Greetings from sunny California! It’s my last day here and I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t sad about it. I suppose the good news is, I’m flying back to Chicago and will be sweating my ass off with thousands of other music-obsessed writers and fans at Lollapalooza all weekend long. If you’ll be there – let me know and we can have a mini AfterEllen meet-up. For those of you who can’t make it but want to catch some of the live action – the festival will be live-streaming footage via their YouTube page. You’ll actually probably have the best seat in the house and you’ll have the added bonus of not needing to use a porto-potty as a bathroom. Enough about toilets, let’s get to the music shall we? There aren’t a ton of new releases but I’ve got some other goodies for you:
It’s been six years since Memphis punk rockers River City Tanlines have put out an album of their own and album opener, “I Don’t Get It” is a fantastic welcome back to this bitchin’ guitar-heavy album filled with ass kicking along the same lines as some of the great rockers of the 70’s and 80’s. There have been plenty of groups to come up since that time but very few have embraced the kind of minimalist hard rock frontwoman Alicja Trout and her dudes are putting out here. Each song brings with it a new piece of greatness to the table – making Coast to Coast a really exciting album to listen to – even on some of the slower tunes. They’ve made a new fan in me and you can check out the full stream over at Spinner.
Music Extras: You may recognize Somer as being the (seemingly) only rational member of Hunter Valentine on The Real L Word this season – but did you know she has another completely kick ass band called, Clinical Trials? Check out this freaking sweet video packed with seriously tasty bass lines:
Check out this cover of Serge Gainsbourg’s “Bonnie and Clyde” by Scarlett Johansson and Lulu Gainsbourg. Tres chic.
How about some sweet remixes of M.I.A.’s “Bad Girls” featuring Missy Elliott.
Need some dark alt-country to get you through the rest of the day? Check out the first single released from Pony Boy:
If Daria meets Disney cover art excites you head over to Pitchfork to read their interview with illustrator, Christina Lu, who came up with some really great cover art for Azealia Banks.
That’s all for today but I’ll be back with highlights, low lights, interviews and more from Lolla next week. If you want to keep track of what’s happening, find me on Twitter, Facebook or drop me an email.
