2011 was a mixed bag. Established acts like Radiohead and The Strokes dropped duds on trusting fans, while middle-of-the-road acts like The Drums and Hunx and His Punx raised the bar with surprising sophomore efforts. Floundering bands like Iron & Wine and The Dodos made welcome returns to glory, while others merely treaded water (see She and Him’s Christmas album or MGMT’s “mix tape.”) Continue reading…
As we await the arrival of 2012 (and with it some always-amusing apocalypse paranoia), it’s time to bid adieu to the beautiful mess that was 2011. For San Diegans, there are plenty of fun New Year’s Eve options to choose from, but none glow with quite so much wattage as the gala event planned at the Lafayette Hotel. A whopping eight acts will be on hand to help you ring in the new year, including Transfer, The Creepy Creeps, The Heavy Guilt, Hell on Heels Burlesque, Creepxotica, Low Volts, and The Visual Underground.
That lineup would be pretty amazing on its own, but we haven’t even mentioned the headliner: San Diego’s own The Silent Comedy. We can’t think of a better way to count down to midnight than raising a glass to a sweat-soaked, super-charged set of folk from the charismatic four-piece. Tickets for the sure-to-be-awesome event can be purchased here.
In anticipation of the show, we asked The Silent Comedy for a list of their New Year’s resolutions for 2012. You can check it out below. Continue reading…
MP3: Ha Ha Tonka – “The Usual Suspects”
MP3: Ha Ha Tonka – “Close Every Valve To Your Bleeding Heart” (live)
Missouri’s Ha Ha Tonka has hit the road in support of its new album, Death of a Decade. Continue reading…
The planet known as twee might be in the Descendant at the moment, but no one told The Yellow Dress that.
The seven-piece San Francisco band wears its heart on its sleeve, fashioning adorable ballads out of acoustic guitar strums, hand claps, whistling, and frontman Dan Weiss’ delirious game-show-host vocals. On their just-released sophomore album, Humblebees, The Yellow Dress leave apathy and pretentiousness to the buzz bands, opting instead for relentlessly cheery, homespun ditties with a heartfelt edge. Continue reading…
MP3: Picastro – “Skullduggery”
Stream: Picastro & Nadja – Fool Redeemer EP
Toronto experimental trio Picastro has released four full-length albums since its 2002 formation, the latest of which is 2009’s Become Secret. This year, the band collaborated with fellow Canadians Nadja on a split called Fool Redemer. Unlike a traditional split album, with side A featuring tracks by one band and side B by another, members of both groups contributed to each other’s songs, creating a tour de force of atonal experimentation.
Picastro will join Scout Niblett at the Soda Bar on December 5; in anticipation of the show, band leader Liz Hysen sent us a list of her influences. Continue reading…