Friday: The Fiery Furnaces’ Eleanor Friedberger wraps up her three-night Los Angeles run with a free show in the Origami Vinyl loft; Thurston Moore and Kurt Vile play the Troubadour.
Saturday: Lord Huron plays a free show at the Getty’s Fridays Off the 405 series before heading off to summer festivals.
Sunday: Grass Widow brings its spiderweb guitars to the Echo.
Monday: Princeton pop off at the Troubadour; Stone Darling get funky, lo-fi style, at the Satellite.
Coming up in August: Future Ghost, Summer Darling @ Satellite 8/5, Deerhunter @ Wiltern 8/9, Califone @ Satellite, 8/14, John Vanderslice @ the Echo 8/26, Craft Spells, Seapony @ the Echo 8/28. Keep an eye on our ongoing concert calendar for every essential show.
Eleanor Friedberger – “My Mistakes”:mp3 Lord Huron – “The Stranger”:mp3
On some level, it ought to be criminal that Eleanor Friedberger, the Fiery Furnaces member and certifiable Indie Rock Celebrity, had to sell her own merch at the Satellite last night and suffer the further indignity of going on first, at 9, before an Australian band that’s never earned a Best New Music. At the very least, it should be criminal to not announce set times early enough for me not to miss 40 minutes of the Friedberger set, but such is life. In the handful of songs I caught, she played Last Summer standout “Early Earthquake” and some yet-to-be released numbers that were just as good, alone with an electric guitar and immaculate elocution. Given that she’s playing a pair of free in-stores today and tomorrow, maybe she prefers it this way; she seemed happy enough to huddle into a corner of the venue and preside over her t-shirts and CDs.
Cloud Control, who followed, were a pretty convincing argument for nostalgia. The Australian act tapped into the ’00′s fascination with African rhythms, ’90s melodic sentimentality and ’80s guitar tones; at times, they sounded like the Smiths covering the Proclaimers. It was fantastic. One song offered two minutes of textbook C86 before diving into a gloriously wanky Dinosaur Jr. guitar solo, blinking, and jangling onward as if nothing had happened. It was funny without being embarrassing, the kind of moment that reminds you that rock music’s always better when it stops trying so hard to be Art.
Should enough people see them live, the band should be the next Pains of Pure at Heart: they’re equally catchy, better performers, much more interesting songwriters and floppy-haired/bangs-bearing enough. Their recordings, a debut album that’s Australia/U.K.-only for now, is just O.K., only a shadow of the enthusiasm and electricity they displayed on stage. Don’t hold it against them, or their “There She Goes” cover — the band took pains to introduce it as a La’s song, not the (more well known?) Sixpence None the Richer version, but it sounded like a future Hypem No. 1 either way. They should drop it on a 7″ b/w “Kiss Me.”
Eleanor Friedberger photo by David Greenwald’s phone
As we wait for ARMS to show off their Summer Skills, bassist Matty Fasano has made his solo debut: a digital 7″ featuring two somber piano ballads. It’s more dour and minor key than ARMS’ crackling indie-rock, with Radiohead’s quietest moments (“Pyramid Song”) or Liam Singer’s overlooked, intermittent genius the closest references. Hope there’s more on the way — so long as it doesn’t distract from that day job. (The tracks were also engineered by sometime-P4kers Matt LeMay and Nick Sylvester, guaranteeing this a future 7.6.)
“I’m the tongue in your French kiss,” goes a saucy line in the Rosie Taylor Project’s “Sleep.” The song is otherwise the opposite of hot under the collar, all vintage Belle & Seb orchestration and cooing male-female vox more suited to combing a Borders (R.I.P.) than steaming up a club night. It’s a sharper tune than anything on the band’s ’08 release The City Draws Maps; let’s hope there’s a like-minded album on the way to join this three-song single, which you can hear below. (via Eardrums)
In case you need more adorable in your life (you do!), here’s the latest from twee softies The School’s still-wonderful 2010 debut, Loveless Unbeliever. Pajamas, shopping, going to the park, girl-group hooks: what more do you want? The I Love Everything digital single is out now on Elefant.
Joy Division/pun fans Bos Angeles have followed up the killer “Beach Slalom” with two new tracks, “June” and “Days of Youth.” The former is a sensitive ballad that crescendos into a perfect storm, while the latter is a messy rocker that could do with more of “Beach Slalom’s” steely minimalism. All in all, more promising stuff from a band I wish L.A. could take credit for.
L.A. Unheard alumni J. Irvin Dally joins Yours Truly for a typically intimate performance of the singer’s “Punchbowls” and “Teething.” That voice! Also notable: the soft-focus video’s color palette makes it look very nearly like moving Renaissance art. Da Vinci would be proud.
On some level, it ought to be criminal that Eleanor Friedberger, the Fiery Furnaces member and certifiable Indie Rock Celebrity, had to sell her own merch at the Satellite last night and suffer the further indignity of going on first, at 9, before an Australian band that’s never earned a Best New Music. At the very least, it should be criminal to not announce set times early enough for me not to miss 40 minutes of the Friedberger set, but such is life. In the handful of songs I caught, she played Last Summer standout “Early Earthquake” and some yet-to-be released numbers that were just as good, alone with an electric guitar and immaculate elocution. Given that she’s playing a pair of free in-stores today and tomorrow, maybe she prefers it this way; she seemed happy enough to huddle into a corner of the venue and preside over her t-shirts and CDs.
As we wait for ARMS to show off their Summer Skills, bassist Matty Fasano has made his solo debut: a digital 7″ featuring two somber piano ballads. It’s more dour and minor key than ARMS’ crackling indie-rock, with Radiohead’s quietest moments (“Pyramid Song”) or Liam Singer’s overlooked, intermittent genius the closest references. Hope there’s more on the way — so long as it doesn’t distract from that day job. (The tracks were also engineered by sometime-P4kers Matt LeMay and Nick Sylvester, guaranteeing this a future 7.6.)
Joy Division/pun fans Bos Angeles have followed up the killer “Beach Slalom” with two new tracks, “June” and “Days of Youth.” The former is a sensitive ballad that crescendos into a perfect storm, while the latter is a messy rocker that could do with more of “Beach Slalom’s” steely minimalism. All in all, more promising stuff from a band I wish L.A. could take credit for.
