((Features)) - Oh My Rockness

((JUST ANNOUNCED)) New Order, Lykke Li, Pixies, Cat Power, DIIV, Mac DeMarco, Parquet Courts + more!

((STOP THE VAN)) We talk tacos, ultimate frisbee & LA 'hoods w/ REAL ESTATE'S Alex Bleeker. (3/11 @ Fonda)

((SXSW 2014)) 14 BANDS YOU SHOULD SEE AT SXSW 2014 >>

((WIN TICKETS)) REAL ESTATE @ The Fonda Theatre on 3/11! Plus, a signed copy of "Atlas," too!

((WIN TICKETS)) 3/25 THE NATIONAL @ Shrine Auditorium >>

Random Rockness

Just Announced Concerts in LA: New Order, Lykke Li, Pixies, Cat Power, DIIV, Mac DeMarco, Parquet Courts, Deafheaven, Liars, tUnE-YaRdS and more!

March 07, 2014

SELECT SHOWS ADDED TO THE SITE THIS WEEK

3/21 Tashaki Miyaki, Joel Jerome, LA Witch @ The Church on York
3/22 Radars to the Sky, The Californian, The World Record @ El Cid
3/28 SK Kakrabra, Sun Araw, Awesome Tapes From Africa, Frosty @ Center For The Arts, Eagle Rock
3/28 Shigeto, Seiho, Spazzkid, Magical Mistakes, EASTGHOST, Vice Versa @ King King
3/28 Mirror Talk @ Space 15 Twenty
3/30 Terry Malts, Death Hymn #9, Heller Keller, Girl Tears @ The Echo
3/30 Wax Idols, Some Ember, Daydream Machine, Readership Hostile @ The Echo
3/31 Francis and the Lights @ Troubadour
4/02 Lo-Fang @ Troubadour
4/10 Big Freedia @ The Echo
4/12 Obliterations, Public Confession, Fissure @ The Church on York
4/14 Bear Hands @ The Observatory
4/15 Chrome Sparks @ Bootleg
4/17 inc. @ The Church on York
4/20 WL (mems of Blouse), Colleen Green, Darklands (mems of Spirit Vine) @ The Echo
4/22 Deleted Scenes @ The Church on York
4/23 Tom Brosseau, Max Jury @ Bootleg
4/23 Xiu Xiu, TEARIST @ The Church on York
4/25 Deafheaven, Earth, Marriages @ El Rey Theatre
4/29 DIIV @ Center For The Arts, Eagle Rock
4/30 Rasputina @ The Roxy
5/02 Galantis @ El Rey Theatre
5/05 tUnE-YaRds @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
5/06 Hamilton Leithauser @ El Rey Theatre
5/08 La Sera @ The Echo
5/08 David Byrne, Alexis Taylor, Pat Mahoney, Kele Okereke, The Lijadu Sisters, Money Mark, Sinkane, Wooden Wisdom (Elijah Wood & Zach Cowie) @ The Greek Theatre
5/08 Yuna @ Troubadour
5/10 Riff Raff @ The Observatory
5/12 In The Valley Below @ The Echo
5/14 Broods, Strange Talk @ The Echo
5/15 The Haxan Cloak, Pharmakon @ The Church on York
5/15 Broods @ The Observatory
5/16 Juan Wauters (of The Beets) @ The Echo
5/17 GOASTT (Ghost of a Sabre Tooth Tiger) @ El Rey Theatre
5/19 Lykke Li @ The Theatre at Ace
5/23 Howlin' Rain, Buffalo Killers @ The Echo
5/23 Gesaffelstein @ The Fonda Theatre
5/24 Jandek @ The Church on York
5/25 Propagandhi @ The Observatory
5/26 In The Valley Below @ The Echo
5/27 Liars @ The Fonda Theatre
5/28 Parquet Courts @ The Roxy
5/30 Priscilla Ahn @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
5/30 Rodriguez @ The Greek Theatre
5/30 Eagulls @ The Satellite
5/31 Priscilla Ahn @ The Observatory
6/04 Margot and The Nuclear So & So's, Jake Bellows, Kate Myers @ Bootleg
6/07 Margot and The Nuclear So & So's @ The Observatory
6/07 The Faint @ The Roxy
6/07 Uh Huh Her @ Troubadour
6/14 Dawn of Midi @ Bootleg
6/16 Bernhoft @ Troubadour
6/18 Chad Van Gaalen, Cousins @ The Echo
6/21 Southern Culture on the Skids @ The Echo
6/30 Southern Culture on the Skids @ The Observatory
7/11 Mac DeMarco, Calvin Love @ The Fonda Theatre
7/13 New Order, La Roux @ The Greek Theatre
7/24 The Neighbourhood @ The Greek Theatre
8/17 Counting Crows, Toad the Wet Sprocket @ The Greek Theatre
8/26 Panic! at the Disco, Walk The Moon, Youngblood Hawke @ The Greek Theatre
9/28 Pixies, Gogol Bordello, Cat Power @ Hollywood Bowl
10/04 Crosby, Stills and Nash @ The Greek Theatre
10/30 The Airborne Toxic Event @ The Greek Theatre
11/01 Tedeschi Trucks Band, Gary Clark Jr. @ The Greek Theatre
11/22 Peter Hook & The Light @ The Fonda Theatre
AND MORE...

