Kan Wakan | Moving On | Rating: 8.5/11 | If you take an album’s cover artwork into consideration with regard to the contents housed within, then Kan Wakan’s debut album, Moving On, might infer a stalemate of sorts. Musical, emotional, temporal fixedness not unlike the mythological Sisyphus and his cyclically vicious boulder issues, whom the artwork appears to be inspired by. Yes and no, where Kan Wakan are […]

Familiar Looking Strangers | The Hotel Cafe (Los Angeles, CA) | May 29, 2014 | FACT: The final time slot of the evening at most club venues – in this case, midnight – is oh so rarely ideal or any band’s choice. But so goes the road that every young or new band that is not a super group or […]

B.B. King: The Life of Riley | Rating: 9.8 / 11 | This is the story of one man who single-handed shaped the face of many musicians (and as a result, a few music genres) past, present and future. He overcame hardship by not acknowledging its existence, he dealt with segregation by blurring the lines and he never stopped chasing […]

Tim Minchin | The Wilshire Ebell Theatre (Los Angeles, CA) | May 29, 2014 When asked to describe Tim Minchin to the uninitiated, the words “mad musical comedic genius” come to mind. He certainly looked the part- strolling on stage in black garb, bare feet, black-rimmed eyes and electrified mane. Though there were a few lyrical hiccups, punctuated by increasingly frustrated expletives, the […]

A Million Ways To Die In The West | Rating: 7.9 / 11 | You’re probably thinking, do we really need another western comedy? It’s hard to fill the shoes of a Blazing Saddles or City Slickers (which A Million Ways‘ score may have been slightly ripped off from). But A Million Ways To Die In The West isn’t so […]

Howlin Rain | The Echo (Los Angeles, CA) | May 23, 2014 | For quite some time, Howlin Rain (basically Ethan Miller) has been that crash course in full-blooded psych rock ala those albums from the 70’s that you wish you still had on vinyl and only the luckiest of bastards do. Howlin Rain just released a live album appropriately titled Live Rain and live […]

Gabrielle Aplin | The Hotel Cafe (Los Angeles, CA) | May 21, 2014 | What do you do if you’re from the UK visiting Los Angeles and want to soak up some local culture?  If you’re singer-songwriter, Gabrielle Aplin, you eat a lot of kale, sip on cucumber water and attempt to get a spray tan before heading to The Hotel Cafe […]