Indie Rock and Indie Pop

The Best Concerts to See in Los Angeles This Week

For any show in town see our regularly-updated concert calendar. Monday, May 13 Torches THE ECHO Torches are an L.A. band (the band that was once Torches in Trees, if your indie rock database needs an update) who've submerged themselves completely in the same kind of anthemic, happy-sad music that ... More >>

Converting from Christian Rock to Indie Rock

Are you a musician? Is your group having issues? Ask Fan Landers! Critic Jessica Hopper has played in and managed bands, toured internationally, booked shows, produced records, worked as a publicist, and is the author of The Girls' Guide to Rocking, a how-to for teen ladies. She is here to help you ... More >>

The Silver Lake Chorus Somehow Recruited All Your Favorite Indie Artists

The Silver Lake Chorus formed in the winter of 2010 through word of mouth, flyers ("can you or anyone you know sing tenor?") and Facebook. Auditions pared 60 hopeful singers down to a choir of 25 young men and women, many of whom had previous choral experience and most of whom actually reside in Sil ... More >>

Hot Chip, Passion Pit - Hollywood Bowl - September 9, 2012

Hot Chip, Passion Pit, Omar Souleyman Hollywood Bowl 9-9-12 Better Than: passionless pits, cold chips, obvious puns. When it comes to intricately grand disco-infused future rock for dance-loving adults, despite our continued sadness and confusion over LCD Soundsystem's breakup, we can take comfort ... More >>

F-Yeah! It's the 2012 FYF Quiz!

See also: Our slideshow from FYF Fest 2011: Death From Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, Descendents, Simian Mobile Disco and More FYF Fest is upon us! With a second day added this year -- it's tomorrow, Sept 1 and Sunday, Sept 2 at L.A. State Historic Park -- fans can expect double the reunions, ... More >>

Beachwood Sparks Are One of L.A.'s Most Influential Bands You Don't Know

With folk music back in the mainstream consciousness via acts like Bon Iver and Fleet Foxes, the timing for Beachwood Sparks' reunion is right. "I think we were one of the bands that paved the way for that," founding member and bassist Brent Rademaker tells us. He's excited to talk about their new a ... More >>

Animal's Chefs Have Badass Taste in Music

[Editor's note: Jeff Weiss's column, "Bizarre Ride," appears on West Coast Sound every Wednesday. Be sure to also check out the archives.] You really haven't heard Kanye West and Jay-Z's "H.A.M." until it plays while you dig into a slab of Animal's balsamic pork ribs, delicata squash, arugula and p ... More >>

The Five Most Overlooked Albums of 2012 So Far

This year deserved praise has been heaped upon Frank Ocean's debut Channel Orange, the Flaming Lips' blood vinyl project and Beach House's Bloom. Meanwhile, overrated works like The Shins' Port of Morrow and Passion Pit's Gossamer have been overhyped Lost in the shuffle have been five superb-but-u ... More >>

FYF Fest 2012 Lineup Announced

See also: *M83's Anthony Gonzalez Makes Soundtracks, Without the Movie *The Descendents, Kid Dynamite, and Ty Segall at FYF last year *Pics from FYF Fest 2011: Death From Above 1979, Explosions in the Sky, Descendents, Simian Mobile Disco and More *Pics from FYF Fest 2010: The Rapture, Dead Man's B ... More >>

Bon Iver - Coachella - 4/21/12

​Bon Iver Coachella April 21, 2012 See also: *Our Complete Coachella Coverage *Bon Iver - The Shrine Auditorium - 9-19-11 Better than...trying to dance off your sunburn. Flickering strands of glowing balloons swayed gently over the polo fields as the crowd drew in for Bon Iver's set on the ma ... More >>

The Best Of Coachella: Saturday, April 14

See also: *The Best Of Coachella: Friday, April 13 *"What My Spirit Hood Means To Me": Coachella-Goers Explain *Coachella Preview 2012: Everything You Need to Know About the Performers Everyone was ready to shit their pants for Radiohead, but there was plenty more going on at Coachella on Saturday. ... More >>

Coachella: Seven Lesser-Known Acts You'd Be Silly to Miss

Steve Albini Has A Food Blog

Crotchety genius Steve Albini* has a food blog. It's called Mario Batali Voice. Why? As Albini explains it on the blog: "This is what I made Heather for dinner. The name comes from the way I bring her food in bed and present it to her using an imitation of Mario Batali's voice from TV. When she post ... More >>

Wavves of Pleasure: Indie Poster Boy Nathan Williams Makes Time For Recreation

Pooneh GhanaNathan Williams​See also: Wavves On How They Managed To Get Kicked Out Of Both The VMAs and Lil Wayne's Afterparty The decor of the Eagle Rock home Nathan Williams shares with his girlfriend, Best Coast's Bethany Cosentino, looks kind of like how his music sounds: fun, a little gr ... More >>

Music Picks: Los Lobos, Lord Huron, Calculator, Exmortus

Also, Yes, Styx, the Naked and Famous and others

Music Picks: Tinariwen, Colbie Caillat, A.R. Rahman, Best Coast

Also, Monopoly, David Bazan, Gravespawn and others

Music Picks: Matt & Kim, Partch, Booker T, Motley Crue,

Also, Spain, Civil Wars, Bruno Mars and others

Can Music Critics Who Revere Dirty Projectors, Arcade Fire and Vampire Weekend Ever Begin to Understand the Genius of Tyler the Creator's Goblin?

