Eastern Conference Champions finished its February residency at the Silverlake Lounge with a bang on Monday night. Then, thieves lowered the boom on the Philadelphia-area trio.
The band's van, parked on a side street in Hollywood off La Brea, was burglarized and ECC's gear was stolen. "Every bit of it," front man Josh Ostrander said this morning, still in shock. "Well, they left our T-shirts."
Ostrander said drummer Greg Lyons had driven the van to where he was staying, with the intention of taking it to the DMV office today to get it registered in California. Thieves broke the van's window to gain entry and made off with guitars, amps, drums -- "and even a television, which was bolted down," Ostrander said.
ECC is now squarely in a bind. They are due to perform at the South by Southwest Music Festival in a little over two weeks, followed by tours with Mew, the Films and the View in advance of the June release of ECC's full-length debut on Suretone Records.
Whitestarr is the cubic zirconium of Los Angeles music -- imitation rock.
Oh, they can play, especially guitarist Rainbow Jeremy, he of the beach ball-sized white man's Afro. Whitestarr can strut, preen, strip, shimmy and pose too, and that's just front man Cisco Adler. But despite the swagger, you don't believe for a second that they believe what they're doing, unless you've had a lot to drink. Or think maybe "Meatballs III" was funny.
They come equipped with pedigree -- Cisco is the son of record producer and Roxy Theatre owner Lou Adler, and drummer Alex Orbison is the son of music icon Roy -- but they are so affable it's impossible to resent them because they're privileged. There are scads of trust-fund kids around L.A. who wear their ostensibly higher aspirations on their oh-so-pained brows. At least Whitestarr, as it turns the Southern-fried rock 'n' roll of decades ago into the soundtrack for every kegger party in Malibu, never goes for the tortured artist effect.
Or do they? On Saturday night, as the band gave an uncharacteristically ragged show on Adler's home stage, cameras dotted the room. Turns out the night was being filmed for a reality show called "The Rock Life," scheduled for later this year on VH1. Simple storyline: Band tries to overcome odds to make it big. That adversity includes things like getting signed and then dropped by Atlantic Records a couple years ago, struggling to get its album "Luv Machine" released, young Orbison ending up in rehab and the Hummer blowing a tire on the PCH. Sorry, just kidding about the flat.
This "Rock Life" has nothing to do with slapping together recordings in a friend's studio, saving your tip money to have 1,000 CDs pressed and then hopping into van for three months to play venues smaller than Adler's family room. This "Rock Life" has everything to do with party-or-die hedonism, the kind that comes easily to a band with four musicians and a fifth member named Tony Potato, who, in his role as "dancer," removes his shirt (thereby making the 147-pound weaklings in house feel good about their bodies) and channels Belushi to Whitestarr's riffs. In this "Rock Life," the also-shirtless front man feels obligated to invite varying degrees of groping while announcing to female admirers that he is, sigh, probably sleeping alone tonight. Ah, sadness on the tumbleweed-strewn streets of Malibu.
It's all so "Girls Gone Wild," and when the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue was in easy reach.
The show will probably be a big hit. After all, the band needs one. I just hope that at the end, Whitestarr winks.
Photo: Whitestarr rocks the Roxy (Kevin Bronson / LAT)
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Saturday night's opening act, a Malibu rapper named Shwayze who is signed to Suretone Records and is being produced by young Adler, is also a party animal. But his sense of melody, charm and flow -- solo and during a duet with Adler -- marked him as an artist to watch.
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Monday's touts: Orange County quartet the CoCo B's, whose finished album has been making the rounds in the industry, play the early set at the Silverlake Lounge as Eastern Conference Champions close out their February residencies. ... Simon Dawes closes out its residency at the Echo, and Division Day winds up its string of Monday nights at Spaceland. ... The John Butler Trio's show at the Hotel Cafe is sold out. ... Piebald plays Safari Sam's. ... And the Happy Hollows and the Movies are among the bands on the bill at the Viper Room.
P.S.: I am scheduled to be impaneled today at 11 a.m. on Jonesy's Jukebox Jury on Indie 103.1 (KDLD-FM). It's the show on which DJ Steve Jones' guests weigh in on new music he plays for them.
Shut out of Coachella? You might want to consider a road trip to the Pacific Northwest.
The Sasquatch! Music Festival goes off Memorial Day Weekend at the Gorge Amphitheatre in central Washington, featuring some of the heavy hitters (Bjork, the Arcade Fire, Manu Chao, Interpol) who are playing Coachella in late April.
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday, March 3. They are $55 per day for the on-sale weekend and $65 thereafter. Camping and VIP packages are available too. The full lineup (expect additions) for the three-stage event:
Saturday, May 26: Bjork, the Arcade Fire, Manu Chao, M.I.A., Citizen Cope, Neko Case, the Hold Steady, Grizzly Bear, Ghostland Observatory, Electrelane, Two Gallants, the Slip, Loney Dear, Aqueduct, the Thermals, Viva Voce the Blow and Gabriel Teodros.
Sunday, May 27: Beastie Boys, Interpol, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Spoon, Bad Brains, Ozomatli, the Dandy Warhols, the Black Angels, Mirah, Tokyo Police Club, Money Mark, St. Vincent, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, Smoosh, Common Market, the Helio Sequence and Minus the Bear.
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Tonight's touts: There's not a lot of straight-on prog rock going round these days, but L.A.'s Opus Dai, whose album "Tierra Tragame" from last year embraced the genre in all its sprawling glory, does prog well. The quartet headlines the Roxy. ... Singer-songwriter Matt Wertz plays the Troubadour. ... DJs extraordinaire Aurelito & Shakespeare host the Chocolate Bar party to inaugurate the Ex Plex, the new 700-capacity room located beneath the Echo. ... The Good Listeners, great last week at the Scene in Glendale, return to the venue where they did a residency last year, Tangier. ... And a side project of Irving, Afternoons, debuts at El Cid.
Only one member of the band is old enough to have a beer, and three others look as if they just walked out of a casting call for "The Brady Bunch." But Great Glass Elevator dispenses sophisticated pop songs, marrying its merry melodies with unexpected choruses and bridges, none of which is wasted on the trifles of playground love.
"A lot of men turn / their hearts to ashes / while they suck the world dry / to please the masses," David Braun sings in "Drunk on Another Planet," the first song off the band's third EP, "Our Hands Turn Into Machines."
