure to please hipsters and teeny boppers alike. A fine choice to shake off those winter blues.
[Quiet, please -- correspondent Margaret Wappler reports on a different kind of club show:]
If you talked above a whisper at Dustin O’Halloran’s show last Tuesday, you were proverbially smacked down by a vigilant army of shushers, a strain of music fan usually found at the opera and not the Derby, Los Feliz’s swing lounge. But O’Halloran’s evocatively stark piano music featured on his two solo albums inspires a hushed audience savoring his every keyboard flitter. The male half of the indie-atmospheric act Devics was pleased: “Wow, who would’ve thought that L.A. would be the quietest crowd?” the native Angeleno said.
As O’Halloran’s black-clad figure crouched over a piano festooned with tiny gold lights, his handiwork was caught by a pen camera hanging above the keyboard and projected onto a screen. The visuals are a key component to O’Halloran’s recent work. He contributed two tracks to Sofia Coppola’s lush “Marie Antoinette” and recently finished his first feature-length score for the upcoming film, “The Beautiful Ordinary.” He’s also at work on another project, an instrumental layering of piano, strings and some electronics.
||| Dustin O'Halloran performs "Piano Solos" Tuesday night at the Derby.
A show featuring Sebadoh with its original lineup, an appearance by '60s cult hero Roky Erickson and a homecoming club show by Bay Area pop-punkers the Donnas highlight the 15h edition of Noise Pop, the five-day festival that brings some 100 acts to 10 venues in San Francisco.
The official lineup and schedule for the festival, which begins Feb. 27, are due to be announced Monday.
Erickson's scheduled appearance at the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival has created a minor buzz; the 59-year-old rocker has a long history of psychological and drug abuse problems but has rallied in recent years. He made an appearance at the 2005 South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin. Noise Pop also will feature a screening of "You're Gonna Miss Me," a documentary about Erickson.
Other Noise Pop screenings include "Who Is Harry Nilsson (And Why Is Everybody Talkin' At Him?)," the premiere of "Sonic Youth: Sleeping Nights Awake" and "Far Off Town: From Dunedin to Nashville," about iconic New Zealand songwriter David Kilgour.
Noise Pop hasn't announced its opening-night lineup at the Mezzanine, but Cake will close the festival with a show for badge-holders on Sunday at Bimbos.
A strong contingent of Los Angeles bands will make the trip, including Autolux, Earlimart, the Bird and the Bee, Dios Malos, the Gray Kid, Lemon Sun, the Oohlas, Sea Wolf, Simon Dawes and the Submarines.
Behind the sheets of guitar and the anguished screams of Orange County hard-core rockers Thrice lay a folk singer, just waiting to show his roots. Or so Dustin Kensrue has revealed on his solo debut, "Please Come Home," released this week.
"It's a niche I hadn't gone into yet," the 26-year-old singer-guitarist says of his exploration of folk and blues. "They were obviously songs that didn't feel like they would fit in with Thrice."
Some of the material, which sounds as if it could have grown from the same sonic branches as Uncle Tupelo or Ryan Adams, dates back four years. He'd play the songs at parties and for friends, and "people kept encouraging me to put a record out," he says.
So he and Thrice guitarist Teppei Teranishi burned the midnight oil after the band's studio sessions in Orange to record "Please Come Home," leaving the production comfortably rough-edged. The result is an album that would fit into Kensrue's personal playlist — the likes of Tom Waits, Yo La Tengo, Ryan Adams and Miles Davis.
"Thrice is known as a heavy band, but none of the guys in Thrice listens to heavy stuff anymore, at least not much," he says. "I find myself lately listening to a lot of jazz or alt-country."
Has the music (released digitally in December) been a hard sell for Thrice fans? "It seems to have gotten a good reaction so far," Kensure says. "Even people who were at first nonplused about it have come around."
||| Kensrue's two shows tonight at the Silent Movie Theatre in Hollywood are sold out. He can been seen Feb. 2 on "Late Night With David Letterman."
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Tonight's touts: Local rockers the Willowz join the Black Lips at Spaceland. ... Mezzanine Owls and Lemon Sun open for Robbers on High Street in an early show at the Echo. ... Later at the Echo, Aloe Blacc hosts this edition of Soundlessons. ... Gliss and LoveLikeFire play the Scene Bar in Glendale. ... And I tell myself this is for a good cause: Great White will perform at the Key Club tonight at an Hal Sparks-hosted event that'll have some celebrity sizzle. It's a benefit to save the baby seals.
Dance promoter Spundae says goodbye to L.A.'s Circus Disco this weekend. The group will now lend its long-standing L.A. reputation to Avaland at Avalon on Saturday nights. To welcome some of the Spundae/Circus fans anxious about the move (as noted on the message boards), Avaland director of promotion and booking Garrett Chau says Spundae's Peter Beckers and Guiv Naimi will host "Localized" in the Honey VIP lounge at the Vine Street club. "In that room there will be DJs who are programmed by Spundae," Chau tells Times correspondent Steve Baltin. "The music they’re hearing will be music they’ll be familiar with and we’ll do that on a continuing basis." More details as we know them.
[Correspondent August Brown weighs in on some out-of-town visitors:]
The fact that the ever-volatile scuzz-punkers Black Lips recorded their new live album in Tijuana says all you really need to know about the Atlanta-based four-piece. Known as much for the R-rated sex and violence of their live performances as for their seething T. Rex-inspired riffing, the band’s onstage lawlessness finally met its match in the mythically decadent border town.
“It was one of the craziest shows we’ve ever played,” vocalist and bassist Jared Swilley says. “We hired a mariachi band to play and they got [angry] by all the people throwing glass bottles. We had to keep slipping them money to stay onstage.”
The ensuing live album, “Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo,” is their first for their quite-appropriate new label, Vice Records. Though the band’s average age is around 22, they’ve been honing their blistering and fever-dreamy brand of psychedelia since they were young teenagers. Swilley says they “didn’t go to college and don’t like having jobs,” so instead they became veterans of America’s basement dive circuit.
