On the follow-up release to last year’s The Basta EP, Rainbow Arabia goes way beyond—themselves, their influences, the music they’ve put to record so far. The band obviously respects the experimental, but their balance of post-punk with world music styles sets them apart from the rest of the Manimal roster and at its best elevates the duo above other L.A. bands doing something self-consciously “different.” Here it’s an exercise in escapism—a band seeking adventure in exotic landscapes. Danny and Tiffany Preston blend club beats and dance rhythms gleaned from America to Africa, sliding continents under each other like a gambler shuffling cards.

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The Monolators are America’s greatest midnight band, who always make it worth staying up all night. I look forward to their closing sets, because they play straight up, balls out garage-punk-pop better than anyone on the eastside OR the westside. I realized going into their set that there was a sixty-percent chance that my badly stubbed toe would be broken (it was) by the end of the night, with an even greater likelihood that one of the Monolators would destroy some equipment (they did). It’s a real shame that they can’t clone the Monolators seven or eight times so they can close every show (at least in the eastside clubs) every night of the week.

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c. anderson

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