When I first saw the Orange County quintet in early 2006 playing to a typically giddy all-ages Tuesday night crowd at the Key Club, Braun and band mates Andrew Honore, Matt Mason, Barrett Slagle and Josh Stephens augmented their theatrical live show with videos and sundry antics. None of that was present, or necessary, when Great Glass Elevator played Tuesday night to a small crowd at the Troubadour. The songs were enough.
Signed to Atlantic last May, the quintet is currently touring and writing songs for its full-length.
Meanwhile, they are offering the "Our Hands Turn Into Machines" for free download (email address required). As the kids would say: Totally worth it.
When Porcelain first crossed the International Dateline to bring their amped-up melodrama to L.A., it was 2003, and the Australian quintet brought a little bit of everything -- heavy metal riffage, a punk sensibility and an electronic violin that made it all sound proggy. After playing to crowds in the thousands in their native country, they were slugging it out in downtrodden Hollywood clubs, trying to get the industry's ear. "Buoyant and mesmerizing" is how it seemed to me when I wrote about them in August of that year.
That they had signed to Universal escaped my notice until this week, when they announced their showcase tonight (7:45) at the Roxy, with a backgrounder telling of "musical sessions" with a litany of A-listers as they marched through the arduous process of making their debut album. That process began in late 2005, and the yet-to-be-titled album is only now being mixed, guitarist Ben Richards says, with an eye on a late-summer release.
Porcelain eventually recorded the album with producer Mike Green, who has worked with another violin-toting rock outfit, Yellowcard. On the sampler CD, "Better Off Without You" and "Heaven Let It Rain" come off as a bit overwrought, but, hey, that's epic to some listeners. I'll wait for the full album to decide. One thing for sure: People like their rock stars, and Porcelain front woman Lo Roberts has that quality. Between her emotive caterwauling, Richards' guitar leads and Asha Mevlana's violin, the quintet brings arena-rock energy to their live show. Overlong sessions in the studio won't change that.
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The Taste of Chaos Tour lands at the Long Beach Arena tonight, with the Used and 30 Seconds to Mars headlining. Orange County quintet Saosin, the subject of my Buzz Bands column in The Times print edition this week, is on the bill too.
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Tonight's touts: Nice benefit at Safari Sam's, with the likes of the Prix, the Shakes and New Fidelity performing the music of the Byrds, Love and the Kinks. A canned food donation gets you $2 off admission price. ... Cold War Kids have a sold-out show at the Troubadour. ... Gomez guys Ian Ball and Ben Ottewell perform at the Hotel Cafe. ... Michael Franti & Spearhead, along with Blacklicious, rock the Wiltern. ... Flogging Molly plays a sold-out gig at the Fonda Theatre. ... And Polus and Red Monroe are among the acts playing the Echo.
Ambient music can make you feel as if you're enveloped by fog, torn between the comfort of its womb-like sonics and the anxiety over what might lie beyond the shroud. The aptly named L.A. band In Waves wratchets up the tension considerably, with furious, melodic drums punctuating distortion-laden guitar and reverb-heavy vocals. Ethereal, meet ghostly.
A collaboration between Orange County boyhood friends Jimmy Notorleva and Dean Cooper -- "We'd play old surf songs while our parents talked about mortgages," Notorleva says -- In Waves landed in local clubs about a year ago with no proper recordings (they have only now begun that process), their sense of experimentation intact. In stark contrast to many of the bands with which they were billed, the two-piece featured just Notorleva's echoing voice and guitar (often over prerecorded loops) and Cooper's rhythms.
"We started as kind of a post-punk band, but we never felt like it was our thing. So Dean and I kept practicing until our own voice emerged," Notorleva says, not that he is quite sure of that voice's origins. "But it seems the most subconscious things come from darker places."
Cooper's artful work emerged as he slowly "learned to articulate things" over a 10-year love affair with the kit. "The drums can speak a lot more [in In Waves' setting] than they can in just a regular rock song with a backbeat," he says. "The rhythms add texture to the songs ... On a lot of our stuff, I just listen to Jimmy's lead and play to that, either to complement or call-and-answer his parts."
For this month's Tuesday night residency In Silverlake, the duo has added bassist Tim Gregorio, who will be in on the band's three-song recording project for Henry Records.
||| In Waves plays tonight at the Silverlake Lounge and next Tuesday at El Cid.
Photo of Jimmy Notorleva, left, and Dean Cooper by Brian White.
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Tonight's touts: Northern continues its residency at the Key Club's Ruby Tuesdays. ... Silverchair plays a sold-out show at the El Rey Theatre, and the House of Blues, with Cartel, Cobra Starship and Boys Like Girls on the bill, is sold out too. ... The Minor Canon has an in-store performance at Sea level Records for its album "No Good Dead Goes Unpunished." ... Johnette Napolitano performs at the Hotel Cafe. ... And, as noted earlier today, Jesu's Spaceland show was cancelled due to the British band's problems getting U.S. work permits.
It's a busy Tuesday for releases -- and is it too early to have spring fever?
Top shelf
Pop Levi,
"Return to Form Black Majick Party" (Counter Records): Maybe it's the way Pop Levi sings baaay-beee and hunn-neeee -- as if his black magic transported him to a time of AM radio and Sting Ray bicycles -- but the former bass player of British electropoppers Ladytron makes his revisionist rock work with sparkling guitar licks over chunky, fuzzed-out bass. Anything wimpier, and Levi's debut would deteriorate into the comic affectation with which it flirts; instead, it's a giddy romp through glam, jangle-pop, psychedelia and even bubblegum. Dads of a certain age will dig this album -- they're liable to muse over the punny "Sugar Assault Me Now" or comment that "Pick-Me-Up Uppercut" sure does remind them of the Foundations' "Build Me Up Buttercup" (1968). Others might find Levi's pinched vocals a sweet change-of-pace from today's ostensibly tortured singers, if those listeners can stop shaking their hips long enough to give it some thought.
Other recommendations
Richard Swift, "Dressed Up for the Letdown" (Secretly Canadian): Brilliant storytelling and gorgeous arrangements from the ex-Southern California purveyor of baroque- and ragtime-influenced pop. [See post of Jan. 15.]
Jesu, "Conqueror" (Hydra Head): English three-piece front by Justin Broadrick constructs another formidable wall of guitar, inviting the listener to pick out a wave and ride it. [Note: Jesu's show this week at Spaceland was postponed because of problems the band had obtaining work permits.]
Elvis Perkins, "Ash Wednesday," (XL): The singer-songwriter with a tragic backstory (his father was the late actor Anthony Perkins; his mother died on 9/11 when American Airlines Flight 11 crashed into the Twin Towers) works his way through it on a debut album that never gets squeamish, despite its sentimentality.
