Los Angeles duo, Kisses (aka Jesse Kivel and Zinzi Edmundson) have released their sophomore album Kids in L.A. today, Tuesday May 14 (Cascine). The album’s clean, mature synth-pop sound really shines with British pop guru Tim Larcombe (Lana Del Rey, Sugababes) and Saint Etienne’s Pete Wiggs at the producing helm. Yet, the album still maintains a balance of […]

Contrary to what you might have heard, Savages’ debut album, Silence Yourself is not a perfect record. However, this record might be something more exciting than a perfect record — a record that is both a screeching introduction and a solid foundation to build on. Great debut records are few and far between. Most bands have […]

Half of the term “music business” is “business.” The business and those who work in it, have been a factor in how we listen to, and experience music since the advent of recording. It’s very easy, but very lazy to demonize the entire business of music. Brian Epstein (Beatles manager) plays as large a part as […]

Nicolas Fromageau who started M83 with Anthony Gonzalez, and was a major presence on the first two M83 albums, departed the group and later founded Team Ghost in 2009 in Paris. Their first two teaser EPs garnered them the attention of Crystal Castles, whom they toured with in the UK, but only now has the group really […]

Oakland four-piece Wax Idols are back with their sophomore album Discipline & Desire, released on Slumberland Records on March 26, 2013. Moving past the smorgasbord of punk filler off their first record, No Future (Hozac Records), they take the few post-punk highlights from it and run with them. This time around, the writing and recording […]

Love and the pursuit of love is a great, constant journey for many but it’s never pain free. In addition to joy, there is also frustration and suffering that we experience when it comes to attempting to attain such deeply desired human bonds and relationships. Music serves as a primary vehicle in which these thoughts […]

Just like Alice taking a trip down the rabbit hole, there is something magical and mysterious about the Deer Tracks new album, The Archer Trilogy Pt. 3. It takes you on a unique trip where beats explode into spiraling waves of majestic sound. If there was ever such a genre as “magic forest electro” (which […]

 Say hello to the dopey-voiced angel, WALL. Her real name is not to be found anywhere, and while I can hear the band behind her, no information on them was available either. For now it’s a beautiful mystery, and that’s good enough for me. It doesn’t really matter because she has the talent and with […]

To the children of the 80s, the name Duckie holds a special meaning. It’s not young girls pouting their lips in Facebook photos or a child’s endearing term for our feathered friends who migrate south for the winter. Duckie is an icon of the John Hughes legacy that conjures images of the sweet, dorky best […]

Straight up, the term “rock ‘n’ roll” means sex. Before Chuck Berry, Ike Turner and Little Richard, when someone said rock ‘n’ roll, they weren’t talking about music; they were talking about the deed. Early rock music was f#cking, and f#cking was rock music. And that’s exactly why parents and pastors alike were dead set against this […]