Heartless Bastards | Echoplex (Los Angeles, CA) | April 3, 2012 | If there’s anything that you – the collective masses – can assume, if not outright lay Vegas odds on, it’s that 2012 will be the year of the Heartless Bastards. Yes, technically it’s the year of the Dragon, but lets add another wedge to the Chinese zodiac wheel […]

L’arc~en~Ciel | Butterfly | Rating: 8/11 | Last month, L’Arc~en~Ciel posted a quote from guitarist Ken saying “I want to erase any kind of predictability from our songs.” When a band’s been together over 20 years, erasing “any kind of predictability” from their music is a challenge. Still, L’Arc~en~Ciel (aka Laruku) gives it their best shot in their 12th studio album, Butterfly. Compiled from the 6 […]

Standing Shadows | Freakshow | Just a Part of Me (Tales From the War) | One By One | Rating: 8/11 | Somewhere between the outward and worldly conditions of human suffering and discontent let’s assume that people still want to get their dance on amid their angst and confusion. And if that’s the case, then Standing Shadows is your band. The latter of 2011 saw […]

Nada Surf | The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy | Rating: 9/11 | Reviewed by: Joshua Hammond | From the first note of “Clear Eye Clouded Mind,” the opening track of Nada Surf’s newest album The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy it is rather obvious that the band will be making no excuses for being from the 90’s. Slinging fuzzy guitar riffs and power-poppy floor tom driven drums […]

Little Hurricane | The Troubadour (West Hollywood, CA) | January 10, 2012 |  Where San Diego’s Little Hurricane are concerned, the male/female band dynamic is simple and so are the standard comparisons but in reality, a few listens to a few of their songs and it’s safe to conclude that the less we talk about The White Stripes, the better. […]

The Lumineers | The Hotel Cafe (Los Angeles, CA) | January 6, 2012 | Folksters, The Lumineers, are starting to make a name for themselves in Los Angeles. “We’ve never sold out anything in LA before” marveled frontman Wesley Schultz in front of the packed house at The Hotel Cafe. Not only did the band max out the capacity in […]

Another year almost at an end and there’s been a lot of music to dig into. Doing our High Voltage due diligence, Chelsea pointed out 5 of her favorite albums that may have escaped your notice in her 5 Albums You May Have Missed in 2011; check it out. Here are 5 more albums that rocked my ears that I […]