The One AM Radio, "This Too Will Pass" (Dangerbird): Singer-songwriter Hrishikesh Hirway lovingly marries electronics and acoustics on his fourth album of dreamy pop, the kind of record that is at home in your bedroom.
From behind the counter
[Today's tip comes from Michael Davis of Poo-Bah Record Shop, 2636 E. Colorado Blvd., Pasadena.]
Explosions in the Sky, "All of a Sudden I Miss Everyone" (Temporary Residence): Davis reports there has been a buzz of customer interest in the fourth album by this Texas band. Indeed, Explosions have earned a reputation for being one of the top purveyors of instrumental rock, and their inclusion on this year's Coachella bill caused a minor stir among fans of their shimmering guitars.
"Brightly Shining, Dimly Lit," the album that the L.A. duo Commuter self-released last summer, is a hunk of soundtrack-ready pop that's three mood swings waiting to happen. With no label backing, Collaborators Dan Zacharias (from the band Imperial Z) and Jay Skinner (Appogee) have taken a DIY approach and have landed their music in myriad television shows (including "The O.C."), movies ("The Mothman Prophesies" and "The Rules of Attraction," among others) and commercials (Lexus, Samsung, Burger King, et. al.). Vocal contributors on the album included Sam Nelson (son of Ricky), Colin Gilmore (son of Jimmy Dale) and Mark Morales (of the band Astra Heights).
Just finished is this video, directed by Randy Stoudt, for the winsome electro-pop number "Chapters," which features Gilmore on background vocals. Bicycles, subways, buses, skateboards, airplanes -- these guys really know how to move on:
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Tonight's touts: Ralph Stanley and the Clinch Mountain Boys perform at the El Rey Theatre. ... Low Stars celebrate their album release with a show at the Hotel Cafe. ... The Airborne Toxic Event and the Sharpe Ease are on the bill for the Indie 103.1-sponsored night at the Viper Room. ... And the trio of recommended Monday residencies continues: Simon Dawes at the Echo (with Glacier Hiking supporting); Eastern Conference Champions at the Silverlake Lounge (with Meho Plaza supporting); and Division Day at Spaceland (with Bedroom Walls, Twilight Sleep and Tigers Can Bite You). ... Oh, and local favorites Silversun Pickups appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno."
Sparta sure is trying, and if the El Paso quartet's 75-minute show Saturday evening at the Echo was any indication, fashion be damned. There was hardly a crooked haircut
in sight, let alone any comically applied eyeliner, as Sparta demonstrated convincingly that it is a band that doesn't need to wear its brand to ply its trade -- furious riffs, edge-of-hardcore emotion-letting and volleys against moral turpitude.
After three albums on three labels, Sparta is a band to be appeciated alongside the likes of Sunny Day Real Estate and Joan of Arc. But you had to enter the sold-out room Saturday with that predisposition, because frontman Jim Ward and his band mates -- drummer Tony Hajjar, bassist Matt Miller and guiarist Keeley Davis -- were so businesslike that any fans who arrived in the margins probably stayed there. Even the most captivating of the band's songs, such as the anthemic "Taking Back Control" and "False Start" off last October's release, "Threes," seemed to be exercises in the foursome's formidable technique rather than transcendent.
No matter, though, to the fist-pumping, head-bobbing throngs, most of whom sang along with Ward's poetry and helped him finish his choruses. To them, the opportunity to see their arena-ready heroes in a 350-capacity room was a pretty smart buy.
Photo: Jim Ward, right, and Matt Miller of Sparta (by Kevin Bronson)
Sam Lanni's struggles to get his east Hollywood nightclub Safari Sam's open were well-documented. It hasn't been exactly smooth sailing since -- for one thing, the patio smoking area had to be shut down for a few months while permissions were sorted out. Then, on Jan. 27, Safari Sam's lost its "face." The sign on Sunset Boulevard bearing the silhouetted Sam's mask shorted out, caught fire and burned.
No one was hurt, unless you count egos.
Tonight at 7 the club will hold a wake for the sign, followed by a benefit featuring performances by the Freak Show Deluxe, Conquistador, Lion of Panishir and Drive A. A moment of silence, please. But only a moment.
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Tonight's touts: Pretty indie-rock rules on the Eastside tonight, with Syd Straw performing at the Echo and the Autumn Defense at Spaceland. ... Todd Snider (with Mike Stinson supporting) entertains at the Troubadour. ... Cradle of Filth heads a heavy metal lineup at the Fonda Theatre. ... And pianist Christopher O'Riley salutes Nick Drake with a show at UCLA's Royce Hall.
American Eyes plays as if it secured the last existing copyright on suburban teenage angst, with a sound that infringes on a lot of territory -- retro metal, dancy but hard-edged '80s new wave and even a little emo. Fresh off a recording session with Josh Abraham (who has worked with Velvet Revolver and Weezer, among others), the L.A. quintet is self-releasing an EP titled "Space." With their roots in the San Fernando Valley and their amps on the Sunset Strip, the quintet returns to the Key Club -- where the band has long been a favorite of young crowds -- for a record-release show at 10 tonight. Expect front man David Henry Zonshine to be at his swaggering best.
Three-year-old Canadian rock band Jets Overhead, just nominated for a JUNO award for best new band, has an interesting philosophy -- the quintet gives away its music via its website and asks the downloader to make a voluntary purchase. It's worth it. The band's 2006 "Bridges" album is a great slice of guitar rock (especially the track "Shadow Knows"), and its "Jets Overhead" EP from the previous year is worth a hit to your PayPal account too. Here's hoping for an L.A. tour stop sometime this year.
It's the time of year music mavens and industry types are all atwitter about the annual South by Southwest Music Festival in Austin, which promises to be a quite a shindig, judging from its lineup.
But those of us relegated to spending March 14 to 18 in Los Angeles will be able to see a small slice of it -- DirecTV, in conjunction with Blaze TV, will be broadcasting shows on three days. Thus far, the bands lined up run the gamut from new to veteran and from rock to pop. The broadcasts will be carried on DirecTV's channel 101 (The 101, which apparently even has a MySpace page.).
Among those scheduled so far: Ozomatli, Young Love, Cute Is What We Aim For, Bowling for Soup, Razorlight, the Bravery, Rachel Fuller and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly.
