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.

News Roundup: L.A. Declares ‘Dio Day,’ Madlib Goes Psych-Rock, plus Salem and Tobacco

Murray, pleased by the news, took the day off from slaying.

Quick bloggy bits from around the L.A. underground (and up). Share ’em.

  1. FEATURED: City Declares May 30 ‘Ronnie James Dio Day’*
  2. Madlib Goes Psych-Rock on New ‘Brain Wreck’ LP
  3. Salem Signs to IAMSOUND, Reveals ‘King Night’ Details
  4. MP3 Exclusive: Tobacco Remixes HEALTH’s ‘Die Slow’
  5. (all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

* “Naturally, the prepared statement delivered at Dio’s memorial was greeted with rabid cheers and a strong showing of devil horns.”

Sub Pop Announces Avi Buffalo LP, IAMSOUND Kicks Off “LA Collection” 7-Inch Series

Two bits of exciting news from Los Angeles-area music-makers. The first pertains to Avi Buffalo, who I wrote about for the Weekly back in October (and whose first Sub Pop release made it into INCHES). The second comes from up-and-coming L.A. indie label IAMSOUND and involves a ton of great local artists including Nosaj Thing and Ryan Heffington’s We Are The World. Since I’m in a beastly mood, click the linx for the links.

Sub Pop Announces Details of Avi Buffalo LP

IAMSOUND Launches 7-inch Series Ft. Nosaj Thing, Fool's Gold, Edward Sharpe...

INCHES011: New Wax from Fool’s Gold, Inca Ore, Now-Again (Rare Psych!), Samiyam (MP3s, chart)

Friends, INCHES011 exists. Featuring fresh wax from L.A.’s favorite Eritrean-Hebrew Afrobeat outfit, Fool’s Gold, a limited 10-inch platter from beat music maker Samiyam (via Poo-Bah Records), some experimental goodness from the Not Not Fun label (SF’s Inca Ore), and an incredible international psych/funk/rock/soul comp put together by Stones Throw general manager, Eothen “Egon” Alapatt. Can I get a Twit-ness?

Egons Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges, 1968 - 1974

Egon's "Forge Your Own Chains: Heavy Psychedelic Ballads And Dirges"