On stage, five women covered with pastel-colored veils were sort of entering in a yoga transcendental meditation, reciting a new age-y discourse about opening our minds and receiving a waterfall, some esoteric stuff they were taking very seriously,… like opening our feet into the earth to channel infinite love?… they were surrounded by flowers and I was wondering, when do they really start the show?
In particular their song ‘Hero’ was used in the critically acclaimed movie ‘Boyhood’ by Richard Linklater. How could you escape this one? Even if you haven’t seen ‘Boyhood’, you probably caught the trailer also featuring the song, and the single peaked at #12 on the Billboard Alternative songs Chart, and #1 on the Triple A Top 30 Radio Chart and Top 15 at Alternative Radio!
The electronic duo is also a romantic duo, and their complicity was real live, her sensual lament, closer to sadness than simple melancholia, was haunting his desolated compositions, which were part electronic, part symphonic, sometimes even grand, with very emotional synthetic strings, an omnipresent bass-like sound and an occasional horn, sax or trumpet that he was playing with real instruments, recording loops and making them fade away with some computer manipulation.
Their sound is pop explosive, bouncy and hard hitting, yes all these drums are not just there to look pretty, but at the end, everyone will only look at frontgirl Liz Nistico who sings with these sweet child-like vocals while doing her restless sexy dance. Dressed in black and glittering gold, which seem to be the official Holychild colors, she was undulating her body, jumping in the crowd, interacting with people with a large smile, looking like a new Katy Perry bouncing on joyous electro-pop or rather like an optimistic Lykke Li on ecstasy.
We wanted to move to LA for inspiration and influence more than anything. It helped us to experiment and find our own sound. If you look at a lot of the alternative electronica and dance music coming out of LA, it definitely has a feel – we love the weirdness and sunshine. It has been a strong influence on many of our favorite records from the ’60s-’80s’
There’s something so artisanal and DIY in their attitude, they arrived with a school notebook in which they write their setlists as if they were entries for their common girl dairies. During the whole set, the two girls seemed so in phase with each other, having some funny and almost intimate chatting between the singing parts, and totally connecting during the songs, looking like two perfect accomplices
JD McPherson gave a really great show to the Amoeba crowd, playing a set full of a vibrant energy deeply rooted in American music history. Despite his young age, McPherson transports his audience in an early-Elvis era, as his 50’s-inspired music sounds like a Sun Records throwback
JD McPherson gave a really great show to the Amoeba crowd, playing a set full of a vibrant energy deeply rooted in American music history. Despite his young age, McPherson transports his audience in an early-Elvis era, as his 50’s-inspired music sounds like a Sun Records throwback
I can’t hide that these songs could have afford a bit more enthusiasm, should I say that a lot of people were enjoying the beats and the mellow ambiance, even dancing between the CDs rows? The last song, ‘Real Life’ off their 2012 album ‘Mixed Emotion’ had more Brazilian, or at least exotic, beats and brought more fun, although it reminded me about something Moby could have done may be?
Over heard at Amoeba during the signing of ‘The Waterfall’, the new album of the band My Morning Jacket on Friday night: ‘my favorite artists are My Morning Jacket, Bob Dylan, and Björk’… Really? I thought, in this order? Whatever works for you!
LA Font is a quartet which sure shows a lot of energy on stage, playing strong and sophisticated indie rock songs and a sound quite hard to define: some foot-tapping pop melodies, a few layered and loud guitars, building a rock sound which seem to be borrowing from the mid 90’s scene,
I am blasting ‘Sound & Color’, the new Alabama Shakes album at home, I could not get a ticket to see them in Jimmy Kimmel Live, I wasn’t invited to their intimate performance at Apogee Studios in Santa Monica arranged for the press, but I just got to see their signing at Amoeba on Tuesday night. Better than nothing
I could tell the audience was mixed, made of old timers punks, probably following Mike’s career since the good old days, and young lookers, part of the usual crowd at Space 15Twenty, the mini-mall which harbors stores like Free People and Urban Outfitters, selling the Bohemian-Coachella look to hipsters
Talking about these fans, I was once again feeling quite old, surrounded by kids and a lot of cute young girls excited to get close and personal with singer Jordi Davieson’ s handsome face.
