There was a special feeling in the air in Pomona on Friday night. In a city that’s known for the neighboring Glasshouse restaurants that house shows from time to time, this night was different. St. Lucia and Two Door Cinema Club were coming to town.
Friday night was supposed to be Capital Cities’ first appearance on the tour but their schedule had them in Philly. So, that meant St. Lucia had to warm up Two Door Cinema Club, one of the biggest acts to come to
Touche Amore, a post-hardcore band from the Los Angeles area has just released their third full length album Is Survived By in September of 2013. If you have not yet heard this band’s music, but are into any variations of post-hardcore/punk/screamo you might want to go ahead and attend one of Touche Amore’s shows or pick up one of the albums. For references, think of any bands like La Dispute, Pianos Become Teeth, Converge or Defeater.
I wasn’t really feeling Peace and their Delicious EP; it probably had something to do with the fact that they were just another four-piece Vampire Weekend-wannabe English indie guitar band. But then they released their song Wraith (the fact that it was produced by Arctic Monkeys producer, Jim Abiss, was probably something to do with my change of heart).
Their debut album (title still to be confirmed) will be released March 25th, but luckily Wraith was released on the 13th of January on iTunes and I for one will have this on repeat for days.
Give the song a listen. You’ll start to get into their more Californian beach vibe and realize there’s more to them than being a standard British boy band.
What do you do when you live in LA and are having a stressful week? We head to the Sunset Strip. And do what? Well, we go and check out an awesome Aussie band. That’s exactly what we did last night when we went to go check out Gold Fields for a third time in a month.
The first time I heard Gold Fields was last month during the Culture Collide Fest in LA. I instantly fell in love with their hard-punching sounds ringing in my ear. The next night, it was more of the same. They played in consecutive days for CC and I just couldn’t get enough. I would have gone another time when they played at Capitol Records but went with Bombay BC at the Music Box instead.
This past month we’ve been to plenty of shows: from watching bands play in the Culture Collide Festival to free local shows and even some Bombay Bicycle Club, but there’s one show in particular we were looking forward to: Two Door Cinema Club with Friends and St. Lucia. Two Door always put on a good show — with all the singing, and dancing in the crows. As fun as their show can be, we wanted to see the level of badass-ness Friends could reach in their own set.
Friends isn’t your typical female-fronted band. They’re composed of three chicks and two dudes. Having never of head them before, you’d probably think they’re a cover band mostly filling in with 80s’ pop tunes. This Brooklyn-based band has its cool funk stemming from their very cool lead songstress, Samantha Urbani.
Curren$y, a rapper coming out of New Orleans, has been in the game for quite some time now. From his time in Young Money Cash Money to his appearance in XXL top Freshmen list. In his time in the rap game he has linked up with many artists especially in his mix tapes ( Wiz Khalifa, Big Sean etc.) releasing great songs for people to hear. He has also released albums that have helped him achieve the fan base he has now. Just yesterday he released an album titled The Stoned Immaculate, but is this album enough to push him to the top?
Have you heard of the TV show The Slap? Really, no? A couple of months ago, here in Australia, it was everywhere. You couldn’t turn your channel onto the Australian Broadcasting Commision for two minutes without being bombarded for promos for it.
I am too young and innocent and delicate to watch the show, but I could deduct that is was a whole lot of family arguments, explicit sex scenes and drama. What I was really excited about was the song used for the promo. It was called Jungle, by the up and coming indie darling Emma Louise.
I came across the song on a whim a few months ago, breaching my internet limits (I’m so rebel) to get it in the Triple J podcast. I didn’t even listen to it beforehand; just pressed “Download” like all good people should. I cannot remember the amount of times I’ve stumbled across brilliant music just because I felt like wasting up the internet usage.
Afterwards, I listened to it. I had, like I said, not heard of Emma Louise, but this song turned out to be a pulsating pop gem, with washes of lush electro sounds, rumbling exotic percussion and her sweet voice earnestly painting a picture of tension. It was beautiful, and quite hard to believe that she was a newcomer on the scene.
So it’s that time of the year again for the BET Hip-Hop Awards Cyphers! Last year’s cyphers were certainly ones to remember, from The G.O.O.D. Music Cypher (Kanye West,Common, Pusha T, CyHi Da Prince & Big Sean) to the Father Like Sons Cypher (Ice Cube with his sons OMG & Doughboy, and Rev Run wit his sons Diggy and JoJo). Honestly I’m always a fan of the cyphers but this year I wasn’t so sure. When I heard they were gonna go in with “The Payback” instrumental by the legendary James Brown I was so hyped but No one really