“We used to get banned from a lot of clubs,” he says. “The management at the Knitting Factory wanted to jump us. But none of the bannings ever stand the test of time.”
Though tales of the band swapping bodily fluids onstage abound, they’ve lately toned down their antics to focus on playing their instruments competently. Despite their live-fast-die-young stage ethos, the band wants to stick around long enough to enjoy their reputation.
“We played a show with this old soul guy who said he wanted to die onstage,” Swilley says. “I’m the same way myself. I go crazy if I spend more than two weeks at home.”
||| The Black Lips perform tonight at the Echo and Saturday at Spaceland.
Photo: the Black Lips by Dan Monick.
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Those white-clad, up-with-pscyh-pop kids the Parson Redheads, have announced their new album "King Giraffe," will be released Feb. 6. Their next scheduled show is Feb. 16 at Spaceland supporting the Autumn Defense. Here's a pretty little something to tide you over:
Tonight's touts: The Cold War Kids continue their bicoastal residencies, jetting back from New York City for a show at Spaceland. ... Rodrigo y Gabriela bring their flamenco metal -- yeah, listen in -- to the Troubadour, with Marjorie Fair opening. ... Gliss joins LoveLikeFire and the Moderates at the Scene Bar in Glendale. ... The Shins will have 'em standing in the aisles at a free in-store (6 p.m.) at Amoeba Music. ... Of Montreal plays the El Rey Theatre. ... And Veruca Salt is joined by Run Run Run and the Distants at Safari Sam's.
Two weeks ago I reported that local indie rockers Division Day caught a nice break -- they were the first signing to upstart label Mercy Records, which planned to re-release their fine 2006 DIY album "Beartrap Island" in March. Turns out that Mercy never got off the ground because of funding problems.
So that puts the quartet back to square one. "As of now touring will still be going on," guitarist Ryan Wilson said before the band launched a West Coast jaunt this week. Upcoming: next month's Monday residency at Spaceland.
Not tired of this gem yet, which you can click and download: "Colorguard."
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Punk-pop pistols the Dollyrots are recording their next album, "Because I'm Awesome," for Joan Jett's Blackheart Records. The trio now has Chris Black from Bang Sugar Bang on the drums. ... Indie-pop ensemble Let's Go Sailing's lovely self-released debut "The Changes in Order" recently got nationwide distribution through Fontana (release date: April 3), and the group has a nationwide tour planned starting with the South by Southwest Music Festival in March.
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Future reference: Don't be surprised if KCRW-FM has one more big name up its sleeve for its big Sounds Eclectic Evening at Gibson Amphitheatre on April 14. The Shins, Lily Allen, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Cold War Kids and Bitter:Sweet have already been announced for the show. ... The rumors that swirled about Gwen Stefani playing this year's Coachella turned out to be baseless. In fact, she's going head-to-head with the desert festival: "The Sweet Escape Tour" visits Gibson Amphitheatre on April 27. It ends at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre on June 22-23. Tickets go on sale Feb. 10. ... And the other big shindig in the desert, the fifth annual Joshua Tree Music Festival, goes off May 18 through 20. Early bird tickets are $60 (for all three days) through Tuesday. Los Amigos Invisibles, Garaj Mahal, the New Deal, Bret Dennen and the Be Good Tanyas head a deep lineup.
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Tonight's touts: Speaking of touring, psych-rock trio the Clean Prophets are kicking one off behind their self-released "Praise Is Poison"; first stop is Spaceland tonight, supporting the Colour. ... Must-see SoftLightes return for Week 3 of its Silverlake Lounge residency; playing the early set is an interesting techno-pop outfit called Porsches on the Autobahn. ... Love this bill: Foreign Born opens for Los Abandoned at the Troubadour. ... And Lavender Diamond holds forth at Safari Sam's.
Much respect to Perry Farrell. But more often than not Wednesday night at Spaceland during the not-so-secret show by his new band, Satellite Party, you got the feeling the needle was on "E."
The 47-year-old rocker, playing a warmup for a scheduled big splash today at the ESPN Winter X Games in Aspen, Colo., felt more warmed-over than hot during his band's hourlong set, even allowing for the fact he was far out of his element, playing an Eastside club known for its patrons' practiced, detached cool (read: folded arms) than the unbridled Hedonism (read: show me your breasts) of the Sunset Strip that launched him to stardom. Man, that stage must have seemed small.
But you had to be pretty far into your drinks -- or simply an unconditional admirer, and there were plenty of those -- to buy into it. The Nineties could indeed be the new Eighties (look at the Coachella lineup), but the neither the holdovers nor the fresh crop of revivalists ever try to give you the impression they are selling you new product.
An early dance number got some bodies moving, and a later by-the-numbers rocker carried by guitarist Nuno Bettencourt induced the kind of arm-pumping usually only seen ironically in these parts. Beyond that, however, the proceedings seemed forced, despite Farrell's efforts. "It feels like the good old days," he said, acknowledging the spirit of the nascent bands whose stickers he noticed on the bathroom walls. The band broke out the champagne and shared with the lucky folks upfront, toasting its christening.
But good intentions -- Satellite Party does have those, if you read the environmental missives by Farrell on his various websites -- and bubbly weren't enough to save anybody from the likes of "Awesome," a mawkish ballad with a chorus stright out of a teenager's MySpace blog. It felt like a 60 mph fastball coming from a former Cy Young Award winner.
Satellite Party's album, "Ultra Payloaded," which features a previously unheard vocal track by Jim Morrison, comes out May 15 on Columbia Records. It will, no doubt, chart high in the cult of celebrity, which counts for a lot these days, but I suspect it will end up like a lot of satellites, aspiring to be a star.
