The beautifully slow onset of “Summer Sadness” in the city of angels feels like a drive through the Hills for the very first time; top down with Lana’s first album full blast in your own hazy, American neo-noir daydream. It feels like dancing with a cold cocktail in your hand, LIKE Father John Misty- TO Father John Misty, with your very own personal Honeybear, “on the Rorschach sheets where we make love.” It could even possibly feel like lazily lamenting your last real good run through these streets when you gave ol’ Chet a run for his money, feet up with cigarette smoke swirling about the room, as he commiserates amidst the euphoric recall through that sweet horn and velvet voice- “Alone Together” with you (see what I did there). Yes, of course I could tell you all about how to fall back into place at the Beach House. Order you up some Growlers & alas find yourself transformed into a Beach Goth, hell even force you through The Door(s) of perception with an LA Woman “till you been down so very damn long, that it looks like up to me.” But if your summers don’t already resemble that, what the hell have you been doing might I ask? YOU’RE DOING IT ALL WRONG! … Fear not however, I don’t give up easily nor suffer the uninitiated lightly. So, when it comes to enthusiastically putting people on … well SHIT Howdy Doodie, say less. I am THE man for the job. Where better I ask, to truly live your life like it’s a God damned movie than right here? Los Angeles. When getting your mail, walking the dog–or even and especially taking a drunken piss has a soundtrack all on its own–your life becomes something else, something more, something BIGGER. To have any hand at all in helping to shape that, well the honor is truly mine. Use for all assortment of late-night drives and through the desert rides, to the sunset watching of couples copulating in romantic rolling tides. Use for deep dives into downtown for party favors -just don’t drown. Tailored to score the most cinematic summer in the history of mother loving sound.

LA LOM         

I was fortunate enough to stumble upon these guys very early in their career, so much so that my partner and I got to watch them live from about 5 feet away with all of maybe seven other people at the Buck Mason store opening on Abbot Kinney and it was absolutely electrifying. Their performances induce nothing less than a state of pure joy; this coming from someone who openly says he hates happy people mind you. They simply make my soul smile and my bones go on vacation against their will. LA LOM stands for the Los Angeles League of Musicians and is composed of LA natives Zac Sokolow (guitar), Jake Faulkner (bass) and Nicholas Baker (drums & percussion). Although having long standing roots within the LA music community, they came together in their current form around 2019 becoming the house band for the historic Roosevelt Hotel on Hollywood Blvd. Being a musician myself, as well as having been born and raised in Miami, FL, with immediate family who grew up in Cuba, I was a huge fan of artists such as the Buena Vista Social Club, Ry Cooder, Manuel Galban and Marc Ribot y Los Cubanos. If any of that strikes a chord for you, these guys are guaranteed to steal a spot on your most played records of the summer. An intoxicatingly sexy blend of Cumbia, Mexican Boleros and afro cuban influences, LA LOM is meant to be heard with a cigar in hand, a drink nearby and a promise to drastically elevate any circumstance under which you play them. I’m incredibly proud to see these guys reaching greater and greater heights as the months pass by. Scoring major tours, tons of online attention, and media presence up the whazoo (even a Rig Rundown on Premier Guitar’s YouTube channel), you can now find LA LOM and all dates of their current tour here. The closest show to LA will be at the Santa Barbara Bowl on Aug. 30, 2026 alongside another great band Thee Sacred Souls. Having released a full LP in 2024 also self-titled amidst a plethora of singles and early ep’s that all happen to have the absolute dopest album covers. My favorite track of theirs at the moment happens to be “Santee Alley” off of their first official recording the “La Lom – EP” but this is one band that doesn’t require a recommended list of tracks to start with … When I tell you that EVERY track is incredible and not a single worth skipping PLEASE take my word for it. The live videos on YouTube are absolutely essential as well, NOT to be missed. Case in point, this bad boy from last year, a track aptly titled “Angel’s Point.” … Aside from the bands previously mentioned, feel free to jump down this instrumental rabbit hole with other groups of a similar vein I know you’ll also dig such as Hermanos Gutiérrez, Opez, BALTHVS, Gitkin, Cochemea, La Chooma,Tommy Guerrero, and the classic Lecuona cuban boys (don’t start this unless you seriously down for the chill). Proceed at your own risk, this Voodoo right here- This is the real shit …You will get sucked in, you will be a fan for life, and no- there’s absolutely nothing you can do about it.  

