This year at the Academy Awards, there has been a concerted effort to honor women and their stories. Reflecting on how many years the Oscars have existed, the attempt still feels inadequate, but it is never too late to strive for better representation for all minorities. One nomination that stood out was a short documentary […]

Three students at USC bonded last spring over their love for songwriting, and today their band is one of the most ambitious new acts in the LA Americana scene. Their social media shows they’ve been active for only about ten months, yet they have already put out a full-length record. I can’t be the only […]

Molly DeWolf made her first impression on Los Angeles this past Monday to a crowd packed like sardines at the Winston House in Venice. She had been working toward this end for awhile, as the former director of Harvard’s a cappella group and an American Idol alum, but she quickly became disillusioned with music industry […]

What’s your guilty pleasure? Chocolate? The Real Housewives? Carly Rae Jepsen? Georgi Kay wants you to get guiltier. Without completely abandoning a sense of morality, Kay advocates for exploration of intrigue, even if the subject of your desire is already spoken for. Her new single is filled with pulsing bass that could fill an auditorium, […]

A New Era of Sego Walking down an unassuming street in an industrial area just a few blocks from Chinatown, I feared I was lost. When I approached the tall iron fence that guards The Cube, I searched for remnants of rock stars, but it was a quiet afternoon, with only some nondescript trucks parked […]

Though she is not new to creating music, the name Francine Thirteen may be new to you. A quick sift through her Soundcloud will enlighten any layperson what her music is all about, namely, feminine power that bucks male narratives. Her latest project is titled “Lust Heals, Give Me My Sin Again,” of which the […]

The new EP from local four-piece Raener is a big deal. It came together a few months ago at a serene beach house in Santa Barbara. This was after, according to my calculation, the band–consisting of Daniel Fox, Will van Boldrik, Zach Bilson, and Daniel Vanchieri–had played every single intimate venue in the city, and […]

It’s hard to imagine the world without constant turmoil, isn’t it? Last week was a doozy given all the natural disasters, from hurricanes to wildfires to an earthquake that should give every Angeleno some cause for concern. Art is a healthy distraction. Songs can transport you to another world, or rather connect you through a […]

Haunting all the way from the seventies Laurel Canyon hideaway that she evokes, femme-fatale Jesse Jo Stark prefers her gloom in the sunlight on her new song “Deadly Doll.” Crawling out from under lush reverb and the hot desert twangs of guitar strings, Stark’s powerful croons tear longingly at her grim atmospherics. Produced by Jason […]

Local DIY pop outfit, NVDES, has earned a reputation for eccentricity. They released their debut Life With Lobsters EP less than a year ago, giving very little information about the band itself until it was out. Frontman and main collaborator, Josh Ocean, said this was “to establish the world in which NVDES exists,” one that […]