Olin and the Moon

There’s no Olin in Olin and the Moon, but there’s plenty of good-natured lunacy. Cherubic frontman David LaBrel, 22, moved to L.A. over three years ago from Sun Valley, Idaho, and older brother Travis, along with drummer Marshall Vore, soon followed. But it took a while for the newbies to find bassist Kyle Vicioso and slide guitarist Brian McGinnis and get serious about making music — as well as discovering there was life outside Hollywood.

“I’d never been to the city before; it was overwhelming,” says David LaBrel, who admits to having lived in L.A. more than a year before discovering the Silver Lake/Echo Park scene. “I remember going to the Roxy and thinking, ‘Nobody here is playing our kind of music.’ The Eastside scene is more indie, grunge-ified kind of stuff. I think we just recently started getting people adjusted to it.”

* ||| Download: The new track “Friend of Feelin’ Good”

That they did. The quintet’s crisp, winsome folk music went over big during its January residency at the Silverlake Lounge, and now the LaBrels and their bandmates have already finished recording “Terrible Town,” the follow-up to their 2008 album “40 Miles of Bad Road.” Its dusty-road charm — they call it “Mom rock” — puts it on par with other leading L.A. purveyors of twang such as Leslie & the Badgers and I See Hawks in L.A. And the LaBrel brothers owe a big part of it to their parents, James and Jeneane.

“They’re old hippies,” Travis says. “My dad buys guitars like candy bars at a gas station. They’re the kind that play the local scene — Mom sings, Dad plays guitar at open mikes. The last time we went went home, there was a stage in the living room. … We were like, ‘Mom, where’s the TV?’”

Even stranger, David says, was when the older LaBrels started covering Olin and the Moon songs. “Our parents are starting to ask us for the chords and lyrics, which is weird, because there are some things you don’t want your parents know,” he says. “The last album was about drugs and a girl.”

Since they hit L.A., there have been a lot of hard-fought victories and harder lessons. David LaBrel says the band “got down to brass tacks once we got Kyle in the band,” and since the frontman was working at a recording studio, “I figured I have all these tools at my disposal, so let’s use them.”

Of course, there was the time the band toured to Austin — where they will be again this month for SXSW — and LaBrel ended up having to call work to say he wouldn’t make it back in time for his shift. “We went there to play one show,” he says. “I don’t know why we thought Texas was one day’s drive.” - BuzzBands LA

Sporting a safe twist on Ryan Adams-esque rock-n-roll, the band hit the ground running with some upbeat folk rattlings complete with banjo, lap steel and gang harmonies" - Nate Jackson

"An amazing up and coming local alt-country act. Blending classic gritty country with intelligent, provoking lyrics, these guys are sure to go far"
- LAist
- The LAist

"That unpretentious humor and heart is key to Olin and the Moon’s appeal. The mellow grooves and dusty backroads feel of their songs are a throwback to the ’70s era of Laurel Canyon jams and hoot nights at the Troubadour."
- The Pasadena Weekly - The Pasadena Weekly

"Terrible Town" Press:
"The L.A. quintet with roots in Sun Valley, Idaho, have birthed a “No Depression”-worthy recording that, while hardly straying from country formula, tugs at your heart like a prairie sunset."
- Buzzbands - Kevin Bronson