Tag: Sargent House

Review: Hella’s Zach Hill Crushes Minds, Tattoos Faces on Second LP, ‘Face Tat’

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"Put your face right here."

Zach Hill destroys lives with his drumming. He’ll forever alter you with his stickwork. Might even rearrange your face, carve something into it. Maybe that’s why the Hella mastermind he called his new album Face Tat.

“In 1969, James Brown coined the phrase ‘give the drummer some,’ forever providing skinsmen a handy shorthand and safeguard against singers who don’t like to share. But Zach Hill has always gone out and gotten it himself. The self-taught kit-pummeler …”

Finish that sentence and read a few more over at The A.V. Club.

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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

News Roundup: Dam-Funk + Slave, Jim Henson + Beat Music?!, Radiohead Donor Revealed, Trip-Out Tuesday, ASKA + Flea + Spike Jonze

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

Durlin Lurt's 'Him Jenson'

  1. ‘Him Jenson’ Releases Wild Muppets Mixtape [MP3s]
  2. Dâm-Funk Making LPs w/ Steve Arrington, Nite Jewel [MP3]
  3. Trip-Out Tuesday: Psychedelic Visions from Red Sparowes
  4. And The Top Radiohead Benefit Donor Is… Dangerbird?
  5. ASKA of Moonrats Collaborates Flea, Spike Jonze

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

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

Trip-Out Tuesday: Psychedelic Visions from Red Sparowes

INCHES revs Sunn O))), Flying Lotus + House Shoes, Russian Circles, Langley Sisters [MP3s]

A brand new installment of L.A.’s taste-making vinyl column, INCHES, has officially dropped. New and recent, some deluxe, wax releases from doom kings Sunn O))), Low End Theory figurehead Flying Lotus, Detroit producer House Shoes, Chicago post-metalleers Russian Circles, and Britain’s old fashioned Langley Sisters. MP3s, photography, reviews.

Behold, the first release to earn a space-swallowing vertical shot:

Sunn O))), "Monoliths & Dimensions"

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'

INCHES005: New Wax from The Mars Volta, Glasser, Wet Hair, Kissing Cousins (+ MP3s, video, chart)

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Man alive, it’s number five! The West Coast Sound vinyl column rings in a brand new prime number with INCHES005, featuring some truly glorious wax courtesy of The Mars Volta (Rodriguez-Lopez Productions), Glasser (True Panther Sounds), Kissing Cousins (Velvet Blue Music), and Wet Hair (Not Not Fun).

Wet Hair, Glass Fountain

Wet Hair, "Glass Fountain"

Also inside: trippy video of the Glasser 12-inch package being assembled, free music to download, and a fresh top-ten from Vacation Vinyl.

INCHES004: New Wax from Division Day, Nosaj Thing, Anticon/Dublab and Bygones (+ MP3s, chart)

INCHES004 has landed over at LA Weekly‘s West Coast Sound. Installment number four picks off where last week left off, an unthemed collection of just-released (this week!) L.A.-relevant vinyl reviewed, photographed, and MP3’d, accompanied by a top ten vinyl sales chart from one of our neighborhood record shops. Inside, you’ll find a Velveeta-yellow slab of wax by Bygones (Zach Hill + Tera Melos’ Nick Reinhart), the latest from Division Day, the premier Anticon/Dublab release (featuring music by Hecuba, Lucky Dragons, Julia Holter, matthewdavid, and four others), and the long-delayed vinyl version of Nosaj Thing‘s Drift. Plus, check out the local-friendly list from Origami Vinyl.

Bygones, "by-"

Stay tuned for much, much more, and if you’ve got ideas, reach out.

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.

Q&A: Rx Bandits go hornless, dodge pterodactyls

Truth be told, I’ve been a fan of Southern California’s Rx Bandits since I was a high school junior. That was when the band skewed a wee bit ska and their resonance seemed doomed to passing fad. At least, to the outsiders. Those of us really listening knew that a long and illustrious career of genre-bending and “weird music” (singer Matt Embree’s phrase) would follow. Whether you got it then or not, the band’s new record, Mandala, is strong prog-punk worthy of stronger praise. Read what Embree had to say here.

Trip out:

R.I.P. Deciders Los Angeles and San Fransisco.