Watching Wilco last night at one of my favorite venues – the Arlington Theatre in Santa Barbara – I was struck by a few thoughts simulateneously.
1) It’s rare you get to “grow up” with a band — that they start making great music during your formative years of being a music fan and continue making great music as you journey through adulthood.
Wilco’s first album “AM” came out when I was a freshman in college and I remember the first time I heard it. I was hanging out with a …

When I was a kid, there was a lot of talk of Stevie Nicks’ “being a witch.”
I dunno where exactly I heard that, but I distinctly recall it being a topic of conversation one holiday when my aunt found my copy of “Tango in the Night.” (A dubbed cassette given me by a hairspray addicted, white wolf howling at the moon airbrushed jean jacketed, and eye-liner wearing minister’s son from New Jersey, no less. But that’s another story, for another time.)
Now that I’m older, I know that it actually doesn’t matter whether or not Stevie is …

Piper Ferguson is an LA-based photographer who photographs many musicians. I wanted to get in her head and find out how she goes about planning a shoot, using Welsh singer Cate Le Bon as an example. As of today, Cate is the most played artist on KCRW’s Eclectic24 all music stream and is playing McCabes on February 26 so enjoy some photos and some insight.
I got the call to photograph Cate LeBon for some press shots while she was in Los Angeles opening for St. Vincent at The Music Box.
I …

I love Blondes. Not blondes, but Blondes.
After a lovely and super consistent set of releases on Merok and Rvng Intl., Blondes have a debut album which is in essence a collection of themed 12″ singles they’d released steadily last year beginning with “Lover/Hater,” they brilliantly compiled all the singles and had a veritable who’s who of geniuses (including JD Twitch, Laurel Halo, Teengirl Fantasy, Dungeon Acid, and SFV Acid to name a few) give their singles the remix treatment.
Although it is quite early in 2012, this tight collection is unquestionably …

LA’s own Autolux is throwing a release party to screen their new video, directed by Thomas McMahan, for the “The Science of Imaginary Solutions“, the final song from their most recent album “Transit Transit”.  The premiere will be at LAUNCH, a large gallery space across from LACMA, THIS Saturday, February 11. Lead vocalist and bassist Eugene Goreshter will DJ the event and screening times are set on the hour for 8p, 9p, 10p, and 11p.
The video was made by adapting Mark Whalen’s paintings to video and they are releasing an …

Barcelona’s a lush hotbed for a psychedelic dance-pop scene that’s not only birthed acts like El Guincho and Delorean  but it’s also stretching the boundaries of house music with dreamy elastic works by Pional and John Talabot.
Talabot has just released his proper debut record (cheekily titled) “fin” and it’s a stunner. Talabot smartly doesn’t rework his formula and keeps the aspects that made his early singles “Sunshine” and “Matilda’s Dream” such bangers.  Rooting his tracks in chant-y vocal loops, thick tribal percussion, and organic sounds, you half get the feeling …

Three years after releasing their remarkably austere and unique debut on DFA Records, Prinzhorn Dance School has emerged with an equally austere and unique follow-up titled, “Clay Class“.
Although no less catchy or talented than other boy/girl duos who’ve gone on to worldwide superstardom (read: The White Stripes and Matt & Kim,) Tobin Prinz and Suzi Horn’s minimalist post-punk take on the formula has been met with a little less fanfare. Maybe it’s that their monochromatic visual aesthetic is puzzling? Or that lyrically they have the particularly British gift of wittily …

Being as how I have mad love in my heart for France’s seemingly endless fount of brilliant electronic music, I got super excited when over  the last few weeks, “Forever Young,” the lead single off Joakim‘s latest (greatest?) album “Nothing Gold” (Tigersushi) has been getting some Morning Becomes Eclectic spins…
Last summer I’d had a chance to sit with Joakim and informally chat about life, love, and change just before he was moving back to France from New York for the first time in a little while…and he was not only really …

Imperial Teen’s new album “Feel the Sound” is like that friend you have that gets along with everyone.
It’s an utterly likeable album of simple but well-crafted pop songs with great melodies. I listened to it twice within 24 hours and my favorites are “Don’t Know How You Do It” and “Out from Inside”. Undeniable catchiness.
Stream “Out from Inside”:
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
Performed by a (insert any name) mainstream rock band and stripped of some of it’s quirk, I think “Out from Inside” could be a monster pop …

Every once in a while Jason Bentley plays a song that prompts multiple calls to the station with people desperately seeking it out. That song this week is the RAC remix of Zee Avi’s “Concrete Wall”.
Stream “Concrete Wall” — RAC Remix
[Audio clip: view full post to listen]
On this track, the Malaysian singer really stepped out of her comfort zone of softly sung songs accompanied by a gentle instrument like the ukulele. Instead, it’s more like a hip hop track, with a catchy hook and Zee dramatically banging a drum.
The RAC …