Session Date: May 17, 2011

White Apple Tree are:
Ryan Lawhon
Taylor Lawhon

Live Band:
Alex Lopez – Bass
Joel Plotnik – Drums

Set List:
Broken Bones
Passed Out
Circles

White Apple Tree has no shocking backstory. They were not raised in the redwoods by gypsies, they haven’t secretly been writing songs for Madonna in their free time, nor have they seen any type of extreme hardship.

White Apple Tree is an electronic production duo based out San Diego, California, comprised of brothers Ryan and Taylor Lawhon. The band was formed in late 2007 by Ryan Marshall Lawhon as a solo project to fill the gaping void that was the San Diego electronic music scene. After recording a quirky and well received EP, Taste the Celebration, he quickly realized his full writing potential could possibly be met with his younger brother Taylor.

The brothers love for Enya, Sergio Leone films and The Knife brings them to a crossroad that resembles few of its ingredients and presents a sound that utilizes slow rhythms with bubbling synths and simplistic vocal melodies.

2010 found White Apple Tree releasing the Velvet Mustache LP and the Peach Hat EP, the latter receiving both critical acclaim and vast increase in domestic support, while Velvet Mustache has spent the year snowballing into a top 10 record in Europe.

White Apple Tree has since been makings its rounds on the interweb, from numerous blogs to larger magazine publications, White Apple Tree has created a buzz with it’s charming recorded material and over the top live performances. Snowflakes, Velvet Mustache’s single, recently hit the Top 10 on the German singles charts after it’s placement in indie film Kokowaah. The song has also been featured on TV programs Gossip Girl and the Hills. Peach Hat’s lead single, Passed Out climbed to the top 10 on charts of the wildly popular blog super-site, the Hype Machine.

White Apple Tree is set release it’s next full LP in September 2011, featuring 9 new tracks including several songs that the brothers consider to be the peak of their writing potential to date.

Session Date: April 20, 2011

LA Font are:
Danny Bobbe – Vocals / Guitar
Greg Katz – Bass / Vocals
Jon Perry – Guitar / Vocals
Harlow Rodriguez – Drums

Set List:
Telenovela
Sharks
Free Shot

Meet Danny Bobbe: night bus intellectual, enfant terrible, LA Font frontman. Transplanted to Los Angeles from Montana in 2008 with little besides a Volvo station wagon to his name, he’s since established himself as one of the city’s most compelling songwriters. (The Volvo met a worse fate.) LA Font’s songs, indie rock laced with hooks, jutting with spiky guitars on loan from Pavement, bouncing with the rhythms of the American West, tell the tales of hipsters and gangsters; traumatic brain injury and Sidney Crosby; the homeless in Santa Monica and on Skid Row; crumbling relationships and subway hucksters selling something that they swear is 14-karat gold (“and truthfully,” Bobbe wails in “White Man,” “it’s really hard to say”). For LA Font, the city is Bukowskiesque – bleak, gritty, laden with traps – but it remains a place that promises change to the courageous.

Session Date: April 27, 2011

Those Darlins are:
Jessi Darlin (Guitar/Bass)
Kelley Darlin (Bass/Guitar)
Nikki Darlin (Guitar/Bass)
Linwood Regensburg (Drums/Guitar)

Set List:
Screws Get Loose
Prank Call
Mystic Mind

Four years have gone by since Nikki, Jessi, and Kelley Darlin spat in their palms and slapped hands in a three-way promise that would become Those Darlins. Since then, they’ve broken hearts and broken bones, all the while honing their chops and gaining a lifetime of experiences through endless touring: bros to the bitter end. Screws Get Loose is their second album–and the first to show off drummer Linwood Regensburg stepping up as a songwriter. Each song bears the scars of the highs and lows they’ve soldiered through together on the road, accentuating the realities of growing up in a rock and roll band.

This latest collection of songs reveals the Darlins’ road-weary and hardened spirits as the full-throttle charge of their freewheeling early anthems, such as “Red Light Love” and “Wild One,” has faded into the clarity and the life lessons of , “Let You Down,” “Be Your Bro,” and the album’s title track. In “Be Your Bro,” Jessi sings “I just wanna be your brother, you just wanna be my boyfriend. I just wanna run and play in the dirt with you, you just wanna stick it in.” It’s the kind of lyric that any woman can relate to, and the kind of writing that tells a story with just enough detail to make your mind fill in the blanks and make it your own. But the album’s true tone culminates in the distant yearning of “Waste Away”: “What happened that makes you wanna go face first into the ground? What happened to me that I keep followin’ you around?”

The band re-enlisted producer Jeff Curtin (Small Black) and headed down to Atlanta, GA to record Screws Get Loose with engineer Ed Rawls at his Living Room Studio (Black Lips, Jacuzzi Boys). While the band’s country punk nature is still evident, the Southern roots that shine through are more in line with the dirty South garage rock blasting out of Memphis, Atlanta, and Nashville in recent years. Haunting and hook-laden numbers such as “Hives,” “Tina Said,” and “BUMD” tussle with the confessional weight of other songs, like “Waste Away” and “Let U Down.” Stylistically, the band has created a range of sounds: “Boy” is reminiscent of Spector’s summery girl pop, “Mystic Mind” is a fully-realized stoner jam, and “$” is a lesson on the slippery nature of money sung in an infestation of gang vocals.

These songs show that life on the road is no place for the faint of heart. So, naturally, songs take shape with bold narratives, strong voices, and full-bodied performances that are no less vibrant than previous offerings, but are a little less naïve. Maturity and experience combine to open up wholly new dimensions for Those Darlins. But that doesn’t mean they have forsaken the spirit of fun and frivolity that has come to define them.

Yesterday, Those Darlins stopped by the studio to do a live session. We also caught their show in Long Beach at Alex’s Bar.  Awesome stuff, we can’t wait to put together the videos!