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Tonight's touts: The Guggenheim Grotto, an indie-pop trio from Ireland, lands at the Hotel Cafe tonight; pretty gorgeous, their album "Waltzing Alone." ... The L.A. blog Rock Insider has an "Indie Schmindie" night at the Scene in Glendale featuring, among others, the Good Listeners and the Mezzanine Owls. ... Cracker and Camper van Beethoven party at Safari Sam's. ... Ima Robot headlines the Roxy. ... Josh Haden, the Minor Canon and the Chapin Sisters gang up for a show at the Echo. ... Everybody Else plays at the Orange County Museum of Art. .. And for a little veteran flava, the Smithereens are headlining the Key Club
The preciously named folk-pop singer Ferraby Lionheart, who has been charming audiences in Silver Lake and its suburbs (even the Sunset Strip, I saw it for myself), has been signed to Nettwerk Productions, which will digitally re-release his EP on Feb. 27 and send him out on tours with the Autumn Defense and the Walkmen.
The Nashville native is working on a full-length album, due this summer. Since neither the Autumn Defense nor the Walkmen tours visit L.A., next week's show in Los Feliz is the last chance to wish him well before he takes his show on the road.
||| Ferraby Lionheart performs Tuesday at Tangier.
Photo by Ashley Ording.
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Park life: Curb Appeal, the indie label that is home to local trip-hop duo 8mm, has signed singer-songwriter Patrick Park, long a mainstay of the L.A. scene. One of his tunes will even be in the final episode of "The O.C." on Feb. 22. No exact release date yet for Park's follow-up to "Loneliness Knows My Name."
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Add Coachella: With three-day passes sold out [see post earlier today], and single-day tickets virtually gone too, message boards were sizzling with vitriol toward brokers whom many predicted would jack prices sky-high.
Sure enough. With the festival still 71 days off and the sellout announcement not even a day old, one broker was asking $540 for a three-day pass (originally $249 before service charges) and as much as $185 for a single-day ($85). And one person on Craigslist is asking $475 for a single-day ticket; others want $450 to $650 for three-day passes.
L.A. three-piece Gliss announces its presence with tsunami of reverb, loping bass and echoing vocals -- not to mention a stage show that sees each of its three members, Martin Klingman, Victoria Cecilia and David Reiss, trading off duties between guitar, bass and drums. Their tireless touring efforts both locally and in the U.K. have earned the band a nice buzz for its album "Love the Virgins," released last year.
Now, word is that the trio is close to signing a deal with Cordless, an artist development label that is an arm of the Warner Music Group.
If that doesn't warm your heart on Valentine's Day, here's a gift from the band -- the title track from the "Kick in Your Heart" EP, first released in 2005:
I jumped the gun by a couple days with my original Sunday post and was taken to task by the unbelievers on the message boards (thanks, guys!), but now it's for real: Three-day passes for the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival are sold out, as are single-day passes for Saturday and Sunday. Only single-days for Friday remain.
See you in the desert. I'll be live-blogging the festival again this year [last year's efforts here], with up-to-the-minute posts on what I see and hear.
The first act of the Astra Heights story sounds like a waking dream: The band of brothers escapes its native Houston for Los Angeles, impresses people with its pop chops and one year later gets signed to Universal.
“It’s all going smoothly — well, not exactly smoothly,” says singer-guitarist Mark Morales, who migrated to L.A. with brothers James, Joshua and Timothy before the foursome added guitarist Bernard Yin. “But whatever happens happens.”
So far, fate happened. The A&R representative that signed Astra Heights left the company, leaving the quintet with nobody to champion its cause. The band spent much of 2006 recording its album (tentatively slated for a late spring release), an amalgam of hooky rock with referents ranging from the Stooges to Queen to Matthew Sweet. “We actually started out more power-poppish, but we’ve taken on this classic rock/glam-type feel,” Mark says, adding with a laugh: “We’re calling it ballsy pop.”
And they’re playing it as if they can bring T. Rex back from extinction. It’s no accident that during its Silverlake Lounge residency this month, Astra Heights is playing as if its life depended on it. “Moving to L.A. forced us to get a lot better because of the quality of all the bands here,” Mark says. “For now, we just have to continue to build a following.”
Photo: From left, Bernard Yin, Mark V. Morales, Joshua P. Morales, Timothy D. Morales, James S. Morales (By Ruthie Brownfield).
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Tonight's touts:Albert Hammond Jr.'s show at the Troubadour (with Har Mar Superstar opening) is sold out. ... Common brings it, with two shows at the House of Blues. ... The Roots play the House of Blues Anaheim. ... And there will be a photo kissing booth at Spaceland, where the Shys and the Gray Kid perform. XO, and all that.
[It's a slow Tuesday for album releases, so I'll review an interesting artifact that came out in January -- and, in the interest of correcting myself, re-post my recommendation of the SoftLightes album, since I had the release date wrong last week:]
Top shelf
The Smithereens, "Meet the Smithereens!" (Koch): Cover songs and tribute albums are tenuous propositions -- more often than not, the spirit of the originals is trampled by well-meaning overexuberance or simply flattened by mere aping. This re-creation of "Meet the Beatles!," the landmark U.S. release from 1964, does neither, although to appreciate it, of course, it helps to have an abiding love for the original and a familiarity with the veteran New Jersey band that undertook the project [recommended: the quartet's "Blown to Smithereens" best-of from 1995]. The Smithereens (kids, think of them as a poppy Hold Steady) are of a generation that marks the Beatles' arrival on these shores as nothing less than life-changing. By reconstituting the 12 songs in largely their original arrangements, the Smithereens have exercised proper reverence -- only singer Pat DiNizio's dusky vocals might qualify as "interpretation." As much as anything, the band has simply rolled up its collective sleeve, revealing on its musical skin the everlasting imprint of that day 43 year ago.
||| The Smithereens perform at the Key Club on Thursday.
Other recommendations
Lucinda Williams, "West" (Lost Highway): Country, folks, blues -- it doesn't matter what language Williams is speaking, it's all about sorting through the shards of heartbreak. A lyrical tour de force. SoftLightes, "Say No! to Being Cool, Say Yes! to Being Happy" (Modular): Gorgeous, evocative electro-pop from Ron Founteberry, the man behind the Incredible Moses Leroy.
◊ ◊ ◊ Tonight's touts: Glacier Hiking joins resident band Northern (a Hellogoodbye offshoot) at the free Ruby Tuesday night at the Key Club. ... Luther Russell and the Watson Twins perform at the Echo. ... In Waves continues its residency in Silver Lake, this time at El Cid. ... And they're great, but both the shows featuring Patty Griffin (Hotel Cafe) and Imogen Heap (Silent Movie Theatre) are sold out.
