Hip To Be Square

I haven't been really paying too much attention to the L.A. scene that much. But I went and caught Two Gallants last night at the Middle East, who are from San Francisco. The opening band, Cold War Kids, is from just outside La La Land. The only other band I've really listened to recently from this area is Giant Drag. But I can tell you this, I have not only found my favorite band coming out of SoCal, but I have also found one of my favorite new bands, PERIOD.

The performance last night blew me away. Their energy on stage together really gets projected out to the crowd. Can't wait to catch them again on June 5th at the Tapes N' Tapes show at the Middle East downstairs. Who, by the way, just signed with XL Records and now get to hang with the beautiful M.I.A. and the whitty White Stripes along with other great acts.

Go give CWK a listen at their myspace page. Also, I will be reviewing their two EP's hopefully in the next few days. Of course I said I would review Ghostface and Dopo Yume about 2 weeks ago, but hey, nobodies perfect. Besides, there's really nothing I can say about FishScale that hasn't been said already.

I would, however, like to point out that the man has not only developed one of the best hip hop albums that we have scene in a long time, but he has also mastered the infamous "Skit". I say infamous because personally, I always use to skip skits. But on this album, they work perfectly. Especially when Ghost argues with what sounds like a 6 year old in the "Bad Mouth Kid" skit and then it flows right in to "Whip You With A Strap". Pure genius.

Buy FishScale, here
Buy Tapes N' Tapes debut album, Loon, here
Buy Two Gallants album, What the Toll Tells, here
Purchase two Cold War Kids EP's, here