Mr. Crenshaw is a music connoisseur with a taste for jazz and oldies, so he picked an early album of Sun Ra, as well as a 50’s album of the gospel soul band the Staple Singers, the new album by jazz guitarist Nels Cline, some Indian Style heavy funk, ‘SitarBeat’ and the best of Buddy Collette,… but also Mitch Ryder’s autobiography, ‘Devil and Blue Dresses’, since the Detroit-native musician feels connected to the musical legacy of the city
Last summer, singer songwriter Marshall Crenshaw visited California with The Bottle Rockets and he had the chance to haunt my favorite place in Los Angeles, Amoeba Music, for an episode
They are a grand ensemble, playing music with a lush and ample orchestration, using a lot of instruments, saxophone, small trumpet, keyboard and flute beside the usual guitar-drums-bass classic rock combination, and they could be one of the most diverse rock bands I have ever seen, on the human as well as on the sonic levels
They did a mix of old and new numbers as it is always the case in these shows, but they played them with the same overflowing and joyful energy and over-the-top rocking bombast.
Tony Cadena, Steve Soto, Dan Root, Ian Taylor and Mike Cambra gave a good example of what they call vengeance, if they weren’t that extraordinarily dynamic on stage, the crowd was difficult to contain at some point, and Amoeba security guards were patrolling the rows non-stop
Jumping between the drum set and the mic, he proved at the first song he was a born-entertainer, agile and lovely, with husky vocals and quite a range. R&B, electronic, rap, funk, rock, his songs sounded like a myriad of things at the same time, starting as gentle R&B tunes, but soon transcending the genre, with hip hop and funky guitars, experimental electro beats, becoming a fluid and lively mosaic
the other songs were running as quickly as life goes fast, and it may have been this sense of urgency that made Kazerouni to start four bands, three other ones (Crown Plaza, GNTLMN/Others, and Nectarine) in parallel with So Many Wizards,… talk about prolific!
I mostly hear some atmospheric alt country sound with lots of guitars and a haunting pedal steel, not only because of his long association with country artists such as Willie Nelson or Emmylou Harris, but also for having seen him play on stage with alt-rock bluesy artist Rocco De Luca
Billy played his diva side a little bit, in the sense that he took him a few extra minutes to get on stage, but the rest of the evening certainly proved he was not the aloof and snob type
‘We want to have left great, conceptual, beautiful, glimmering records in the world. We’re thinking super long term, like dead-term.’ I don’t think they had these deep thoughts in mind when they were playing in Amoeba, they certainly seemed to have a good time. ‘This is a love song’
‘When you first encounter a song, you’re just hearing it at the surface level,’ she declared to Amoeba, ‘but if you want to truly absorb it, you have to really listen to it over and over again. At first, you’re like strangers – and then once you’ve befriended a melody, you carry it around in your head for days and you can’t stop singing it. You become deeply connected through this process; it has to become a part of you.’
It is difficult to exactly pinpoint Bahamas’ music, the set was quite eclectic with a few of these quiet songs (he said he was really into these quiet ones for his new album), and other songs more classic-rock-inspired, but overall, the music was distilling breezy and exotic soundscapes with soothing harmonies. Exotic
Their rhymes made me smile and they were really the nicest people around, as Evidence told he wanted to meet and talk to everybody after the show despite the fact they had another show (their album release party) at the Whisky the same day. Why Hip Hop can’t be more about these thoughtful and well crafted songs instead of the commercial violent trash that has become the norm
I didn’t hear any earworm among the new ones but it was my first listening… and even though there would be no big hit – Spoon never really got one anyway – they have already sold out the Hollywood Forever Cemetery on August 8th and have filled up the large Amoeba store on Wednesday night like true rock stars.
He was quite talkative between the songs explaining that the project started in 2012 as someone representing himself as the producer of George’s upcoming record, asked him if I had any songs to submit. He wrote two songs and it turned out that this guy wasn’t really a producer, but when Jones died, the songs were still there, waiting… and he got the idea of this new tribute.
