Tag: indie music

All Things Considered: Best L.A. Music with Foreign Born, Nosaj Thing and Nite Jewel

Care to hear  the best songs from the L.A. underground in 2009? Click on over to KPCC, where I visited last week in order to talk to All Things Considered host Alex Cohen about three of my favorites. Discussed: Foreign Born’s “Vacationing People,” Nosaj Thing’s “Coat Of Arms,” and Nite Jewel’s “Artificial Intellience,” as well as the scenes/movements each artist represents. Listen to the audio by clicking the little play button at the top of the article, and feel free to download each song via the side panel.

Foreign Born take a victory lap.

Further reading:

– An interview with Foreign Born’s Matt Popieluch (via The A.V. Club)

– A feature on Nosaj Thing (via LA Weekly)

– Various items about Nite Jewel (mostly via LA Weekly)

New Free Elliott Smith MP3, KRS Reissues, and (Slight) Backlash

Hello. Here’s some news.

Earlier this week, Kill Rock Stars announced that it’d acquired the rights to Elliott Smith’s first and last records — 1994’s Roman Candle, originally on Cavity Search, and 2004’s posthumous ANTI- release, From A Basement On A Hill — and that reissues are scheduled for April 6, 2010… [The label also] releas[ed] a free MP3 of a heretofore unheard Smith track… “Cecilia/Amanda”… But despite the usual tendency of the blogosphere to swallow whole all things downloadable and gratis, at least one writer has taken issue with the track.

Read on here, on West Coast Sound (via LA Weekly).

Bassmaker Shlohmo Signs To Friends Of Friends, Plays Calling All Kids Friday [MP3]

Something less, erm, bawdy from the L.A. music universe.

Friends Of Friends — friends of ours responsible for a growing crop of exciting releases — has just announced its signing of L.A./S.F. beat music artist, Shlohmo, a.k.a. 19-year-old Henry Laufer, a former intern at Dubab. […]  Shlohmo’s glitchy, bass-heavy soundscapes are already drawing comparisons to the output of Flying Lotus and Nosaj Thing, both of whom are part of the Alpha Pup family, so dude should fit right in.

Read more, and download an MP3, here, via LA Weekly.

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'

INCHES reviews Lambo, The Marshmallow Ghosts (members of BMSR, Appleseed Cast), Bipolar Bear, and The Pink Noise (MP3s)

The latest edition of INCHES is up! Click here to read reviews of records by Lambo (AutoTune funk on Stones Throw), The Marshmallow Ghosts (featuring members of Black Moth Super Rainbow and The Appleseed Cast), The Pink Noise (Canuck punk on Kill Shaman Records), and Bipolar Bear (local crew whose latest is on Mexican Summer). Good, free tunes. Good, free photos. Good, free words. You’ll like it. Check out older installments here.

Lambo's "Computer Bagel"