Dave Gibbs knows better than to interpret “new” too broadly when it modifies “music.” “Every year you get the new Stooges, or the new Velvet Underground, or the new Pixies,” says Gibbs, the singer-guitarist of 1990s garage-poppers the Gigolo Aunts. “But it seems nobody wants to be the new Crosby, Stills & Nash, or the new Eagles, maybe because they’re seen as so uncool.”
Give fashion a rest. And meet Low Stars, who are about as cool as an iced mocha.
Distinctive first because they are a coalescence of four front-man-caliber singer-songwriters — Jude, Chris Seefried, Jeff Russo and Gibbs — Low Stars revisit the days when virtuoso vocals and melodies ruled pop, and three- and four-part harmonies piled up like layer cake.
Hope all you hipsters were not slackers. Your procrastination might have made your annual spring trip the desert a difficult, if not impossible, proposition.
The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival, scheduled for April 27 to 29 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, is virtually sold out, sources say.
That's right, tickets for this year's festival, expanded from two days to three, are almost gone, 80 days in advance. Coachella has never sold out more than a week in advance in its seven previous incarnations. Official announcement of a sellout is expected soon, sources say. Promoters concentrated this year on selling three-day passes rather than single-day tickets -- only 20% of the tickets sold this year were single-day. (The reason? Area hotels demand a weekend-long stay, and promoters don't want rooms tied up by visitors who are not attending the festival.)
[Note: Initially I was told the festival was sold out. Thanks to those who set me straight.]
Seattle-based indie label Sub Pop rode off with the lion's share of honors Saturday night at the Plug Independent Music Awards in New York City -- thanks to its Band of Horses.
The trio, which recently relocated to South Carolina, captured album-of-the-year honors, as well as the award for best Americana album and song of the year ("The Funeral"). Sub Pop was named label of the Year, and another of its bands, CSS, won best punk album for "Cansei De Ser Sexy." Sub Pop's Wolf Parade was honored for best video ("I'll Believe in Anything").
J Dilla was named artist of the year and producer of the year.
David Cross hosted the show, which featured performances by Steven Malkmus and Jicks and Silversun Pickups, among others. Winners were determined by voting on the Internet.
It is 8:30 on a Friday night, and I am hot on the trail of one of Rolling Stone's Top 25 Bands on MySpace. This quest has taken me to the second floor of the Borders bookstore in downtown Glendale, where I drape myself into a plastic chair with a latte and the recent issue of Spin magazine.
[Tangent: It's the issue that throws some darts at the Los Angeles power-pop scene in general and journeyman musician/actor/voice-over artist Robbie Rist in particular. Coincidentally, the same issue gives a little love to L.A.'s finest power-pop quintet, the 88.]
Anyway, in the harsh fluorescent light of the chain store, near the fitness and exercise DVDs, Shannon Hurley is singing her Hoosier-bred heart out. It's just Hurley and a Yamaha keyboard and a batch of heartfelt ballads such as a paean to sunrise and a wan confession that she's jealous of all the time her boyfriend has been devoting to his rock band. "Come to bed and hold me / I've been up for hours."
The crowd of 10 or 12, which includes a couple friends and fellow singer-songwriter Katrina Parker, swells to about 25 by the time Hurley is finished with her set, which includes a Charlatans UK cover and a couple brief foul-ups -- "whoops," she says in the good-natured way Midwesterners do. The young family that just bought the origami gift set applauds with everybody else.
How did Hurley, of the thousands of singer-songwriters on MySpace (and in L.A., it seems), attain her 5 minutes of Internet fame? Rolling Stone claims to have screened 1,700 entries to come up with its list of 25.
She's mystified. "I answered the ad that they posted and I followed the directions," she says.
A random act of acclaim. A reason to keep playing.
||| Shannon Hurley performs Feb. 24 at Karma Coffeehouse as part of a series she co-promotes called "Don't Call Us Tori" -- a reference to those who tend to compare any female singer playing keyboards to Tori Amos.
Photo by Kevin Bronson.
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Coming Sunday, Part I: I will be doing a blow-by-blow account of the Grammys for The Times' awards website The Envelope. Join me at 5 p.m. Pacific time.
Coming Sunday, Part II: I expect to have some major festival news on this very blog.
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Tonight's touts: Pop outfit Goldenboy performs along with (ex-Velocity Girl) Sarah Shannon at Spaceland. ... Get Set Go and Bang Sugar Bang are among the bands playing a Kiss or Kill benefit show at the Glass House in Pomona. ... The Roots have the big show, at Gibson Amphitheatre. ... And the album "Tighten the Noose" was pretty impressive, so I'll mention Little Brazil playing at the Knitting Factory's Alterknit Lounge; the band includes Landon Hughes, who played in Desaparecidos with Bright Eyes' Conor Oberst and the Good Life with Cursive's Tim Kasher.
Independent artists have long been viewed as underdogs on the music landscape. But with indie labels (and artists themselves) leading the way in marketing and distribution of their wares, the democratization of music has virtually rendered the major-label model obsolete. "It's like opening a car dealership when somebody just invented time travel," says Gene Louis, leading singer of the Orange County quartet Bullets and Octane.
Louis' band is signed to RCA. Its album, "In the Mouth of the Young" (released last April), has sold just 15,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and Louis and his bandmates have to feel as if they've done a push-up for every copy, having toured relentlessly behind it.
"Everybody is cut down to survival skills," he says, adding that in some ways, up-and-coming bands on major labels are at a disadvantage. "If you're not an 'American Idol' contestant, you're [crap]."
Bullets' album is a solid, if erratic, effort; its brash metal moments give way to punk hooks, and Louis' vocals reach for the irascibility of a Social Distortion or the foreboding of a Bad Religion. The album was made with producer Page Hamilton (Helmet) at a difficult time in the band's growth, "when a lot of things were happening that dragged people down," Louis says.
The front man is already looking forward to the next album. "We're maturing so much lyrically and melodically," he says. "Our approach is to not overthink, just go for it."
||| Bullets and Octane (with four new songs in their set) headline the Roxy tonight, with the Ringers among the supporting bands.
Photo of Bullets and Octane by James Minchin
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More new music:The Autumns, long one of L.A.'s mystifyingly overlooked bands, are finishing up their fourth album -- some which you can hear tonight when they play the Echo. More on this closer to the album's May/June release, but singer-guitarist Matthew Kelly says: "I think it's the most signficant departure ever for this band. Of course, a band always thinks the next thing they do is a departure, but I think we're right this time."
