Where you’ll strut with Bloodcat Love, the Sharpease, the Ettes & the Holograms!
The Sharp Ease.Feted by freak-folk Arthur Magazine and fated for general overall success as punk wunderkinder, the Sharp Ease exit 2006 victoriously with their 180-gram virgin (!) vinyl (!) Remain Instant 12-inch EP/DVD (olFactory). Never mind that it took the Sharp Ease — diva Paloma Alexandra Parfrey, saxophonist Anika Stephen, bassist Dana Barenfeld, guitarist Aaron Friscia and drummer Christene Kings — more than four years to produce an album. Hey, Siouxsie and her Banshees took years to score a record deal too. You can almost palpably feel each of those 126,230,400 seconds radiating white heat from the pit of the groove itself. Jan. 16 at UCLA’s Bruin Plaza. (David Cotner)
The Ettes. With a name like the Ettes, you might expect a super-fluffy, cutesy band — and it’s true that Coco Hames has a sweetly melodic voice and a gift for exhilarating pop hooks. But guitarist Hames, bassist Jem Cohen and drummer Poni Silver amp up their tales of romantic desperation with a nonstop garage-rock frenzy on their debut CD, Shake the Dust (Sympathy for the Record Industry), produced by Liam Watson (White Stripes, the Kills). Let’s hope we don’t lose this ever-touring group to Detroit or Memphis — the Ettes fit in better with rootsy revisionists like the Detroit Cobras and the Oblivians than they do with most L.A. bands. (Falling James)
The Holograms.The perpetually carefree cheerleaders. The dye-drenched punkettes who do naughty things behind the bleachers. The good-grade-gettin’ girlie girls who somehow find the time to exchange countless Hello Kitty–imprinted notes .?.?. The Holograms are all of these. Though they sing about drunk dialing, scene whores and weekend benders, these bubbly nymphs never come off too tough or trashy; their sugar definitely trumps their spice. Their cartoonishly cute outfits, sassy stage banter and übercatchy, bubblegum-buoyant choruses (as heard on their Teenacide Records debut Night of 1000 Ex Boyfriends) helped the Holograms win our hearts this year .?.?. and that of Little Steven Van Zandt, with whom they’re in talks to collaborate. (Lina Lecaro)
Bloodcat Love.Renowned-about-town DJ and career scenester Myles Hendrik knows what gets booties on the dancefloor. The fashionable frontman for Bloodcat Love has isolated those very elements — catchy guitar lines, baritone pop vocals and adhesive retro-soaked melodies — and distilled them into tracks so danceable, they immediately feel like a guilty pleasure. The newly formed quartet has already toured with Australian buzz band Jet, and managed to upstage several local headliners in a recent string of L.A. appearances. Their debut album won’t be out until next year, but it’s highly likely to be a radio-ready release. Dec. 10 at Spaceland; every Wed. in Jan. at Club Moscow at Boardner’s. (Alie Ward)
