Sorry I haven’t been posting much lately… I’ve been swamped with finals, but it all ends on tuesday! I fly back to LA on wednesday, and I’ll be there untill the 10th! Can’t wait to see all my beautifull friends back home =] I’m deffinately gonna be doing a lot of shoots, so expect to see some new photos up soon. If you wan’t to schedule a shoot, email me at radiantjungle@gmail.com, but act soon cause my calender is pretty full!

ok. Back to studying.

Local Natives

Hailing from LA, Local Natives is quickly becoming one of my favorite albums of ‘09. Sun hands, off the album, is definitely one of many solid jams from LN. It’s an amazing rythmic build up of solid slightly toughened guitars, that lead to a harmonic bridge of solid excited vocals.  Check out these songs off their album Gorilla Manor.

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LA Local Natives Sun hands best of 09

Show RVW: Japandroids/Surfer Blood @ The Echo in LA

SHOW RVW by Casey Kell

A year ago Japandroids were like any other noise band, drunk and playing in half-empty dive bars. 2009 has been kind to the duo, and thanks to the blog-generated hype, they have climbed well out of obscurity. They headlined the bill Friday night at the Echo in Los Angeles with Florida born buzz-band Surfer Blood.

Most people come to shows at the Echo expecting to tolerate the opening bands and start to get hyped for the headliner, but Surfer Blood. won over the crowd quickly with their catchy jams and boyish charm. They immediately give you the feeling that “this band is going to be big someday.” The vocals sounded kind of lo-fi and hazy while the guitars are kind of reverb drenched and foregrounded. The Major/minor chord changes have that friendly digestible feel that make you leave humming melodies. By the time they were finished the crowd had forgotten who they came to see and the awkward “So are you guys ready for Japandroids?” shout out was confusing. John Paul Pitts, Surfer Blood frontman, then leaves the stage with a final goodbye saying, “You should stick around for Japandroids cuz these fools are tiiight,” accompanied by a finger-snap straight out of Da Ali-G Show.

After a few minutes of too loud dance-party indie remixes Japandroids wanders onstage to the highly distinguishable guitar tone of Brian King. He then told us that this was the band’s second time in LA and he knows that LA crowds tend to be a bit too reserved to get rowdy but that this show is going to be the right time to forget about that. They open with a kind of sloppy version of “The Boys Are Leaving Town” as King complains that the vocals are too low and so are the drums about which he is right. Then about halfway through “Rockers East Vancouver” everything starts to come together and the crowd notices. People start nodding their heads which turns into a bit of hopping up and down which finally resolves in an awesome mess of pushing and shoving. As the set rolls on through their limited arsenal the band plays a couple of songs that they claim will be on an upcoming 7” and the crowd never slows their moshfest. After about 45 minutes of extended versions of the Post-Nothing (buy it here) favorites the sound man signals that they only have about 15 minutes left. So Japandroids seem to consciously decide to bring the sets highlight, “Heart Sweats” with a one chord verse and a refrain that consists of the duo plus 150 fans screaming “XOXOX”; it was garage rock at its most primal. Overall a great way to spend a friday night in Los Angeles. (especially for 8 bucks;))

japandroids surfer blood LA The Echo Show RVW

Surfer Blood

Florida based lo-fi/summer-rock-quartet Surfer Blood, produces toe tapping jams perfect for a pool party in the sun. Even with the winter months around the corner, their latest album Astrocoast, is the perfect blend of spacey vocals, catchy guitar riffs, and simple-yet-solid drum beats. I think my favorite so far is deff Slow Jambroni

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You can download the Full Album here

Astrocoast [MF]  (via backspacetotroubadour.blogspot.com)

Surfer Blood lo-fi astrocoast mp3

Concert Review: Real Estate @ The Hi-Dive in Denver

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Concert Review: Real Estate @ The Hi-Dive in Denver
w/ M.Pyres & The Skygaze Family Band, and The Woodsman

Although Real Estate may be the definition of newcomers in the independent music world, they proved that their previous years of playing Weezer and Strokes covers in high school were not lost on anything. Real Estate blew the small crowd away, rendering their music with the perfect balance of hazy reverb and poppy jams. The crowd was lost in the music, reminiscing on high school summers, beach trips, and perhaps some basement experimentation. A high point in the set occurred when the Jersey boys played their Green River track straight into the beautifully repetitive jam, Suburban Beverage. The only hint of winter on this night came about when bassist Alex Bleeker stated shyly that today was the first day of winter for them. The band maintained a calm, laid back, almost goofy manner on stage but after finishing their set, made their way around the room conversing with the crowd, and taking congratulations. They seemed stoked to be in Denver, even on a night so frightfully cold.

By. Andy B

Click ‘read more’ to read the full review!!

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Real estate denver lo-fi pitchfork