Keeping Up: LA Band Name Changes

It's noteworthy how many LA bands have changed their names over the last few months. So far we have:

1. The Afternoons, who are now Shadow Shadow Shade (See them tonight at the Echo at 10pm with The Rhone Occupation)
2. The Jakes, who are now Young the Giant (Eshon's new project is called Backwards Forwards.)
   
3. The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra, who are now Walking Sleep (They have the April Echo residency)
   

And new names coming soon . . .

• Aushua, according to Kevin Bronson.
• Castledoor's new incarnation

I will refrain from commenting on the quality of these new names -- my blog is named like a record label.

News & Notes: May 17

• I finally listened to the Passion Pit EP today. And then I listened to it again. Wow. Their full length comes out on Tuesday and I can't wait to hear it. The MGMT of 2009-2010? I'm also starting to think that I'm more excited to see PP than The Harlem Shakes at their Troubadour and Echoplex shows. Oh, and those shows: I expect them to be among the best shows I see all year. I've added a PP playlist to the right of the blog; you can play the tracks right from there with no popups. I couldn't add a full length version of "Better Things," so here's a Youtube video with it.
  
  
  

• Olin & The Moon are on the new Lucero message board compilation (as in Lucero the band). I don't completely understand who's behind the compilation, but it's a free download here.

• Princeton is performing at Lincoln Center on June 5 as part of the Virginia Woolf Conference: 2009 Woolf in the City. They'll be performing in conjunction with choreographer Stephen Pelton. Princeton will be playing their entire Bloomsbury EP and a three movement orchestral piece written specifically for this performance. The band is looking for 2 flutes, 1 Violin, 1 Viola, 1 Cello, and 1 Oboe -- sounds very promising. I'll actually be in New York on the 5th, maybe I'll go.
  

• New video for the Afternoons' "Saturday Morning (after the funeral)"