VIEW ALL JUST ANNOUNCED SHOWS HERE >>

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We Present: This is a Good Song ----> Life Size Maps ----> This Same House

March 05, 2014

This is a good song.

Random Rockness

Real Estate Gets Real: Alex Bleeker talks tacos, ultimate frisbee and LA 'hoods.

March 04, 2014

In anticipation of Real Estate's upcoming show at The Fonda Theatre on Tuesday, March 11, Patrick and Real Estate's Alex Bleeker swapped emails to talk about the band's favorite things to do and places to go while in LA on tour.

We're also giving away a few pairs of tickets to the show on Tuesday! Winners will also receive signed copies of the band's dreamy new album, Atlas.

P: Hello, Real Estate. This is Patrick from Oh My Rockness. Thank you for taking the time to do our first ever interview by email (or by any other means) on the site. When you're on tour in LA - where is your favorite place to eat tacos? If you don't like tacos, please explain your curious position and cite sources. You may also discuss burritos if you wish.

A: Man, this is a tough one. I like a lot of spots. My favorite Mexican food in LA is Tacos Villa Corona, the breakfast burrito spot. Tacos Delta is kind of our original place. I used to drop the van at the jiffy lube and eat while I waited for the oil to be changed. There's a lot of love for Taco Zone in the parking lot of VONS, that truck in front of the Walgreens on sunset, El Atacor #11 for potato tacos, and Huraches in Highland Park. I like tacos a lot.

P: When I'm in LA I like to go on hikes sometimes. Do you ever do that? If so, where? If not, what alternate activity do you engage in to blow off steam and consider the beauty and vastness of the earth?

A: I've never hiked in LA but I've heard about all of those weird stairways to nowhere.... the remains of the infamous LA public transit system. I run on tour now, so I've done that a few times in LA. One time a few of us drove out to Anaheim to catch an Angels game.

P: What's your favorite place(s) to unwind with a cold beverage that's not the venue in which you just played?

A: Definitely Rob Barbato's house. I don't go to many bars in LA, seems like people just hang at each other's houses. If you don't know who Rob Barbato is, you should.

P: Have any of you guys ever played disc golf? Did you know the country's very first disc golf course is near Pasadena? It's called Oak Grove. And it's the best. You should play it. And I should mind my own business.

A: I never got into disc golf but back at Ridgewood High School in Ridgewood, NJ, I was on the ultimate frisbee team, the ultimate warriors.

P: Finally. You have to move to LA. I don't know why. You just have to. Which neighborhood do you pick to live in and why? Money is no object. Happiness is.

A: Matt just moved out there and he lives in Highland Park so I guess that answers that question pretty firmly. I like that neighborhood a lot but I still romanticize places like Topanga Canyon and other off-the-beaten-path hippie neighborhoods.

P: Thank you, Real Estate. I really like your new songs. They make me feel better about things.

