By Lookout Staff
July 19, 2012 -- Two up-and-coming LA bands will take the stage Thursday at the third concert in the popular Summer Twilight Dance Series Thursday night at the Santa Monica Pier.
Over the past two years, the LA-based quartet Haim has gone for playing for free and to nearly empty clubs to opening for Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and opening The Strokes' Julian Casablancas' solo shows.
The three Haim sisters -- Este on bass, Alana on guitar and keyboards and Danielle, along with friend Dash Hutton -- hail from the San Fernando Valley and honed their chops playing with their Israeli parents' band at street fairs and charity events.
After 15 years of covering oldie classics from, among others, The Zombies, the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac, the sisters, who all sing, began composing their own songs.
"First we do gibberish," Alana told the LA Weekly. "And then we make words out of what the gibberish sounds like."
Earlier this year Haim, which means "life" in Hebrew, released their EP "Forever" for free on their website.
"There is "something instantly likeable about their music, particularly the way they avoid fetishising lo-fi as if it's the Holy Grail," wrote UK's The Guardian.
"Forever, for example, not only pushes the vocals forward, it also makes space for cowbells, funk guitar, cymbal splashes and vocal harmonies," the Guardian wrote. "It's not murky, or buried under feedback and fuzz, but big, bold and sprightly.
According to New York City/London-based boutique record company Neon Gold Records, if "Haim are the best new LA band already on everyone's radar, then Wildcat! Wildcat! are next in line to bowl people over."
The group, composed of Jesse Taylor, Michael Wilson, and Jesse Carmichael, "have known each other and made music together since they were 14 years old" and have released their debut "Mr. Quiche, according to the group's website
Neon Gold touted Wildcat! Wildcat! for "the trio's technicolor serendipity pop" with "vocals that flit between the chronic lightness of Passion Pit and Active Child and keys mined from the darkest depths of Miike Snow's imagination."
Throughout July and August, the Pier will be hosting the Twilight Concerts every Thursday, starting at 7 p.m. and ending at 10 p.m.
The Thursday night concerts will be emceed by DJs from 89.9 FM KCRW, the media partner for the Twilight Concert Series.
Concertgoers are encouraged to take the Big Blue Bus. Parking will be available in the lot north of the pier at 1550 Pacific Coast Highway, however parking on the Santa Monica Pier deck will be closed.
The City of Santa Monica will provide a free bike valet, stationed on the beach next to the bicycle path on the south side of the pier.
More information about the Twilight Concert Series can be found at twilightseries.org
