Your Guide to New L.A. Music: Warpaint, Jerome LOL, Banks, Steven Malkmus, Dum Dum Girls

Plenty of good new music coming out of LA this month but, unlike the Grammys, no collaborations between burnt-out ageing music icons, who can no longer sing, and burnt-out radio-friendly young artists who could never sing in the first place….

Warpaint – Warpaint (album)

I like a band that is difficult to pigeon-hole.  Shoegaze, ambient, psychedelia, dream pop?  LA’s Warpaint – guitarists/singers Theresa Wayman and Emily Kokal, bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg and drummer Stella Mozgawa - encompass multiple genres but refuse to inhabit a sole category.

And their lyrics are equally broad in their meaning – mostly focusing on relationship issues – they are sultry and sensual on the one hand, staunchly feminist on the other.

Add an A-list production team - producer Flood (Depeche Mode/PJ Harvey/U2) - remixed by unofficial sixth member of Radiohead, Nigel Godrich, and you have a sonically lush, dynamic but melancholy and intense sound.   It’s a winner!

Check out Biggy https://soundcloud.com/warpaintwarpaint/biggy-1

Banks – Brain (single)

After previous working with SOHN and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs, Brain sees Banks team up with fellow LA dweller and producer Shlohmo on this new single.  Powerful, shimmering vocal delivery overlaid on a haunting melody all encased in a distorted production sound. Can’t wait for the debut album, out later this year on Harvest Records.

Jerome LOL - Deleted/Fool' (EP)

Los Angeles DJ and producer Jerome ‘LOL’ Potter has a new EP out consisting of the songs Deleted and Fool, the latter of which features the singing talents of former LOL Boys collaborator Angelina Lucero.  Industrial techno beat with a house swing and vocals that have a longing RnB vibe.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Wig Out at Jagbags (album)

Santa Monica born Stephen Malkmus, former lead singer of Pavement, with a solid but not groundbreaking Wilco-esque indie rock album.  Even if you don’t like the music, wouldn’t you want to Wig Out at Jagbags anyway?

Check out Lariat https://youtube.com/watch?v=zYC5JASqWnI

Dum Dum Girls – Too True

Headed by lead-singer/songwriter Dee Dee - LA born and bred but now living in New York (I read somewhere) – the Dum Dum girls have made an enjoyable pop-rock album with an 80s New Wave sensibility.

Check out Rimbaud Eyes https://soundcloud.com/subpop/dum-dum-girls-rimbaud-eyes