Tag: Southern Lord

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

INCHES reviews new vinyl from Ascend, Blank Realm, Active Child, Ernest Gonzales [MP3s]

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At last! A brand new installment of INCHES, the L.A.-centric vinyl column that’s now numerous feet — no, yards — into its long-playing legacy. It’s a damn ripe time for independent music in Southern California, and this, friends, is your undeniable mainline. Inside, you’ll get your chillwave fix, your dose of droning doom, some spiraling psych and some fuzzy folktronica. Nothing to scoff at, and free MP3s from each. Plus words! And pictures!

Active Child, 'She Was A Vision'

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"

INCHES010: Pelican, James Pants, Foot Village, 60 Watt Kid, Meanest Man Contest (+ video!)

INCHES010 really is the best INCHES yet. Not a bum photo, with clean text on four (count ’em) super solid releases from L.A. -area artists and/or labels, AND a music video debut from Foot Village. Each piece of wax covered this week is short-form — one 12-inch, three sevens — so this week’s MP3s come from other sources. Still, it’s free music, and we all like that. Congrats to Fool’s Gold, who comes in at number two on Origami Vinyl’s sales chart.

Like Beyoncé said: “If you like it, then you better put a tweet on it.”

James Pants Thin Moon

James Pants' "Thin Moon"