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Tonight's touts:SoftLightes' album release show for their lovely "Say No! to Being Cool, Say Yes! to Being Happy" goes off at Tangier, with Xu Xu Fang also on the bill. ... The Prix plays as the Lava Lounge plays taps; the venue is closing for an overhaul. ... Miho Hatori and Los Abandoned rock the Troubadour. ... And Thailand plays El Cid.
Jesse Sykes has the voice of a barmaid who always tells you the truth at closing time. It's faintly weathered and fairly frank, and on the third album by her band, Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, it navigates some rugged emotional territory.
If only the title, "Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul" (released this week on Barsuk Records), weren't so daunting.
"The emotional thread couldn't be explained in one song title," says the Seattle-based singer-songwriter. "I wanted it to have a grand quality ... [to signal] that the album is going to take a certain level of commitment from the listener, but that it will unveil itself over time."
Indeed, her rootsy, noir-ish rock is better suited for long drives across the desert than rainy nights on the Puget Sound. This batch of songs, realized with collaborator Phil Wandscher, benefits from an amped-up treatment that nudges the band ever so slightly out of the melancholic shadows. "I think our music is more hopeful than people realize," Sykes says. "Some people who loved us for a more pastoral, minimalist sound might not like this, but we're not reinventing the wheel."
Never sacrificed, however, is Sykes' candor; here, you feel no coyness or gamesmanship — the songwriter is looking you straight in the eye. "I'm done with cynicism," Sykes says. "I hate to see people be afraid of sincerity."
||| Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter open for Sparklehorse tonight at the Henry Fonda Theatre.
It took nine months for Oliver Future to record its new album, "Pax Futura," with L.A.-based producer Adam Lasus (Clap Your Hands Say Yeah). It took one day for the music to be "released" -- and nary a CD was manufactured. The L.A. quintet is one of the early batch of artists who have started selling their music through their MySpace website. Using software devised by San Francisco-based SnoCap, fans can buy songs at 93 cents apiece straight from the band.
"I'm not a young 'un -- I don't even have an iPod yet," jokes singer-guitarist Noah Lit, who celebrated his 29th birthday Wednesday night as the band dished out its fusion of white-boy soul, glammy power-pop and rump-shaking rhythms to a small but lively crowd at the Silverlake Lounge. "But it's exciting. We've met with labels, A&R guys ... but here there are no intermediaries. We don't even need bloggers' opinions anymore. It's been hard for me to wrap my brain around."
The music has been up for only a matter of days, so Lit has no idea how it is selling yet. But he said the deal calls for SnoCap to take 40%, and the bands get paid monthly.
"And to think I only used MySpace to stalk women," Lit kidded.
The implications for unsigned bands are dizzying. But as Lit pointed out, music sales on MySpace will give bands another tool in negotiating deals with labels. He said Oliver Future's music is still being shopped, and the band plans to release physical CDs on Lasus' imprint Fireproof Recordings.
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Tonight's touts:Eleni Mandell's show celebrating the release of her excellent "Miracle of Five" goes off at the Echo. ... Ex-Toad the Wet Sprocket front guy Glen Phillips performs at the Hotel Cafe. ... And speaking of exes, former Cibo Matto chanteuse Miho Hatori plays the Detroit Bar (with Los Abandoned opening).
[The day job is killing me today, so I've gathered tidbits from colleagues and the L.A. blogosphere, just so you think I'm still paying attention:]
Tom Morello, in the last of his Tuesday night appearances (until later in the spring) as the Nightwatchman at the Hotel Cafe, finished his two-hour, all-star jam with a bang. At the end of the charity session, Morello, Shooter Jennings, Ben Harper, Jill Sobule and B Real and Sen Dog from Cypress Hill were all onstage running through "(Rock) Superstar," "California Love" and, with Morello on the mic, a rendition of "Born in the USA" that "sounded like shattered glass," Times staffer Geoff Boucher reports.
Meanwhile, the Police are going to hit the Whisky. (Insert joke here.) Sting and the crew have called a press conference at the Sunset Strip club on Monday for a "special announcement," Times staffer Randy Lewis reports.
And around the L.A. blogs:
-- Radio Free Silverlake posts a gorgeous video for "You're a Wolf" by Sea Wolf. Yes, that's half of the Silversun Pickups and some of Great Northern playing along.
-- Aquarium Drunkard updates us on Smog, Rickie Lee Jones and others, as well as check in with a mini-review of the Good, the Bad and the Queen.
-- Rock Insider is all atwitter about a blogger-curated showcase at the upcoming South by Southwest Music Festival, which includes fine L.A. bands Sea Wolf, Midnight Movies, Briertone and Twilight Sleep.
-- Passion of the Weiss reviews "King Giraffe" by the feel-good local outfit the Parson Redheads.
-- You Set the Scene reminds me I forgot to mention the Apples in Stereo's new release, "New Magnetic Wonder," in my batch of Tuesday reviews.
-- Rewriteable Content reviews albums by one band I don't understand, Deerhunter, and one I do, the Minor Canon.
-- Little Radio reports that recent Silverlake Lounge residents the Pity Party scored a gig opening for the Raveonettes.
-- LA Underground introduces Bay Area quintet Minipop, who play tonight at the Troubadour.
-- And Filter magazine's blog points out that last week was the biggest sales week to date for the Silversun Pickups' "Carnavas," which came out in July.
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Tonight's touts: Heavy-duty gathering at Zanzibar -- the Urban Alternative Mixer features performances by Atlanta's Anthony David and Philadelphia's Supa Lowery Bros. ... Astra Heights starts a Wednesday night residency at the Silverlake Lounge with Oliver Future. ... Stellastarr*, impressive with its new stuff Tuesday night at Safari Sam's, plays the Troubadour. ... Airpushers perform at the Roxy. ... She Wants Revenge and Brazilian Girls bring the dance party to the Avalon. ... Killola and Bang Sugar Bang head a Kiss or Kill lineup at Safari Sam's. ... And Busdriver and Daedelus perform at the Airliner in Highland Park.