​Just finished listening to the BRILLIANT Goblin by Odd Future's Tyler the Creator. It's a fantastic feat by a true artist who'll be around for a while. Solid, sober and soulful. A kind of stream-of-consciousness poetry up there with the best. Now, other reviews from the little fraternity of ... More >>

Music Picks: The Psychedelic Furs, Orgone, Raekwon, Beach Fossils, The Raveonettes

Also, Thao & Mirah, Sun Araw, Cass McCombs, Trinket and others

SXSW Bands from A-Z: I - L

​ As SXSW gets ever closer, we figured we'd continue being servicey and give you a guide to some of the highlights of the official showcases, alphabet style. Yesterday we gave you E - H, today it's I - L. So here we go: five more awesome bands to see in SXSW's official lineup.

Music Picks: Julieta Venegas, Deicide, Yefim Bronfman, Chick Corea and Gary Burton

Also Conspiracy of Beards, Lykke Li, Khaira Arby and others

With Godspeed on Our Side

How did an experimental political punk octet become the hottest ticket of the winter?

Arcade Fire's Secret Show for LA Fans: Here's Where You Can Get the Cheap Tickets (People Are Camping Out Already)

Arcade Fire Frontwoman Regine​Yeah, yeah we know: The Arcade Fire is playing a secret club show in LA. [UPDATE: We got the right locations.] You were probably monitoring Arcade Fire's Twitter feed all week awaiting details about the Montreal group's surprise show tonight. Last night, that fe ... More >>

Rock Picks: DJ Spinna, Bodega Girls, Andre Nickatina, Elevated Suspects

Also, Hilary Hahn, People Under the Stairs, KROQ Almost Acoustic Xmas and others

Haiku News: Wavves' Williams Arrested in Germany, Joan Baez Falls From Treehouse, Peter Hook Talks Joy Division Tour, Michael Jackson's Lost Video

Haiku News: Wavves' Williams Arrested in Germany, Joan Baez Falls From Treehouse, Peter Hook Talks Joy Division Tour, Michael Jackson's Lost Video

Music Picks: Laurie Anderson, Onibaba, Superchunk

Also, Hoodoo Gurus, Die Antwoord, Jonsi and others

This weekend: Klaxons, Chapterhouse, the Besnard Lakes, Maroon 5, Caribou, Jack Johnson, Liz Phair, Tom Tom Club, the Weepies

The Besnard Lakes​The Culture Collide festival, which kicked off Thursday night at five venues in Silver Lake, Echo Park and downtown, is making for some wonderful daze in the neighborhood. The brainchild of Filter music mag, the inaugural event has imported bands from more than a dozen natio ... More >>

Tonight: Arcade Fire, the Black Lips, Casiokids, Lissie, Dave Alvin, the Ruby Friedman Orchestra

Arcade Fire​Not much we can say here is going to change your mind about Arcade Fire. You're either a believer, or not. You've either dropped some paycheck/worked an angle/called in a favor to get a ticket to one of the next two nights' sold-out shows, or not. (Or, you'll wait for Coachella, w ... More >>

Tonight: Kele, Ratatat, Funeral Party, the Parson Red Heads, Furthur, Efterklang

Kele​It's been a revelatory year or so for Kele Okereke. His band Bloc Party put on the brakes in 2009, announcing mid-tour that they were going on hiatus. (Surprise.) He quickly retreated to a London studio to make a solo album, The Boxer. (Surprise.) This spring he came out in Butt magazine ... More >>

Drug Paraphernalia May Not Be the Most Illegal Thing Wavves Are Selling Through Their Website

Wavves: they like weed. and cats. and cartoons. and the public domain...​So, recent LA Weekly feature subject Nathan Williams, aka "King Skinny Shitster," of buzzband extraordinaire Wavves picked up some blogosphere love from Pitchfork (and people who link back to Pitchfork) when he tweeted ab ... More >>

Wavves: All Hail King Skinny Shitster

Does frontman Nathan Williams speak for the loser in us all?

