Waylon Thornton "Baladora" - 2012 EP

Remember the end of Back to the Future???....That black dude calls his cousin 'Chuck'...."You know that new sOUnd you've been looking for....???"...Waylon Thornton makes me feel like that....I wanna call everyone I know and tell them how rad this band is....There is NO WAY they are from 2012.....No way they are a new band.....some of the best new/retro-surf rock/instrumental rock....i've ever hear.....Love how the EP cover is just a creepy gator foot....I wanna drive fast through the desert in a convertible searching for bull skulls with a baggy full of mushrooms....cue upclose scorpion:

LISTEN HERE:

Waylon Thornton "Bat Glasses" mp3

Waylon Thornton "Cold Spot" mp3

BUY HERE:

BandCamp

Lotus Plaza "Spooky Action at a Distance" - 2012 LP

What is the current state of indie music?....Where is it headed?....People are actually going to see shows again....Great bands are starting to be heard.....Hell people are even buying vinyl....Lotus Plaza is about the best barometer of the current state I've heard....First off, they stem from Deerhunter.....(in America's top 3 most important bands).....Second off, they are contemporary as eff.....DIYvibe/etheral pop/airy vox/slight prog element/amaing pop record/contemporary pop that is....indie pop......this album is so fracking good:

LISTEN HERE:

Lotus Plaza "Strangers" mp3

Lotus Plaza "White Galactic One" mp3

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Insound

Lower Dens "Nootropics" - 2012 LP

All of a sudden LA is a windy town.....For those of you who don't believe in global warming (first off...are you fucking kidding me???)....of course the Earth is going to deteriorate.....Everything does....Nothing stays pristine...Nothing last forever....Now come on.....that's not a sad or depressing thing...It should encourage you to grasp the present...love the one you're with......So through the LA wind I began my strut to work....The cool wind whipped my hair in my face around every turn just enough to be annoying....Then on my iPod came a haunting/feverish-hum...a dark presence was looming....Just as I began to pucker my a-hole and face my head toward the concrete airy/rhythmic/pop-glorious sOUnd came on....it was glorious......I felt divine....I understood my father.....I didn't 'need' anything...I was a marvel....Lower Dens made this happen.  Lower Dens have to be the best band in Baltimore right neoooow (sorry A.Co) and on every music radar of 2012...

LISTEN HERE:

Lower Dens "Lamb" mp3

Lower Dens "Brains" mp3

BUY HERE:

Insound

Bad Weather California "Sunkissed" - 2012 LP

I need sunshine.  I wake up early.  Like ass crack of dawn early.....that's when I put out a majority of my public installations.  Today I slept in....Rumor has it a bartender over served me last night.  All lies...I deny it all....Fuck, okay, i was in the mood....I needed to drink off a little steam....sip on some whiskey with a beer back.....turn my breath into kerosene.....howl at the moon......become a beast.  I woke up....tried to pester my girlfriend....then went outside.....It rained.  Goddamnit it's not suppose to rain in LA.  I left a new canvas outside and a few of my wino-strut bottles.....they're ruined.  I quickly retreated to my headphones and put on Bad Weather California (rad website)....which I had never heard of and assumed it was heavy rock.  I was wrong.  Bad Weather California is bright happy fun pop/modern/Cali-surf psych/quirky.....with a major Cars and early Flaming Lips influence. I got my sunshine:

LISTEN HERE:

Bad Weather California "When You Smile" mp3

Bad Weather California "I'll Reach Out My Hand" mp3

BUY HERE:

Insound

Bill Baird "Career" - 2012 LP

About a year ago I got a call from Bill...."I'm in Hollywood, I'm walking down Sunset, what are you doing?"  Well, anytime I get that call I drop just about anything...So after about an hour of shutting down the studio I hopped in my truck from Venice headed towards Hollywood....I couldn't find Bill....I drove all the way down Sunset past Silverlake.....After that point your between Chinatown and Downtown....Just as I was making a U-turn I spotted a long haired blonde dude with an arm full of records and leather patches on his elbows....He had been walking miles.....Bill hopped in and immediately started "What have you been listening too?"....After giving my normal response of hipster indie garage bands...Bill started to play me what I thought was a Captian Beefheart mixtape....Then his newest tracks started up....I had never heard him write this kind of music...It was unlike any music I had ever heard....We continued OUr journey back to my studio, looked at some paintings, then set out on the town in what I can only remember as some sort of blurred hybrid of Withnail and I or Fear and Loathing...Ironically, I dropped Bill off right where I found him....On Sunset Blvd......Now a year later with the songs mixed and complete "Career" is here....It....like all of Bill's albums...is spectacular and groundbreaking:

LISTEN HERE:

Bill Baird "Your Dark Sunglasses Won't Make You Lou Reed" mp3

Bill Baird "Captain Brain" mp3

BUY HERE:

BandCamp  (get the limited edition vinyl) (in 15 years of collecting it is one of my top 3 in packaging.....ever)