Photo: Perry Farrell of Satellite Party (Kevin Bronson/LAT)
Spaceland's calendar for tonight's Club NME promotion lists the always-entertaining Gram Rabbit along with "the Solutionists" and some special guests. Turns out the guests are special.
Perry Farrell's new project Satellite Party is expected to appear. The ex-Jane's Addiction mastermind and Lollapalooza
founder has recorded an album, "Ultra Payloaded" (featuring guests such
as Red Hot Chili Peppers' Flea and John Frusciante, Joy Division's
Peter Hook and U.K. beatmakers Hybrid, among others), that is due May
15 on Columbia Records.
Satellite Party's live band, featuring
Farrell, guitarist Nuno Bettencourt, drummer Kevin Figueiredo, bassist
Carl Restivo and background vocalist Etty Lau Farrell, was to make its
live debut Thursday in Aspen, Colo., as part of the ESPN Winter
X-Games. So think of this as a warmup for the slopes.
Two songs are up on Satellite Party's MySpace page
along with a Farrell blog post that references "Solutionists."
Last-minute hitches are always a possibility, of course, but it will be
intriguing to see the Party's new music played out.
Indie pop sensations the Shins will join Lily Allen, Rodrigo y Gabriela, Bitter:Sweet and Cold War Kids as headliners at the sixth edition of KCRW-FM's A Sounds Eclectic Evening. Official announcement was expected later today.
The show is Saturday, April 14, at the Gibson Amphitheatre. Tickets go on sale to the general public on Feb. 27, but are available earlier for members.
The annual show, which this year features an after-party with electronic act the Pinker Tones, has hosted the likes of Beck, Coldplay and Norah Jones over the years.
Coachella, don't stand so close to me: Let's just arrest that talk about the Police playing this year's festival.
The massive gathering in Indio may be unofficially subtitled the Great Reunion in the Desert (with Rage Against the Machine, the Jesus and Mary Chain, Crowded House and the Happy Mondays taking bows together again), but don't believe the hype that Sting, Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland are back in synchronicity for a stop at the Empire Polo Field. The whispers gained traction this weekend when a presale of tickets for repeat customers presented the cryptic password "Roxanne." But turn on the red light.
"No, the Police are not playing, I can tell you that," promoter Paul Tollett tells Times staffer Geoff Boucher. "This is the show right now as it's going to be on the big stages. The main-stage lineup and second-stage lineup for all three days are locked in."
Welcome to the first Super Tuesday of 2007, when a tsunami of new releases floods record stores everywhere. In the first installment of Tuesday Bazaar, I'll weigh in on one record, recommend some others that have found their way into the Buzz Bands player and invite an outside expert -- a record-store employee (bloggers notwithstanding, they remain some of our favorite people) -- for a pick of the week:
Top shelf
Kristin Hersh, "Learn to Sing Like a Star" (Yep Roc): Remember when Hersh sounded, well, breakable? This tour de force, her first solo outing since 2003, is punk rock with strings, all spine and no saccharine, filled with songs that cower from nothing. The album's laconic title rings like a comment on a culture so crass it threatens our very perception, but Hersh's spirit is unbowed. Her foreboding rasp, counterposed against gutsy guitars and sturdy percussion, reveals a woman not so much weary of the world as confident in her ability to sort it out. So it is no hollow plea when the former Throwing Muses muse and 50 Foot Wave noisemaker sings, "We are wanted / We are wanted."
Other recommendations
Of Montreal, "Hissing Fauna, Are You Destroyer?" (Polyvinyl): This is a freakout of epic proportions, a wild ride through Kevin Barnes' technicolor consciousness. New genre: speed-psychedelia.
Clinic, "Visitations" (Domino): The cinematic Liverpudlians weigh in with a fourth album that can only be described as a blacker shade of dark.
The Broken West, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On," (Merge): Open jewel case, remove disc, insert disc in CD player, digest for 45 minutes, feel better.
The Shins, "Wincing the Night Away" (Sub Pop): James Mercer and crew seem to go to great lengths to keep it interesting on their third effort. They largely succeed, even if some of the experimentalism leaves a mess in the laboratory.
Dustin Kensrue, "Please Come Home" (Equal Vision): Solo outing from the Thrice front man finds a songwriter awash in rootsy influences. And the twang thang suits him well.
From behind the counter
Today's recommendation comes from Starr Sink, 29, a staffer for the past 2-plus years at Fingerprints, 4612 E. 2nd St., Long Beach:
The Bird and the Bee, "The Bird and the Bee" (Metro Blue/Blue Note): L.A. local duo Inara George and Greg Kurstin, otherwise known as the Bird and the Bee, have been creating quite a buzz in our hive. Mixing Brazilian groove, room-filling girl-group sound, harpsichord and a bit of heavy horn, their pop sound gives you the same grateful feeling that you get witnessing another sunrise. It doesn't hurt that Inara George earns her nightingale title in this dreamy twosome.
Apparently the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival poster was up on the Web for a heartbeat or two this morning, so it's not much of a secret that the Jesus and Mary Chain has been added to the bill. The brothers Reid officially disbanded in 1999, although the September 1998 show at the House of Blues revealed a huge rift in the band.
Rage Against the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bjork were announced this morning as headliners for the three-day shindig, April 27 to 29 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio.
