Tag: Hydra Head

Feature: 12 L.A. Indie Labels You Should Know — from Sargent House to Anticon to Southern Lord to Dangerbird to IAMSOUND and more …

Dean Spunt on the skins, No Age drummer and PPM Records owner

It’s awesome time in L.A., people. Either get on the Good News train or get left behind. Music, frankly, is great — always has been, but when so much great music exists in one’s own backyard, when the people responsible for tending the flame all seem to gather within the same ten-mile stretch, when there’s no shortage of good ideas or good tunes, well, a person is likely to get real happy and start writing silly things like this.

Far less silly, and actually quite informative, is “Twelve Indie Labels You Should Know, a Primer” (I say “prymer,” please don’t say “primmer”) which is on the L.A. Times blog, Pop & Hiss, right now, as I type. This piece is the culmination of a three-parter. Read the Sunday print feature, “L.A.’s Indie Labels Succeed with a Jack-of-All-Trades Approach,” if you please. And find a supplemental piece (with a choice MP3) over yonder.

Feature: Los Angeles’ String of Indie Labels Thrives in the New Music Business

Amanda and Britt Brown of Eagle Rock indie label Not Not Fun pose for Los Angeles Times (photo by Jay L. Clendenin)

Well, it has been a long, long time coming, but I’m pleased to share my debut pair of links over to the Los Angeles Times. The main feature, which runs in print in Sunday’s Calendar section, profiles the ways in which independent labels in L.A. are adapting to the changing landscape of the music biz. Read about it here:

L.A.’s string of indie labels succeeds with a jack-of-all-trades approach

With noted input from the Dangerbird, Stones Throw, Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun imprints, plus tons of help from folks at Sargent House, Hydra Head, Southern Lord, Anticon, Manimal Vinyl, and Post Present Medium.

Also, there’s a supplemental blog piece to read, featuring a free download of Aloe Blacc’s stunning “I Need a Dollar” here:

Indies in L.A.: Alpha Pup and Not Not Fun talk the thriving L.A. scene

MP3, Shred Edition: Hydra Head Records, Random Patterns, Slim Barton, Badgers!

Torche, Hydra Head thrash kings

We’re getting caught up on two weeks of intense blogging for West Coast Sound, and we now present to you some tasty MP3 and/or streaming works. This is the Shred Edition (with some twang thrown in too).

  1. FEATURED: 22 Songs of Shred and Doom from Hydra Head*
  2. Free Album from Psychedelic Random Patterns
  3. Slim Barton and James Moore’s ‘Poor Convict Blues’
  4. ‘Los Angeles’ by Leslie & the Badgers, on Thirty Tigers
  5. Saddam, Barack, Hillary Cameo in Henry Clay People Clip
  6. ‘Claws’ By Local Gaze-Pop Outfit Luna Is Honey

    7. (all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

* “As far as gift-giving goes, this one may be arriving out of season, but L.A. metal-of-many-stripes institution Hydra Head Records has just dropped the free 22-song digital sampler, Phoning It In.”

Xasthur Makes Album With Marissa Nadler

This piece, published yesterday via West Coast Sound has been making the rounds thanks to Pitchfork and The Daily Swarm. Read the original here.

At long last, devotees of creeping, hell-sent ambient black metal and fans of spare, heavenly folk-skewed dream pop will have something to lick shots into the air about together. Via her website, Boston-based singer-songwriter Marissa Nadler recently announced that Los Feliz’s Hydra Head Records will release an as-yet untitled album-length collaboration between herself and Alhambra-based doom specialist Xasthur.

INCHES reviews Best Coast, Omar Rodriguez Lopez Group, Lustmord, Bipolar Bear [MP3s]

Apologies for the lack of updates. Perhaps you’ve made a New Year’s resolution to read a wee bit more in 2010? Well, why not get a jump on it now, here, for free. Check out the second latest edition of INCHES, here. As is my weekly wont, you’ll find four fresh slabs of L.A.-relevant vinyl reviewed, photographed* and MP3’d for your audio-visual pleasure.

My pick of the litter?

Best Coast, 'When I'm With You'

INCHES reviews ‘Secondhand Sureshots,’ Oxbow, Red Sparowes, Topaz Rags (MP3s)

It’s true. Four more primes slabs of virgin wax from L.A.’s extremely fertile independent music scene. Among this week’s crop are my favorite release of the year, the Dublab super-project Secondhand Sureshots, some rabid avant blues courtesy of Oxbow (Hydra Head’s return to the column!), another dreamy psych offering from the kids at Not Not Fun (Topaz Rags), and some post-rock tastiness from Red Sparowes (on Sargent House).

Oxbow, 'Songs For The French'

Best Of L.A.: Vinyl, Cassettes, Music Tees, The Smell, Build-Yr-Own Instruments and More

The LA Weekly‘s annual “Best Of” issue is on stands now — in theory at least, they usually disappear pretty quickly. But whether you’re in-town or out, near the paper product or not, you can read all about our favorite things (300 of them) here. I contributed a handful of writeups on local people and places that I hold dear, all music-skewed of course, and you can go direct to each below.

More after the jump.

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INCHES001: Local revolutions w/ Mika Miko, Xasthur, Rx Bandits, Castledoor, Shafiq Husayn

I’m exceedingly proud to announce the debut of my new weekly vinyl column, “INCHES” on the LA Weekly music blog, West Coast Sound. The full title of the inaugural installment is “INCHES001: Local revolutions, pt.1 — five L.A. vinyl exclusives revealed and reviewed.”

This edition features five releases by L.A.-area artists on L.A.-area labels — Mika Miko (PPM), Xasthur (Hydra Head), RxBandits (Sargent House), Castledoor (Seven Inch Project), and Shafiq (Poo-Bah) — that either are not available on CD, or sport a drool-worthy design. A free MP3 accompanies each writeup, along with a photo of the package shot, for better or for worse, by yours truly.

Mika Mikos We Be Xuxa (PPM)

Mika Miko's We Be Xuxa (PPM)

Future installments will include up-to-date reviews of wax by L.A. artists and/or L.A. imprints, profiles on local vinyl shops and labels, cratedigger-curated selections, swap meet outings, and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. If you haven’t clicked over there already, please do so here.