Otto-Tune

Chris Baker, Lead Producer

Mumford & Sons, TBA

 It’s been more than two years since their breakout album Sigh No More hit the shelves and launched the Irish folkies’ careers. The debut album, however, will be tough to top. Their highly-anticipated sophomore album (expected to be released early this year) will either solidify the band as revolutionary folk revivalists or one-hit wonders. Expect the former.

Machine Gun Kelly, Lace Up

Saves the Day frontman Chris Conley's singing is a laborious process. When he reaches up for the high notes, his face scrunches up, resembling an overbearing grandmother looking for a child's cheeks to pinch.

For all that work, however, his uniquely high-pitched, emo-drenched voice crooned the audience at the Lost Horizon on Saturday during an acoustic show at the typically heavy rock venue.

In 2007 three dudes from Long Beach began making music. Again.

Singer-guitarist David Quon, bass player Derek VanHeule, and drummer Nathan Warkentin had been playing together in various formations for almost a decade, but this new venture was simpler and more organic than anything they’d done before. 

“The previous band we were playing in had kind of fizzled out and we thought that we were going to put music aside for a while,” said Quon. “But I’d had some ideas and we sort of started creating again; it was really fresh and easy.”

Neon Indianites and White Girl Mob soldati usually don’t hang out. Constructing one’s own synthesizer takes time and bad, um, ladies, are notoriously difficult to assemble. There’s just no room on the calendar, right?

Wrong.