Reviews
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Le Switch is a Beatcrave Fav!
Check it! http://su.pr/2GcXHQ
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LA WEEKLY
Thank Justin “Aquarium Drunkard” Gage and his Autumn Tone imprint for releasing the full-length debut from Silverlake stalwarts, Le Switch. A shambling, boozy and beautiful 38-minute bender, Aaron Kyle and his talented bandmates, eschew au courant influences for simple, straightforward songcraft. With a skeleton of Ram-era McCartney, Nilson Schmilsson, and The Band, Le Switch are Los Angeles’ answer to Dr. Dog. Dismissing their sound as overly familiar misses the point; Le Switch’s influences might be well-worn but their voice is unmistakably unique. Don’t miss their February Monday night residency at Spaceland.
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Flavorpill 2009
Honky-tonk keyboards and fiddle ablaze, Le Switch give alt-country a riotous ragtime rip. Formed in 2006, the group has since played every small stage in town (not to mention a set of amazing on-air gigs for the late, great Indie 103). Frontman Aaron Kyle has one of the most seductive and mournful voices around, running the gamut from yodel to Hank Williams warble. The band plays tonight ahead of the release of a new EP, The Devil Needs a Cough Drop.
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Can You See the Sunset
Le Switch has got a good thing going for sure. Falling somewhere between the dark Will Sheff stylized Americana of Okkervil River and the twang-pop sensibilites of Rhett Miller and his Old 97’s. There is a certain wavering edge that Le Swtich’s music so precariously walks on their debut album And Now… Le Switch. It is loose and bouncy. It is the edge of rock-n-soul music that is carried by horns, raucous pianos, organs, strings, etc… as well as the whiskey-soaked vocals of singer Aaron Kyle. The album was released by the folks at Autumn Tone Records who also happen to be the same people that do the Aquarium Drunkard blog.
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L.A. Times – Buzzbands
Buzz Bands: Le Switch flips on the soul
Aaron Kyle sings as if he’s never five minutes from his last whiskey, or five minutes from his next, occasionally lurching into a down-deep growl you wouldn’t think could come from an angular white dude in a collared shirt and old browline spectacles.
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Aquarium Drunkard.com
Le Switch, a band name which is damn hard to say without affecting a bad French accent, has added another notch to a year whose belt is already full. The notches, in this case, count the bands who have released albums that, genuinely and without schmaltz, channel classic rock and pop tropes through a modern sounding release. And Now…Le Switch falls more on the side of head-bobbing Dr. Dog than reflective-nod-inducing Blitzen Trapper, but the results are immediately identifiable and repeatedly enjoyable. (more…)
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My Old Kentucky Blog
Not that this has anything to do with the record, but Aaron Kyle, lead singer of Le Switch, is intense and maybe one of the funnier lead singers I’ve ever hung out with. In a drunken, bonding, bromance session over four White Castle sliders and two WC chicken sandwiches, I probably told the guy things my wife doesn’t even know about me. The next night, this time over Mrs. Winter’s chicken strips (we had to walk through the drive-thru btw), the sharefest continued. Kyle explained the birdman club, his half-Mexican belly and confided intimate stories of redneckism from his now defunct marriage. We hit it off is what I’m saying. We both have powerful, somewhat obnoxious, laughs and the uncanny ability to embarrass ourselves and others within seconds of entering a public place. You put us together and it was a look-at-me-dogfight-to-the-death.
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Little RADIO
“The band is now a quintet and far beyond what you’d consider “passionate.” Furiously belting out melodies with guitars, percussion, bass and a wicked trumpet player in Maria DeLuca, the Switch played a brutal set with glorious results. If that display of musicanship wasn’t good enough, and it was, last night’s gig at Radio Free Silver Lake’s “Let’s Independent” sealed the band’s reputation as an incredible band to behold.
I’d wager most people confuse The Switch as the next Cold War Kids, but this is light years better and definitely believeable.”
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PERFORMER MAGAZINE
“Formed two years ago, Los Angeles’ The Switch sports some ragged, booze-soaked vocals courtesy of one Aaron Kyle, and plays with a bouncy rock ‘n’ roll soul that commands attention. Think Greg Dulli’s Twilight Singers with less pathos and more laughter. Kyle has a similar R&B-singer-via-drunken-rocker vocal delivery with a less-is-more approach to rhythm guitar. In fact, apart from the opener, “Tongue Tied,” and “Living in Another World,” the band’s debut five-song EP, Hello Today, actually leans more on Joshua Charney’s piano for its foundation than Kyle’s guitar…”
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FLAVORPILL
“Tonight both bands join fellow bittersweet, melodic locals the Switch for Let’s Independent!, Radio Free Silver Lake’s monthly new-music showcase.”
