It’s a rainy Friday afternoon in Davis and Pablo is sitting at a table just inside Mishka’s Café, a nervous smile crinkling his eyes. In contrast, the Sacramento native’s music is as spare and haunting as the desert. “I found that a lot of the sounds I was making sounded really dry and sparse. They … Continue reading
Lucius’s debut LP Wildewoman is a neon collision of raucous flowery pop and emotionally raw folk music. The quintet makes marvelous use of their two lead singers, blending and weaving their voices together and giving them a starring role in the album. Here’s the album, track by track. Wildewoman: a catchy joyous portrait of an … Continue reading
At a glance, Waylon Horner’s work is a fun mass of Technicolor abstracted cartoon madness. But if you look a little closer…well let’s just say it can be a bit of a surprise. In light of his subject matter, it shouldn’t be a shocker that one of Horner’s earliest inspirations was H.R. Giger. Giger, a … Continue reading
The line in front of the purple octopus on the façade of the Rickshaw Stop was around the corner. The Fratellis concert was sold out and people had come from hundreds of miles away to see the Scottish band play. Finally the doors opened and the crowd crawled in, swelling to fill the carnival tent-like … Continue reading
The Wyatt Deck was dark and peaceful, the weather edging towards chilly but the audience companionable. It wasn’t long before the stage lights flickered and the Common House’s production of Craig Lucas’ Prelude to a Kiss began. The play is a somewhat dark romantic comedy that delves into the question that Lana Del Rey crooned … Continue reading
Autumn Sky is done with being cute. “Most people look at me and see a short girl so they think I’m adorable and something cute is about to happen,” she says, and smiles charmingly. In her Annie Hall-esque felt hat, blazer, and tied off white blouse she looks mature and well put together rather than … Continue reading
The afternoon was creeping towards evening as we arrived at the Crocker Art Museum, ready to escape the heavy warmth of the outside air. This month’s Art Mix greeted us with craft tables and the proclamation of tonight’s theme, French Twist. We started out by taking in a lecture on the drawings of the French … Continue reading
The music of Minus the Bear is a swirling eddy of brightly colored sound that subsumes and disguises the deeper darker currents of their sparse but poignant lyrics. Understanding their songs necessitates more than just casual attention; one must devote time, careful listening, concentration, and an almost literary mindset to their music. A Cinderella story … Continue reading
Listening to Imagine Dragons is like being inundated with a tide of ragged glory and post apocalyptic glee. The Las Vegas based band puts their finger on your pulse then gets impatient; grabs your wrist, then runs off with you into the sunset. Though just recently making it big on the music charts, Imagine Dragons … Continue reading
Geographer creates their own space. Their music, when listened to carefully, wraps itself around you and cocoons your mind. Which is exactly the intention of the self-proclaimed creators of “soulful music from outer space”. “We think that [our music] creates a space you can get lost in, where you’re floating in the music your listening … Continue reading
Maybe we were a little late as we entered the Ace of Spades, but as we crossed the threshold, the bass drum took hold of our heartbeats and rewrote our pulses. FFG, a local opening act number one was already on stage, but their brand of skater boy pop punk pulled us into the increasingly … Continue reading
This is the third in a sporadic series of articles about places worth investigating in Los Angeles. Canter’s Located on Fairfax between Beverly and Melrose, Canter’s Deli has been owned and operated by the Canter family for three generations and a L.A. fixture since 1931. The 24/7 restaurant and lounge, called the Kibitz Room, has … Continue reading
This is the second in a sporadic series of articles about places worth investigating in Los Angeles. Located on Wilshire between Curson and Fairfax, Museum Row isn’t exactly off the beaten path, in fact, the sidewalk looks like its taken quite a beating in some places, especially on the Fairfax end of the row. … Continue reading
The evening was warm and the line snaked along the sidewalk, a creature of black skinny jeans and black band shirts. Inside, the Ace of Spades literally vibrated with sound as local band Journal, the first act of the evening, played their set. It was an enthusiastic bout of video game inspired metal that got … Continue reading
The weekend, like most festival weekends in Davis, was hot. The quad at U.C. Davis had become a world unto itself. Multicolored tents had sprung up over night, bringing with them booths, climbing structures, and stages. As we wandered through previously non-existent paths, peering at the sheer multitudes of different goods for sale, we were … Continue reading
Family Photo is a fresh-faced freshman band straight out of the suburbs of Sacramento who play a jazzy form of indie pop. They have dubbed their style ‘dismantled pop’ due to their tendency to play havoc with popular song structures. The band started in the summer of 2011 after going to high school together and … Continue reading
The evening opened with Desario, full on indie nerd rock, with strange lyrics I couldn’t quite catch. Then came Cold Eskimo, enthusiastically ethereal music mixing with one of their guitarist’s pleas for the guy smoking a blunt in the front row to “ Just stop.” Each band gushed about opening for Foals and every time … Continue reading
Tinned honkytonk filled the air and the sun set slowly over the wooden deck nestled in the midst of the Arboretum. The air was pleasantly warm, if sprinkled with mosquitos, but that fell away as the actors entered from offstage and the play began. The premise of the ‘The Foreigner’ is simple: Charlie Baker, grieving … Continue reading
This is the first a sporadic series of articles about interesting places off the beaten path in Los Angeles. The Last Bookstore In the heart of the slowly gentrifying Downtown District, among the hip new restaurants, the neglected old architecture, and the similarly incongruous swirling mixture of people stands what once was a bank. Today … Continue reading
If you know anything about the American Celtic punk scene, the odds are you’ve heard of Dropkick Murphys. A veritable standard in the scene, the Murphys are in their seventeenth year, have recently released their eight album Signed and Sealed in Blood, and show no sign of slowing down. Based in Boston, the band has … Continue reading
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