Mike Watt rediscovered nature some time ago riding a bicycle around San Pedro. He’s full of facts about birds—knowledge he relishes like a librarian. Watt recently released Hyphenated-Man, an existential opera and surreal expression of Watt’s head broken into 30 mirror pieces, each piece inhabited by a creature from a Hieronymus Bosch painting: 30 evil beings that reside in a man’s mind, rather than reality. This interview by Daiana Feuer.

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Autolux mines some part of the subconscious which seems to confuse people. My brother swears they are heavy metal, my friend George swears they are a Radiohead ripoff, the guy behind me at the show in his Ed Hardy shirt yelling “Ya Brah!” at the stage then trying to pick a fight with me…well I’m [...]

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400 Blows is excellent band-focused, powerful, mysterious, skilled, passionate, and unique. I am afraid the crowd response to their set was a bit underwhelming. Not that it wasn’t packed with attentive fans, but with the tornado of sound and fury that they were unleashing it seemed like they deserved more than the tepid reception they [...]

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Tamaryn’s record is gorgeous. Lush, swirling guitars; precise, stabbing bass lines and delicate, mysterious vocals that float over the mix and carry you away. It is quintessential dreampop with just enough quirk to make it personal and moving. Live, they played up the mystery, romance and violence of the tracks and transported the room to [...]

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More hot shoegaze jams from the Mexican Summer label, Young Prisms have fresh and innocent vocals which bring play really well off of the LAMC-like harsh jangley guitar. They have worked to create a gorgeous sound and though their set was uneven, when they put it together they were fantastic. I have to say their [...]

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Weekend played The Echo’s longstanding Part Time Punks show last Sunday, January 23. Weekend’s record ends up sounding something like a West Coast version of A Place To Bury Strangers, but live they have their own approach: Reserved tension instead of brutal bombast, a bit more emphasis on atmospherics in the vocals, a sense of [...]

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Their name is misleading-the sound that comes from No Joy is clearly one that they love making. Lush, fuzzed out washes of electric guitars; gentle, haunting vocals; simple and direct drum grooves…it all feels like a universe the band has made for themselves to be happy inside of. In classic shoegazing mode, their stage was [...]

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Screaming Females’ show at the Echoplex on Jan 17th was blistering. Their trio attack reminded me a bit of Jay Reatard’s set on the same stage a few years ago. It is undeniable, though, that you root for tiny Marissa more than a typical band leader if only because she is so unassuming. She brings [...]

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Giant Drag took the stage for the first time as a 3 piece the other night. The addition is a 16 year old guitar phenom. Annie Hardy claimed they had one rehearsal to get it together and honestly the set was a little rocky at first. Pretty soon, though, the combination of force, acerbic wit [...]

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Twin Shadow’s record is easily one of the most exhilarating of the year. Part Morrissey, part Prince-natural, heartfelt pop music of a very high order. George Luis Jr  is responsible for the album, and for the live show he has put together a fantastic band who pump some grit and teeth into the groovy electronica [...]

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