I’m continually surprised by how much talent and musical variety is bred by LA’s co-ed duos like Passion Pit and the previously mentioned Loch & Key. It’s a good thing Cooper Gillespie and Greg Gordon of Mad Planet are more than keeping up with the competition thanks to their debut LP All Elephants.

Conceived in early 2009, All Elephants dives deeply into the genres of trip-hop, alternative rock, and jazz — a surprising departure from Gillespie’s and Gordon’s time spent in bands like Bang Sugar Bang and Nervous Return. The album was recorded through the course of a year in the duo’s Silverlake apartment with album art supplied by comic artist Nathan Hamill, son of Star Wars actor Mark Hamill.

I was a bit interested to listen after hearing them name Portishead and Massive Attack as strong influences for their album. "I Live Alone" and "Love Addict" are shining examples Gillespie’s smooth alto, trip-hop influenced, vocals; her lyrics taking on themes of loss and healing. It’s not until "Danger Danger" do things really pick up with a slightly industrial feel and Gordon’s strong up tempo break beats. Introspection is a strong theme throughout the 12 song collection, coming to a head with the closing track "Watch", it’s noisy oscillations fading into silence.

If you’re looking to see Mad Planet live, their next show is Wednesday, September 29th at the Viper Room.

-Angelo Lorenzo

From Maryland to Nashville and now more recently Los Angeles, singer/songwriter Benny Marchant has dwelled and built his repertoire all across the U.S., leading up to the release of his debut solo EP next Tuesday, September 28. The Conversations Missed EP will be released through his own imprint, Marina Records.

As the lead singer of LA alternative band The Kings Royal, Marchant used more of a garage rock influence comparable to the Strokes and Brit-rock sound similar to Oasis, but with his solo music he shows a softer side. The four-tracks on the EP, which was produced by Joe Chiccarelli (Radiohead, White Stripes) tend to be clean-cut with a strong reflective mood. The vocals are comforting like sitting by the fire during a frosty East Coast winter. Nashville’s influence peaks its head with the twang of a pedal steel guitar on "Been Too Long".

The title track, "Conversations Missed" is another heartfelt track, but the melody is a little more breezy than the others. The video directed by Alan Tanner draws on the idea of ‘light’ from the song’s lyrics with a charming result.

Marchant will follow with his full-length album, Cold Weather early next year.

-Karla Hernandez

For those who haven’t taken advantage of Funeral Party‘s September residency at the Bootleg Theater, there is one more chance to catch the Whittier band live next Tuesday, September 28th, before it leaves for a U.S. tour with Two Door Cinema Club and Generationals. The band will then head to the U.K. for an opening slot on the 30 Seconds to Mars tour in November and December.

The five-piece has had a busy year taking its dance rock sounds across the U.S. while touring with Julian Casablancas and Austin’s …And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead. In the U.K., Funeral Party has toured with Surfer Blood and has been receiving critical acclaim, including airplay on BBC’s Radio 1. Singles "Just Because" and "NYC Moves to the Sound of LA" mix the high-energy of the Blood Brothers with the danceable rhythms of The Killers. With vibrant guitars and dynamic vocals, the songs are the type that fans love to sing along with at the top of their lungs. With just a 3-song EP under its belt, the band is gearing up to release a full-length on RCA Records.

–Karla Hernandez

Sean Hoffman and Leyla Akdogan, the dynamic duo between Loch & Key, released their debut effort Jupiter’s Guide for Submariners earlier this year and have been sailing the musical high seas ever since.

The album opens with Mt. Washington, a bossa nova drenched ode to East LA, that sets the pace between the jazzy and the contemporary. After tapping your toes and snapping your fingers through ‘In The Town of the Queen of Angels’ — ‘The Girl from Ipanema’ finds herself in Los Angeles? — We end up at ‘A Rather Large, Television-Shaped Head’ with its more contemporary guitar work and Cardigans-esque feel. ‘Maybe’ and ‘The Man Who Fell From the That Sky’ slow the collection down with sincere balladeering before ‘Devil’s Backbone’ kicks into a western gunslingin’, God-fearin’ romp. ‘Goodnight Bright Eyes’ closes things out with a solemn, but hopeful, instrumental. The album is a dreamy mix of Leyla’s subtle, airy vocals on top of Sean’s menagerie of guitar work.

The entire album was recorded in Sean’s Echo Park studio which features guest appearances from guitarist Vudi (American Music Club, Swans, Ariel Pink), drummer Derek Brown (The Eels, Everest), and pianist Marshall Thompson (Jem). With their friends to help them, Loch & Key’s love and fascination of Los Angeles is apparent in every song, with ‘Mt. Washington’ and ‘In The Town of the Queen of Angels’ paying special tribute.

Loch & Key will be continuing their residency at Redwood Bar for the last two Thursdays of September.

Jupiter’s Guide for Submariners

LA native Jonathan Haskell just released The Snowflakes That Hit Us Became Our Stars through his project Seven Saturdays. Along with the release, Haskell revealed the video for his first single ‘Au Revoir’ filmed by director Katie West entirely on her iPhone. If the music video and album wasn’t enough, then Seven Saturdays has made a remix of ‘The Shallow End’ available for free download on RCRDLBL.

Haskell, the mastermind and multi-instrumentalist, behind Seven Saturdays has spent years fine tuning his approach."I became more interested in how music made me feel and became a bit more selfish in the type of sounds I wanted to record. I mostly listen to music in my car, and the sounds that moved me the most occurred late at night while driving around the steep slopes and sharp curves of Mulholland Drive. There’s nothing like that winding road at midnight… the ebb and flow of swirling tones pouring out from all angles leaves you with a renewed sense of focus and direction." said Haskell.

