Anyone who has regularly listened to these Nights At The Roundtable posts knows I spend an inordinate amount of time digging through MySpace pages in search of bands from Bulgaria, Spain, Chile, Argentina and everywhere else. But not a whole lot of time checking out local talent; bands within my own area code or even my own neighborhood.
Okay, I will freely admit I'm a hypocrite and feel a little foolish when I realize there is a lot of really interesting, engaging material within shouting distance of my window.
So I am hoping to rectify that situation this week by giving a heads up to some of the bands I recently ran across and whose work I really enjoy.
The Lynx Technique is a band (a duo actually - April Latragna, and Grace Umali with friends doing guest shots) from Echo Park (East Hollywood if the name doesn't ring a bell) that have been together in various forms since 2005. They have one ep out (available through iTunes ) another ep on the way and I think an album in the works. It's all being released through their own label United Notes and they've been gigging locally the past few years, building up a pretty good word of mouth.
Tonight's track, Photos In A Box is one of their newer pieces and it's a nice jumping off place to the band with a wonderful juxtaposition of strings and keyboards. What attracted me to their music initially was the instrumentation - one the one hand conventional (drums and guitar, can't get around it) but on the other hand going for a dose of eclectic by adding cello added a nice dimension and interesting structure to the song. Coupled with an ethereal weave of vocals I found myself giving it repeat listenings. Don't know about you, but I'm always a big fan of songs that go someplace, rather than sit in one spot for any amount of time - and I enjoyed their bouncing back and forth of musical moods. My sense is the production needs some ironing out but with a lot of bands in it for the long haul, it's a state of constant evolution and their basic structure is solid and interesting enough to want to hear what else they're up to.
As always, check out their MySpace page and give them some support if you can. I don't know what their current gig status is, but I imagine they may be hitting the road at some point. Catch them live if you can - especially if you're in L.A. - supporting local talent and all . . .gotta do what we can.
