LA / LBC / OC
Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]
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I’ll admit that before this year’s SXSW I may have heard the name Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros a few times, but hadn’t given them much of a thought. But when I returned from Texas they were unavoidable, everything was Edward Sharpe this, Magnetic Zeros that. NPR and KCRW had hard-ons for the band and when Buzz Bands took notice of their hour long set plus an encore in the midnight slot on Fool’s Gold’s first residency night, I figured it was high time I checked this shit out. Jeebus, thank God I did. “Janglin” the first tune they had on the MySpace page at the time is totally infectious, but it wasn’t until Tuesday this week when Tripwire posted the new song, “40 Day Dream” that I became smitten.
MP3: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – 40 Day Dream
MP3: Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros – Janglin
Led by IMA Robot’s Alex Ebert, Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros are set to begin their residency at Little Radio’s newly finished space at The Regent Theatre, in downtown LA. In addition to tonight’s show, the band will return to the Regent again on May 7th and May 14th. All shows are $5, but you can get in for free if you create a profile on something called Likeme.net, tough I’m not sure about the age limit.
Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros’ debut EP, “Up From Below”, will be available digitally May 19th, and their full length release will come out on July 14th.
Xu Xu Fang are the type of LA band that are going to get big somewhere else first, most likely on the other side of the pond. The band, featuring Bobby Tamkin (The Warlocks, Hovercraft), and Barbara Cohen, who sang with French band, Air, and has anywhere from six to ten members and up to four guitars, create a layered multi-dimensional psychedelic sound, that mags like MOJO and bands like Swervedriver adore, but is often lost on LA audiences.
Seven Days Now came out this Tuesday and tonight’s show at the Echo with VOICEsVOICEs, Downtown/Union and The Voyeurs, will celebrate the EP’s release. Festivities kick off at 10pm, are free and 18+.
LA prove me wrong and stick around after the SSPU show downstairs. And for those not going to the Echoplex earlier, make sure you get to the Echo in time for VOICEsVOICEs.
MP3: Xu Xu Fang – Your Way
MP3: Xu Xu Fang – Fascination Street (Cure cover)
The Michigan-based collective,NOMO will release their fourth full-length, Invisible Cities, next week, May 5th, on local label, Ubiquity Records.
Invisible Cities comes less than a year after the release of their acclaimed Ghost Rock album, completing this spirited sister Cities album during the Ghost Rock sessions and tours.
In addition to the title track below, Pitchfork is also previewing the flute-tastic track, “Cresent”.
Announced today, NOMO, will embark on a Spring U.S. tour in support of Invisible Cities next month, with a stop in Los Angeles at Spaceland on May 23rd.
May 01 Minneapolis, MN – UMN – Coffman Memorial Union
May 15 Madison, WI – University Of Wicsonsin
May 16 Iowa City, IA – The Picador
May 19 Seattle, WA – Crocodile Cafe
May 20 Portland, OR – Doug Fir Lounge
May 21 Eugene, OR – Wow Hall
May 22 San Francisco, CA – Bottom Of The Hill
May 23 Los Angeles, CA – Spaceland
May 24 Las Vegas, NV – The Beauty Bar
May 26 Aspen, CO – Belly Up Aspen
Zechs Marquise sound like what you would expect a band that includes two siblings of Omar Rodriguez-Lopez (Mars Volta, At The Drive In), though Zechs Marquise offer an entirely instrumental and more moody take on the latin-jazz-rock sound that old brother Omar has become quite famous for. Since we last visited Zechs Marquise back in February 2007, they have racked up quite a bit of milage in the van and released their debut album, Our Delicate Stranded Nightmare, in the both the US and UK (vinyl in the UK comes out May 4th). Though they seem to play Los Angeles – what feels like 3 to 4 times a year – there is always very little local media fan fare, and only those in the know, are hip to when they are coming to town. Again, I – who fall in right between the in and the out of the know – am just learning of their local Long Beach show this morning and already rearranging plans to try to make it to The Prospector tonight for their show with locals, Blank Blue.
MP3: Zechs Marquise – Chase Scene
Tuesday, April 28th: Zechs Marquise w/Blank Blue @ The Prospector (2400 E 7th St, Long Beach) 10pm | $5 | 21+
Wednesday, April 29th: Zechs Marquise w/Blank Blue @ The Airliner (2419 N Broadway, Los Angeles) 10pm | $10 | 21+
I’ll be heading to the Yost Theatre in Santa Ana tonight to check out the inaugural KUCI Nights event featuring performances from The Living Suns, Castledoor, The Shys, Death To Anders, and Moostache.
I’m most eager to check out The Living Suns, who made a pretty decent album (would have been better as an EP), and I figure it is high time I actually saw Castledoor and Death To Anders live in the flesh.
MP3: The Living Suns – Hook Line And Sinker
MP3: Castledoor – Dumpster Diving
MP3: The Shys – Hangman
MP3: Death To Anders – Ghost Rock
MP3: Moostache -The Body Disagrees
For even more music, Castledoor who released their brand new album, Shouting At Mountains, on Tuesday, are offering up their track, “Hidden Treasure”, on Biggest Label Ever, a “upstart social networking/social activism/music website” as Kevin Bronson puts it. I had never heard of the Huntington Beach band, Moostache, before this, but you can grab their entire EP from Megaupload (don’t freak, they posted this link on their MySpace). Also, The Shys’ Daytrotter session just went up on Sunday, so go grab those five live tracks.
Thursday, April 23rd: KUCI Nights @ Yost Theatre (307 Spurgeon Street) 8pm | $8 | All Ages