The Ever So Talked (Blogged) About Wavves -04.16.09 Show Review
Mandy’s Performance Quality Scale- C+
I have seen many shows during my two years at the Claremont Colleges. There have been highs and lows in terms of performance and band personality, and after many months I have created a Performance Quality Scale in my mind. Ponytail at The Smell on 10/10/08 being at the high end of the scale and Band That Shall Remain Unnamed on 11/22/08 in Dom’s Lounge, Pomona College at the other end of the scale. On this scale, Nathan “Wavves” Williams lands somewhere in the middle.
REVIEW: Starfucker – Jupiter (Badman)
Jupiter is Starfucker's second album, a mini-LP (or mega-EP) full of smooth, playful, dancy electropop with new wave vibes. Their first album was similar in many ways, but for this album they've apparently added a fourth member and given their…
REVIEW: Bipolar Bear/Talbot Tagora – Abstract Distractions 10″ (OlFactory)
On the front side, spinning five tracks wide, BIPOLAR BEAR, LA’s own fuzzy punks. On the flip, spinning four tracks deep (and into your eardrums they seep) Seattle’s psychedelic marching miscreants, Talbot Tagora. Bipolar Bear has once again birthed some…
REVIEW: King Khan and the Shrines – What Is?! (Vice)
King Khan and the Shrines more or less started when King Khan (on tour with former band The Spaceshits) toured through Germany and ended up settling down there. This album was the King Khan and the Shrines' debut on Hazelwood…
So So Glos: Mutual Appreciation
At times like these (Sunday morning, groggy, freakin' out about finals) it's fun to reminisce about the good old days. Like remember when the So So Glos and Alma Mater played a totally excellent blowout in March? Man, that rocked!…
REVIEW: The Screaming Females – Power Move (Don Giovanni)
The Screaming Females already have quite a following in their hometown of New Brunswick, New Jersey – for the last few years, they have frequently been playing shows in the area with other NJ punk bands such as Slaw and…
Record Store Day!
Saturday, April 18th is Record Store Day across the US -- here in Claremont, KSPC highly recommends that you go to Rhino Records in the Village and/or in Riverside, go to the Mad Platter and show your love for independent…
REVIEW: Orem (the sink) – Planets (The Prescott Family)
Covina Cali’s transcendental roots band, Orem (the sink) has re-freed Planets, a geo-biologically aware, lo-fidelity 2007 LP. Forget contemporary lo-fi indie hipsteria. Orem (the sink) goes beyond the yonder with timeless yet timely lyrics- “One thing about your planet is…
REVIEW: Depressed Horns – Skate By (Weirdo Records)
Depressed Horns is a mail-art project from Weirdo Records' founder and the self-described “long lost bedroom-fi stoner band” Goosewind. It is difficult to make immediate sense of their album Skate By, which combines ominous whispers, random samples, obscure instruments and…
Refrigerator Live Show!
Local heroes Refrigerator will be playing at Ecoterra this Friday as part of the store's "Village Beat" series of concerts and exhibitions! Refrigerator have been longtime friends of KSPC and they were a featured artist on the KSPC Basement Tapes…
The So So Glos and Alma Mater Take Over -03.26.09 Show Review
Mandy’s Performance Quality Scale – A+
On March 26th, 2009 The So So Glos and pals Alma Mater landed at Pomona College. At approximately 8 pm out on The South Lawn, they put on one of the best live shows I have ever seen at the Claremont Colleges.
REVIEW: Jordan O’Jordan – Jordan O’Jordan’s Jar of Jams (Columbus Discount)
Seattleite Jordan Smith is the sweet-singing folk fellow behind Jordan O’Jordan’s Jar of Jams. Pure cane sugar might be to the sound of Jar of Jams what high fructose corn syrup is to evil. Blissfully simple banjo riffs and Jordan’s…
REVIEW: The Coat Hangers – Scramble (Suicide Squeeze)
It is difficult to believe that Atlanta’s The Coat Hangers formed within the last few years – this girl band exudes the politically motivated vulgarity and riot grrrl energy of prior decades, allowing them to fit perfectly in a genre…
REVIEW: Amadou & Mariam – Welcome to Mali (Nonesuch)
It’s been stated Amadou & Mariam produce not “world music” but “music for the world”. This is mildly cliché but very true. Welcome to Mali supplies proof. The album is their fifth recorded in studio and continues Amadou & Mariam’s…
REVIEW: Chain and the Gang – Down with Liberty… Up with Chains! (K Records)
Chain and the Gang is led by DC-based rocker Ian Svenonius, who has had a long and illustrious career. He's been the frontman for some awesome bands such as Nation of Ulysses, The Make-Up, and Weird War, published a book,…
Basement Tapes Vol. 3 ART CONTEST!
Interested in getting involved with your favorite radio station? We’re holding a cover and CD art design contest for the 3rd compilation of our live in-studio performances. The winning art will be featured on the cover of the Basement Tapes…
REVIEW: Strange Boys – And Girls Club (In the Red)
Don’t mess with Texas’s Strange Boys: some Austinite Nietzsche reading lo-fi punk-rockers, who just released their first major record, The Strange Boys and Girls Club. The Sambol brothers (Ryan, guitar/lead vocals, writes all the songs and his elder, Phillip, bass)…
REVIEW: Vampire Hands – Me & You Cherry Red/Cuz It’s a Beach Funeral (Modern Radio)
Vampire Hands’ 'Me & You Cherry Red / Cuz It’s a Beach Funeral' combine numerous recent trends: the ever popular noise of Wavves, the psychedelia of White Magic and Sun Araw, and the garage rock of Black Lips and the…
REVIEW: Julie Doiron – I Can Wonder What You Did With Your Day (Jagjaguwar)
Julie Doiron has made an excellent career for herself playing folky, distorted, almost-expansive dreampunk. She started her career as the bassist/vocalist of Eric's Trip, one of the first Canadian lo-fi bands to make it big stateside; she's collaborated with Phil…
REVIEW: Tarentel – Live Edits: Italy & Switzerland
Tarentel, a San Francisco electro-percussive threesome, is out with Live Edits from a 2005 tour of Italy and Switzerland. The belated compilation of sensate drone sounds vibrates, gyrates, and oh my-rates as one my favorite psychedelelectric albums this year. The…