Category Archives: rando

Where to Find Me

HERE. News, features, interviews, news, reviews, and news. [via SPIN]

Watch: Liza Oppenheimer Channels ‘Midnight Cowboy’ in Music Video for ‘Los Angeles’

We here at Aural Standards are particularly partial to songs about our city, and “Los Angeles” by friend-of-the-blog Liza Oppenheimer is a new fave. We’ve also got a certain affinity for all (er, most) things Dustin Hoffman, so upon learning that the Dee Robertson-directed video for this folksy jangler would pay a little tribute to Midnight Cowboy, well, we were elated. Check out the clip below, and then learn a little more from Liza after the jump.

Continue reading

BTP: Full Time with SPIN, Senior Writer, Los Angeles, Pow Pow Pow [Big Thangz Poppin']

Alright, enough with the third person. I am very proud to share that after nearly three years of freelancing for the very publication that inspired me to scribble about music in the first place, I am going full-time with SPIN starting now with the title Senior Writer. (Unofficially, you might also refer to me as West Coast Dude.) So that means fewer updates here, but it also means virtually all of my work will be appearing in one place anyway, so who needs a blog? Read SPIN. Gonna be a lot of news stories, some shared songs and videos, and a great deal of old school reportage, so keep up over there as we kick off a new chapter of web dominance. Match me, Sidney! So begins my year(s) of living dangerously.

Continue reading

Riff Raff is Overcome with Ennui

Poor Riff Raff. (Video’s not new by any means, but we can’t get enough.)

The Best Rock Clubs in Los Angeles

Wrote about our favorite place to eat vegan brunch while thrashing to some new noise. Where? Why, The Smell, of course (pictured above on the cover of No Age’s Weirdo Rippers). Read about venue and others over at LA Weekly.

Gone Festivalling: Coachella 2012

Coachella Weekend One begins TODAY! Aural Standards will be silent through the big hoopla, but I’ll be reporting on all that glorious madness over at SPIN.

Review: Is Gonjasufi the Lee Perry of Indie Rap?

Get weird for the weekend. Pairs well with most psychotropics. Also pairs well with a trip to the tropics, whilst tripping on … you get it. Review at the A.V. Club.

Get It: Rising L.A. Rapper Jonwayne Drops ‘This is False’ Mixtape Full of Blunted Beats, Biggie Styles

Click the photo to get acquainted with your new favorite rapper, Jonwayne. He’s an ace beatsmith too, having dropped the fantastic Bowser beat tape last year on Alpha Pup (check out the titular banger below). 2012 LP on Stones Throw.

Baste Yr Turkey to This (#bastegod #thanksgiving)

Endless love to all friends of Phil Elverum. Happy Thanksgiving.

Beauty With Teeth: Superhumanoids

The ever-sharp Nitsuh Abebe recently made the argument in his Why We Fight column that beauty in music, often maligned as the hallmark of generic appeal, needn’t be linked to dullness every time. In a world where Kurt Vile and Cass McCombs exist, it’s a point that’s hard to deny. Not that I’d want to. I’ll happily chase your No Ages, Wavvess and Fidlars through the garages, basements and vegan outposts of Los Angeles till the day I die, but I’ll never stop swooning to the pretty stuff, and there’s a lot of it going around locally these days.

Expect future posts on folks like Luke Rathborne and House of Wolves, over whom Jeff Buckley’s ghost looms large and glorious, but for now, I just wanna give love to Superhumanoids, who are currently recording their LP debut to be released next year. That’s their recent EP, Parasite Paradise (Hit City U.S.A.), streaming below, but do yrself a favor and hit the jump to watch their videos, which are also rare and pretty and sometimes a little strange. Toothy beauty.

Continue reading