There are precious few bands, especially those operating in the sonically weighty end of the musical spectrum, that demonstrate any appreciation for the notion that the notes you play may be less important than those you don't.
The Dead Weather, Jack White's latest project -- a collaboration with the Kills’ singer Alison Mosshart, Queens of the Stone Age guitarist Dean Fertita and Raconteurs bassist Jack Lawrence -- embraces that philosophy with bone-chilling power on "Horehound," the band’s take-no-prisoners debut.
Mosshart brings a wildcat's ferocity to her vocals; she's a fearsome adversary to all those high-pitched metal wailers. White, leaving the guitar work predominantly to Fertita, takes up his seat at the drums to drive this machine in tandem with Lawrence's titanic bass lines. Beefy riffs, upended beats and blues-rooted atmospherics are dolloped on sparingly, until it's time to explode with a solo.
"I like to grab you by the hair / And drag you to the devil" Mosshart snarls in "Hang You From the Heavens," which she wrote with Fertita. "Stand up like a man," she warns in the quartet-composed "Treat Me Like Your Mother," "You better learn to shake hands / And treat me like your mother."
In White's "Cut Like a Buffalo," his lead vocal, one of just two on this outing, is accompanied by the convulsive sounds of Mosshart's gurgles as he cries, "Is that you choking / Or are you just joking?" There's no joke here -- just mountains of chest-rattling primal rock designed to reassert the elemental power of the four-piece rock group. Mission accomplished.
The next time you want to test the mettle of a hard-core Duran Duran fan, mention Julie Ann Rhodes.
True “Durannies” are well versed in the fairytale romance between DD keyboardist Nick Rhodes and the Iowa-born model Julie Ann Friedman, whom he met at a party in Los Angeles during the early ‘80s. After a whirlwind courtship, the pair married in a lavish Art Deco-inspired ceremony at London’s Savoy Hotel in 1984, and became a fixture on the global party circuit. The two had one daughter, Tatjana, before divorcing in the late ‘90s.
After developing an interest in healthful eating for her young daughter, Julie Ann Rhodes became a founding member of England’s Parents for Safe Foods before embarking on a short-lived stint in acting.
But her love for fine cuisine eventually pulled her back into the kitchen, resulting in the Roving Stove, an L.A.-based personal chef service she created in 2002. The successful venture has allowed Julie Ann Rhodes to indulge her inner foodie, which is on full display on her blog 'Jewels' From the Roving Stove, where she shares personal stories about her years traveling with Duran Duran, favorite recipes and reviews of fine restaurants 'round the world.
Her motto: “The glamour doesn’t have to stop when you put the apron on.”
Take a look at the artists who've spent time in the studio
with Antonina Armato and Tim James and among the likes of Miley Cyrus, Vanessa
Hudgens and Aly & AJ and you'll find this L.A.-based hard-rock trio, best known
for providing the soundtrack to the hit YouTube video Free Hugs Campaign, which
has racked up more than 46 million views.
Sick Puppies' songs seem distinctive only when you consider
them in relation to those tween-pop acts; examined as a set of lyrics and chord
changes, any of the 13 tracks on "Tri-Polar," the band's second album
since relocating here from Australia, could pass for work by such KROQ
second-stringers as Shinedown or Theory of a Deadman or Finger Eleven.
Thanks to James and Armato's studio wizardry, though, Sick
Puppies sound is another matter: With its crunchy textures and gleaming
surfaces, this is post-grunge alpha-male pop-metal for the Imax 3-D era.
In lead single "You're Going Down," recently
featured in a series of professional-wrestling spots, singer Shimon Moore
flexes his chest-beating bellow over a menacing industrial-disco bass line,
while opener "War" lives up to its title (and then some) with a battery
of machine-gun drums and laser-beam keyboards. Even closer "White
Balloons," which comes on like a folky acoustic shuffle, erupts into
solar-swamp pyrotechnics before it's over.
Think of the result as the musical equivalent of “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” -- very pretty wrapping for a very empty box.
To understand the sensibility Daughtry brings to hard rock, read the acknowledgments in the CD booklet for "Leave This Town." Every member of the band put together by Chris Daughtry, the chart-topping former "American Idol" contestant, thanks his wife profusely -- except for the drummer Joey Barnes, who expresses deep gratitude to a spouse he hasn't yet met.
