El May’s new record The Other Person Is You comes out at the end of August, and “Thrills” (listen below) is one of the songs on it:
Catch El May open for The Rosebuds on Friday, August 29th at The Satellite.
+Full list of tour dates
Tag: the satellite
The Record Company headlined a sold out show at The Satellite on Friday April 4th, celebrating the release of their new vinyl EP Feels So Good.
The EP contains unreleased B-sides (which played over the Satellite’s speakers before The Record Company took the stage).
The roots/rock/blues trio consists of Chris on vocals/guitars/harmonica, Alex on bass/vocals, and Marc on drums/vocals.
The show started with Chris singing an a cappella intro before launching into the set. “On The Move” came early and sounded similar to the album version with its slightly distorted vocals.
I thought the best part of the show was the third song — the bassist played both bass guitar and harmonica on “Baby I’m Broken.”
The Record Company went on to play a bunch of songs acoustically (even with an acoustic bass), like “Hard Day Coming Down.” Sonically the songs were a throwback to the early rock and roll and blues of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
For “Don’t Let Me Get Lonely” there was lots of dancing in the audience, and The Record Company ended their show by bringing opening band The Janks up on stage for a cover of “Will The Circle Be Unbroken,” an old hymn.
Website: The Record Company
Ume (ooh-may) performed at The Satellite in LA on Friday April 4th to support their new record Monuments (Dangerbird Records, the follow-up to 2011’s Phantoms).
Playing a cool green Fender guitar (before switching to a darker green one for the second song), Lauren kicked off Ume’s set and powered through, song after song, with almost no talk in between.
Ume played a mix of harder, almost screamo-influenced songs and softer songs, which reminded me of No Doubt circa Return Of Saturn. I definitely preferred the softer songs, like “Too Big World” and “Barophobia.”
The new song “Barophobia” was, in fact, the highlight of the Austin-based band’s show. Placing it in the middle of their set, Ume changed “Barophobia” up from the album version, distinguishing the choruses from the verses more by emphasizing distortion on the chorus.
Unfortunately the Satellite’s sound that night wasn’t the best — the bass was way too loud and made the vocals hard to hear. A bigger space and stage would fit better with Ume’s expansive sound — it felt a little constrained and loud in a room the size of the Satellite.
There were also videographers filming the concert, so keep an eye out for that footage to surface.
I’m so glad I saw UK-based band The Melodic last night (Tuesday 1.28.2014) at the Satellite.
I didn’t know much about The Melodic (except that they’re from the UK), but I thought I’d catch their set because of the headliner Johnny Flynn (who co-stars with Anne Hathaway in the upcoming movie Song One, scored and composed by Jenny Lewis & Johnathan Rice).
First off, I’ve never seen The Satellite so crowded — the show was sold out, and it was completely packed.
I was very pleasantly surprised with The Melodic — their music was relaxing and gentle, yet still upbeat and interesting. It can be tough to straddle the line between mellow and boring, and they weren’t boring at all.
The band’s 5 members kicked off their brand of indie-folk with “Hold On.” The drummer used brushes a lot, and the tiny tambourine he had on top of his hi-hat really made a big difference and contributed to their sound.
Highlights were “On My Way,” featuring a nice trade off between male and female vocals, and “Come Outside,” with Johnny Flynn playing the fiddle part.
The penultimate song of The Melodic’s set was a really nice cover (I didn’t catch who wrote the original) — stripped back acoustic with just the female singer on vocals.
For more on The Melodic, visit their website + their Facebook