The Allah-Las are almost all Amoeba alums and almost all L.A. natives, and you’d never be able to tell which one is the one that actually had to move here. Their debut full-length is out now on Innovative Leisure and they speak now over a big pile of messy burritos. This interview by Kristina Benson and Chris Ziegler.

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Her debut release mixes hip-hop beats with samples culled from Bali and beyond; the result is Low End Theory-style instrumental hip-hop with dashes of psychedelia and avant-garde jazz. Imagine what it would sound like if Daedelus and Free the Robots teamed up to score the soundtrack to a mid-90s Tim Burton flick …

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God, is this band filthy with talented folks. Sometimes I get the feeling that there’s a secret collective going on, with members that rotate between Jail Weddings and Dante vs. Zombies and Raw Geronimo and Swahili Blonde and Johnny O’Donnell and White Murder, and that when “Jail Weddings” plays, it just means it’s Gabe Hart’s turn to conduct the collective.

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Chelsea Wolfe summons up her power from the interzone between life and death—and sensitive and severe and easy and difficult—and makes songs that sound like PJ Harvey stuck at home in a lonely room overlooking a graveyard. She speaks now about self, spirit and the ghost that played her Casio. This interview by Kristina Benson.

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Portishead should have been a classic film but instead manifested as a band, and their strange and dreamy sound echoes even decades after they first emerged. Adrian Utley speaks now about his secret friend Banksy and why he doesn’t trust in the government at all. This interview by Kristina Benson.

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Toki has grown as an artist since Midnight Menu: the songs here are more focused and narratives more articulated. Even so, the production is where her maturation is most evident. Each song is packed with thrumming details that are clear without being cold, distinguishable without overwhelming the listener.

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The Cosmogramma Outakes is as the title promises: a collection of stems and fragments culled from Cosmogramma, sometimes offered stripped away of their original context, sometimes represented and re-imagined by Brainfeeder labelmates Teebs, Miguel Atwood-Ferguson, and Matthewdavid.

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cover by ward robinson This wild little guy has been out for a second but we were so busy with shows, shows and shows that we didn’t get a chance to make a huge deal about it! So behold—L.A. RECORD 104! First issue of our sixth year of printing with busting-through-the-mold L.A. transplant KING TUFF [...]

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As the drummer for the Nerves and Breakaways and lead singer of the Beat, Paul Collins helped create the genre of power pop. His songs have been covered by virtually every band with a guitar, from Audacity to Green Day to White Fence to the Muffs to the Exploding Hearts to … me. He will play Friday at Blue Star—win tickets here! This interview by Dan Collins and Kristina Benson.

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Tokimonsta is a piano-student-turned-producer who makes beats for Brainfeeder. Her new Creature Dreams EP is out now and fans of her All City and Art Union releases will be happy to know that she picks up where she left off. Toki speaks now about girls, touring, and the danger of knowing too much. This interview by Kristina Benson.

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