Pains Of Being Pure At Heart Brooklyn-based The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, with opener Twin Sister, had quite an age-diverse crowd at El Rey. Looking around, you could spot kids with acne and men with white hair. Opening FYF this year, Twin Sister had some followers eager to meet Andrea Estella. Estella’s breathy [...]

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The night after opening for The Kills in Pomona, the Austin-based psychedelic rock band headlined their own show at El Rey Theatre. Glazed eyes and grooving bodies flowed to the tunes from the band’s third album, Phosphene Dream.  The band sounded tighter than ever with Christian Bland working his Rickenbacker, Alex Mass’s soothing vocals, bad-ass [...]

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The San Francisco duo of Meric Long and Logan Kroeber (aka the Dodos) performed a much overdo gig to a packed house at El Rey, playing some old favorites and new tunes from their latest, No Color. Photos by Debi Del Grande

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The Los Angeles indie rock group Uh Huh Her (Camelia Grey and Leisha Hailey) are currently on a U.S. tour performing songs from EP Black And Blue, their debut album Common Reaction, and the upcoming Nocturnes. The sold-out house at El Rey showed the women some love while they pumped out dynamic tunes. It was [...]

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Yo La Tengo’s not touring behind an album. They’re touring behind 26 years of existence, taking their catalog on tour as The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo, in which the geek-rock pioneers spin a wheel to see what set the band will start with. Will it be a set by Condo Fucks, the bands lo-fi, cover-song alter ego?

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Dream pop/shoegaze sensation Radio Dept. recently performed to a gazed/glazed crowd at El Rey Theatre.  L.A. warmly embraced the Swedes at the sold out gig that was way too short and left us wanting more. Johan Duncanson, Martin Larsson, and Daniel Tjäder delivered old faves and new ones and never missed a beat.  If you [...]

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The most perplexing thing about Ryan Bingham is his amazingly textured and unique voice. If you didn’t know who he was, and then listened to one of his songs, you’d immediately guess that he was at minimum twice his real age.

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How many bands are together 30 years, let alone 2? Australia’s The Church performed Untitled #23, Priest=Aura and Starfish in their entirety in one special evening at El Rey Theatre.  I had never seen the venue with seats in the pit area, but the idea worked well.  Steve Kilbey, Marty Wilson-Piper, Tim Powles and Peter [...]

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Thank you Jack White, if for nothing else, than for realizing that great talent doesn’t need to fade with the times. Wanda deserves to be onstage, packing out the El Rey, showing young grasshoppers how it’s done.

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