Big Moves / photo by David Greenwald
As usual, here are my recs for the week:
Monday: You can see three of L.A.’s best unsigned bands at the Bootleg Bar tonight: Big Moves, LA Font and yOya. Free! Go, and give them money.
Tuesday: Laura Marling and U.K. colleagues Alessi’s Ark bring their must-see folk to the Troubadour. Read the rest of this entry »
Lord Huron / all photos by David Greenwald
For the last 13 months, I’ve written a weekly column first for Brand X and currently the Los Angeles Times dubbed L.A. Unheard. The goal is to point out promising new local artists; during a short-lived concert series, we gave them the chance to play some cool shows, too. I’ve tried very hard to avoid hype and trends and go with my gut, which means the column’s probably missed a lot of fresh electro and hip-hop, though we’ve managed to catch Foster the People, Hanni El Khatib and a handful of other breakouts. Hopefully this list, the first of many, will go one step further: these are all bands who deserve to be on a serious label and playing national tours. Help them out with this, industry folks! And for everybody else: enjoy the music and go to the shows. Read the rest of this entry »
Wild Nothing “Our Composition Book” Pitchfork Festival 2011 / Yours Truly from Yours Truly on Vimeo.
Reminiscent of the Cure’s Acoustic Hits. Gorgeous stuff from Yours Truly.
Of note: He sorta changed the melody for “Waiting for Kirsten” from the live version; this is the first glimpse of the new, sample-free Jens; “A Promise” starts, like all the songs, a little cheesy, but quickly escalates into pure Swedish transcendence; “New Directions” is as good as it’s been live for the last couple years; his next album is going to be remarkable.
(Hear it at Vulture)
Like “Round and Round” before it, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti’s “Witch Hunt Suite for World War III” has an extensive history: it began life on September 11, 2001, when Pink started recorded what would become a 16-minute synth opus. Fans of the superb Before Today will find plenty to love here — if it were released as a new five-track EP instead of a single “piece,” no one would bat an eye — though, fair warning, between the ’80s found footage of the accompanying video lies some fairly intense 9/11 imagery. The squeamish should skip directly to the amazing Batman/Ariel sequence at the 12-minute mark.
(“Witch Hunt…” is out now on 4AD)
Previously: Live: Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti at the Echoplex | PS22 Chorus covers “Round and Round”
Photo © Denny Renshaw
Last month, I posted a solo Seven Swans-era Sufjan Stevens bootleg; here he is with a full band the very next year at the height of his powers. Trivia: the show was apparently with Animal Collective!
1. The 50 States Song: mp3
2. The Tallest Man, the Broadest Shoulders: mp3
3. Prairie Fire + They Are Night Zombies…: mp3
4. Jacksonville: mp3
5. Casimir Pulaski Day: mp3
6. Chicago: mp3
7. The Predatory Wasp: mp3
8. A Good Man is Hard to Find: mp3
9. John Wayne Gacy Jr.: mp3
10. All the Trees of the Field: mp3
11. Seven Swans: mp3
12. The Man of Metropolis Steals Our Hearts: mp3
Previously: Bootleg: Sufjan Stevens, 3.10.04 Belgium + 11.19.03 Illinois
Find more concerts and unreleased recordings on the Rawkblog Bootlegs archive page.
Ether Coil is a new U.K. quarter with a firmly ’90s influence. The band’s ringing guitars and crisp vocals are pure Britpop, as is the music’s major-key sunny disposition, though Lilith Fair-era alternative makes itself felt, too. Singer Lorri Robinson ties things together with singing that’s both strident and whisper-delicate. As a result, Ether Coil’s debut album, the dynamic, tuneful The Way of the World (impressively tracked in just a week) is full of the sort of songs that Coldplay and, ahem, Shawn Colvin have long since abandoned. See, you can go home again. Stream the album in full after the jump. Read the rest of this entry »
Here’s a hard fact: there is no more impressive label in 2011 than Captured Tracks. At least not if vintage synths, hyper-sincere melodies and general ’80s underground romance is your thing. It could not possibly be more my thing these days, making Blouse’s debut single the latest track to go straight to my pleasure centers. The band’s from Portland by way of Creation Records, all blurred synths and double-vision vocals steady enough to set up shop in your head for the next week. If you’ve heard MINKS, Craft Spells, etc., you already know exactly how this will sound — and exactly how much you’ll love it.
Blouse, “Videotapes” by The FADER
(via The Fader; the band’s s/t debut is due Nov. 1)