Landroid    

“… Shaped by the isolation and mysticism of the high desert …” Are you in? Reading that tagline I sure as fuck was. I’m just gonna be real from the outset. Any description of any band, artist, or piece of fricken anything ever that gets described throwing words around like “Lynchian” or “vast, cinematic soundscape” mixed with desert mysticism, whatever the fuck that entails (think Mojave Phone Booth). I mean who amongst us isn’t IMMEDIATELY intrigued. If it can fit into any scene, real or imagined that could have come from a Lynch film or Twin Peaks, I already know nine times out of 10 I’m most likely going to be a fan–simply because that is the syntax of my soul. Period. I discovered this group recently and to be honest it’s been awhile since I had an entire album on repeat like that, for as long as I have just letting it wash over me. Landroid is the project of veteran musicians Cooper Gillespie (vocals, bass, keys) and Greg Gordon (drums, sequences). After years playing in various Los Angeles punk and rock scenes, the pair relocated to the Mojave Desert town of Landers and built a new musical identity around the landscape and mythology of the High Desert. I would say they reliably occupy a space between dream pop, indie rock, electronic music, desert psychedelia, and cinematic art rock. Their music is atmospheric, expansive and often feels like a soundtrack to an aforementioned Lynch film unfolding under a desert sky. Layers of synthesizers, spacious drums, melodic bass lines and haunting vocals create a sound that is simultaneously intimate and cosmic. Think Pink Floyd for scale and atmosphere, Beach House for dreamlike textures, Cocteau Twins for ethereal ambience, Lynch for the surreal mood of course, and maybe throw in some Portishead for cinematic darkness. Landroid creates music that feels cinematic, as often as that word gets tossed around, rather than merely song-based. Their records are designed to be experienced as journeys rather than collections of singles. Instead of relying on traditional verse-chorus indie rock structures, they implore narrative concepts, ambient textures, spacious production, electronic sequencing and most definitely desert-inspired imagery. The result is music that feels like driving alone through Joshua Tree at 2 a.m. while listening to a lost soundtrack from a posthumous Lynch film and possibly being followed by something or someone (I know, sounds terrible right?). You can find all dates from their current tour here, and as of right now unfortunately it looks like the closest stop to LA is gonna be in Sacramento on June 25, 2026 at the Torch Club. Having just released their new LP “Constellation”  this month, it’s the perfect time to venture out to the desert and get lost with these guys. I would say if this description managed to stoke your interest, be sure to check out True Widow, Death Valley Girls, SQURL(famed director Jim Jarmusch’s band), Still Corners, and if you really want to lean into the weirder, more abstract Lynch side definitely look into Bohren & Der Club of Gore, The Dale Cooper Quartet, and The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation. Thank me later.   

 Rosalía             

What first drew me into the transcendent musical world of Rosalia (oftentimes described simply as a pop artist, not always something I’d necessarily seek out on my own) was this NPR article focusing on her most recent 2025–and 2026 re-release–album “LUX.” On “LUX,” she takes perhaps her biggest leap yet–incorporating the London Symphony Orchestra, choral arrangements, classical composition, and lyrics in fourteen languages while exploring spirituality, transformation and mysticism. Do I have your attention yet? Rosalía Vila Tobella, known professionally as Rosalía, is a Spanish singer, songwriter, producer and one of the most influential artists of the last decade. Albeit not so much so in the U.S. from a pop culture lexicon perspective anyway, hence my excitement to help spread the gospel. She first emerged from Barcelona’s flamenco scene before becoming a global pop innovator capable of blending flamenco, reggaeton, electronic music, hip-hop, classical composition and avant-pop into something entirely her own. While she began with contemporary flamenco, Rosalía’s sound has evolved into a fusion of avant-art pop, orchestral pop, Latin, electronic and experimental music. If you’ve never heard her before (as I hadn’t) think (I apologize ahead of time for this going way out on a limb) but first and foremost Björk for fearless experimentation, FKA twigs for avant-garde modernity, Diamanda Galás for spiritual intensity, Kate Bush for theatrical art-pop, and maybe at the risk of sounding heretical Madonna at her most ambitious. Yet, while none of those comparisons may fully fit, Rosalía’s greatest strength is her ability to make deeply experimental music feel accessible and emotionally immediate–something in which the likes of someone like Björk has never been able to fully realize (in my humble opinion, in so far as achieving a broader, mass appeal across generations where much of her work is definitely not immediately accessible however, no less great.) Rosalía was born in Sant Esteve Sesrovires near Barcelona. Though rooted in Spanish musical traditions, her influence and audience are now global, with sold-out tours across Europe, Latin America, and North America. As previously mentioned, much of her early work was more traditionally flamenco focused, but I would honestly recommend diving right in with her latest. For “LUX,” she worked with the London Symphony Orchestra and spent years learning and recording vocals in numerous languages while structuring the album into four thematic movements centered on spirituality and feminine transformation. Here, she combines religious imagery, classical orchestration, electronic production and multilingual songwriting into one of the most ambitious pop records of the decade and while not directly in my wheelhouse–it’s something I can massively admire and appreciate without effort. Rosalía is definitely a is a once-in-a-generation artist who transformed modern flamenco into avant-garde global pop, and with Lux delivered a sprawling, orchestral meditation on spirituality, transformation, and light that feels like Björk, Kate Bush, and a cathedral choir colliding in the future. You can find all her tour dates here, and wouldn’t you know, on June 29th, and July 1st of this year she’ll be here in LA at the Forum in Inglewood. I can only imagine how epic her stage performance would be. A quasi-religious experience perhaps even? Check her out and get your tickets ASAP. (Tell em’ Greg sent you.)  

Weyes Blood     

It happens every time I’ve ever been on a road trip, driving through this beautiful state of ours. A certain someone, without fail, will find it an opportune time to serenade me full tilt–with none other than the Carpenters, a group that has great sentimental value to them. Now, seeing as that for some reason or another my brain only catalogs their records as being tunes for serial killers, I am overcome by the overwhelming urge to either throw myself out of the moving car full speed, OR commit a heinous crime. Wait, where was I? Oh yes, so for some unexplainable reason this band, Weyes Blood, has always immediately reminded me of them, from the very first time I heard their record “And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow” a few years ago … and I absolutely loved it! Go figure. Weyes Blood is the musical project of Natalie Mering, a California-born singer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. Before gaining recognition as a solo artist, she came up through the underground experimental and noise scenes believe it or not, playing with bands like Jackie-O Motherfucker before gradually developing the lush, cinematic sound she’s now known for. They occupy a unique space between soft rock, chamber pop, baroque, psychedelic folk, singer-songwriter and of course dream pop.  While simultaneously feeling somehow vintage and futuristic, sweeping string arrangements, cathedral-sized harmonies, 1970s soft-rock songwriting and deeply existential lyrics combine into something that sounds like finding an old Carole King, or for that matter, Karen Carpenter record floating through space. I’d definitely compare her to the one and only Carpenter for her vocal warmth anyway, maybe Joni Mitchell for her songwriting, Lana Del Rey for the cinematic quality that’s come up so much in our picks today and can’t leave out Fleetwood Mac for that lush Cali-specific 70s soft rock sound. Though born in Santa Monica, CA and currently associated with the Los Angeles music scene, Weyes Blood’s music often feels geographically untethered—part California canyon folk, part European chamber music and part cosmic dreamscape. I would say start with what’s often considered her masterpiece, Titanic Rising. This transformed Weyes Blood from an indie cult favorite into one of the most acclaimed songwriters of her generation. Themes of isolation, technology, and modern alienation are wrapped in gorgeous orchestral pop arrangements. The record I mentioned earlier- “And In The Darkness, Hearts Aglow,” serves as the second chapter of her trilogy, and moves from observing societal collapse to living through it, balancing despair with hope and compassion. Weyes Blood makes grand, cinematic chamber-pop that sounds like Karen Carpenter, Enya (perhaps?), Fleetwood Mac and a science-fiction film soundtrack all meeting at sunset somewhere between Laurel Canyon and the end of the world. I think one can see we are definitely playing with variations on a theme here today. For all info related to the band, you can find it here, along with current tour dates although as of right now, only one show is scheduled for the Royal Albert Hall in London on Sept. 8, 2026. I would definitely be willing to cross the pond for that one, full symphony in tow. Again, if you dig this kind of ethereal, vintage californian, quasi-witchy, straight out the canyon vibe, I’d again list Still Corners as a great place to start (I’m a huge proponent of this band), along with Mitski, Lana Del Rey, Angel Olsen, Clairo, Sharon Van Etten, Julia Jacklin, Phoebe Bridgers, and yes of course … The Carpenters.  