What happened to the stripper-worshiping hedonism of hair metal, or even the lonely, monkish pose those messy '90s grunge rockers struck? Daughtry and his boys are marriage maniacs. That's what gives this band its pioneering edge, despite the utter predictability of its music.
Focusing on the drama of long-term relationships, Daughtry does something more radical than many more sonically adventurous (and fashionable) rock bands dare.
This doesn't make "Leave This Town" anything but a familiar listen. This is by-the-numbers arena rock, played with muscular competence by a relatively young band showing off its chops by executing successful formulas.
That unwed drummer might be the best thing about Daughtry the band -- Barnes is itchy enough to push forward anthems that might otherwise plod. Guitarist Josh Steely also has his moments, throwing in spicy little riffs. And there's Daughtry's voice, of course, an instrument cleaner and stronger than that of anybody else singing mainstream rock right now. Sometimes the notes he hits here are so open, you'd swear someone had invented a new audio processor just to generate it: Vibrato-Tune. But the mix on "Leave This Town," by hit doctor Chris Lord-Alge, is so compressed that it's tough to notice what each player is doing.
Because of this, though many of its songs surely will be radio staples for the next two years. "Leave This Town" might not make an impression on those not already inclined to love it, but Daughtry is still a major architect in mainstream rock, and his music is part of an important shift in the genre.
The Los Angeles Times' blog czar Tony Pierce went to see Rancid and Rise Against on Saturday night at the Forum in Inglewood. He came home with more questions than answers, but he also had a wisdom tooth pulled in the afternoon, so take what he says with a grain of salt. We allowed him space to rant below. We're not quite sure if we were allowed to say no.
1. Why was Rancid opening for Rise Against? Sure, the Chicago quartet Rise Against is good, and put on a highly energetic, hard rockin' show. But hasn't Rancid already paid its dues? Isn't "...And Out Come the Wolves" something that will live on as one of the more perfect albums of the '90s? As good as Rise Against is -- especially live -- have they ever released anything comparable to any Rancid album?
2. Why is a punk rock show being held at the Forum in Inglewood? While it's true that the venue used to host great heavy metal shows, classic rock events and even its fair share of pop gigs, has there really been a truly successful punk show there since the Butthole Surfers opened for Nirvana in 1993? Therefore, if an arena is what this event called for, wouldn't the Sports Arena near USC have been a better choice? Hey, it might have even sold out.There were whole rows of seats empty at the Forum, as reflected in the above picture.
During his headlining set at KCRW's World Festival at the Hollywood Bowl on Sunday night, Maine-based singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne used his yearning, raspy voice and barely there folk strumming to induce maximum snuggling among the assembled couples.
But just as the wine and warm night air made all seem tender and amorous, LaMontagne would drop a lyric like this from "Winter Birds": "The kettle sings its tortured songs / A many petaled kiss I place upon her brow / Oh my lady, lady I am loving you now."
The pairing of LaMontagne and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra with Jenny Lewis -- the saucy siren whose 2008 album, "Acid Tongue," was one of the year's most barbed records -- only affirmed how he's something of an R. Kelly for bearded indie-folkers.
LaMontagne's not without his talents. He's quite a nimble vocalist, especially when he dips into New Orleans jazz and scruffy blue-eyed soul. But as a document of today's crossover folk music, his set proved that abject sincerity is the new Auto-Tune, a device used to such a great degree that it's lost all novelty and impact.
Two news items chased Beyoncé into the Honda Center in Anaheim on Saturday, when she finally brought her latest world tour to the Southland after four months on the road. One had the singer earning the top spot on Forbes magazine’s “young rich list,” as the highest-earning celebrity under age 30. The other, more gossipy, story involved a rumor that she has banned photographers from shooting her from certain angles during her show, because she sweats too much.
Those tidbits – one about Beyoncé’s unique glamor and the other about a common, earthy foible – better summed up the inner divide she’s been exploring in her work than did the frenzied pizzaz of the concert itself.
That’s not to fault the production: It’s fairly astounding, as both showbiz and an athletic event. For more than two hours, Beyoncé led her large dance troupe and all-female big band (a concept to which she’s remained loyal for two tours now) through many compulsory arena pop routines and several she herself has invented.
