HEY WILLPOWER
Thu. January 24 @ Echo
Hey Willpower
Justin Timberlake may have initially brought sexy back, but then he had to go and get all preoccupied with his so-called “love.” Luckily, Hey Willpower — the electronic dirty duo featuring Will Schwartz of Imperial Teen and Tomo Yasuda of Tussle — pick up the sleazy slack. Here on “Uh-Uh-Uh,” the beat rolls over a simple snare count and innocent-enough synthesized chimes, but at the first entrance of Schwartz’s evocative voice the song’s G-rating goes out the window. Chock full of double entendres and crass come-ons, all executed over a dance track in a J.T.-esque sex voice, “Uh-Uh-Uh” leaves little to the imagination, exuding confidence in its sexual sound effects.
Spin.com
with:
Rafter Roberts
THE AIRBORNE TOXIC EVENT
Thu. January 24 @ Spaceland
Indie 103.1 & ASCAP present
Thursday Night Residency
with:
The Airborne Toxic Event
“Poetry you can dance to…nothing short of amazing.” LA TIMES
“Absurdly rich with talent…Jollett’s baritone could compete with some of the best in Britpop. Live, the group delivers total cohesion and unflappable energy.” LA WEEKLY
“In a just and fair world, The Airborne Toxic Event would be indie rock favorites of critics and fans the world over. Maybe, just for a moment, the world will get it right for a change.” POPMATTERS
with:
Radars To The Sky
Aushua
Venus Infers
ROCKET
Sat. January 26 @ Spaceland
Rocket
From California’s sunny beaches bursts Rocket, a 5-piece all-girl MySpace phenomenon that surprises its listeners with a spunky mixture of Glam-rock meets Spice Girls that showed actual talent. Roxie Rocket, Lauren W. Rocket, Lauren C. Rocket, Kelly Rocket and Kristin Rocket are the five spicy, boylovin’ bubble-gum chewin’ girls behind Rocket who sold-out the Viper Room at their headlining debut live show mere months after the release of their 2005 album, Too Hot To Be Bothered, and since have toured with Butch Walker and taken the stage at the VANS Warped Tour.
ASCAP
with:
Bedtime For Toys
Spider Problem
DRUG RUG
Tue. January 29 @ Spaceland
Drug Rug
Together the two’s vocals, paired with their brand of sunshine lo-fi, teeter on the shrill end, a la the beginnings of electric-Dylan. But like the D-man, it fits seamlessly. Drug Rug’s self-titled debut, out this week via the Black and Greene label, opens with a ’50s A.M. radio effect, washing over Cronin’s lyrics in treble, before exploding back into equilibrium with a furious blues-y breakdown chorus, “Nobody nowhere can tell you you’re wrong (For the Rest of Your Life).” It sets the tone: sweet and smart, charming ’60s-era pop spiked with erratic wails and modern indie rock sonics. There are some other recruits that flesh out a full-band sound, mainly Apollo Sunshine’s Jesse Gallagher on bass and keys, and Mike Cummings (The Dead Trees) twanging about on strings, some anonymous tambourine smatterings. But the couple shines best with a simple guitar lick and a shared mic.
Spin.com
with:
Amnion
DENGUE FEVER
Thu. January 31 @ Echoplex
KCRW presents
Dengue Fever
Venus on Earth is like being transported through a steamy, humid time warp where Haight-Ashbury was a swinging suburb of Phnom Penh in the ’60s as oscillating Farsifa and fuzztone guitar languidly drift under and around Nimol’s beautifully hypnotic vocals. When she sings in Khmer (although her sexy-accented English is becoming more common) the emotional phrasing in her voice misleads you into thinking, on songs like the wistfully melancholic “Monsoon of Perfume”, that somehow a Babel fish has slipped into your ear and made Khmer your second language (well, almost). With the opening number “Seeing Hands” and the excellent “Tiger Phone Card”, a romantic long distance duet between Holtzman and Nimol, following closely on from the exuberant psych-surf ‘n’ roll of previous outings (”Sni Bong” taken from Dragon House readily comes to mind), there’s plenty of opportunity to ride the wave of spicy danceability. However, the group are at their best when they spread their improvised wings to morph into lounge lizards.
Popmatters
and:
Fool’s Gold
DJ Eddie Rusche
DEAD MEADOW
Tue. February 10 @ Echoplex
KXLU presents
Dead Meadow
For their fifth studio album (and third with Matador), Dead Meadow plan to release Old Growth on February 4th. For veteran fans of the trio, the album’s structure should come with little surprise. Like many of their past releases, there seems to be a nearly even mixture of woozily heavy psychedelic-rock and placidly atmospheric acoustical tracks. As they have proven in the past, it works to their advantage in providing an album that rarely becomes dull or tiring. In fact, apart from the exceptional Shivering King and Others, Old Growth has steadily become my favorite release from Dead Meadow. With chugging guitar-oriented tracks like “Between Me and the Ground” and “What Needs Must Be” transitioning impressively with psychedelically acoustical charmers like the exotic “Seven Seers”, it is difficult to resist such compassionate attempts at successful stylistic fusion.
Obscure Sound
with:
Midnight Movies
The Great Northwest
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