Haim offers Forever EP free.

This trio of sisters spins out serious pop (not pop-inflected goth or whatever) with the kind of easy, a capella style harmonies that come easy to siblings. I like to picture Este, Danielle, and Alana Haim, all in their early 20s, singing along to Hanson in their parents’ car together as kids. Then, like, they grew up and moved to L.A. and started making music that references ’80s pop curios like Kate Bush and Stevie Nicks. I don’t actually know their real story — I’ll have to investigate this further. For now, I can’t stop listening to their three-song EP, particularly the dancey “Forever.” Get it free here.

 

White Arrows – “Fireworks of the Sea” 

White Arrows have been making it happen for a while now with superb live shows and a handful of released recordings hinting at the cool things they’d be doing down the line — I once called them “Paul Simon in space,” and I can’t really think of anything better than that at the moment to describe their sound, so we’ll just go with that. Their new song, “Fireworks of the Sea,” certainly fits that mold, with swirling synths intimating some digital acid trip over Mickey Schiff’s snaking vocal. Their debut EP hits April 3 from Votiv Music. They’ll be at the Roxy March 27. Listen over at Spin. 

Our latest episode of What's In My Bag? features experimental, electronic goth artist Zola Jesus. Her most recent album, Conatus (Sacred Bones), has been on many Amoebites' year end Best Of and Music We Like lists.

Sharing her influences and interests, she picks up music from experimental electronic pioneer Daphne Oram, minimalist modern classical from Luigi Nono, and music from Hermann Nitsch's "Aktions," among other things (like a Gene Simmons KISS doll - wait for it after the credits roll).

If you want more Zola Jesus, she's performing in Los Angeles at the Natural History Museum on Friday, March 2 as part of their First Fridays series, along with another "What's In My Bag?" alum, EMA. That will be one hell of a powerful show! Advanced tickets are already sold out, but you should still be able to line up on the day of the event when they release a few more tickets.

Once a month, Los Angeles's Natural History Museum stays open late and features live music, exciting scientific discussion, and behind-the-scenes curatorial tours as part of the First Fridays program. Amoeba is excited to sponsor this fabulous series of live music, discussion, concessions, tours, DJs, and more.

Join us on March 2nd from 5-10pm for a live performance from Zola Jesus and EMA, KCRW DJs Anthony Valadez and Chuck P, and guest lectures from Dr. Mike Brown ("Why Pluto Had to Die") and Doug Pearlstein ("The Evolving Universe").

Find out more HERE!

Watch Zola Jesus live from Amoeba Hollywood:

EMA - California (Official Video) from Souterrain Transmissions on Vimeo.

Youtube asked us to create a playlist of our favorite music of 2011. That's a pretty big task given how much music we all loved this year. We tried to keep it as close to 20 videos as we could (but we ended up with the random number of 22 faves). Check out our little intro video and then dive into our playlist...




Zola Jesus
Conatus
Sacred Bones

Conatus continued Zola Jesus' evolution to full-fledged goth pop star, with dance beats and hooks underpinning her freaky awesome voice.



Tinariwen
Tassili
Anti- / Epitaph

Malian Touareg band Tinariwen are joined by Kyp and Tunde from TV on the Radio on this beautiful single.





Girls
Father Son Holy Ghost
True Panther Sounds

One of my favorite bands of the past few years has to be Wild Beasts. Captivatingly beautiful yet harrowingly strange, there just aren’t many bands around like Wild Beasts. If you haven’t heard them, think Talk Talk/Talking Heads style percussive yet atmospheric rock with the theatrical falsetto of singer Hayden Thorpe and intoning howl of bassist Tom Fleming booming and flooding over everything.
 
Their earliest stuff had a freewheeling quality that made it seem like they were daring you to turn it off or keep listening to find out where they’d go next. First single “Brave Bulging Buyoyant Clairvoyants” from Limbo, Panto starts as this bouncy guitar jam until you hear the weirdest voice ever, like razors on chalkboard — that would be Thorpe’s dandified growl. That song used to be like a litmus test for me to see how much people would be willing to hear something that kind of smacks you around a bit and can’t sit nicely in the background.


“We were kind of small town boys really,” Fleming says of their early days. “It’s a bit of naiveté. We just thought people would get it.”

Things changed for 2009’s Two Dancers, which saw the band rein in the ruckus and focus on grooves and tunefulness. People took notice — the formerly renegade and challenging band suddenly appeared on year-end lists aplenty and got the band nominated for a Mercury Prize.

“It didn’t change a thing in terms of the music we’re making,” Fleming says. “But when you’re heading people like Mark Ronson saying they like Wild Beasts, it’s like, what on earth? When did this happen?”