For her second EP, “Golden Girl,” she partnered with Sean Oakley (Frank Ocean, Georgia, CHAMPS, La Roux) for production and programming to bump the bpm a few notches up while she layered electric and acoustic guitars and synths. With Michael Champion (CHAMPS) and Mikey Wagner (Andrew McMahon) on bass, and mastering by Rupert Stansall, the result is an immersive, technicolor ride through the depths and highs of redemption.
The second full-length from Long Beach sextet Manuel the Band is a spirit-lifter that ranges from working-class rock to introspective pop to twangy Americana.
Manuel the Band makes salt-of-the-earth rock ’n’ roll, and since the earth in its native Southern California is a pretty diverse place, the sextet’s music is a melting pot of folk, blues and pop. The finished product is kinetic classic rock (think Kings of Leon or My Morning Jacket) that reflects the irrepressible spirit of the band’s founder, singer-guitarist Manuel Grajeda.
The story of Bee Appleseed sounds like a fable: a tumultuous youth spent in Oregon; three years as a vagabond musician subsisting via “divine channels” as he trekked to some 50 countries; friends old and new helping him push forward his psychedelic folk-rock; a life-changing encounter with a Native American shaman; and, finally, making Los Angeles the home base for his ministrations. READ MORE…
If you heard the “Southeast version” of Coma Girls — the music made by Chris Spino before he packed his bags and hightailed it from Atlanta to Los Angeles — you might not recognize the new single “Crown.” READ MORE…
Sara Melson’s graceful, buoyant folk-pop has always tackled life’s heavier stuff, and somewhere between their doe-eyed vulnerability and steely-eyed resolve, her songs seems to lighten the load of whatever baggage you’re toting.
The inevitability of change is the topic on the table in her new single, “Same River.” Here, the songwriter cribs from Greek philosopher Heraclitus, who wrote: “No man ever steps in the same river twice, for it’s not the same river, and he’s not the same man.” Says Melson: “By the time you’ve lived long enough, you understand that the only constant in life, truly, is change. I was sitting in the back seat of the car, my parents in the front, and it hit me — that they would be gone one day, and how I’ve been behind them in that back seat over the course of what feels like so many different lifetimes. Right in that moment — I don’t even know what they were talking about up there — my dad turned to my mom and said, ‘Yeah, well, you know… You’ll never step into the same river twice’. That was one of those light bulb moments for me as a songwriter.”