When I heard that Flipper was playing in Los Angeles I didn’t think it could be true. When I told my other friends who also grew up listening to this band, they didn’t believe it either. Not much has been heard in Los Angeles from Flipper at all. Ever. They hail from San Francisco and usually headed north, east or even overseas, but rarely just a few hours south. The Music Box theatre isn’t a venue you would expect to...
It's late afternoon in Downtown Los Angeles and I’m high atop a bridge. To my left is a local YMCA and to my right is the Bonaventure hotel, a monstrosity of a building that holds a salon, a gym and a variety of worldly cuisine. It’s also known as the setting for the infamous horse vs. motorcycle chase sequence from the film True Lies. I’m reminded of that by L.A. MC Ivan Ives, a fan of the film who—like the...
There's a certain poppy darkness that weasels its way out of the little corners present in Immaculate Machine's Fables. The band's third proper album (and fifth overall release), Fables' quirky exterior—which could be expected from a band that released an EP entirely in French—and two-and-three part harmonies weave around songs of break-ups, loss and confusion. "Nothing Ever Happens" tells the all-too-familiar tale of being stuck in a small town, while "Old Flame" talks about the changes that...
You may know him as Beirut, you know him as that “gypsy kid”, or you may simply know him as Zach Condon…in any case, Beirut has been creating quite the stir in the independent scene since the release of his 2006 debut, The Gulag Orkestar. It may not be the most accessible music, but for those longing for Eastern European folk, Beirut is the band for you. What is more is that on October 9, 2007 Beirut will release their...
Punk rock, as well as the bands that currently make music in the genre, could not ask for a more modest mentor than Bill Stevenson. Boasting a resume that spans over two decades and includes performing credits with such venerable names as Black Flag, Descendants and ALL, as well as a directory of production, mixing, engineering and co-writing credits that reads like the phone book for bands like Lagwagon, The Ataris, Good Riddance, MxPx, Rise Against, Suicide Machines, Anti-Flag, The...
It’s been less than a year since The Most Serene Republic released their debut album and in that short time, as Population illustrates, their sound and the scope of the band’s vision has grown at a nothing less than geometric rate. Now a celestially operatic entity, the album builds to breathtaking plateaus (like "Compliance," "The Men Who Live Upstairs" and "Career In Shaping Clay") before breaking into ecstatic conflicts ("Sherry And Her Butterfly Net," "Present Of Future End")...
Editor's note – The review of Built to Spill is for Friday, 9/21 at the Henry Fonda Theater in Hollywood. The accompanying photos are from the following night's performance at the Independent in San Francisco. I had this review half-written before I stepped foot in the doors of the Henry Fonda, or so I thought. I was planning on talking about Built to Spill's latest album, You in Reverse, and discussing how it collected the worst tendencies of the band...
If An End Has a Start is Editors’ maxim, it is a confusing one for critics and fans alike. Booked like wildfire for the first of the U.K. sensation’s forthcoming trips to the U.S., they have been touring on the East coast all September, and are coming to San Francisco, San Diego’s Street Scene Festival, and Los Angeles’ own Wiltern Theater at the end of this month, showing no signs of a proverbial “end.” GC talked to Editors’ drummer Ed...
Jose Gonzalez, the incredibly talented singer-songwriter out of Sweden, will soon be releasing his much-anticipated sophomore effort, In Our Nature on September 25. There are already reviews trickling in and it seems that Gonzalez has come a long way from his O.C. performance a few years back. Filter has called the guitar style, “percussive” and the New York Post is already calling it one of the “top 40 albums to own this year.” Continuing, Gonzalez will be embarking on a...
If VH1’s Behind The Music ever decides to branch out from the internal squabbles, trivial psychodramas and minor torments that are de rigueur in most of the episodes they air and start tackling stories about true conflict in music and the bands that make it, the best story to start with would be that of the Meat Puppets. Now back on the road and supporting its first record to boast the musical contributions of both of the founding Kirkwood brothers...