There’s Amanda Jo Williams’ voice – a playful, birdlike instrument, flitting around her country-fried arrangements like an intrepid hummingbird. And then there’s what she’s saying; she delivers her lickety-split vignettes and stream-of-consciousness observations as if she expects you to be on the same page, immediately. If you missed her first three albums, it’s worth getting […]
It’s a heavy-duty Friday: ‣ Cold War Kids [that’s Nathan Willett from their February show at the Bootleg Theater, above] headline the Fonda Theatre behind their new album “Dear Miss Lonelyhearts,” with Superhumanoids opening. ‣ Shout Out Louds and Haerts do a second night the El Rey Theatre ‣ Indie-pop trio Sir Sly – just […]
Incoming: The Rolling Stones, Holy Ghost!, Laura Marling, Dillinger Escape Plan, Atlas Genius, the Black Angels, the Presets, the Postelles, Kate Nash, Daughter, Youngblood Hawke, Carla Morrison, Sweet & Tender Hooligans, Shout Out Louds, Breathe Carolina, Turbonegro, Cold War Kids, Mikal Cronin, Opeth, Amanda Jo Williams, Sir Sly, Fleetwood Mac, War, Imperial Teen, Juanes, Black […]
Post-holiday fun: ‣ Gotye continues touting songs off his album “Making Mirrors” at the Greek Theatre. New York’s Chairlift and fellow Aussie electronic artist Jonti support. ‣Divine Fits play another L.A. show in support of their album “A Thing Called Divine Fits” at the Echo, and Daughn Gibson supports. ‣ The Tallest Man On Earth […]
Thursday’s things: ‣ It’s been over three years since Tony and Mike Beliveau, as Crash Kings, have released an album. The brothers, now with a new drummer and additional keyboardist, will rock some new material tonight at the Troubadour, with Vanaprasta and Dreamers Dose supporting. ‣ Amanda Jo Williams [see our premiere earlier this week] […]
One minute, Amanda Jo Williams is in the cosmos. The next, she’s in control. The Georgia-bred, L.A.-based songstress is hard to keep up with over the 43 minutes of her new album “The Bear Eats Me” (out Tuesday on Neurotic Yell Records), but that’s half the fun. The other half is playing free association with […]
To say that Amanda Jo Williams is the Joanna Newsom of the freak-folk scene would be giving the singer-songwriter a label that merely scratches the surface, and a lazy comparison at that. When last year’s “Mary’s Big Feet” introduced us to Williams’s occult world, we knew the avant-garde scatting in the midst of swampy arrangements […]
The 2nd New Los Angeles Folk Fest goes off Saturday in a strange, wonderful and probably overheated place known as Zorthian Ranch in Altadena. To give you a taste of the event’s deliriously eclectic lineup – the music ranges from old-timey to fractured folk to psychedelia, with a lot in between – this edition of […]
The fractured folk music on Amanda Jo Williams’ forthcoming album “Mary’s Big Feet” is much like L.A. audiences has seen her live – unpredictable and unvarnished, with scratchy guitar supporting her girlish voice, vocal acrobatics and from-the-mouths-of-babes moments. She recorded the album (due April 26 on the NocturnalSol label) herself in GarageBand, so it represents […]
Nothing moribund about this Monday: ‣ Hanni El Khatib opens the second week of the Rumspringa residency at the Bootleg Theater, which also features Moses Campbell. ‣ Rabbits Rabbits Rabbits supports at this week’s Walking Sleep residency at the Satellite. ‣ Leslie Stevens (of the Badgers’ fame) plays ahead of resident Amanda Jo Williams at […]
