Artist Spotlight

It's The Shakes!

July 23, 2018 • artist spotlight • Fuzz Gazer • Hybrid Studios • Josh Brooks • Orange County Music • The Shakes • With Every Moment

The Shakes, a four-piece indie pop-rock band from Huntington Beach, is ready to make waves. The band formed in 2015 when vocalist/guitarist Sean Perry met bassist Skyler Connell as juniors at Edison High School in music theory class; the rest fell into place when they were joined by guitarist Cameron Peinado and drummer Nicole Bandoquillo, an OCSA-trained musician they serendipitously found on Craigslist. After sharing a string of singles and a demo EP, the band is gearing up to release a six-track EP this summer, titled With Every Moment, produced by Young the Giant’s Francois Comtois as well...

Artist Spotlight: Avi Buffalo

April 03, 2018 • Avi Buffalo • Crazy 8 • Earth Drive • Electro Harmonix 2880 • Moog • Sub 37

Avi Buffalo is very busy. A few months ago, the 27-year-old Long Beach native self-released an ambient album titled 2017, recorded in his home studio using his 8-track mixer and GarageBand. It’s a collection of 13 disparate soundscapes— drony and ethereal in some pockets while distorted and dissonant in others—all written, recorded and produced by Buffalo himself.

Artist Spotlight: Dave Van Patten

March 06, 2018 • artist spotlight • dave van patten

For Dave Van Patten, music and visual art go hand in hand. His witty, surrealist illustrations—as psychedelic as they are prolific—span many album covers (most recently for The Grateful Dead’s Live Concert Series), the 16-by-60-foot wall flanking Alex’s Bar (one of Long Beach’s most respected venues), dozens of iconic festival and show posters, as well as the entire lineup of Stacks FX pedals.

Artist Spotlight: Bundy

January 28, 2018 • Bastard Performer • Bundy • Feral Kizzy • Lil Masher • Long Beach Music • Native Lung

The Native Lung, he says, is his all-time favorite and has quickly become his main songwriting tool. Case in point: it can be heard on every single track off Bundy's forthcoming full-length album, Bastard Performer.

“The entire album is based around that fucking pedal, I swear to god,” Serna explains. “When I got that pedal, I started writing things to that reverb that I just liked, and it inspired me to write a lot of songs.