Expect an album review soon.

Au Revoir (Official Video) from Seven Saturdays on Vimeo.

Starting as a teenager in 1984, and lasting up until 1997, Dave Travis took it upon himself to document the budding punk scene here in Los Angeles. His release, A History Lesson Part 1, presents performances and rare interviews with some of LA and Phoenix, Arizona’s punk acts including The Meat Puppets, The Minutemen, Twisted Roots, and Redd Kross.

The world premiere screening is happening September 25th at the Blue Star Cafe and Bar. 18+ admission for $7 or $12 with a DVD. After the premiere, the Redwood Bar and Grill will be screening the movie every Tuesday in October for $5 or $10 with a DVD.

Official Website
Dave Travis Bio

Alternative rockers The 88 are gearing up to release their new self-titled album, to be released on iTunes on September 14 with a physical copy hitting the shelves on September 28. In anticipation of their first proper release since their breakup with Island Records, the band is offering up ‘Center of the Sun’, complete with its keyboard driven hook and sing-along lyrics, as a download on AOL Music.

The album was recorded at Grandmaster Recorders in Hollywood under the watchful eye of engineer/mixer Andrew Alekel (Weezer, Tool, Queens Of The Stone Age). The band rehearsed relentlessly in preparation for the studio. It paid off, with the results sounding full without mounds of overdubs and polish, and faithfully translating their energetic stage presence.

The band gained notable attention earlier this year when they released the digital single ‘Live is the Thing’ which was recorded completely on the iPhone. Their DIY ethic not only fuels projects like that but has also earned them an amazing tour pedigree – it has landed them on tour with the likes of The Flaming Lips, The B-52’s, The Smashing Pumpkins, and the late Elliot Smith. Their latest juant found them across the pond on tour with Ray Davies (The Kinks). Davies can be heard lending himself to the gang vocals on ‘They Ought to See You Now’ which will appear on the new release.

Download ‘Center of the Sun’ free care of AOL Music.

If your idea of a good music video includes a beautiful girl running away from sandman-esque stalkers set to the flowing vibes of Season’s song ‘Light, Lost’, well then this video is for you. If you didn’t see the band premiere the video earlier this week after their set at Spaceland then you can certainly watch it here. The video is directed by Christopher J. Ewing and is nothing less than delightful.

22-year-old producer phenom, MiM0SA, will be dropping his glitched up, dubstepped, mini-LP Silver Lining on October 4th on Multi Music Records. A month is too long to wait, so we’re sharing his blistering remix of Nina Simone’s classic ‘I Put a Spell on You’ as a free download. Classic, groovy, and a bit gritty, it’ll conjure up inflences like trip-hop masters Massive Attack.

If you like other LA producers like Rusko or Baths (A Deli LA personal favorite) then you’ll fall right in line with MiM0SA. He’s been making waves at festivals like Cochella and Burning Man, and he’s embarking on a US tour that will bring him to the Music Box/Henry Fonda on Sept. 23rd.

If all of our shoulder devils that urge excess and temptation left our consciences to prevail and formed an indie rock band, Say Anything would be it.  With content ranging from sex, love, religion, drugs and all that’s stemmed in controversy, their music stands as an eccentric journey through the life of a bipolar, dirty-minded rock star that is bold enough to speak his mind.  Through the use of metaphors and one-liners packed with double meanings, front man Max Bemis always manages to conjure a bizarre twist on almost anything he blurts out.

It is no surprise that the filterless front man who penned lyrics such as, “When I was spat onto the earth in a stream of guts, by Mother Nature, that green-eyed slut”, would conjure up so much attention from critics and fans dumbfounded with intrigue.  Say Anything’s music speaks in tongues of straightforward honesty and off-center commentary, in a way that pushes listeners to the point where they almost have to question Bemis’ sanity.  He has nurtured his ability to write about prototypical scenarios, while confronting them with a stream of words that are anything but streamline.  His wittily-written lines not only scream out Bemis’ quirky, peculiar mindset, but also of his ability to understand the industry and his fan base of music hungry listeners.

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Searching for fun in the avant garde landscape of serious singer/songwriters, noise bands, or whomever else can feel like searching for a needle in a haystack. Santa Barbara’s Loomis and the Lust is indeed that needle. Embracing pop rock for all it’s worth, their sound is a mix of hot guitar riffs, tongue-in-cheek lyrics, and a danceable backbone. Their first single off the Space Camp EP, ‘Barbarella’, is a sing-along romp that mixes surf rock, Brit pop, and Motown grooves (To my dismay, I was hoping it would lean more towards Duran Duran’s ‘Electric Barbarella’ but I was mistaken).

The band will be playing Ground Zero at USC on Sept. 17th. before heading back North to play a few shows in their hometown of Santa Barbara.

It was inevatable, LA is a musical magnet. J. Irvin Dally (Fun Fact: The J. stands for Jordan) made the choice to relocate from Spain to town a few months back and I don’t think there is cause for anyone to regret it. I was able to get a hold of his EP, Despistado, and it’s one of those collections of songs that make my ears smile. Dally’s haunting, soulful, howls ride on a the sea of folk guitar and percussion. Within seven songs you get the feeling he’s been lost, found, and reborn – a pretty spectacular feat for someone in their early 20s.

J. Irvin Dally is embarking on a little tour, with one of his first stops at the fantastic Silverlake Lounge for a 21+ show on Sept. 7th…. GO!