Those who have seen Avi Buffalo before or heard their polished debut album have come to expect impressive things from the band, and that’s what made Tuesday night’s Casbah show such a disappointment. Continue reading…
On May 31, NJ punk (and post-punk) pioneer Ted Leo recorded a trio of solo live performances for Apple™ accessory makers Incase Designs’ Room 205 series.
Last week, Incase unveiled the first fruit of that labor, the dub-infused Brutalist Bricks track “One Polaroid a Day.” The middle part of the trilogy, a new song called “The Little Smug Supper Club,” premiered this week, and the third and final installment — the Leo classic “The Sword In The Stone” — will be posted on June 20.
“The Little Smug Supper Club,” which you can view above, sounds a lot like classic Leo: a little bit of punk, a solid pop chorus, and a heart of oak. In other words, it’s good stuff.
Past Room 205 sessions have featured La Sera, Abe Vigoda, and Avi Buffalo.
Are you sick of eagerly waiting for the weekend to arrive, only to have it fly by before you know it? Do you find yourself sitting at your desk Monday morning, wondering where the heck the last two days have gone?
Thankfully, local music supporters Sezio have devised a great way to help you savor the weekend — they’ve made it twice as long. Beginning Thursday, November 4th, Sezio will host Four Day Weekend, an “anti-festival” comprised of four performances by eight West Coast bands.
The festival gets off to a fine start on Thursday with the Joel P. West-fronted The Tree Ring and local favorites The Vision of a Dying World, who are reassembling their classic, four-piece lineup just for the night. Friday will pair San Francisco’s Dominant Legs with hometown heroes Writer.
Saturday’s show features the most exciting lineup yet, with local buzz-band Cuckoo Chaos — who recently signed to Lefse Records — opening for none other than San Francisco psych-folk act The Dodos. Anybody who has heard The Dodos’ fantastic 2008 album Visiter knows that their presence is a very big reason to be excited. The festival will meet a classy end on Sunday with performances by San Diego’s reverb-happy Chairs Missing and Long Beach chill-pop band Avi Buffalo. Continue reading…
In today’s fickle, post-Pitchfork world, each new band can start to feel like the latest chillwave flavor of the month. In the ambiguous sea of lo-fi turned glo-fi turned back to shoegaze whatever, it is important to give certain bands the distinction they deserve.
Phantogram duo Joshua Carter and Sarah Barthel are a reminder that, behind the indie genre’s similarities, there are subtle but important shifts in influences and backgrounds. Conceived on an isolated farm in Upstate New York, their debut album, Eyelid Movies, is the lovechild of 90’s hip-hop beats and urban dream-pop.
Phantogram have already passed through San Diego twice this year — the first time opening for The Antlers at the Casbah and, more recently, opening for The XX at House of Blues, and we can’t wait for them to come back. We spoke with Sarah Barthel after their House of Blues performance, and we also caught up with her later via email. Continue reading…