MP3: Saint Hotel – “Puzzle Pieces”
Kicking off their Summer Sweat tour with San Diego’s own bands The Silent Comedy and The Howls in a sold-out show at the Casbah on July 5th, Los Angeles-based Saint Motel are ready to hit the road again. Lead singer AJ Jackson spoke to Owl and Bear about sex, tiger’s blood, and rock n’ roll. Continue reading…
San Diego’s A Scribe Amidst the Lions are a tricky band to wrap your head around. Their influences cover a wide range of genres like metal, classic rock, and even folk. And while they know their way around a lightning-fast guitar riff or signature change, their steadfast commitment to songwriting prevents their music from ever descending into metalhead self-amusement. Continue reading…
Full album stream: Paleo – Fruit of the Spirit
MP3: Paleo – “Holly Would”
David Strackany, also known as Paleo, is perhaps best known for The Song Diary, wherein he undertook the monumental effort of writing 365 songs in a single year. As an added bonus, he used a “half-size children’s guitar” while living out of his car and being essentially homeless. Continue reading…
MP3: Peter Case – Round Trip Stranger Blues
Peter Case follows in a grand tradition of rock music, existing in the vein of pioneers like Bob Dylan, Steve Earle, The Clash, and other musical heroes who live to break ground and make new things. Continue reading…
MP3: Kissing Cousins – “You Bring Me Down”
When your music is described as a cross between the Shangri-Las and Black Sabbath, chances are you’ve struck upon a pretty interesting sound. But there’s much more to Kissing Cousins than those two bands. Hailing from Los Angeles, the all-girl group concocts churning mixtures of pitch-black atmosphere and driving rhythms that draw upon an array of musical, literary, and cinematic influences.
Sonically, the four-piece sounds like PJ Harvey on a cranky day, complete with surging factory beats and half-sung, half-spoken words that often maketh murder. Their lyrics are influenced by Southern Gothic writers like William Faulkner and Flannery O’Connor, both of whom heavily influenced frontwoman Bray Heywood during her childhood in Alabama.
There’s even some David Lynch (see the bible-spouting, Eric Stoltz-starring video for “Don’t Look Back,” off the band’s debut album, Pillar of Salt) and Cinemax-style exploitation (as in the new video for “You Bring Me Down,” which finds the girls being sent to prison and generally kicking the crap out of each other) thrown into the mix. Continue reading…