Today's trip to the record store will no doubt be marked by a spirited debate in the aisles over Bloc Party's new "A Weekend in the City" -- and I wonder, where's the Party? -- which is downright hard to do when you're tripping over kids rushing to buy Fall Out Boy's "Infinity on High." Still, there is shopping to be done:
Top shelf
Fujiya & Miyagi, "Transparent Things" (Deaf Dumb & Blind): Sometimes you don't care that the joke is on you. Fujiya & Miyagi are not Asian; they are not even a duo. They are three Englishmen -- singer-guitarist David Best (Miyagi), keyboardist-beatmaker Steve Lewis (Fujiya) and bassist Matt Hainsby (the ampersand) -- who make dance music so organic you'd think their Moog is a flower bed. The Brighton trio has concocted a strain of electronica that hypnotizes as much as it energizes, with warm beats reminiscent of Canadian critical darlings the Junior Boys and basslines thicker than a Cadillac salesman's pitch. Best's lyrics are obfuscations, sure -- how many songs can you write about shoes? -- and he delivers them in a half-whisper, as if he were afraid of alarming the Pac-Man palpitations chewing up the sonic territory. I'm pretty sure he sings "sock it to me" a couple times too, but the results are more hardball than cheeseball. Metronome on.
Other recommendations
Eleni Mandell, "Miracle of Five" (Zedtone): Another stroke of genius from the L.A. songstress who only invites, and never insists, that you step into her lounge. You stay of your own volition as the turns the notion of confessional inside out.
SoftLightes, "Say No! to Being Cool, Say Yes! to Being Happy" (Modular): Gorgeous, evocative electro-pop from Ron Founteberry, the man behind the Incredible Moses Leroy.
Jesse Sykes & the Sweet Hereafter, "Like, Love, Lust & the Open Halls of the Soul" (Barsuk): The title may be a mouthful, but the Seattle-based Sykes' boozy folk-rock leaves a pleasant aftertaste.
Peter Bjorn and John, "Writer's Block" (Almost Gold): Don't expect an album full of dead-on hits like the whistling "Young Folks." Nonetheless there's plenty of charm, and a little bite, to go around.
The Colour, "Between Earth & Sky" (Rethink): Local quartet delivers an album of classic rock for the new millenium.
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Tonight's touts: Power-pop quintet the 88 play the Key Club. ... The Colour celebrates its album release with a show at Cinespace. ... Bodies of Water, Listing Ship and the Shakes are among the bands convening at the Echo for an Arthur Lee tribute. ... And Stellastarr* and Monsters Are Waiting rock the Check Yo' Ponytail night at Safari Sam's.
[Correspondent August Brown, reeling from the literalness of the Super Bowl halftime show's "Purple Rain," got out from in front of his TV set for a little indie-pop:]
Khaela Maricich of the Blow was in the middle of telling a great story about being heckled by an obnoxious guy on her way to work, when some dude slouched against the bar further proved her point. "Shut up," he told her, in slightly more ribald terms, and a cardigan-clad brawl seemed to be brewing in the crowd Sunday at the Echo. "Hey, that's him," Maricich answered, and went right on singing her excellent and relentlessly sexy set of indie-electro love songs, which didn't even miss the presence of her absent bandmate/producer Jona Bechtolt.
Few vocalists could make what amounted to a karaoke set of their own songs worth missing the last minutes of the Super Bowl. But Maricich's boy-crazy Riot Grrl act underscored how her stage presence and personality are as essential to the duo as Bechtolt's whip-smart beatmaking. Hitting all the nightlights from last year's breakout album "Paper Television" and their "Poor Aim" EP, she shadowboxed with potential heartbreakers in the front row while breathily admitting that they're "so hot, it incinerates my thoughts." Even the set's encore, a sorta-cover of "Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic," was a better come-on than anything Sting could crib from his Tantra books.
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Tonight's touts:Foreign Born,In Waves and the Black Palms hold forth in an especially strong, Indie 103.1-sponsored "Check 1,2 ..." lineup at the Viper Room. ... Colorado dance-punks the Photo Atlas join locals InMemory at the Knitting Factory. ... There's a free show (OK, $3 if you're younger than 21) at the Troubadour, with Heroes & Heroines and Klum. ... A host of delicious Feburary residencies kick off: Malibu popsters Simon Dawes play the Echo; Venus Infers hold forth at Costa Mesa's Detroit Bar; Eastern Conference Champions (with Great Glass Elevator supporting) play the Silverlake Lounge; and Division Day (with the Movies supporting) rock Spaceland. ... And punk rockers Pennywise continue their string of sold-out House of Blues shows -- the band is in Anaheim tonight, Tuesday and Wednesday.
Stellastarr* was one of the early entries into this decade's derby of new wave hybridizers, and I thought their two albums for RCA ("Stellastarr*" in 2003 and "Harmonies for the Haunted" in 2005) put them closer to the upper echelon of Cure/Joy Division acolytes (Editors, Interpol) than the dross (the Bravery, She Wants Revenge). Even if I did find that darned asterisk cloying.
The marketplace did not exactly concur. The two albums sold 54,000 and 25,000 copies, respectively, and the label and the New York quartet parted ways. They continue to work on their third album and play two L.A. shows next week as part of the obligatory label dance.
Dim Mak has been busy. The label-child of Steve Aoki (is he going by DJ Kid Millionaire anymore?) will co-release the next album by his pal Blake Miller's band, Moving Units, And Dim Mak has signed a charming quartet of youthful thrash-poppers, the Deadly Syndrome. The latter band chewed up the stage Friday night at the Echo during its opening set for the Airborne Toxic Event [see next post]. The music? Catchy, dancy, bombastic and messy in a charming way. Deconstruct on, dudes.
||| Moving Units and the Deadly Syndrome perform tonight at the Troubadour.
Also on the way from the label: more dance-punk from the Rakes, an album by the Mystery Jets and an EP from Oh No! Oh My! And probably 167 Dim Mak parties I won't be on the list for.
The scorching guys from the Icarus Line have an album on the way in June -- it's called "Black Lives at the Golden Coast." Some flavor:
Also interesting will be the label's March release of "Chautauqua," the third album by young Orange Countians the Willowz. [Full review to come.] Here's a taste:
The early show Sunday at the Echo features Portland, Ore., duo the Blow (Jona Bechtolt and Khaela Maricich). First impression: fun, very fun, fun that could last more than 5 minutes.
◊ ◊ ◊ The Little Ones are currently in the U.K. to do some tour dates and record their debut full-length for Heavenly/Astralwerks. Can't wait to hear some. Here's a new take on an '06 favorite:
Geffen has signed English three-piece the Klaxons, whose dancy prog-pop could go over pretty well in the U.S. The band is scheduled to play the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival. The creative types in the British press are called their music "nu-rave," and, well, it certainly ain't boring.
