Nice show at the Cellar that’s showcases some of our best locals: pedal-steel country rock from the superlative Paperplanes, pop as sophisticated as it was around 1967 from Greater California, and then the Fling, who are the only band on the bill I haven’t given a feature to yet. But the time will come! Fling [...]

Codpiece live sweat, sweat light years

PHOTO by JEFF GOULD
After he graduated from CSULB, Casey Lombardo toppled into retail, recommending Steinbeck’s Travels With Charley to high school kids at Barnes & Noble—“I never saw them again—the little bastards!” he laughs. And after his system was necessarily pickled, he located two important friends and made two important [...]

Congratulations to Crystal Antlers on the lucky recovery of all their stuff two weeks ago, and thanks also to them for helping book this awesome line-up, which is yet another installment in Long Beach’s now-monthly Show(s) Of The Year.

Crystal Antlers find van, return donations

ILLUSTRATION by SHEA M. GAUER
Crystal Antlers bassist Jonny Bell answers his phone inside the same van that was almost lost forever—with the same select set of vintage equipment packed safely somewhere behind him. During the early morning of Friday, Feb. 8, just after Bell and the Antlers finished a set [...]

Nice rainy night in Long Beach: Paperplanes (whose Rhinestone Republic is one of my favorite local releases this year) and Fast Dragon (who re-equip Karp/Jehu heaviness for this heavier decade and who opened for John Reis’ Night Marchers two weeks back) plus Transfer and DJ Clamour (is that an actual ex-member of the band the [...]

Daniel de Boom recovers from a long night and reports from Saturday night at the Prospector and beyond:
I woke this Sunday morning to find my hands and wrists smeared with blotchy ink like stamps in a passport. The original destination Saturday night was the Prospector to see the Paperplanes unveil some new tunes from their [...]

Paperplanes waiting for a train

PHOTO by ZACK PIANKO
It got dark and I’d been waiting so I could most diligently listen to the new Paperplanes album, and so I took off Terry Allen’s Lubbock (On Everything), which contains some of the finest writing of any kind ever to come with an American credit, and I put [...]

Thanks to Micah of Paperplanes for copying their upcoming Rhinestone Republic album for me. I have been listening only to like Terry Allen/Jerry Jeff Walker/Guy Clark/Texas ’70s buddies for weeks now and Rhinestone fits in so well. Story is that though the Planes have been laying low for a while—and I will be detailing this [...]