Reviews of albums, films, concerts, and more from the Bay Area Music and Movie Nerds
Steven Wilson is certainly no stranger to epics. Whether his work in the band Porcupine Tree with songs like the sprawling “Anesthetize,” or his solo effort about serial killer Denis Rader “Raider II,” he has proven quite the knack for epic songs, cycles, and albums over the years. It should prove no surprise that his recent single for the upcoming The Future Bites, “Personal Shopper,” shares this epic quality.
Continue reading “Single of the Week: Personal Shopper by Steven Wilson”
After a long work period it’s nice to have an evening to cut loose and check out some damn good music. It was this thought that ran through my head as I navigated through traffic on a Thursday night from Sherman Oaks to downtown Los Angeles to see The Black Queen perform at the Regent. It wasn’t too cold, though that may have been from all the traffic, and something in the air just said that tonight was going to be a good night for some dark and synthy dream pop.
Continue reading “Show Review: SRSQ, Uniform, and The Black Queen at The Regent 03/28/19”
Of all the bands that I’ve been obsessed with over my life time, Ladytron was one that I came to on the later portion of their career. While I appreciate their first two albums, it wasn’t until the dark post-rock infusion of Witching Hour that I my ears suddenly perked up and I realized how much more there was to this band. Even then I wasn’t fully hooked and completely obsessed until Velocifero blew my head apart. To say that I’ve been waiting and anticipating a new Ladytron album since Gravity the Seducer was released almost a decade ago is an understatement of the century – at least in my household – so imagine how excited I was when all the rumors were confirmed by an e-mail from Pledge Music that they were in the studio working on a new album and then later when Spotify notified me that a new single – at the time “The Animals” – had been officially released. I lost my shit. Plain and simple.
LIGHTS is definitely not hard on the eyes! Think Alexandra Lawn from Ra Ra Riot but edgier. She’s not exactly hard on the ears either. Synth heavy female vocals, lightly backed by a drummer, and when I say lightly I mean he could play with one arm half the time. She breaks from her elrctro-pop way mid-way through her set to play a solo acoustic song off her purely acoustic EP, and to do what I guess would be a “cover” of the YouTube video “hide your kids hide your wife,” And then she finishes out the remainder of the set like the beginning. Continue reading “Show Review: LIGHTS at Slim’s, 10/25/2010”