New Yeasayer Video Features Sarah Marshall's Kristen Bell

Doesn't Kristen Bell always look a little "Dark Crystal"esque?​Yeasayer just debuted a new video for song "Madder Red." The clip was directed by Swede (again, WHAT'S UP WITH SWEDEN????) Andreas Nilsson, who's also made weird clips for Fever Ray and MGMT. The Yeasayer video features a blobby p ... More >>

Tonight: Kings of Leon, Mississippi Man, Summer Darling, the Outline, Active Child

Dean ChalkleyKings of Leon​We suppose it would be fashionable, this being a blog after all and an alternative publication's one at that, to play music snob and put Kings of Leon in the crosshairs this morning. But why, really? Somebody you know will be fighting traffic and crowds to hit the H ... More >>

Music Picks: Goldfrapp, Concrete Blonde, Sally Seltmann, Black Francis

Also, Electric Daisy Carnival, the Adicts, Lou Barlow and others

Download: 'Claws' By Local Gaze-Pop Outfit Luna Is Honey

Luna Is Honey (Athena Reddersen)​Luna Is Honey is a group of youngsters from Los Angeles making self described "sunny, morbid" music -- a description we'd have to agree with. Take a song like "Claws" (which you can indeed take after the jump), where upbeat summery rhythms and familiar melodi ... More >>

Live in L.A.: At the movies with Isaac Brock, Band of Horses, Angus & Julia Stone, Peter Himmelman, the Airborne Toxic Event

​Think of it as an indie rocker with extra butter. Modest Mouse main man Isaac Brock is in town tonight to perform a short set after a screening of a documentary to which he (along with James Mercer, Jack Johnson and others) contributed music. The film is "180º South," which retraces a 1968 t ... More >>

Rock Picks: Daedelus, Beth Thornley, Yeasayer

Also, Ohioan, Hepcat, Vivian Girls and others

Rock Picks: Al Kooper, Year Long Disaster, Steven Severin, the Phenomenal Handclap Band

Also, Kimya Dawson, the Cigarette Bums, Willi Williams and others

Gold from the Treasure Island Festival

​ Despite the auspicious image above, the only green spotted at the Treasure Island Festival this weekend, was that being smoked by the heavy hippie and hipster quotient that swarmed San Francisco's finest former Naval base cum music festival grounds. Indeed, for any wayward Angelenos incubat ... More >>

Larry Tee Talks: 'L.A. Has a Better Club Scene Than New York'

Larry Tee has floated through contemporary club history like Forrest Gump on ecstasy, seemingly everywhere you'd want to be. Growing up in Atlanta, he hung out with R.E.M. and co-wrote fellow Atlantan Ru Paul's 1992 hit "Supermodel (You Better Work)." In 1990s New York he became a DJ on the club kid ... More >>

Getty Outdoor Concert

Coachella Day 3: The Kills Kill It, Throbbing Gristle Force Me Into The Fetal Position, and The Clipse Cancel

Slowly, my brain is slinking its way towards sensible shape. Three days of Coachella are not for the faint of heart -- if nothing else it requires a quarter-ounce of weed, an array of narcotic edibles from potcorn to cannabis cakes, several brightly colored pills of indiscriminate origin, copious ... More >>

Over the Weekend: Department of Eagles Live, Dr. Susan Block's Orgy for Obama, Peter Bogdanovich at New Beverly

This weekend was our first with new president Barack Obama and Los Angeles celebrated the only way it knew how with sold out rock concerts, orgies, jam-packed art openings, film screenings and more. Sunday morning I awoke to find my apartment floor scattered with an array of party favors like Obama ... More >>

Word on the Street

Tokyo Police Club, Hammer Museum, 7/24/08

Tokyo Police Club Hammer Museum, July 24, 2008 By Gina Pollack Crowd surfing. Not an everyday sighting for an art museum. But if an onlooker stumbled upon the Hammer on the last night of the summer music series, they would have seen their fair share of teenage bodies floating over a riled crowd. ... More >>

F YEAH FEST Announces Summer Tour

The Yeah Fest formerly know as Fuck has announced its summer tour across the Eastern, Southern, and Middle United States, and a little bit of Canada. Bands touring are Matt & Kim, Circle Jerks, Dillinger Four, The Death Set, Monotonix, Dan Deacon, Paint it Black, Team Robespierre, Brother Reade, Cr ... More >>

Grammy Nominations

If you are the kind of person that actually pays attention to this kind of thing, then here's a full list of this year's Grammy nominees . Yes, Amy Winehouse got a ton of nominations, if she can hold it together until the awards area announced. Kanye West got eight, and we can only hope he gets sh ... More >>

Shields at Club Violaine, 9/15

Shields Club Violanie at Roberto's, Chinatown By Ryan Ward Every third Saturday of the month, Roberto's in Chinatown becomes Club Violaine and opens their doors in tribute to pre-grunge era shoegaze giants. This past Saturday the honorees were the beloved and astronomically influential Stone Roses. ... More >>

Wolf Parade and Holy Fuck, El Rey, 9/13

Canadian indie rockers Wolf Parade and Holy Fuck played a sold-out show at the El Rey Thursday night. Timothy Norris was there and shot it. Click here for all the photos.