I wasn’t at New York City’s CMJ 2009, but luckily the Internet was – and, thank God, they have Twitter. With the cool kids’ Tweeted recommendations in mind, I’ve subjected myself to a CMJ marathon right here in sunny Los Angeles via MySpace and Mediafire to bring you the best of the festival – the bands that, in the parlance of our time, were killing it. Read the rest of this entry »
Future kings of indie rock The Main Drag hit the stage at New York City’s titanic CMJ 2009 festival around 1 a.m. this morning, where fan Alan Wilkis Tweeted they were “killing it.” (Much like every band at CMJ, apparently.) Look for news about The Main Drag’s forthcoming third album’s release in this space, folks. Anyone check them out last night/this morning? Any CMJ stand-outs us L.A. kids need to know?
With a title like California Trail, you’d expect more Beach Boys in Adam and Darcie‘s sophomore album, but with autumn in full swing in L.A., I’m glad they went in a less sunny direction. The album has the chilly Pacific Northwest charm of my beloved Softies (Darcie’s voice, wonderfully, bears a passing resemblance to Rose Melberg’s) with the occasional ray of chamber-pop light. “The Fox, The Hare and Doe” starts things with a shy acoustic strum, while later tracks such as “I Need To Let Go of What I Won’t Miss” stop shoe-gazing and start smiling with enveloping harmonies and diamond-cut hooks. All in all, a gem of a record — wherever it’s from.
Adam and Darcie – “Hands/Mind”:mp3 Adam and Darcie – “National Forest”:mp3
Sufjan Stevens, he of the public existential crises, says he’s ready to love again: “I think that a lot of the new material that I’m working on is inspiring enough to get me to record it and maybe have a new record out next year… , I’m trying to dissuade any kind of conceptual framework and just write music, love songs, pop songs, and just forget all that conceptual mess,” he’s quoted as saying at Vish Khanna.
Meanwhile, his Brooklyn neighbors/pals in The National e-mailed this morning that they’re expecting to finish the follow-up to Boxer this winter. The band had previously discussed an early 2010 release for the album, which is presumably still on the table. Until then, I’ll be celebrating the news with the Sufjan/Dessner brothers as-yet-unreleased Christmas EP. Huzzah!
Secret show? Though it’s not on Largo’s schedule, a phone call to the venue (and the bands’ MySpaces) confirms that Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar will bring their Jack Kerouac tour there tonight before an El Rey gig tomorrow. The Long Winters’ John Roderick — who took a nap in his car at The Grove today, poor guy — will open, hopefully with some material from the band’s upcoming album. Doors at 7 p.m.
Edward Droste of Grizzly Bear in Brooklyn / photo by Forklift
Due to a fuck-up in the chain of publicity/venue command, I wound up without a photo pass to Grizzly Bear‘s triumphant performance at the Hollywood Palladium on Tuesday night, a hometown show for singer/guitarist Daniel Rossen and the biggest solo headlining space they’d ever played. A shame. (And a continually troublesome failing in the concert industry at large’s dealings with journalists, but I digress.) Not a shame, at all, in fact, was the band’s show, which was large and cathartic enough to fill a room that could’ve swallowed them up. Read the rest of this entry »
On November 3, 2003, just days after the untimely death of Elliott Smith, friends and colleagues including Beck, Beth Orton and Lou Barlow took the stage at the Henry Fonda Theater to pay tribute to Elliott. Audio recordings of the show have been floating around for a while, but the first-ever video of the show just appeared on YouTube — Beck, doing anguished covers of “Either/Or” stand-outs “Alameda” and “Ballad of Big Nothing.” Beautiful stuff, though of course overshadowed by the tragedy that produced it. [Via Everybody Cares, Everybody Understands]
On that note, some of us are going to the Solutions wall on Sunset Blvd. (the site of Elliott’s Figure 8 cover art) tonight to pay our respects and maybe sing some songs around 9 p.m. — come join us.
Live: 
With a title like California Trail, you’d expect more Beach Boys in Adam and Darcie‘s sophomore album, but with autumn in full swing in L.A., I’m glad they went in a less sunny direction. The album has the chilly Pacific Northwest charm of my beloved Softies (Darcie’s voice, wonderfully, bears a passing resemblance to Rose Melberg’s) with the occasional ray of chamber-pop light. “The Fox, The Hare and Doe” starts things with a shy acoustic strum, while later tracks such as “I Need To Let Go of What I Won’t Miss” stop shoe-gazing and start smiling with enveloping harmonies and diamond-cut hooks. All in all, a gem of a record — wherever it’s from.
Secret show? Though it’s not on Largo’s schedule, a phone call to the venue (and the bands’ MySpaces) confirms that Death Cab For Cutie’s Ben Gibbard and Jay Farrar will bring their Jack Kerouac tour there tonight before an El Rey gig tomorrow. The Long Winters’ John Roderick — who 
