Still buzzing from some recent cultural highs — Keith Jarrett’s Standards Trio at UCLA Royce Hall, the Glass/Wilson Einstein on the Beach at Los Angeles Opera — we’re looking forward to a smaller but no less welcome event in town this week. That’s LA’s own Radar Bros — who we’ve written about several times — with Overseas, the new collaboration between Matt Kadane (Bedhead, The New Year) with Daniel Bazan of Pedro the Lion. They’ll be at the Satellite on Wednesday.
The Radar Bros, on Merge Records, are well known to Angeleno indie fans, tho still probably not celebrated enough. With roots in the ’90s “slowcore” scene that’s also included Spain and Acetone, they’ve become tougher and a bit harder. (The joke used to be that they were the only band in history that played slower when they performed live.)
Here’s a video from a song on their latest album, Eight.
Overseas is making its first trip to the West Coast, with a self-titled recording.
The Kadanes (Matt and his bro Bubba, proud Texans) are on a very small lists of musicians: We (I think) everything they’re recorded. The new band extends their old work — Bedhead and The New Year had the mix of aching melody and mellow instrumental chaos that makes the best indie rock. They appeal to the side of us that wish The Feelies or Luna had made a dozen more albums apiece.
Here’s a video for one of their new songs:
We’d love to tell you more about how much we love these groups, though since we’re completing Creative Destruction, a book about the evisceration of the creative class, we must keep moving.
Hope to see you at Spaceland, er, the Satellite. Both bands are in San Diego on Thursday.