When something makes an impression…the moment is marked with a clarity of focus that feels like an odd dream.
First time I heard Mikal Cronin, I had just had a couple of Ray’s Mistakes at the Tiki Ti for a friend’s birthday party and the bartenders had just wound up the tiny mechanical bull that walks the length of the bar. Pretty much everyone in that little shack started hooting and hollering and cheering the rough beast on it’s journey from one end the other.
Struck by an uncomfortable overwhelming dread, I …

Norwegian singer Mr. Little Jeans made a splash with her cover of The Suburbs by “Arcade Fire” and is back with an excellent new single, “Runaway”.
Stream it below, watch the video (directed by Zach Shields of Dead Man’s Bones), and download the Wavves remix here.
Runaway by Mr Little Jeans
This is one of those tracks that I loved the first time I heard it and I’ve had it on repeat.  So has Jason Bentley, giving it a bunch of spins on Morning Becomes Eclectic. It simply makes me feel …

White Fence is songwriter Tim Presley’s love letter to Love…and Syd Barrett and Nilsson and Dylan and The Zombies.
As rock retro-isms go, White Fence has gone the distance and created a time capsule as time bomb.
The hallucinatory, warbly lo-fi recordings sound as if they’d been recorded in 1968 and vaccuum sealed until now. Unlike lots of other bands playing an “update” to Stoned psychedelia or Southern Blooz or AM Gold Americana, White Fence isn’t updating anything. The tracks recorded in Echo Park within the last 2 years, quite literally sound like haunting lysergic transmissions …

It is a comfort to know that I can always rely on my friends Jamie Strong and Nate Nelson, founders of LA’s buzzing new label Innovative Leisure, to champion great music.
These are the same folks who shone the light on some of my favorite finds of 2011 — Hanni El Khatib and Nick Waterhouse — and continuing in the tradition of the ‘new oldies’ creative direction, the label has scored, yet again, with their latest signing Allah-Las.
I saw the LA-based band perform at the youngest addition to Venice live music …

By KCRW DJ Marion Hodges
The soul/garage revival sound is everywhere these days so when you come across an artist that is doing it as well as Nick Waterhouse, you have to take notice.
Waterhouse takes classic benchmarks from his chosen genre – sassy back up singers, killer saxophone parts, sharp looking clothes, etc. – and uses them wisely.
Being an avid student of the greats (Motown, Stax, etc.) will only take you so far, it’s all in how you infuse your findings with your own personal style and charm. Nick Waterhouse has …

I saw Vanaprasta do a live taping for a TV show and was blown away by their performance. A few weeks later, I saw them at the Satellite and the audience was just as enthusiastic.
Vanaprasta’s debut album “Healthy Geometry” came out last November, and it presents yet another niche of the growing Los Angeles indie rock scene. The band unleashes catchy, anthemic tunes throughout, creating a melodic sound that borrows heavily from elements of classic rock.
Stream “Self Indulgent Feeling“:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Track “G-” begins with a looping bass and …

From KCRW DJ Jeremy Sole:
The Decoders are a project from respected LA musicians Itai Shapira and Todd Simon (trumpeter/arranger for Mayer Hawthorne, TV On The Radio, etc.)
Both of these cats are massive talents in their instruments, as well as in vintage and contemporary recording techniques. They both are players in my recording project as well (Musaics), so I’ve been hearing whispers about this Decoders concept for a while… and sure as can be it’s as fresh as I knew it would be…
Earlier this week, they dropped by KCRW’s studios during …

Local house music producer Urulu is as mysterious a figure as his namesake and all that it implies.
That being said, his productions are some of the best new dance music coming out of LA. Although steeped in traditional classic house sounds with soulful vocal flourishes and fresh fills, the vibe of Urulu’s tracks have a laidback tempo that has DNA strains of West Coast funk boogie and R & B. Like a glossied up, Hollywood glam version of Moodymann’s Detroit rollerskate jams.
He’s got a number of forthcoming releases in 2012, and a couple of …

I must admit at the beginning of this article, that I was never a big fan of Bradley Hana Carter’s first band, Steriogram. Their Green Day-ish pop punk sound never resonated with me. When I was at Indie 103.1 we played their hit “Walkie Talkie Man” in regular rotation. It burned on me pretty quick, but it was nice to see a band from New Zealand raising some eyebrows here in the states.
Today, I am a huge fan of Carter’s music thanks to his new band NO. Carter settled in LA in …

As local heroes go, SFV Acid (neé Zane Reynolds) is, in my humble opinion, one of the most exciting artists making music in LA right now.
Trafficking in a lo-fi deep acid house sound that would be perfectly at home on a Rephlex Records compilation, SFV Acid simultaneously embodies a uniquely 21st century LA punker than punk aesthetic.
It was may great pleasure to start 2012 with him in studio for a Guest DJ set (which you can catch in the archives here) and he’s offered us an unreleased track called “Illegal Rave at Pierce” for …