{"id":838,"date":"2011-07-06T16:56:00","date_gmt":"2011-07-06T23:56:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2011\/07\/two-weeks-in-indie-rock.html"},"modified":"2011-07-06T16:56:00","modified_gmt":"2011-07-06T23:56:00","slug":"two-weeks-in-indie-rock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/2011\/07\/two-weeks-in-indie-rock.html","title":{"rendered":"Two Weeks in Indie Rock"},"content":{"rendered":"

OVER the last few weeks I’ve seen a bunch of bands and gotten some good new albums by groups on tour; three of the four are from the Golden State. I’ll have to be brief here, but I want to sign the praises of a few of them.<\/p>\n

The bands are:<\/p>\n

The Bixby Knolls<\/a>:<\/p>\n

I’ve been hearing about these guys for a while now, so was happy to stumble into them at a show at the Silverlake Lounge about a week ago. There’s a real punk-style force to these guys, but it’s matched with fine, melodic songwriting and a style as retro-Brit as their name… Remind me of the Buzzcocks and The Jam. Nothing I find on youtube matches what I saw the other night, but here’s something:<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Duniven:<\/p>\n

I’ve known Patrick as my bartender at The York, one of my favorite gastropubs in town, for a while now — it often takes me a long time to order food and drink because we get sidetracked into conversations into Neil Young, Ryan Adams or Blonde on Blonde<\/i>. So I was pleased to finally check out his band, which reflects his fandom but also takes his influences somewhere. Very sweet old California backup band complete with chick on tambourine.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Patrick, who some might know from the Capshuns, also plays a mean harmonica.\u00a0The late hour required me to split mid-set, but here’s a talent to watch. Here’s the last song from a recent set.<\/p>\n

The Postelles:<\/p>\n

Missed these guys at the Echo last week because of exhaustion, but as I keep playing their debut LP over and over again and kicking myself for it. They’re a young bunch of Anglophiles from Brooklyn with a knack for catchy, hard pop and an association with the Strokes. A reviewer on the All Music Guide called them too squeaky clean, but frankly I find that louche, prep-school swagger of the Strokes a bit lame at this point. I’ll take the more polished style of these guys anyday. And next time they’re in town I’ll be there for sure.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

Alela Diane:<\/p>\n

This Northern California singer-songwriter impressed me with her last record, the intimate folky LP To Be Still. Her voice and songwriting have deepened since then and her music has taken an alt-country direction. (Some have said she sounds like Cat Power fronting one of Gram Parsons’ old bands.) Whatever it is, she’s a serious talent and I’m not gonna let her get in and out of town next time without catching her set. \u00a0Here’s a sweet little live bit from a benefit in NY; it’s the first song from her new LP, on Rough Trade.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

I guess the moral of this story is that I need to sleep a lot less.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

OVER the last few weeks I’ve seen a bunch of bands and gotten some good new albums by groups on tour; three of the four are from the Golden State. I’ll have to be brief here, but I want to sign the praises of a few of them. The bands are: The Bixby Knolls: I’ve […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[40,30,74,29],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-838","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-indie","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"category-the-echo","9":"category-west-coast","10":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=838"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/838\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=838"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=838"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/culturecrash\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=838"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}