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And finally, there's no quicker way to a blogger's heart than name-checking him [the L.A. band named Bronson excepted]. On its Feb. 20 release "Strength in Numbers," the New York trio Calla has a song that's sure to make my mixtapes. The band is working on a Los Angeles date on its West Coast tour (current scheduling has them skipping from San Diego to San Francisco), but this will tide me over:
Also this weekend: On Sunday, there's some kind of game, with some dude playing at halftime, but if you're up for anti-sporting event event, there's the first in the "Don't Cause a Scene Sunday" at the Scene Bar in Glendale. Kicks off (so to speak) at 3 p.m., with bands including Yes Me to Death and the Switch.
[Postscript: In my previous life I was a sportswriter and had the chance to cover a Super Bowl. Nothing like this ever happened. In fact, I can't even remember the halftime entertainment. The Washington Post had the coolest headline: "Best. Press. Conference. Ever."]
That sound you heard Friday night in Echo Park was a band breaking out. The Airborne Toxic Event, folks. Yes, it sounds like the answer to an extra-credit question on your middle school science final, and you probably have had to read a lot of books to understand all its nuances. But in front of a crowd packed with fans from a generous guest list, the Event was just that, poetry you could dance to.
Made you want to run back and pay the cover charge. Made you want to shell out a fiver for the band's self-released three-song EP, though they were gone by the end of the night. Made you want to move, and embrace, and embrace life, and maybe even embrace one of those bacon-wrapped hot dogs you find on Sunset Boulevard after a show. Alas, there was not a vendor in sight.
Such euphoria was brought to you by singer-songwriter Mikel Jollett, whose tales of groovy mopery and pent-up anger lead you to believe he has stared down some of life's tougher questions. His music is obviously derived from the Crown Prince of the Bummed Out -- who, coincidentally, was playing to a packed house a few miles away -- but substitutes an air of art-house detachment for Morrissey's drama-queen theatrics. Jollett's lyrics will become evident as as the Event releases more music, but suffice to say they covered ground ranging from relationships gone sour to Middle East incursions gone sour.
His Cal Arts-heavy five-piece (which grew to six on a couple of songs with the addition of a horn player) was nothing short of amazing, considering the band is four months old and this was its 11th show. You don't see a bassist (Noah Harmon) playing his electric with a bow too often, much less dueting with a violist (Anna Bulbrook). "Deliverance" for art-schoolers.
You swooned, you buffeted, you took a deep breath. You finally stopped and thought, "What's the deal with that band's name, anyway?"
Photo: From left, Noah Harmon, Mikel Jollett, Anna Bulbrook, Steven Chen (Kevin Bronson/LAT)
[Count correspondent August Brown among the underwhelmed at Thursday night's Roxy show. He files this report, as I just mouth the words:]
A few things were missing at Peter Bjorn and John’s L.A. debut on Thursday night. For starters, there was no John. The band’s drummer had returned to Sweden after their New York shows earlier in the week, giving the packed-to-the-gills crowd the amiable combo of Peter, Bjorn and Lars (his replacement for the night) instead.
But the airtight, easygoing production of their album "Writer’s Block" didn’t quite translate in a power-trio setting. Normally ace tracks like "Let’s Call It Off" and "The Chills" were a bit loping and anemic, and missed the little washes of keyboards and percussion that kept "Writer’s Block" fresh months after it hit the Internet. And yes, rumors of -- gasp! -- lip-synced whistling on "Young Folks" proved true. Which wouldn’t have been a letdown necessarily, if the night’s best moments hadn’t come in the more unhinged tracks like "Object Of My Affection," where the band ditched their suits and seemed to forget that this tour was essentially a press junket.
The band’s material is strong enough that their performance could skate by on charm alone. But when they come back to the States for a proper tour, a lineup of Peter, Bjorn, John and a couple hired guns to fill out the sound would be all the more winning.
This simply turns my music-listening skin from deeply calloused to baby soft.
Peter Bjorn and John's show tonight at the Roxy is sold out. We will have a scout there, no doubt whistling while he works.
Tonight's touts: Plenty of other great things to choose from tonight -- Young Love figures to have the kids swooning at the Knitting Factory. ... The One AM Radio joins Occidental at the Echo. ... Sky Parade [see Wednesday's post] opens for Midnight Movies at Spaceland. ... And apparently some people like this but I don't think I'll be at the El Rey for it.
Songwriter Mikel Jollett is of a breed that counts at least as many literary references as musical. That certainly accounts for his band's Scrabble-worthy name, the Airborne Toxic Event(from Don DeLillo's apocalyptic treatise "White Noise").
But how is it the Los Angeles quintet arrived at a sound so exuberant that the band's fellow art-schoolers want to dance through their MFA projects?
"A year and a half ago, I was trying to finish a novel, and I was alone in a room constantly," says Jollett, a former music journalist (including some freelance work for The Times). "My mom had just been diagnosed with cancer, and I had just been diagnosed with a congenital skin disease, though it was the kind that only attacks your vanity.
"I quit smoking, spent a month walking around in a daze. It was like the moment in my life I realized I was going to die."
What began as cathartic songwriting gained momentum after Jollett, 32, met drummer Daren Taylorand "we locked ourselves in a warehouse in downtown L.A. for four months," Jollett says. Slowly, the pair surrounded themselves with pedigreed musicians — jazz bassist Noah Harmon, keyboardist Steven Chen and violistAnna Bulbrook. They emerged with a batch of nouveau-wave songs that are equal parts Modest Mouse, the Smiths and scholarly journal.
With only about 10 shows and a self-released EP behind them, ATE has turned heads — Rolling Stone tabbed the band one of the 25 best bands on MySpace. Their headlining show Friday night at the Echo is expected to attract a cadre of label scouts.
"This has all happened pretty fast," Jollett says. "I just know the first time we were in a room together, there was an energy — we could feel it."
||| The Airborne Toxic Event performs Friday night at the Echo.
Photo: From left, Anna Bulbrook, Noah Harmon, Mikel Jollett, Steven Chen, Daren Taylor (by Erin Broadley)
About the Blogger
Kevin Bronson Kevin Bronson has covered emerging and indie music since 2002 in his weekly Buzz Bands column in the Calendar Weekend section of the L.A. Times. He adores caffeine, judicious use of falsetto and the 6-4-3 double play. He abhors exclamation points, modern country and any notion that New York City is the c
Eastern Conference Champions finished its February residency at the Silverlake Lounge with a bang on Monday night. Then, thieves lowered the boom on the Philadelphia-area trio.
