American Royalty

"Matchstick"

American Royalty. Where do I start? The Los Angeles native, three-man band, blew me away at a recent show with a contradicting performance – it was both enveloping, and explosive. Their synths tickled my curiosity, their percussions wooed my feet, and their vocals just sealed the whole deal. Yes, they’re that good. Lead vocalists, Billy Scher and Marc Gilfy, seduced me into an enigmatic head-bobbing session with their mad harmonizing skills. They effortlessly bobbed and weaved in between dope guitar riffs and bass drops, and awed the audience with their powerful, yet pleasantly surprising, soulful vocals. They definitely put on an original show with an unusual, quirky stage setup.

I look forward and can’t wait to see what American Royalty has in store for us in their latest EP, “Matchstick”. It’s due to release on vinyl on February 7 through Seaport Records, and will be digitally available on February 14 through Guns In The Sun Records. If you want to

2011 BET Hip-Hop Awards Cypher Reviews:

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

Outside Lands: The Vaccines – Post Break-up Sex

Outside Lands is in the near future! I want to share a band that I am definitely going to be hyping myself up for.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I present The Vaccines.

Formed in 2010 in London, Justin Young and the rest of the band set out to make music that would rock the world. Soon after forming the band they released a demo entitled,”If You Wanna.” The album soon launched them on a UK tour that caught the eye of many artists. Artists such as Clash described The Vaccines as ,”Fantastic, and exciting.”Their first single was,”Wreckin’ Bar (Ra Ra Ra)” but what caught my attention was,”Post Break-Up Sex.”  It has this Interpol sort of feel to it, but they have often been compared to The Ramones.

Lately they have been touring with the Arctic Monkeys, but will make an appearance at the Outside Lands Festival in San Francisco on August 12th-14th.

Check it out after the jump:

LA Natives and surf pop-rock band Best Coast have given us a new treat. They’re this week’s featured artist on Adult Swim Singles Program. With that honor, they have a released a new track that that’s a bit more mellow than the usual quick, and upbeat type tracks from the band.

They will be playing at the annual Make Music Pasadena festival this Saturday. It’s one of the largest free festivals so check them out. I’ll be there.

Oh, and that’s the cat Beth talks about all the time.

Check the jump for the latest schedule on Adult Swim Singles Program:

Best Coast – Gone Again

That’s right, folks. After selling out this year’s festival in a record six days, Coachella 2012 is giving you the opportunity to attend the massive music festival with the same lineup and artists, twice! It’s more of an opportunity for those who lucked-out of buying tickets to have a chance to attend the second, or first, time around. The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival have announced plans to hold next year’s event over two consecutive weekends (April 13-15 AND April 20-22) at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, California.

Passes go

I’m just now getting back from the New Music Seminar Closing Night Party at The Roxy Theater and before the performances began I planned to do a recap of the whole event and write another Spoken Truth, but all that changed once I heard these guys. At first glance, they bare a striking similarity to my favorite Irish band, Two Door Cinema Club, and it doesn’t help that the lead singer also sounds similar to TDCC’s lead singer; and they have identical clothing styles; and,

New Music Seminar kicked off its LA event with a sold-out, Red Carpet Opening Night Party, “The After Grammy Jammy.” Special performances were set by UK sensation, King Charles; Jessie Malakouti; Ben Hunter; Of Verona; DJ Mia; and, featured a spectacular performance by  The Little Death.

Notes from the performances:
King Charles – I was disappointed that he only performed three tracks but his performance was nothing short of amazing,=.

Jessie & The Toy Boys – The ever-so  beautiful Jessie Malakouti did her thing on stage. She’s clearly more trendy than some of the artists out right now, especially as she continues to take her “b***es” wherever she goes.

Ben Hunter – Nice, and soulful with a New Orleans-twist is all I can say. But, I’m still shocked that he wore cleats as shoes on stage while he was performing.

Of Verona – They were able to pump a little jolt into the crowd with the lead singer’s beautiful voice.

Blaqstarr – He’s a better DJ than singer/rapper. He shouldn’t be allowed on the mic, yet.

The Little Death – I’m not a fan of their genre (country-rock) but I can see why their getting pretty big. They have an outstanding band from lead singer to backup singers, they’re all great.

Check out some of the video and pics on the next page:

As a music site, we have responsibilities to bring the best of music to one spot. We also have to help out those who are trying to get into the music scene. That is where New Music Seminar comes in.

From the co-founder and director of the legendary New Music Seminar comes a seminar for the NEW business of music. This low-cost event will give you the tools and knowledge to survive in this ever-changing industry and step into tomorrow’s music business today. Two days packed with sessions filled with vital information on how to see it and how to do it. Every delegate receives the NMS New Music Business Guidebook, an invaluable guide filled with useful promotion and marketing tips, contact information, forms and guidelines on how to succeed no matter what genre of music you are in.

Check out the full schedule here for more details. If you can’t make it, no worries; we’ll be there every day of the event to cover it for you. In the meantime, we’d like to highlight some of the artists performing tonight: