I got to see Beach House open for Ariel Pink in the summer of 2006. Victoria Legrand's glassy stare and Alex Scally's literal shoe-gazing made for a dreamy performance of lo-fi somnolence. Looking back, I realize the duo's mental presence has always been...
For the past 8 or so years, the rumors or Portishead putting another album out were as hard to believe as the right-on-cue phony Coachella lineup fliers that circulates a week or so before the real one. But, after a show and a few hints FROM their site saying that...
The unclassifiable sound of Beach House (lo-fi dream opera?), is being captured on video directed by Baltimore underground film legend Skizz Cyzyk. The first single, "You Came To Me," from their soon-to-be-released second album is now joined with a...
Picking up where 2006’s The Warning left off, Hot Chip’s latest, Made in the Dark, finds the U.K. electro-rockers as danceable as ever. Kicking off their third LP with “Out at the Pictures,” an upbeat guitar-heavy jive, Hot Chip gives us...
It's about time. We've all been waiting to actually get some hard-earned money into the pockets of the guys in Radiohead after that pay whatever you want plan for In Rainbows. And now we can because they confirmed a few live dates in North America, and I'm...
The city of Los Angeles smells and feels as average as it always does. The noon sun is high but slightly orange thanks to the haze of smog provided by our labyrinth of freeways, highways and byways. The turn of one corner smells like a vagrant’s homestead while...
The multiple benefits of having a large concert indoors didn’t really occur to me until I emerged from my trusty old 4Runner only to immerse myself in a sweltering rainstorm that was raging outside of Oracle Arena in Oakland on Saturday night. Lines poured out of...
While much ado has been made about his background since appearing in 1996, it’s difficult to believe that Eels frontman Mark Oliver Everett, a.k.a. Mr. E, wasn’t born in the wrong place; there is simply no word or expression present in the English language...
When we last heard Long Beach’s Paperplanes on 2006’s self-released Volcanoes, they had just taken their first baby steps into the alt-country wilderness, adding elegiac strains of steel guitar to their jittery, Velvets-infused sound. With Rhinestone...
So this would be the first installment of Random Shit. I have another column that mainly focuses on sites that offer a grip of complimentary mp3s, mostly from intelligent labels that understand that offering free music will lead to more money because they have a better...