Timbre Tantrum

Photo by Kevin Estrada

Dengue Fever, the L.A.-based sextet who specialize in an exotic blend of Cambodian rock, Afro grooves, and surf and garage psychedelia, step back into the spotlight with the release of their fourth studio album, Cannibal Courtship, in April.

The record, Dengue Fever’s follow up to 2008’s Venus on Earth, serves up 11 new tracks and features lead vocalist, Chhom Nimol, singing in both English and Khmer (Cambodian).  Guest vocalists, The Living Sisters, lend beautiful backing harmonies to many of the tracks.  “Before it was partly Cambodian and partly indie rock,” explains Dengue Fever bassist Senon Gaius Williams of the band’s evolution. “Now it’s 100 percent both.”

The cross-cultural collective sets out on a U.S. tour in support of Cannibal Courtship this Spring, beginning with a record release show at The Troubadour in Los Angeles.  Check out tour dates, plus stream / download Dengue Fever’s new single, “Cement Slippers,” below.

Dengue Fever Spring Tour Dates

4/19 Record Release Party — Troubadour Los Angeles, CA
4/20 The Fillmore San Francisco, CA
4/22 Dante’s Portland, OR
4/23 The Biltmore Cabaret Vancouver, Canada
4/24 The Crocodile Seattle, WA
4/27 Moe’s Alley Santa Cruz, CA
4/28 SoHo Santa Barbara, CA
4/29 The Casbah San Diego, CA
4/30 Detroit Bar Costa Mesa, CA
5/5 The Loft Dallas, TX
5/6 Emo’s Austin, TX
5/7 Fitzgerald’s Houston, TX

Dengue Fever’s Cannibal Courtship releases April 19^th from Fantasy Records / Concord Music Group.

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Picture a desolate blizzard-ravaged tundra (for many Americans right now, you need only look out your window!), where a comrade laid to rest sparks flurry-filled visions beyond the icy grave.

That is the fearsome setting for Lord Huron’s debut video for the song, “The Stranger,” shot in the wilds of Michigan and directed by Jacob Mendel.  You can read more about Lord Huron in our Underrated and Infuriated profile of the band.

View Lord Huron’s clip for “The Stranger,” and check out the band’s West Coast tour dates opening for Tennis, below.

Lord Huron Tour Dates

02/01 The Crocodile – Seattle, WA #
02/03 Bottom of the Hill – San Francisco, CA #
02/04 The Echo – Los Angeles, CA #
02/05 Tin Can Ale House – San Diego, CA #
03/04 Snow Ball Music Festival / Nottingham Park – Avon, CO *^
03/16 – 03/19 SXSW – Austin, TX
04/09 Doug Fir Lounge – Portland, OR %
04/10 Tractor Tavern – Seattle, WA %
04/12 Bottom of The Hill – San Francisco, CA %
04/13 Bottom of The Hill – San Francisco, CA %
04/19 The State Room – Salt Lake City, UT %
04/20 Hi Dive – Denver, CO %
04/21 Slowdown – Omaha, NE %
04/22 Firebird – St Louis, MO %
04/23 Radio Radio – Indianapolis, IN %
04/24 Beachland Ballroom – Cleveland, OH %

#  = w/ Tennis & Air Waves
*  = w/  Superhumanoids
^  = w/  Edward Sharpe
% = w/ The Rural Alberta Advantage

Lord Huron‘s self-released Mighty EP is available now from the band’s Official Bandcamp Page

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New technology as well as the rapid decline of the old-school music industry structure has really leveled the playing field for independent music acts, including L.A.’s-own, Caught a Ghost.

The band in question is the new project from songwriter/producer Jesse Nolan, who fuses modern blue-eyed soul with elements of classic Motown/Stax compositions and contemporary electronica.  Caught a Ghost recently premiered the video for their first single, Sleeping At Night, which was created entirely using an iPhone.  No need for a major label music video budget here.

Check out the clip for Sleeping At Night below, and hear more tracks from Caught a Ghost on their official iLike Page.

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While indie outfit Grouplove is based in L.A., their journey towards bandhood began with a chance meeting in N.Y.C., and flourished in the coastal tranquility of Greece.

As if preordained, front man Christian Zucconi and keyboardist-singer Hannah Hooper met late one evening on the lower east side of Manhattan, and were instantly inseparable.  So much so, that shortly after meeting, Hooper invited Zucconi to an artist residency she was attending over the summer in Greece.  “Seriously, we had only known one another for a few days but are both so inspired and alive when we are together that going to Greece seemed like a magical and natural thing to do,” recalled Zucconi.

While on the island of Crete, Zucconi and Hooper made fast friends with a trio of fellow attendees who would become future Grouplove band mates: British guitar player, Sean Gadd, pro surfer and Los Angeles-based bassist, Andrew Wessen, and Wessen’s childhood friend and drummer, Ryan Rabin.  “It was a really special way to form a band — we were friends first, before ‘a band,’” Zucconi told SPIN Magazine. “We never planned to be a band. When we recorded the EP, it was just for fun. It was just going to be one song, and then after that one song we were like, ‘Wait, this is really cool and special. Let’s cancel our flights back to the East Coast.’”

After the summer residency ended and everyone scattered to their hometowns, the memories of that incredible summer together weren’t easily forgotten.  As Zucconi describes it, “We all understood how rare it is for five strangers to feel as close as family and create passionate music together. We couldn’t just return to Brooklyn and let the music we all made fade into a memory of that summer we had in Greece.”  So after pooling their funds to travel and record an EP at Rabin’s Los Angeles recording studio, the members of Grouplove made a life-altering decision.  Hooper and Zucconi packed up their lives in Brooklyn and Gadd packed up his life in London and they all moved to L.A. to live and play music.

Grouplove are currently putting the finishing touches on their debut LP, which is set to release in May via Canvasback/Atlantic Records.  And after touring in late 2010 with the likes of Florence + The Machine and The Joy Formidable, Grouplove are headlining January’s month-long Monday night residency at the Bootleg Theater.

Tonight, Grouplove are joined at their Monday night Bootleg Theater residency by White Arrows.  The show is FREE and 21+.

Check out Grouplove’s new video for “Colours,” directed by Jordan Bahat, below.

Grouplove’s self-titled EP re-releases January 25^th.

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Will Wiesenfeld, the Los Angeles-based musician behind electronic pop outfit, Baths, is working under a new alias.  Geotic is Wiesenfeld’s ambient guitar-based project, and the new 14-track LP, Mend, is available now for your listening pleasure (Music not intended for listening while operating heavy machinery).

Mend Track Listing

1 Unwind
2 Beaming Husband
3 Find Your Peace
4 Time Passes in a Slow Sundown
5 Disrobe and Come to Bed
6 Get Held
7 Sleep and We’ll Transition
8 Into Some Spirit World
9 Our Awe
10 The Sprawling, Glorious Newness
11 I’ll Have Come and Gone With You
12 Through the Lush and Undiscovered
13 And Upon Awakening
14 We’ve Mended

Mend, is available now from Geotic’s Angelfire Page, where you can download the LP for FREE!

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