Other bands to play in the desert:
The preliminary lineup, subject to changes and additions: Tiesto; the Arcade Fire; Interpol; Manu Chao; Willie Nelson; Air; Happy Mondays; Decemberists; Faithless; Gotan Project; the Good, the Bad and the Queen; Paul Van Dyk; Arctic Monkeys; the Roots; Jarvis Cocker; Sonic Youth; Crowded House; Placebo; Satellite Party; Stephen Marley featuring Jr. Gong; Kings of Leon; DJ Shadow; Kaiser Chiefs; Kokono No. 1; LCD Soundsystem; Nickel Creek; Travis; Damien Rice; the Black Keys; Blonde Redhead; Infected Mushroom; the New Pornographers; Peeping Tom; Placebo; Rufus Wainwright; the Rapture; Explosions in the Sky; Richie Hawtin; !!! (Chk Chk Chk); Benny Benassy; Felix Da Housecat; Hot Chip; Jack's Mannequin; Julieta Venegas; Lily Allen; Lupe Fiasco; Ozomatli; Peaches; Ghostface Killah; Jose Gonzales; Amos Lee; Brazilian Girls; Fountains of Wayne; Regina Spektor; VNV Nation; Coco Rosie; Cornelius; Gillian Welch; Junior Boys; Pharaohe Monche; Roky Erickson and the Explosives; Soulwax; Sparklehorse; the Kooks; Tilly and the Wall; Andrew Bird; Peter, Bjorn & John; the Frames; Gogol Bordello; Comedians of Comedy; Justice; MSTRKRFT; We Are Scientists; Yeva; Grizzly Bear; Amy Winehouse; Avett Brothers; Circa Survive; the Coup; the Cribs; CSS; Digitalism; Erol Alkan; Evil Nine; Girl Talk; Klaxons; the Noisettes; Spank Rock; Tapes 'n Tapes; Fields; Tokyo Police Club; Rodrigo y Gabriela; DJ Heather; the Feeling; Fratellis; Mike Relm; Silversun Pickups; Busdriver; Brother Ali; the Nightwatchman; Bojones; Mika; Pop Levi; Anathallo; and Fair to Midland.
Coachella promoters acknowledge they have more surprises up their sleeve. But I guess we'll have to wait.
[First in an occasional series of ruminations on some of the unsigned bands that populate our fair city, how you can find their music and where you might see them perform:]
Mere Mortals sound as if they're angling for a spot in the Britpop pantheon, nurturing a jangly, neo-psychedelic sound that brings to mind early Primal Scream, Supergrass or maybe Oasis as fronted by a man who smiles at the world rather than sneers. The merry band of do-it yourselfers self-released the all-wheat, no-chaff "Rebel Radio" EP late last year, and several of the disc's seven songs cracked the specialty charts (which track the amount of airplay on "specialty" shows where the DJs program their own music). German-born, London-reared Axel Steuerwald's deft songwriting touch makes the Mortals slam-dunks to make Jonesy's jukebox. Maybe they can make yours too.
Exclusive download: A non-album track by the Mere Mortals: "Reverberations" The band's "Rebel Radio" EP is available at iTunes.
||| Mere Mortals play tonight at the Silverlake Lounge.
Photo, from left: Wil Holland, Mimi Star, Sean Burgess and Axel Steuerwald (by Terresa Burgess).
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Glacier Hiking gets a lot of mileage out of two bodies. Of course, one of those bodies is Tommy Walter (Abandoned Pools), who plays guitar and manipulates an array of samples that give the duo's music an almost caustic electronic backing. And since wise-guy vocalist Ross Golan can write (and deliver) big, clever choruses, you figure Glacier Hiking will end up on the radio somewhere. The twosome is finishing up its debut album, "Life Expectancy," which Golan says might be expected in April. A video for the song "Cried for You" is also forthcoming.
Exclusive download:"Wish Me Luck," off the forthcoming album by Glacier Hiking.
||| Check the band's MySpace page for upcoming local dates, which include a Feb. 19 show at the Echo.
Rage Against the Machine, the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Bjork top the bill for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, the three-day festival April 27 to 29 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio. Here are the other announced acts, straight from the this morning's press release:
The preliminary lineup, subject to changes and additions: Tiesto, the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Manu Chao, Willie Nelson, Air, Happy Mondays, Decemberists, Faithless, Gotan Project, the Good, the Bad and the Queen, Paul Van Dyk, Arctic Monkeys, Roots, Jarvis Cocker, Sonic Youth, Crowded House, Placebo, Satellite Party, Stephen Marley feat Jr. Gong, Kings of Leon, DJ Shadow, Kaiser Chiefs, Kokono No. 1, LCD Soundsystem, Nickel Creek, Travis, Damien Rice, Black Keys, Blonde Redhead, Infected Mushroom, New Pornographers, Peeping Tom, Placebo, Rufus Wainwright, the Rapture, Explosions in the Sky, Richie Hawtin, !!!, Benny Benassy, Felix Da Housecat, Hot Chip, Jacks Mannequin, Julieta Venegas, Lily Allen, Lupe Fiasco, Ozomatli, Peaches, Ghostface Killah, Jose Gonzales, Amos Lee, Brazilian Girls, Fountains of Wayne, Regina Spektor, VNV Nation, Coco Rosie, Cornelius, Gillian Welch, Junior Boys, Pharaohe Monche, Roky Erickson and the Explosives, Soulwax, Sparklehorse, the Kooks, Tilly and the Wall, Andrew Bird, Peter, Bjorn & John, the Frames, Gogol Bordello, Comedians of Comedy, Justice, MSTRKRFT, We Are Scientists, Yeva, Grizzly Bear, Amy Winehouse, Avett Brothers, Circa Survive, the Coup, the Cribs, CSS, Digitalism, Erol Alkan, Evil Nine, Girl Talk, Klaxons, the Noisettes, Spank Rock, Tapes 'n Tapes, Fields, Tokyo Police Club, Rodrigo Y Gabriella, DJ Heather, the Feeling, Fratellis, Mike Relm, Silversun Pickups, Busdriver, Brother Ali, Nightwatchman, Bojones, Mika, Pop Levi, Anathallo and Fair to Midland.
The reunion of Zack de la Rocha and his bandmates after a seven-year hitaus might be all the Rage, but pop fans will be just as excited by the news that Crowded House is re-forming and will play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. Front man Neil Finn and bassist Nick Seymour are beginning the search for a drummer to replace Paul Hester, who committed suicide two years ago. Crowded House has not performed since its farewell show in November, 1996.
