Lead singer Richard Araiza's theatrical baritone and a healthy helping of bongos define the sound of Los Angeles indie surf-punk band The Buttertones, a staple of the Echo Park hipster scene. Israel's Arcade explores a similar sound, blending post-punk instrumentals with Strokes-like indie sleaze vocals.
Alternative indie group Practically People headline this local band roundup at the Valley Bar. Bands? Four. Cost? $15! An ideal HarperQuest.
LCD Soundsystem and Justice headline the McDowell Mountain Music Festival, with supporting acts including Alvvays, Slow Pulp, Confidence Man, Summer Salt, and Totally Enormous Extinct Dinosaurs.
Phoenix band Playboy Manbaby headline this indie punk roundup with their chaotic, absurdist garage rock, wearing satirical punk influences like The Dead Kennedys on their sleeves. Fellow ironists Dune Rats and Boy Wonder open the show.
Destroy Boys interpolate grunge, punk, and metal into a modern mélange of tough-girl rock and roll, with vocals reminiscent of bands like French Vanilla, Cherry Glazerr, and Cry Babe. Farmer's Wife similarly evokes predecessors like Nirvana and the Meat Puppets; Deux Visages is no less aggressive but occasionally reveals a softer, sweeter vocal delivery.
Los Angeles garage wunderkinds The Linda Lindas formed at a music camp for girls and hit it big quick, opening for Bikini Kill and recording a soundtrack for the film "Moxie" while still in their teens. I think they're still in their teens. Former high school prodigy garage band Be Your Own Pet reunites to open the show.
Legendary Tucsonan bluesman Bob Log III returns to the Crescent Ballroom, fueled by boob Scotch, visage concealed as ever by his trademark motorcycle helmet. One of the goofiest characters to ever play stripped-down garage-rock blues.
Spanish sweetie-pie indie-rock duo Hinds, despite a relatively thin discography, made a splash in the mid-2010s with their Euro-pop spin on indie rock; several albums later they're still going strong, forgoing complexity for a messy aesthetic that blends the energy of garage rock forebears like The Sonics with the Casiotone club instrumentation of an Ibiza discotheque.
Austinites Mamalarky perform indie rock with a decidedly chillwave influence; there's more than a hint of Steely Dan to be found here in the instrumentation underlying lead singer Livvy Bennett's fuzzed-out vocals.
Loud, brash, arguably tasteless Australian punk-rockers Amyl and the Sniffers bark and shred over four-on-the-floor drumbeats in classic garage band fashion, presided over by outrageous frontwoman Amy "Amyl" Taylor, guaranteed to put on an unforgettable live show. They're supported here by fellow female-fronted garage-revivalists Sheer Mag, who draw from 70s classic rock and early power pop, undergirding the powerful, throaty soprano vocals of lead singer Tina Halladay.
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I mean, come on, look how cool L.A. WITCH are. They've got a goth bassist, the drummer is possibly a mermaid, and the frontwoman is some variety of biker-warrior-princess; they're like the girlband Village People. Big sludgy chords and droning, dispassionate vocals characterize their sound, which draws from shoegaze, punk, and metal but is decidedly, consciously, Rock Music (whatever that means these days). Whatever it is, DAIISTAR are caught up in it too, playing female-fronted retro-rock-and-roll, with a backing band of hip moustaches.