A whole batch of awesome videos from LA-based artists were released this week. Check ’em all out like it’s 1994 and you’re home watching MTV.

Crown Plaza – “Reactor” video; So Many Wizards’ “Lose Your Mind” video

The solo project of So Many Wizards’ Nima Kazerouni, Crown Plaza, is dreamier and lo-fier than his band’s indie power-pop. “Reactor” is lonely and lightly melancholic bedroom pop of the finest order, while the video calls to mind visiting your hometown and feeling like a stranger. Chem Waves Volume 1 is out now on tape on LA’s Vanity Projects, while So Many Wizards’ fine Warm Nothing was released earlier this year. That album’s “Lose Your Mind” video was also released this week. Crown Plaza play a free show at the Bootleg Theater Nov. 12. So Many Wizards will be all over LA this month and next, starting with a show at USC with the Allah-Las tonight; see all their dates here.

 

 

IO Echo – “Berlin, It’s All a Mess” video

So much West Coast goodness coming our way this week, I’ll just get right into it …
 
New Ariel Pink – “Only In My Dreams”
 
Ariel Pink debuted a new song this week from his upcoming Mature Themes, the regal-sounding “Only In My Dreams.” Loved the “Baby” cover, but it’s great to hear that his new originals are great, too. Mature Themes is due Aug. 17 on 4AD.
 

 
New Ty Segall Coming — Again
 
Won’t I ever shut up abou this guy? Not when he’s making such great music so consistently. On the heels of his White Fence collab Hair and his searing Ty Segall Band’s Slaughterhouse comes a new album just credited to the king of SF garage himself, called Twins. It’s out Oct. 9 on Drag City. The next time he’s close to this neck of the woods is Oct. 14, at the Treasure Island Festival.
 
New Puro Instinct – “Dream Lover”
 
Speaking of Mr. Pink, his friends in dreamy duo Puro Instinct have a new song, “Dream Lover.” It’s not a Mariah Carey cover, although I bet that would sound amazing. This song finds them branching out, getting bigger than the sound they debuted on Headbangers in Ecstasy. Sounds like My Bloody Valentine by the pool. It’ll be on an EP later this year.
 

 
LOL Boys – “Changes” [ft. Heart Streets]
 
Originally hailing from Montreal, these guys make sort of lo-fi jazzy house music. And they are called LOL Boys, which is pretty good, although I feel like it should have been LOL Boyz. I’m pretty bewildered by the whole thing in a good way. Their debut Changes is out July 17.
 

This Saturday, Montreal pop enchantress Grimes will play the free show Make Music Pasadena in Old Town Pasadena, at 5 p.m. on the Playhouse District Eclectic Stage at 23 S. Madison Ave. (see the whole schedule here). She joins an impressive lineup, which this year includes indie pop stars Cults, psych-dance band The Chain Gang of 1974, and lots of local heroes like Dam-Funk (see photos of his Amoeba DJ set), Electric Guest, Dengue Fever, Grouplove, So Many Wizards, The Lonely Wild, NO, The Happy Hollows and more.
 
Grimes aka Claire Boucher stopped by Amoeba to pick up a few records and DVDs, and her choices aren’t necessarily what you’d expect. No K-pop and light on obscure electronica (save for Balam Acab’s Wander/Wonder), Boucher instead opted for guilty pleasures — a couple of Blink-182 and Justin Bieber DVDs, a T.A.T.U. record, that sort of thing. Having watched this thing a couple of times now, I’m most taken with Boucher’s ease and candor as she talks about really uncool music many of us secretly like.

Cold Showers – “I Don’t Mind” video
 
Local goodies Cold Showers have a new video of their reverb-tastic track “I Don’t Mind” via Room 205/Incase. The shadowy textures cast across the band members look almost like they’ve been painted and match the dark undertones of their dreamy post-punk. OK guys, we’ve been drooling over you for a while now, it’s time for a full-length.
 

 

Nick Waterhouse – “The Streets Are Ours” (cover)
 
Garagey doo-wop firebrand Nick Waterhouse has been winning hearts here in L.A. for some time now, but his recent SXSW shows have won him a host of new fans. Check out this cover of the Richard Hawley gem “The Streets Are Ours,” for which the word “swoon” was invented, recorded for Aquarium Drunkard’s Lagniappe Sessions. I’m not sure if this would make you want to listen more or less, but “The Streets Are Ours” was once my MySpace song.
 
Pitchfork Yours Truly Vids – Princeton, Nite Jewel, Julia Holter
 
A number of wonderful L.A. artists have been appearing on Pitchfork’s Yours Truly lately. In fact, three of the last four videos are from L.A. artists — indie-pop group Princeton, noir dance songstress Nite Jewel and heady keys maestro Julia Holter, who recently played a kickass show at Amoeba Hollywood. (Check out the latest albums by Nite Jewel and Julia Holter at Amoeba!)

Beloved L.A. indie popsters So Many Wizards have been on the up-and-up for years now, playing all over the city and releasing increasingly impressive EPs. Now, they're set to release a full-length record, Warm Nothing, through local label JAXART and play SXSW, but before that, they have a tour planned for the U.K. The only problem: getting there.

Watch this video to hear it from the band themselves — your donation helps pay for flights, visas, transportation and even the mixing and mastering of the album. So if you'd like to donate, head to IndieGoGo and place a donation. You'll get more than just the satisfaction of helping a young local band play for the NME set: a $5 donation gets you a rare So Many Wizards B-side; a $10 donation gets you a free digital copy of the new album the day it is finished; a $20 donation gets you their complete digital discography; a $30 donation gets you the discography and a T-shirt; and a $50 donation gets both a signed copy of the "Inner City/Best Friends 7" and a signed copy of the full-length CD, along with the other perks. More donation packages are avaialble upwards of $50 as well. So help them make it happen!

Help So Many Wizards Make It Happen from Nima Kazerouni on Vimeo.

Read my interview with the band a while back.

So Many Wizards U.K. tour dates: