Music

This year, Tyler Fortier will release three albums. Actually, if you include the live disc he's preparing, he'll actually have four full-length discs coming out before we hit 2012. In an age when bands are considered to be working at a hectic pace if they put out one album every two years, this is almost hard to believe.
What's even more incredible is that Fortier is commonly out on the road for tours that include as many as 40 dates, but still manages to find time to write, record and produce all of his songs. And he doesn't just write the dozen or so songs that appear on these discs – he'll often pen 30 or more tracks for a record, the majority of which are tossed aside with only the best cuts appearing on the album.

Bill Callahan started out in the early '90s as more of an experimental musician, partnering his lyrics with dissonance and odd instrumental choices, slowly building his melodies over multiple albums and eventually recording in a proper studio with other musicians. Since ditching his stage name (Smog), Callahan has been on a course of personal questioning. His songs still reflect his experiences with personal relationships, but on Apocalypse and 2009's excellent Sometimes I Wish I Were an Eagle, Callahan's focus seems more concentrated on landscapes and how people respond to distance.
Apocalypse finds Callahan all at once wearing the shoes of a gardener, cattle driver, sailor and songwriter as he ponders the rugged and untamed background of America. He does so with brief distorted riffs, flutes, distant keys, whistling and earthy percussion paired with his baritone vocals. This album is beautifully executed yet never feels like it was labored over. Callahan's voice is confident and casual (listen for Callahan's vocal clicks, and “oohs”) just as the instrumentation is assuredly rehearsed, but at times feels improvised over Callahan's delivery.

Joseph Balsamo is a multitasker. But not in the manner you'd expect from a musician like him. It's not that he can sing and play the guitar – which he can – but if you drop him a line on a Friday afternoon and he's painting the inside of a house to prepare for new renters, he'll gladly pick up the phone. But that doesn't mean he'll stop painting.
Over the next half-hour, as he applies a layer of interior paint to the walls of his home, Balsamo talks by way of a hands-free device about his music career and Box Car Stringband, the dirty blues and rockabilly duo-turned-trio that is quickly making strides as one of the area's most engaging live rock shows. While Balsamo, a longtime blues fan, has played for a while as a solo act in local bars and cafes, its with Box Car that his songs really take off.

The self-titled debut LP from Portland band Ravishers, is seriously… cool. Not cool without merit, like that guy in high school who was only popular because his parents had money, but cool like Arthur Fonzarelli. You know, naturally cool.
Ravishers (formerly known as Dominic Castillo & The Rock Savants), have spent the last few years putting together this album and the attention to detail on each song is proof. The shifts from down to up-tempo beats within each song are subtly constructed and perfectly timed. You're going to hear some exceptionally stoic vocals on most every track (think The Cure or The National), but they're often rolled in with such sugary piano, horns, drum beat, and even hand claps that Dominic's smooth singing becomes more indie-pop sounding than anything else. This is especially evident on “Keep You Around,” (a track from the Savant days) that with the harmonized vocals of Kelly Masigat becomes an open road kind of summertime song.

Last year, the city of Los Angeles recognized what thousands of Angelinos already knew: That Ozomatli has become more than just another L.A. band, but perhaps the city's de facto house band – combining L.A.'s wide range of cultural and social influences into a sound that's as good of a soundtrack to real life in the city of angels as anyone is likely to find. This is why the city declared April 23 Ozomatli Day.
So what do you get for being one of the founding members of a band with its own day recognized by one of the largest cities in the world?
Well, not much, but it feels good.