SPIN Premieres: HOTT MT Kidnaps Wayne Coyne, Growlers Diss Uncle Sam, Nick Waterhouse Slays

Been doing some blogging for SPIN lately, which included wrangling a trio of super sweet premieres from West Coast up-and-comers. Included: L.A. weirdos HOTT MT, who forced the lead Flaming Lip to do their bidding on camera; Costa Mesa beach bum kingpins the Growlers, who’ve dubbed America’s top-hatted human mascot a “dick”; and Nick Waterhouse, a San Francisco neo-greaser whose brand of soul revival won’t make you gag. Click below to dig in:

And some bonus Waterhouse for your troubles:

Review: The Dodos Get Noisy on ‘No Color’

The Dodos, "No Color"

“Is it better to be on or be good?” sings the Dodos’ Meric Long on the San Francisco indie-folk duo’s new No Color. It’s an apt question: For 2009’s Time To Die, the group added a third member, contracted big-name producer Phil Ek, and introduced electric guitar into the mix—all attempts to be “on” that resulted in The Dodos’ most patently “off” work to date.”

So what about this time? Read the full review at The A.V. Club.

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LA Notcoming: Gary Numan cancels El Rey gig

A champion has been declared in the epic battle of Gary vs. The Volcano. Hint: the one that spews magma won. Sadly, this means that the New Wave legend not only missed the weekend’s Coachella festival, but that he’s canceled the U.S. mini tour that was to follow. I’d written a preview for Wednesday’s L.A. gig. Read it if you wish, or make the jump to peruse Numan’s announcement.

  • Region: Miracle Mile
    Music: Gary Numan
    Vitals: El Rey Theatre on Wednesday, April 21
    (details at LA Weekly)

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News Roundup: Mars Volta At The Movies, Madlib Flips Wig, MMC Are Only ‘Partially Smart’, Manimal Signs New Artist, and… Boobies!

Quick bloggy bits* from around the L.A. underground (and up).

  1. Mars Volta Ax-man Makes Directorial Debut
  2. Madlib To Kick Off Album-A-Month Series [MP3]
  3. Watch: Meanest Man Contest, “Partially Smart” [MP3]
  4. Tearist Signs To Manimal, Delivers Exclusive MP3
  5. Seven Saturdays Releases Creepy NSFW Video, MP3
  6. (all stories via West Coast Sound, via LA Weekly)

*If you like it, then you better put a tweet on it.

INCHES SF Edition: Lazer Sword, Tempo No Tempo, Themselves, Young Prisms (MP3)

Howdy ya’ll. Just cooked up a fresh new installment of the INCHES column. This week we take a trip north to the Bay Area (land of my upbringing) to cover some face-meltingly hot vinyl releases from Lazer Sword, Tempo No Tempo, Themselves, and Young Prisms. Free MP3s, videos, awesome photos, awesomer words. Check it.

SF Edition: INCHES reviews Lazer Sword, Tempo No Tempo, Themselves, Young Prisms (MP3)

Fonky Friday: Jay-J & BAM Rise Up

Thank God it’s still Friday, because I just discovered something waaaaaaaaay fonky (yes, that is an intentional “o”). Mega huge big-ups to Kristi Lomax at KPFK for spinning this jam on her new “One Track Mind” show. Holy smokes. Give it to the 1:40 mark to convince ya. Once the synths arrive, you’ll know you came to the right place.

Wallpaper Lands Fantastic SF Weekly Cover Story By Music Editor Jennifer Maerz

Apologies for an excessive amount of Wallpaper coverage, but what’s a blog for if you can’t get personal from time to time? Eric Frederic, the main brain at the center of the Wallpaper duo (as well as the Facing New York project), is one of my dearest friends. I’m not positive about this, but I do believe I was at his first band’s first ever show, at a small Pinole bakery down the street from our high school. He’s been an incredible writer of music since before we met, and as often happens with true talent, success by a grand societal scale has always just eluded his work. But there’s change in the air, and hard work does yield results, and those results taste all the sweeter if they had to age a little bit along the way. Please click here to read an exceptionally spot-on piece written by SF Weekly‘s music editor, Jennifer Maerz, on the occasion of the release of Wallpaper’s debut LP, the lovingly titled Doodoo Face.

Check out previous entries on Wallpaper here.