Once upon a time there were two great California bands, one from the north (Modesto) called Grandaddy, and one from the south (Los Angeles) called Earlimart. Earlimart has released a slew of solid albums, a personal favorite being Everyone Down Here, which includes the excellent track "Dreaming Of" (click HERE for a video on a crazy Chinese website). Grandaddy was one of the absolute best (and criminally overlooked) indie rock bands of the past two decades. It has been said before, but it's still very true: their 2000 album The Sophtware Slump was essentially a West Coast USA Kid A (check at the bottom for the video for "The Crystal Lake").
Eventually, Grandaddy went the way of the buffalo (almost quite literally, as singer Jayson Lytle relocated to Montana and released a hidden gem of a solo album last year called Yours Truly, the Commuter). Earlimart is still active, though they've been relatively silent for about two years. Now, a few members of each band have united to form Admiral Radley, a band which expertly captures the musical essence of both Grandaddy and Earlimart. Their debut album I Heart California is now available on iTunes for $7.99, unless you have some spare change and want to get the limited edition $100 deluxe package. The album is released everywhere else on July 13.
Continuing the increasing (and very welcome) trend of bands playing museums, Admiral Radley (and opener The Happy Hollows) plays The Hammer Museum on the west side of Los Angeles tonight. The show is FREE and the museum itself is nothing short of cutting-edge. Admiral Radley has two free Los Angeles-area shows over the next week. Tonight at The Hammer Museum, and Tuesday at 7:00pm at Amoeba Records in Hollywood.
The band continues its "I Heart California... and the West Coast" Tour with stops in cities like: Visalia, Merced, San Louis Obispo, Seattle, San Francisco (Bottom of the Hill on 7/23), and tiny little Escalon, California (playing a barn show there on 7/24).
Click right HERE for more details on tonight's show.
Check out the Karaoke-style music video for the excellent single "I Heart California":
The video for Grandaddy's "The Crystal Lake" off of their classic, The Sophtware Slump:
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