She somersaulted while suspended in a harness. Thrilling! She sang Happy Birthday to a 2-year-old. Adorable! She let the crowd take over while singing “Irreplaceable.” Fun! She got on her knees and mourned Michael Jackson. Poignant! She hit most of her notes too, though sometimes slipping badly in her lower register. And she danced like only Beyoncé can dance, with a combination of power, grace and smarts that fully unites Broadway choreography with urban street innovations.
The only thing not fully realized was the show’s overarching theme. As in the album this tour supports, “I Am … Sasha Fierce,” Beyoncé meant to represent herself as a split personality, tender and open on the one hand, indomitable and rather scary on the other.
But she has chosen the wrong dichotomy to represent herself. Since she’s such a superb competitor, she might have done better with the one that preoccupies gymnasts: the difference between technical and creative genius, between nailing every element of your craft and turning that craft into an art. Or, to connect it to those news flashes previously mentioned and place it in the theatrical realm, the need to deliver both a great physical performance and one that moves the audience emotionally.
Although the contemporary conception of the summertime block party may have been birthed in the Big Apple, Los Angeles has recently made inroads with the continual evolution and expansion of Sunset Junction and the Echo Park, Topanga Canyon and Eagle Rock music festivals.* As of today, the scene gets even more teeming, with the debut of the Funk Rumble Block Party in Chinatown.
Organized by local promoters Flock Shop and Spectrumega, the annual party boasts a litany of the city's finest funk outfits and DJs, rocking four stages scattered across Broadway. Hosted by KCRW DJ Jeremy Sole, the event also features an art walk and a mini-indie film festival. With admission priced at a recession-ready $5 before 4 p.m. and $8 after, the city’s newest festival figures to be a worthy addition to an already crowded slate, and easily its funkiest.
Below the jump, a breakdown of the top acts getting down today, and ensuring that although the Bronx may have created it, Los Angeles will keep on shaking it.
David Campbell had a unique vantage point for observing the first sprouting of the musical vision of a certain modern rock hero: his son, Beck.
“When he was first starting to get interested in music, I think he was around 11 or 12,” said Campbell, who’ll be conducting the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra on Sunday behind Ray LaMontagne at the Hollywood Bowl, one of four concerts for which he’s created the orchestral arrangements to accompany a variety of pop and rock performers.
“Earlier than that he was mainly writing -- stories and poems -- so I thought he was going to be a writer,” said Campbell, who was busy at that time in the early ‘80s scoring string, horn and full orchestra arrangements for a wide array of recording artists. “He was hanging around the studio a little bit at the time, and one day I thought I’d take some time and show him some stuff about what I was doing.
“Somewhere about five minutes into it, he stopped and says, ‘That’s really cool -- but what if you did it this way?’ I forget what it was, but he said something really cool and it took me by surprise, and I had the thought, ‘Wow, I should shut up and just ask him what he thinks.’
“That’s kind of set the pattern for our collaborations ever since, because he has such a unique perspective on creating anything, really: music, drawings, conceptual stuff,” said Campbell, who has contributed musically to nearly all of Beck’s albums.
“So that’s basically how it rolls. When we work together, the first thing I want to know is, What does he think? And then I fill in.”
Hearing interesting and innovative new music in TV commercials is more than commonplace now; it’s become something of a cliché.
What’s really creative is to dig deep into the endless catalog of music out in the world and unearth a real gem, one of those perfect sonic moments that for whatever reason never really had the impact it deserved.
Slogging through the endless coverage of the Michael Jackson memorial, I wasn’t facing the TV when the strains of Freur’s 1983 debut single “Doot Doot” stopped me dead in my tracks. Looking up, I saw that it’s being used by Palm in a jarringly bright and colorful new spot to launch the highly anticipated Pre (we didn't spot it online -- feel free to leave a link in the comments).
Aside: The song was also among the '80's new wave nuggets used to soundtrack the special flashback episode of “Gossip Girl” this season.
Freur was an extremely short-lived and heavily art-damaged UK band most famous for featuring Karl Hyde and Rick Smith, who went on to form the famed techno outfit Underworld (who themselves underwent a major transformation before becoming the act we know now -- see the bizarre space-cowboy funk-rock of their debut album, “Underneath the Radar”).
