ShoutNote

Last time I went to the Make Music Pasadena Festival was in 2008 to see L.A. faves Dengue Fever. I trekked back to the event this year to see another amazing local act called Warpaint. There are many others who accurately describe the band’s sound, so I will refrain from doing so in detail here, but I will say that Warpaint manages to capture an authentic Southern California sound, but not by trying to blow life into the corpse of west coast alt metal or raw-veggie-eating folk rock. And that last sentence may make little sense until you check out their recent EP, ironically titled Exquisite Corpse (don’t let the Emo name fool you). In the video below, I was regrettably a little too close to the speakers to capture distortion-free sound (there’s much to be desired from my camera’s auto gain control — you hear me Panasonic?), but I caught great interviews with all members of the band, asking them about their recent experience playing in Europe and how they would change the indie music scene.

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Costa Mesa band The New Limb played an outdoor set on June 11 as part of the monthly Friday Night Sessions in Downtown L.A. The free event features indie bands on the second Friday of each month. Catchy, unique songs make up most of New Limb’s current slate. Oddly, the group played a couple of cover tunes also,  which I’ve viewed as necessary only when a band’s current songs blow, and that’s really not the case with these guys (and one girl). The video below features clips from a cool tune called “Ebb and Flow.” There’s a short interview with lead singer Joey Chavez also, where he makes a valid point about the potential pitfalls of indie music.

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