Trickpony    

Ok, so this article right Here, this shit… this shit right HERE (just kidding, couldn’t help myself) but for real let me tell you, this article hyped the SHIT out of me I’ll tell you why. Cause’ I Fucking LOVE Trip Hop, that’s why. Because when it comes to Portishead, and Massive Attack, Tricky, Morcheeba… I do NOT play. Hearing about a Trip Hop “revival” in 2026, are you kidding me? Here, take my kidney for real. The only thing that would excite me more is if they figured out how to clone Dimebag Darrel’s corpse and recreated an actual Pantera concert circa 93’-94’, pre cell phones putting me right in the middle of the greatest pit to ever exist in the entire history of heavy metal. Ok, I’m back yea I know my taste’s all over the place that’s what happens when you’re an actual 80s baby that grew up in the 90s, the single greatest time to ever be alive. We stood on the very last precipice between the old world and Skynet to come, connecting the … Hey is this thing on? Nevermind. Trickpony is a multinational trio composed of Australian electronic producers Roza Terenzi and Mike Midnight (Michael Gunson) alongside Finnish vocalist, producer, and designer Maria Korkeila. What began as a long-distance collaboration between three artists from different corners of the world has quickly become one of the most talked-about projects in the modern trip-hop revival. Their music blends smoky 1990s Bristol-style trip-hop with contemporary electronic production. Think whispered vocals, rolling breakbeats, submerged basslines, hazy synths and the feeling of being awake at 3 a.m. in a city that’s half asleep and half dreaming. You already know that’s my shit right there. How would I describe them to someone that’s completely unfamiliar? It’s kinda one of those you just had to be there type things but … go check out any classic trip-hop mix and you’ll get the big picture. Very few modern artists have figured out how to revive trip-hop without turning it into nostalgia cosplay. Trickpony understands what made classic trip-hop special—the atmosphere, sensuality, mystery and emotional weight—while making it feel contemporary. Their records sound equally at home alongside classic Bristol records and modern electronic releases. They also don’t belong to a single city or scene. Roza Terenzi and Mike Midnight come from Perth, Australia and Maria Korkeila is based in Helsinki, Finland. What does that mean? That means their music was created across continents and time zones, giving it a strangely placeless, global quality. Their first release; “24/7 Heaven” (2025) introduced many listeners to Trickpony’s world. Tracks like “Room To Breathe,” “Shiver”, and “Sponsored Ritual” established the blueprint: sensual vocals, hypnotic grooves and cinematic production. The follow up release “Pillow Talk” (2026) was a six-track EP that pushed their sound further into dreamlike territory. Highlights included “Ripple,” “Angel,” “No/Direction,” and “Memphis Light,” balancing downtempo elegance with psychedelic experimentation. At this time, according to Apple Music, their only scheduled tour date is for Aug. 2, 2026 at AMSTERDAMse Bos in Amsterdam, Netherlands. Who should you listen to for a similar vibe? Well, it goes without saying one should ALWAYS bump the classics previously mentioned (Portishead, Massive Attack, Tricky, Hooverphonic etc.), add to that maybe Thievery Corporation, and some of this incoming new wave of Trip Hop like a.s.o., Headache, Erika de Casier, Stone, James K, YS, and The Blisks mentioned in the article again found here.