Recommended Show

Pup: loud melodic punk goodness straight outta Toronto.

March 03, 2014

Written by Patrick McNamara

YES. More loud music made by Toronto punker rockers. Man...what is it with that town these days, anyway? Why do they get all the good loud punker rockers? Save some for 99.99999% of the rest of HUMANITY, man. I mean...METZ...Greys...The Soupcans...Odonis Odonis...and that’s just naming the bands I’ve recently profiled. (Granted, naming four other bands doesn’t make it seem like Toronto is the center of the punker rocker universe...but I’m sure there are others...I just don’t know them….yet. But give me time, dear Rockness reader. Give me time.)

These four guys are more than just loud punker rockers. I’m not trying to pigeon anybody’s holes here. In fact, maybe they’re not even punker rockers. Maybe this is just straight pop (shouted not sung) that rides the crest of a thrash-y, clamorous wave. Sure, there may be high decibels involved but these high decibels are accessible, man. (Wait. Did that “wave” nonsense from before make it sound like these guys have some of that “surf” sound in them too? Because they definitely don’t have that thing going on. PUP will not make you think Brian Wilson or Phil Spector. At all.)

So who will PUP make you think of? (that solid segue assumes you know how to read parentheses). Well, I’d rather let them tell you that. “Built to Spill, Weezer, The Bronx, Queens of the Stone Age, Hot Snakes…” and then they go on to list some more influences. This is all from their Facebook “About” page, btw. Because this is hard hitting music journalism. This is a music blob. This is serious. This is real life.

In closing, if you like your bands to be good - you will like PUP. Now I’m going to chill out, maybe take a shower, (I’m not dirty I just deserve the pleasant break), and then wait for another good loud punker rocker Toronto band to fall in my lap and further support my theory that that city is totally not fair to the rest humanity. Some provinces get all the luck.

&lt;a href="http://puptheband.bandcamp.com/album/pup"&gt;PUP by PUP&lt;/a&gt;

Band We Like

Hop Along: dramatic emo pop for alts and punks and those who love them.

March 03, 2014

Written by Patrick McNamara

Hop Along are a good band from Philadelphia. They make punk pop that’s not pop punk. It’s epic and cathartic and tortured and just a really good goddamn listen. So listen to them, will ya? But not yet. I’ve still got a few more words to say to you about Hop Along. So take your coat off and settle in for a second.

This trio is a lady (that’s Frances Quinlan on vocals and guitar!) and two gentlemen (over there is Tyler Long on bass! and that’s Mark Quinlan on drums! and yep they are siblings! Frances and Mark, that is! Not Mark and Tyler! reign it in now! things are getting confusing!) and they make songs about trouble and lament and Tibetan pop stars. At least that’s what the titles to some of their songs suggest off their excellent album, “Get Disowned.” I don’t really do that whole “listen to the singer” and then “critically interpret” the “words” they are “saying.” I just write down pieces of song titles and pretend it's original analysis. Just kidding! I know exactly what that album is about. It's about love, man.

Now, I don’t like to use the word “awesome” unless I really mean it (i almost always reserve the term for sunsets and chicken pad thai). But I have to tell you something right quick. Frances Quinlan’s voice is AWESOME. (and I hardly EVER make use of the CAPS LOCK so you know things just got Triple Dog Dare). Her vocals sound perfectly pleasant sometimes. That's where the pop comes in. And at other times, she sings like pitch perfect sandpaper. That’s where the punk comes in. It's too good.

(Mark Quinlan and Tyler Long are very nice players too. I got you, Mark and Tyler. I got you.)

I’m going to do something really kind, dear Rockness reader. I’m going to find Hop Along’s album somewhere on the internet and then I’m going post it here for you. Hold on.

OK. Back. Whew. I saw some things on the tubes, man. Here’s the album. Listen to it right..... NOW.

(gosh I’m so happy you’ll be so happy soon!)

Random Rockness

Just Announced Shows in LA: Sharon Van Etten, The Pains of Being Pure At Heart, Neil Young, First Aid Kit, Die Antwoord, EELS, The Faint and more!

February 28, 2014