In a story running in the Times on Monday, my colleague Geoff Boucher reports that Rage Against the Machine will join the likes of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bjork, the Arcade Fire, Interpol, Willie Nelson, the Roots, Sonic Youth, the Arctic Monkeys, Air and Tiesto at this installment of Coachella. Who will play which day has yet to be determined. Tickets for the three-day festival (April 27-29) go on sale Saturday.
As usual, Los Angeles will be well-represented -- with Satellite Party (the new project from Perry Farrell) and artists such as Silversun Pickups, Busdriver and Ozomatli lined up to play, according to a variety of sources. The contingent of English bands is also characteristically strong.
Most anticipated? Maybe Damon Albarn's new band, the Good the Bad and the Queen, which features bassist Paul Simonon (the Clash), guitarist Simon Tong (the Verve) and drummer Tony Allen (Fela Kuti).
Pulp front man Jarvis Cocker will be at Coachella too, touring behind a strong solo release. Up-and-comers the Kooks and the Cribs are on the bill, as are soft-rockers the Feeling and -- in the Whatever Happened To Dept. -- Travis.
More names as we learn them. Nothing on the official Coachella website or on the fest's MySpace yet.
Davey Ingersoll knew his band's record label was in trouble, but that didn't soften the blow much last Friday when the Gosling singer-songwriter received a text message from a writer at the LA Weekly: "Sorry to hear about the V2 D-Day."
The label's demise made free agents out of a lot of high-profile artists -- including the White Stripes, the Raconteurs and Moby -- as well as a slew of up-and-comers. Gosling's debut, "Here Is ...," was released Aug. 22, and the L.A. quartet had gotten its fair share of props for its inventive, cinematic pop-rock.
"It's always a little unsettling, but we knew what we going on," Ingersoll says. "At this point, it seems like any record label that specializes in rock music is having a pretty hard time, so it wasn't a huge shock. It would be nice to know, though, how we're going to pay for our next tour."
For now, Ingersoll and mates are looking only as far ahead as Monday's date at the Viper Room. They are booking a tour with L.A. trio Gliss that will take the bands to the South by Southwest Music Festival.
Neither was the death of V2 a surprise to another L.A. band on its roster, the Adored. "We're not as upset as you'd expect," guitarist Drew Seventeen says. "Since the merger [with Artemis], it turned into a completely different company. When we first signed, it was the coolest place in the world."
The band plans to reconvene in L.A. in a few weeks to start work on its next album.
"It's a new year, a new start," Seventeen says.
||| Gosling, Gliss, the Human Value and Modern Memory play Monday at the Indie 103.1-sponsored "Check 1,2 ..." night at the Viper Room.
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Tonight's touts:Cold War Kids will pack the Silverlake Lounge, with Fold promoters saying there "may be some spaces opening up" if there are no-shows. Folks who wait in line at the Lounge and can't get in will be given passes to the show down the street at El Cid, where (ex-Rex Aquarium frontman) Charlie Wadhams and the Harmony Brothers and Biirdie perform. Wadhams has been recording with movie composer/producer Michael Andrews (Inara George, Gary Jules, among others). ... Subtle, with Pigeon John supporting, plays at the Troubadour. ... Tony Lucca performs at the Hotel Cafe, as does singer-songwriter Ernie Halter, who has an album coming out Feb. 6 (more on him in advance of his Feb. 12 record-release show). ... And the realSupernova entertains at the Scene Bar in Glendale.
He has busked in Brea, strummed outside the cineplex at the Irvine Spectrum and sung over the whir of espresso machines at most any coffeehouse that would have him. But the most serendipitous 15-minute performance of Tyrone Wells’ career came a year ago at the National Assn. of Campus Activities convention in Boston.
"I played ‘No Good Without You,’ then I told a story," Wells says of the showcase in front of collegiate talent buyers that led to about some 150 offers to play gigs. The son of a preacher from Spokane, Wash., ended up taking more than 100 of them; then, in a manner of speaking, he ran the table on 2006, getting signed to Universal Republic, which on Feb. 6 will release his "Hold On."
"Sometimes I felt like I was pushing a boulder up a hill," Wells says. "Then I got to the top and everything started rolling."
You don’t have to listen to much of Low Vs Diamond’s first single to get an idea of where songwriter Lucas Field is coming from — dirty and restless guitars, muted atmospherics, vocals pleading to “show you ‘Life After Love.’”
“As a middle-schooler in Seattle, I listened to the things you’d expect — Mudhoney, PJ Harvey, Sonic Youth, Nirvana,” Field says. “Then I went to Colorado for school, and it was like, ‘Oh, the String Cheese Incident is playing tonight.’ It sent me in a different direction.”
For now, the L.A.-based quintet stands precipitously between overwrought melancholy and chimey hopefulness, avoiding both excesses. While Field’s introspective songwriting leans toward the former, the band’s music plays to an optimism that stops short of outright glee.
Not that Low Vs Diamond's commercial prospects don't suggest the latter. Singer-guitarist Field, drummer Howie Diamond, keyboardist Tad Moore, guitarist Anthony Polcino and bassist Johnny Pancoast hooked up with British label Marrakesh Records (formerly Lizard King, which initially signed the Killers) for a debut EP out Feb. 5 in England. Then Epic inked to the band to a U.S. deal.
Only a year after playing around town as Colored Shadows and retooling its lineup, Low Vs Diamond is recording its debut with producers Stacy Jones and Bill Lefler. “It’s going to be sweet,” says Field, 26. “I’m always going to be into arrangements like [in the songs of] Bacharach, Marvin Gaye and artists like that. But I want to incorporate the big moments that rock fans love.”
||| Low Vs Diamond plays Thursday night at the Troubadour.