The most striking thing about seeing the Muffs live, is their laid-back attitude, as well as the casual chatting and deadpan humor between the songs, as if they were some stand-up comedians doing the Muffs routine before bursting into their short punk songs. Kim looked almost exactly as she did at Burgerama
The four Joyce Manor guys took the Amoeba stage in the most casual way, and right away started playing their punk anthems in front of an ecstatic crowd; it’s simple, the bunch of dark-haired girls behind me instantaneously morphed themselves into a choir of chanting-screaming females as soon as the band played the first note
For a girl who has declared ‘What’s going to make this band different is our live show’ it was an odd choice, but she probably knew she would not have to conquer anyone there, she was working with the devoted die-hard crowd.
“Record shoppers are very acutely aware of whether a store cares or not. Our L.A. store alone has a staff of 250, and they’re all musicians, writers, and interesting people. It always feels like a place to be.”
I just hope that this time I will be able to keep these videos on YouTube a little bit longer than last time: I filmed them at the Echoplex back in February, and the video got more than 40,000 views!! I got in trouble with YouTube for ‘TOS violation’ as YouTube probably noticed some unusual large activity on the account
She gave a short but intense set, all alone with her electric guitar and multiple pedals, producing some ambient, experimental lugubrious reverb-tinted soundscapes inhabited by her breathy and vulnerable voice, and it was part eerie, part haunting.
As she was wearing a long black skirt and a black top with a white collar, she might have looked like a sage schoolgirl entering catholic school had it not been for for her totally-Margot-Tenebaum dark eyeliner… And knowing that Mr Little Jeans is a name of a minor and humble character (the janitor) in Wes Anderson’s ‘Rushmore’, this makes complete sense
From start to finish, the music was loud, upbeat and very melodic, but played with a hardcore energy and a punk ferocity. The guitars – actually there was only one, the other one was a bass – were powerful and Bob Mould was getting the biggest sound ever of his instrument.
On Tuesday night, the female duo was doing an in-store performance to celebrate the release of their album ‘Sistrionix’, and the store was packed when Lindsey Troy on guitar and Julie Edwards on drums took the stage to play an electrifying and totally badass set.
During their seven-song set, their sound was immediately loveable and luminous, and got more or less on the explosive side, depending on the songs. Musically they may have sounded like Belle and Sebastian covering the Cure, but I didn’t get this impression right away
Her music was pleasantly surprising, bringing some novelty at each song, exactly like her vocals, going from the detached morose tone of her singing during certain songs to a more plaintive ambiance, from angelic dreamy vocals to long high-pitch howls screaming crazy,… she had quite a range
I went to three record stores on Record Store Day and drove by two others and, from what I saw, I can tell it was a total success! After visiting Record Parlour for a performance by Alexandra and the Starlight band, I headed up to Amoeba a few blocks away
At Amoeba, with the only help of her acoustic guitar and strong smoky voice, she played most of the songs alone, songs such as ‘Little Black Train’, Give Me The Roses’ – a song about how she wants to live her life, she added, ‘give me the roses while I am alive’.
The Talking Heads are the first reference that comes to mind, Sean Guerin‘s vocals are very reminiscent of David Byrne’s monochord and unique style, but all this is also so James Murphy in the most LCD Soundsystem sense of the term, that you will end up dancing in the street
Man, was the line really long!! I didn’t really expected it, I saw them at Vacation Vinyl when there were 20 people on line, but I guess all this Black Flag nostalgia has found its way to OFF!
We always have tendencies to stick a label on bands, but what about a label for folk-punk? Both genres seem quite opposite in the mood and the direction but this is nevertheless how Saintseneca’s music is defined.
They were the first band to play at Amoeba ever, and they were back on Tuesday night for the release of their new and 8th full-length album ‘Place in the Sun’. And they are very aware they have had their place in the sun.
I still walk by the Silversun liquor store they were named after every day, and I remember seeing them at local clubs such as the Silverlake Lounge or Spaceland (now the Satellite) a decade ago, but now they are wow big
Once again there was a very long line in front of Amoeba on Wednesday night, and seeing the scene around 4:30 pm, a large crowd had probably started to form more than two hours ahead of the show,… and all this for just four songs? Sky Ferreira played the shortest performance I have ever seen at Amoeba
With his band, he produced a spacey, trippy, surprising and very funky sound, sprinkled with R&B and danceable groves, stretching into extended jams, wandering around jazzy minimalism but… I am not sure I even knew what I was exactly hearing, his music was a head trip
