Live, Merx are a menacing enigma—a tall, blonde, howling, sometime bespectacled lead singer who is one part Alan Vega, one part Ian Curtis, and the rest horror movie madman looks blankly forward, shaking and screaming, while the rest of the band plays with no acknowledgement of anyone else in the room.

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Like most L.A. musicians who frequent the East Side, Dumani’s musical influences are rooted in the past. Flashes of Big Star and Guided by Voices and are dispersed throughout the record, and the press sticker cites influence from Flying Nun era New Zealand and the Paisley Underground as well … in fact, this album reminds me a lot of the Cuts’ final album, From Here on Out, one of my favorite albums ever, though Exploding Flowers is rooted more in 1989 than in 1972.

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Darker My Love’s Tim Presley delivered one of the most unexpected and impressive LPs of last year with his solo project White Fence’s self-titled debut. At the time, it was one of the best records L.A. RECORD ever randomly received; about a year later, it is still completely fascinating. White Fence plays Friday at Blue Star with Cold Showers, the Urinals and Night Control (win tickets here!) so we are re-printing this interview by Daniel Clodfelter now!

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The Horribly Wrong take the cartoonish violence from the childish id and cram it all into a gleeful, in-the-red punk rock rant. I’m talking axes and killing children and burning down the house with your whole family in it. It makes me want to drink Pabst from the can and slam into a wall.

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The energy Cave forced upon the crowd caused those in the front to draw their arms toward the stage like lost souls reaching for one last morsel of salvation. And this was no average sized crowd. Grinderman sold out the show months ahead and every inch of dance floor, bar, and balcony was fought for and conquered by those with the deepest fanaticism.

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On this album, the duo, which consists of Josh Alper and Glenn Donaldson (and a drum machine), manages to do the same thing for late ’80s/early ’90s lo-fi that Viva L’American Death Ray Music did for the Velvet Underground, Bowie and ’70s punk: create an album which mines the troughs of their influences yet still manage to make the recordings relevant to the 21st century. And it’s really fucking good.

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Justin Maurer has been the leader of Clorox Girls for about a decade, has narrowly escaped organ theft in Turkey on at least one occasion, and has a book of fiction coming out this spring. Dan Collins and Daniel Clodfelter catch up with him in Long Beach at the Pike.

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L.A. RECORD interviews Greg Ashley every year we can because he does such vital work in keeping Californian minds alive. His fearsome band the Gris Gris is back playing a few shows, but he’ll be opening for (and backing) the Dutchess and the Duke tonight and Friday for his first local shows since 2007. This interview by Daniel Clodfelter.

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Walter Lure was with the Heartbreakers during everything that would later become history—L.A.M.F., the Anarchy tour with the Sex Pistols and Live At Max’s and whatever else it says in Please Kill Me, which he hasn’t read. He speaks now before performing at the Knitting Factory with his band the Waldos. This interview by Daniel Clodfelter.

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While it’s arguable whether the band is truly trying to emulate the Raveonettes or if they just sounded similar out of coincidence, it’s clear that they have many of the same influences as the aforementioned band—Jesus and Mary Chain, Spacemen 3, Velvet Underground—and have came up with very close to the same result.

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