Tonight's touts: Cut Chemist holds forth at Safari Sam's. ... Singer-songwriter Priscilla Ahn kicks off a residency at the Hotel Cafe (where Patrick Park also performs). ... Scissors for Lefty brings its dance party to Club Moscow at Boardner's. ... And Daphne Loves Derby, Meg & Dia and Ronnie Day play an acoustic show at the Knitting Factory -- their dates Friday and Saturday at Chain Reaction in Anaheim are sold out.
Photo: From left, Tad Moore, Howie Diamond, Lucas Field, Anthony Polcino, John Pancoast (by Jade Loop)
Well, maybe in the spring, in the desert, on a polo field ... at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival.
Yes, 'tis the season. The Coachella website hasn't even started the countdown to this year's expanded, three-day shindig in Indio -- for the record, it's 100 days away -- but already fans are speculating about the lineup. The maven(ists?) at LAist are liking Gwen Stefani's chances, which might fit; the last generation's Madonna played last year's Coachella, so why not the next generation's at this year's? And Idolator names a handful of bands who jumped the gun and announced their gigs on their website.
I'm betting on the Red Hot Chili Peppers to be tabbed as a reliable draw for one of the days. Peaches, !!! (Chk Chk Chk) and LCD Soundsystem sound good too. The Arcade Fire will be be there, touring behind what appears to be a monster sophomore album. And I'm also thinking that the annual convoy of fine British acts will be anchored by the Arctic Monkeys (or maybe this year's Arctic Monkeys, the View -- hey, invite both and we can have a battle of the bands) and the Kaiser Chiefs.
And is there a Straight Outta Silver Lake Stage? Save me a spot for Silversun Pickups.
When I figure out whether the "big reunion" rumors hold any water, you'll be the first to know.
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Tonight's touts: Shiny Toy Guns play a late show at the Viper Room. ... Mia Doi Todd plays the Silverlake Lounge, and down Sunset Boulevard at El Cid it's Ronnie Mack's 19th Anniversary Barndance, with, among others, Russell Scott & the Red Hots; Mike Stinson; Randy Weeks, the Barry Holdship Four and Kathy Robertson.
Richard Swift makes music better suited for your great-grandfather's Victrola that your iPod. With flourishes of ragtime and baroque and strokes reminiscent of pop songwriting's pantheon, Swift's tales often acknowledge he is a man out of time, both as an artist trying to find a seam in the music industry and as a husband and father trying to sidestep the cracks in society.
His sophomore album, "Dressed Up for the Letdown" (due Feb. 20 on Indiana-based indie label Secretly Canadian), includes material he wrote during his three or so years living in Southern California, a period of professional frustration for the multi-instrumentalist. Now safely ensconced in a small town (Cottage Springs, Ore., pop. 9,016) more in step with his rural Midwestern upbringing, Swift is putting the finishing touches on the album. We asked him a couple quick questions while he and his band prepared for a show tonight at Spaceland.
Los Angeles was tough on you and your family. Do you miss it much?
Swift: I miss certain aspects ... the people. I don't miss the city, but only because I don't miss any city.
Does blogging mean never having to say you're sorry?
Apparently. In some corners, it means never having to do your homework, either.
A review of a song by the L.A. duo the Bird and the Bee by Michael Graham on the website Paper Thin Walls last year went beyond mean-spirited. Graham imagines songwriter Inara George as some kind of Hollywood princess who solicits help from her famous daddy to further her music career:
So what does she do? Why, pick up her Sidekick III, text her dad
(Lowell George, he of Little Feat fame) for advice, pen a
tear-in-yr-latte lament to lost loves, record it with a bunch of her
hyper-connected friends (this is Los Angeles, after all) and then sit
back and watch the magic happen. Or maybe go shopping.
Poison prose, huh? Except that Lowell George died in 1979.
Depite the fact that several commenters pointed out the egregious gaffe, the review has remained intact since it was posted. As for George, she reacted with characteristic aplomb. "I didn't know what to do," she said of her decision to take the high road and ignore the cheap shot. "It's kind of sad, really."
||| After a couple performances at the Sundance Film Festival, the Bird and the Bee return to L.A. for a show at the Troubadour on Jan. 23, the day their self-titled album is released on Blue Note.
"Cavalry of Light," the EP from L.A.'s Lavender Diamond, will be re-released by Matador Records on Jan. 30 as the psych-pop quartet gears up for the release of its full-length in May. The album, to be titled "Imagine Our Love," was undergoing some remastering this week, as multi-talented dude Ron Rege Jr. (drummer/cartoonist) finished up the artwork. "I'm just to the moment of listening to it and thinking 'Oh my God,'" singer Becky Starks says.
||| The quartet has a gig Jan. 25 at Safari Sam's.
The husband-and-wife team of Sean and Juliette Beavan, who as 8mm released the lovely, languorous "Songs to Love and Die By" last year, have put up a video for their song "Stunning." It's a D.I.Y. affair, shot by Juliette on a Samsung cellphone and edited in iMovie.
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Fast forward: Ex-Something Corporate guitarist William Tell's hook-happy, power-poppy "You Can't hold Me Down" will be out March 6 on Universal imprint New Door Records. . . . The One Am Radio, the name under which Hrishikesh Hirway (just call him "rishie") makes poignant bedroom pop, releases "This Too Will Pass" Feb. 20 on Dangerbird Records; he's offering a download of "In the Time We've Got" of his MySpace page and a handful of older songs here. . . . Youthful rockers the Willowz, the newest addition to the roster of Dim Mak, release their third album, "Chautauqua," on March 20; the play Jan. 26 at the House of Blues Anaheim with Moving Units.
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Tonight's touts: Mash-up madman Girl Talk whips folks into a frenzy tonight at the Echo; the Plug Independent Music Awards show at the Little Radio warehouse features a couple of L.A.'s best unsigned acts, Foreign Born and the Gray Kid, along with Great Northern (debut out May 20); metal from Neurosis at the El Rey; and, well, if anybody sees this please satisfy my morbid curiosity and report back to me -- Lucy Lawless (that's Xena) at the Roxy. Tonight's show is sold out; there's another Sunday.
