John Payne

Susan James; Credit: Photo by Ava Dingley

Susan James Creates "Postmodern Folk-Rock" in Her Topanga Canyon Studio

John Payne
By her own description, the music on Susan James’ new album Sea Glass (SJM) is “postmodern folk-rock,” which is as good a way as any to delineate how the L.A.-based singer-songwriter casts aside the more obviously American-roots-tinged colors and melodies of her previous work for an almost (but not quite)......
Wire; Credit: Photo by John Payne

Post-Punk Legends Wire Prove That Some Bands Do Get Better With Age

John Payne
The return to form of Wire, England’s great –– what? pre-post-punk-art progenitors? –– has been a heartening and thrilling reminder that sometimes, and very rarely, the greats of any musical genre actually improve with age. Since 1977, with the release of their “seminal” (as Robert Hilburn used to say) album......
Stew (left) and members of Double Naught Spy Car; Credit: John Curry

On Double Naught Spy Car's Panorama City, Songs Were Made Up on the Spot

John Payne
You might call veteran surf/roots/jazz/rock/psych/world/whatyougot crew Double Naught Spy Car a contemporary electric chamber ensemble, but that’d sound a touch too arty, and the L.A. quartet is anything but toffee-nosed about their super-eclectic musical melange. While this gang of good buds can boast some of the finest instrumentalists our town......
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Lucinda Williams

John Payne
For lo these 30 or so years, Lake Charles, Louisiana, singer-songwriter-guitarist Lucinda Williams has forged an idiosyncratic path through American roots music, melting down Delta-infused country soul, funky folk and rock strains into her gritty, Southern Gothic sound. Her smartly sassy worldview drenched her self-titled album in ’88, which along......
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Dengue Fever

John Payne
A mad, mod mash-up of the off-center musical fetishes of Cambodia circa early 1970s, Dengue Fever’s updated take on Khmer rock is a head-spinning, surreal blend of honeyed lounge pop, surfin’/spyin’ sounds, gritty garage grunge and psychedelic rock. Cambodian singer Chhom Nimol’s birdlike warbles (and raps!) combine with wobbly Farfisa......
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Tarantata Spider Dance

John Payne
Free your body and your mind will follow. Like a combination therapist/sage, the fiery singer, hand-percussionist and dancer Alessandra Belloni goes on a journey through the scorchingly cathartic spectacle known as Tarantella, the southern Italian folk dance that dramatizes the letting go of pent-up sexual desire. Practiced throughout southern Italy......
The man machine: John Tejada; Credit: Juan Mendez

Hear a New Track From L.A. Techno King John Tejada's Latest Album (PREMIERE)

John Payne
There’s lightness to John Tejada’s new album Signs Under Test, out Feb. 2 on Kompakt. Not that we’re saying it’s lightweight or substance-deficient or any of those corny rock-crit concerns. No, the L.A.-based veteran electronic musician’s stuff is lighter than air, in a floating-free, mentally liberating kind of way –– it breathes......