The Happy Follows are giving away some “pay what you want” B-Sides from Spells here!

[Read more →]

After school tutoring program 826LA asked its students to write songs and then brought in local bands to sing and record them. On March 6th, 826LA is hosting a release party at the Echo for the Chickens in Love album written by its students and performed by She & Him, Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic [...]

[Read more →]

Enough votes will get Happy Hollows’ new video “Death to Vivek Kemp” into regular rotation on MTVu! Watch the video and vote here (voting ends Friday): http://www.mtvu.com/music/the-freshmen/nominees-020110/

[Read more →]

Stream: The Happy Hollows “Silver” [audio:http://larecord.com/audio/thehappyhollows-silver.mp3] (from Spells available now from Autumntone Records) The Happy Hollows’ debut album, Spells, was just put out on Autumntone Records. L.A. RECORD reviewed the self-released album back in September, and spoke to Sarah and Charles about the fruit fly theory of GDP growth.

[Read more →]

photography by Travis Moore

This was a great show for a larger sized venue. Usually I’m used to seeing names like The Happy Hollows or Useless Keys on the Spaceland marque, however on this particular Sunday, the venue lent it’s stage to a couple of my favorite bands: Manhattan Murder Mystery and Dirt Dress. Matthew Teardrop, singer/guitarist for Manhattan Murder Mystery, always has this, “I’m going to kill myself,” type of energy and often thrusts his army helmet to the ground with great force during the majority of his performances. Katya Arce holds down the bass line along with a kick ass drummer who plays one of my favorite kits ever. And adding to the sound with both percussion and mandolin are Gabe from Health Club and Elaine Layabout.

Dirt Dress is a small three piece with an unconventional surf/experimental sound. They go from catchy dance songs to crazy experimental beats, which I find amazing. It was good to see them on a bigger stage as they can hold it down.

[Read more →]

Throughout the entire show, Sarah never showed a sign of tiring, throwing her head up and down, bouncing and jumping around the stage. Charlie and Chris possessed their own endless amounts of energy—not once did any of the three ever stop playing music to drink water, stall to relax or maybe even breathe. To be honest, it is hard to focus on all the logistics and technicalities of the music because watching the band play is so enamoring.

[Read more →]

[Read more →]

During the fourth or fifth song, I watched a guy who had been bobbing to the music turn to his friend and say, “This is a good one!” Reality became heavy for him and he stopped moving, closed his eyes, his hands stayed where they were for almost two minutes. He came back to life long enough to mouth the words, “They remind me of Helmet. You remember Helmet?” He blacked out again in slow motion, not drunk, but zoned in. I wondered if he was imagining Heisenflei’s bra.

[Read more →]

This trio is great precisely because of their unironic caress of the heart, reaching for something like classic rock’s enduring grip on primary human feeling. As with the Hollows, the Kid makes doing the same honking thang live a genial blur of ease and competence, down through winding raga-rock vistas of Harrisonoid intensity, past bobbing fragments of melody that collapse like antimatter into a single pedaled beep. After a decade-plus haunting L.A. rock venues as rockcrit, I take my oath it just doesn’t get any better than this bright sweet noise gliding over our city’s ongoing bop-til-you-drop cultural renaissance. Out of a place caught every which way in an accelerating social meltdown, may only 60 watts of pure pop love prove just enough.

[Read more →]

The Happy Hollows fills my hollow with happiness.—Do you really think of your body as being solid? Maybe this comes from playing with dolls, but it’s often very strange to really believe there are things inside me. Not to mention worms and spiders. Anyway…

[Read more →]