Annie Hardy is now alone as Giant Drag, she confirmed this week. The singer-guitarist for the L.A. shoegazer two-piece says that collaborator Micah Calabrese -- who played drums and keyboards (often at the same time) -- has left the band just as Hardy prepares to record a new album.
"I am pretty bummed," Hardy says. "I knew from the beginning that being in a band was not necessarily his dream, but [because] we were best friends he kind of did it for me. I think he got to the point that he just got tired of it ... the touring, not making money ..."
Calabrese's distinctive playing -- he delivered the song's bass lines by playing a small keyboard with his left hand while drumming with his right -- along with Hardy's distortion-fueled guitar gave Giant Drag a bigger sound than you'd expect from a two-piece. Memorable among the duo's performances was a set at last year's Coachella, when Calabrese was confounded by a loose connection on his keyboard and soldiered through the set with Giant Drag's tour manager onstage, holding a cable in place.
"I felt kind of unsure whether I should continue as Giant Drag," Hardy says. "Micah contributed a lot. But they are my songs and I came up with the name."
Hardy aims to begin recording the follow-up to 2005's "Hearts and Unicorns" (released on Interscope imprint Kickball) in mid-February. She says she'll be working in New York City with Mike Musmanno, who has produced L.A. rockers the Icarus Line.
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Tonight's touts: The BellRays at Safari-Sam's; Cold War Kids at the Silverlake Lougne (sold out); I See Hawks in L.A. and Mike Stinson at the Echo; Keller Williams at the Fonda Theatre; Hotel Cafe six-year anniversary show with, among others, Jay Nash, Buddy, Charlotte martin, Jim Bianco and Cary Brothers.
Also: Poo-Bah Records, the label spun off from the Pasadena record store, is throwing a one-night stand at the L.A.C.E. Gallery in Hollywood. It's a record-release party for three artists, and will include DJ sets, live screenprinting and visual installations. Doors at 7:30.
Photo: Annie Hardy during Giant Drag's Coachella set last April (Kevin Bronson/LAT)
Talent's a lot like headgear; it depends on how you wear it. Red Hunter, the young Austin, Texas, indie-pop auteur who goes by Peter and the Wolf, wears his smartly, maybe too smartly, like a straw hat with the brim turned low, as if he doesn't want you to see how handsome he really is. Do you really want your lovelorn troubadour to be the coolest dude in the room?
Apparently so. Peter and the Wolf silenced a typically chatty Silverlake Lounge crowd on Wednesday night wielding only a duct-taped guitar. He did so by thinking outside the box; this is, after all, a guy who did a 12-stop tour this summer via sailboat. His song sketches (and they are not yet full portraits) featured a little harmonica, a little whistling -- and whistling is the new handclaps, in case you haven't heard this -- and some brilliant but understated percussion from the San Francisco duo Dodo Bird, which opened. You know, the standard stuff: folk songs with island beats.
Having only released some spare home recordings, though, Peter and the Wolf bears watching. He'll be around Los Angeles the next month or so, making his first proper album at Moonshine Studios in Atwater Village. He says he'll play all 27 instruments on the record -- including a Chinese fiddle and an igil. Stay tuned.
Shows by the fledgling band SoftLightes promise to be feast for the eyes as well as the ears — and even fodder for the heart, judging from the quartet’s first single, “Heart Made of Sound.”
The brainchild of San Diego-based Ron Fountenberry, Softlightes are an outgrowth of the Incredible Moses Leroy, the persona under which he released albums in 2001 and 2003. His new work, “Say No to Being Cool — Say Yes to Being Happy” (due Feb. 13), exudes the cinematic qualities of Mercury Rev and the bedroom vulnerability of the Postal Service, with some Flaming Lips psychedelia mixed in. It's pop that floats on its own virtue, and invites you along for the ride.
Live, however, SoftLightes are not just another four-piece.
Is hip-hop any good when it isn't bad? Pigeon John tried mightily Monday night in front of a half-full house at Safari Sam's, distributing lively banter and dude-next-door humor while the faithful bounced and waved their arms. Sure, he was headlining a bill called "Hawthorne's Most Wanted," but John was about as ominous as an uncle who slips a double entendre into dinner-table conversation.
This rapper's street smarts are more like cul-de-sac common sense: Love thy neighbor. Practice tolerance. Dance until you're too exhausted to hate. Lost your girlfriend? Don't slap anybody around, sing a pop chorus. Broke? Don't blame it on the man, tell a funny story. Even with his vocals weighing in thinner than they come off on 2006's engaging "Pigeon John ... and the Summertime Pool Party," John showed the Sam's crowd a good time, even if you weren't always convinced it was his party.
If it didn't always work Monday, maybe John played the underdog card too often. His best numbers -- the rousing "Moneyback Guarantee" and the freeway anthem "San Diego" (on which he shared MC duties with turntablist B. Twice) -- relied on clever storytelling. His weakest, the well-intended "Be Yourself," felt heavy-handed.
It was impossible to leave without feeling at least a bit of John's euphoria. Besides, if you felt really like doing something reckless you could drive through at Taco Bell. Stuff ain't good for you, you know.
Photo of Pigeon John by Kevin Bronson/LAT.
||| Pigeon John opens for Subtle on Jan. 19 at the Troubadour.
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Tonight's touts: Singer-songwriter Peter Walker holds forth at the Troubadour; Get Set Go leads a deep lineup at the Key Club's all-ages Ruby night; the Deadly Syndrome play DJ Franki Chan's "Check Yo Ponytail" night at Safari Sam's; Glacier Hiking tees it up at Spaceland; Thomas Fehlman spins at the Echo; the Procession kicks off a run of four Tuesdays at El Cid; and the Living Sisters (Eleni Mandell, Inara George and Becky Stark) harmonize at Tangier.
