NUDGE @ Echoplex

Posted by damara - filed in events

Stars Of The Lid

Kranky Records has often made subtle reiteration and variation an art form via the careful, restrained, frequently ambient drones of the likes of Keith Fullerton Whitman, Growing, and Tim Hecker, but some of the finest work in their catalogue is arguably that of Stars of the Lid, the long-running project of Brian McBride and Adam Wiltzie (formerly of Austin, Texas, currently relocated to Los Angeles, California, and Brussels, Belgium). The duo’s earlier work focused on manipulated guitar and field recordings, creating deep, often sparely-inhabited soundscapes, but by 2001’s sprawling two-hour The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid they’d moved on to glacially evolving orchestral arrangements incorporating other musicians and live horns and strings. The shift was accompanied by an increasing focus on melody, albeit on melody as an exercise in restraint, muted and melancholic, for a resulting album drifting out of pure drone and into to a sort of deeply textured classical minimalism. Finally, six years of slow intercontinental collaboration later, continued exploration into the latent melodic potential of their work has yielded McBride and Wiltzie’s masterpiece, And Their Refinement of the Decline. This expansive symphony, refined, decisive, and beautifully-realized, is a unique work, an impressive work, and ultimately, an important work. – Popmatters

with:
Christopher Willits || Listen
Nudge

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

8pm / $13adv, $15dos / all ages

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Monday 04.14.08: Monday Night Residency – RADARS TO THE SKY / THE TRANSMISSIONS / THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE / DEATH TO ANDERS @ echo

Posted by damara - filed in events

Radars to The Sky

Radars To The Sky

As scores of aspiring bands around Los Angeles find, life can get in the way of music. Take a year in the life of Radars to the Sky frontman Andrew Spitser: “You graduate from law school, you take the bar exam, you get a job, you’re having a baby, and you think, ‘When the hell am I going to get this done?’ ” he says of his quintet’s “Big Bang” EP, its second release of 2007.

The singer-guitarist and his bandmates — guitarist Seamus Simpson, bassist Martin Avelar, drummer Kenny Kupers and singer-keyboardist Kate Post Spitser, his wife — got it done, all right, five intense volleys of indie rock with arcs back to a time when indie rock was less self-conscious. It’s no surprise that Spitser’s heroes are Built to Spill; the gnarly interplay between guitarists and the time signatures might bring Pavement or Sebadoh to mind. Even allowing for its self-production, “Big Bang” can be big and bold (and tender, when Kate Spitser’s vocals enter the mix), rock whose working-class trappings disguise an essayist’s soul. – LA Times

with:
The Transmissions || Listen
The Henry Clay People || Listen
Death To Anders || Listen

Presented by KROQ & Metromix

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

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