Ross Flournoy is nervous. The singer-guitarist of Los Angeles' the Broken West is facing the biggest month of his young band's life -- its debut album "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On" comes out Jan. 23 on Merge Records, and quintet is honing its chops for a hard year of touring by playing the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. It sounds like the first act of every indie rocker's dream, sure, but Flournoy seems to be floating in the same emotional space as the songs on the Byrds- and Teenage Fanclub-informed album: boxing with the uncertainty of future and humming a catchy tune with every punch. We got the rundown from Flournoy, 27, on the band's name change (they were formally the Brokedown), and did our best to make him laugh:
So what's with the name change? I have a feeling lawyers were involved ...
Flournoy: Someone threatened to sue us. There was a band in Illinois called the Brokedowns; we knew they existed, so in the summer of 2004 when we found out about them, we just lost the "s." We thought that was enough of a distinction, although our lawyer said it wasn't.
Music can indeed bridge cultures, and rockumentary movies can be an eye (and ear) into those links. But what might strike you most about the forthcoming documentary "Sleepwalking Through the Mekong" is how vast the chasms often are. Director John Pirozzi's 75-minute film tracking a visit by the Los Angeles band Dengue Fever to Cambodia, the homeland of singer Ch'hom Nimol, reminds you to take nothing for granted, least of all the music that fills our everyday lives.
Dengue Fever, of course, is quite possibly the most original pop band in L.A., a sextet that fuses American surf and R&B music, Ethiopian jazz, Bollywood noodling and Cambodian pop into something distinct. The brainchild of brothers Ethan (keyboards) and Zac Holtzman (guitar), Dengue Fever -- with saxophonist David Ralicke, drummer Paul Smith and bassist Senon Williams -- found a gem in Nimol, who was living in Long Beach when she tried out for the band. Her siren vocals make you care not a whit that you don't understand a word of Khmer.
The film (which has been submitted to the South by Southwest Music & Film Festival) captures scenarios both stark and humorous -- for instance, the statuesque Williams sticks out like a skyscraper in Phnom Penh. Perhaps most telling, however, is the concert Dengue Fever gives with local music students on a stage erected in a shantytown.
"Between songs there was just dead silence," Williams told me after a private screening of "Sleepwalking" on Friday. "The people are so poor. ... This was something completely foreign to them."
And there was something else you don't see in Silver Lake, Williams said: "The security guards were armed with bullwhips."
||| Watch the video for Dengue Fever's "Sni Bong" (off 2005's "Escape From Dragon House").
That FM beacon of proper taste emanating daily from Santa Monica, KCRW, won't announce the lineup for its annual Sounds Eclectic shindig until its on-air pledge drive starts on Jan. 26 -- not that we'd want anybody to miss that. But word is that a couple of local Buzz Bands favorites are playing the concert, the scrappy quartet Cold War Kids and the swoon-worthy trip-hop duo Bitter:Sweet.
Observation: At what other concert could you hear two such disparate acts on the same bill? Guess that's why they call it eclectic. The show will be April 14 at Gibson Amphitheatre. Tickets go on sale Feb. 15 for KCRW members; Feb. 27 for general public.
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Cold War Kids will pile up some frequent flier miles this month, having scheduled dueling residencies in New York City and L.A. The local gigs will be a couple of those let's-return-to-where-it-started shows, in this case the Silverlake Lounge for Fold promoter Scott Sterling -- who says, by the way, he's never had shows sell out more quickly. Those dates are Jan. 12 and 19, and the band has another local show Jan. 26 at Spaceland. The NYC shows are Jan. 10 (Pianos), 17 (Union Hall) and 24 (Mercury Lounge).
In addition, bassist Matt Maust's exhibition of album art-inspired work, which just ended a run at the Orphanage Gallery in Silver Lake, opens Jan. 18 at NYC's Headquarters Studio (385 Broadway). The L.A. opening party drew a huge crowd; before joining Nathan Willett, Jonnie Russell and Matt Aveiro in the band, Maust was an in-demand designer for album art. He still does such work as time allows, and the band's website remains a great respository for his unique sensibilities documenting the band's travels.
Also at the Cold War Kids site: Free download of six songs the band performed at a benefit show at the District Lounge in Orange.
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Better horizons for L.A. indie-rock quartet Division Day: They've been signed to upstart label Mercy Records, which will re-issue in March a remastered "Beartrap Island" (a do-it-yourself release for the band last year). Division Day has the February residency at Spaceland.
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The Plug Independent Music Awards will throw their festivities Feb. 10 at Irving Plaza in New York City, with Stephen Malkmus, Silversun Pickups and Deerhoof among the performers. Before that, the Plugs are taking the show on the road -- they've scheduled a show Saturday (Jan. 13) at the Little Radio warehouse in downtown Los Angeles featuring Great Northern, Foreign Born and the Gray Kid, among others.
If we knew what a "meem" was, we'd probably go on and on about all the marketing tie-ins and such. But we'll keep it to the music.
Can't blame the Colour for feeling fidgety. They've been working hard on two continents for more than three years, making fans one riff at a time, and finally, on Feb. 6, their debut album "Between Earth & Sky" will be released. Yes, that's the same album singer Wyatt Hull said was "probably long overdue" in an interview in December 2005.
"It seemed like every time we got close to something, something else would appear out of the cosmos," Wyatt said Thursday, just before the L.A. quintet kicked off the second of its two residencies this month. That's right, the Colour are holding forth on Thursday nights at Spaceland and on Monday nights at the Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa. They actually had a third residency planned in San Diego this month, but it fell through at the last moment.
There's no shortage of musicians who toot their horns in Silver Lake. Ah, but those who play horns -- they're noticeable. Take the Minor Canon, a six- or seven-piece (depending on the night) that have been crowding onto club stages to dispense a brassy orchestral pop that, while no threat to make the Top 40 charts, ought to find its way into the hands of an indie filmmaker in need of a soundtrack.