Power 106 FM announced its Powerhouse '09 show this week with performances by Jay-Z, Pitbull featuring Lil' Jon, Sean Paul, Flo Rida, Kid Cudi, LMFAO, Fareast Movement, Ya Boy, New Boyz ("You're a jerk!") and the ubiquitous promise of "special surprise guests!" Tickets went on sale Wednesday for the Honda Center bash.
One problem: It's on Aug. 8. So what, you say? Well, that's the same day as Rock the Bellsat the San Manuel Amphitheatre, which currently promises the hip-hop tidings of Nas and Damian Marley, the Roots, Ice Cube, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, KRS-One, the Rza and several others.
So what exactly is Power 106 trying to do? Force the hip-hop fan base into a Sophie's Choice? Granted, there are plenty of ways in which these audiences can split. The soul-space drums of Questlove may not be the Pitbull man's cup of tea, but it does seem like Power 106 is turning the screws on its listeners.
Not so, says Jimmy Steal, the vice president of programming at Emmis Communications, Power 106's parent company. He gave Pop & Hiss the following statement when we politely asked him, "Whaddya doing, Mr. Steal (if that is your real name)?"
“With the top-notch talent that Powerhouse consistently brings to the L.A.-area comes inevitable scheduling challenges. Finding one night where high-level artists such as these and an [available] major arena... is rare. Plus, given that Los Angeles is the nation’s focal point for live entertainment, there unfortunately are occasions where performers with similar fan bases are playing different venues on the same night. Rock The Bells and Powerhouse are both great events, with diverse bills that have something to offer all area hip-hop fans. Because of that, and the Southland’s huge population, we think that both will be huge successes.”
Fine, fair enough. Sometimes these double bookings can't be avoided. We've also asked the Rock the Bells promoters for a response and will post accordingly. But, in the meantime, is anyone planning on selling their Rock the Bells ticket to go to Powerhouse '09? Anyone with ambitious plans to go to both -- somehow, some way?
--Margaret Wappler
Photo credit: Jay-Z performing at the Palms Casino Resort in Las Vegas on July 3 by Ethan Miller/Getty Images
There’s a new breed of Southern rocker who's laying waste to the stereotype of the genre being the exclusive domain of beer-drinkin’, flag-wavin’ good ol’ boys.
Not that the emerging generation is opposed to waving Old Glory or downing a brew, but there’s greater nuance as well as musical and emotional shading in the cream of this crop, spearheaded by Jamey Johnson, Randy Houser and Eric Church.
The intriguing part is that they’re selling respectable quantities of their freshmen and sophomore albums and drawing the kind of critical accolades often more commonly heaped on brainy alt-rock bands or sensitive folk-rooted singer-songwriter types.
Church gave a strong example of how these threads are being pulled together in a vibrant package with a private show this week in the outdoor foyer of the Capitol Records tower in Hollywood.
The North Carolina singer, guitarist and songwriter has been building a solid club following in the South and Midwest, one that he’s increasingly expanding into the Eastern Seaboard and Southwest. But he hasn’t had a major show yet in Southern California. He’s scheduled to get here in December, though label officials may push to get a showcase for him earlier than that.
The final four shows from Trent Reznor's Nine Inch Nails are set for the first week in September in Los Angeles, wrapping with a Sept. 6 date at the Echoplex in Echo Park. Tickets for the Echoplex date will be available exclusively via Nine Inch Nails' website, where fans can register for a free membership to purchase tickets.
Nine Inch Nails will also perform at the Hollywood Palladium on Sept. 2, the Henry Fonda Theater on Sept. 3 and the Wiltern on Sept. 5. Tickets will go on sale on July 17 via NIN.com, and will be available to the general public July 31.
However, tickets for the Echoplex and the Henry Fonda will only be available via the Nine Inch Nails website.
"No Country For Old Men" is getting a run for its money with the Dead Weather's video "Treat Me Like Your Mother," set to debut on Cinemax tomorrow night at 9:55 p.m. (Too bad it can't be high noon.) It's directed by Jonathan Glazer, who used the Stranglers' raunchy song "Peaches"* brilliantly in the Ben Kingsley vehicle "Sexy Beast" and who also made the raw and emotional video for one of Nick Cave's most heart-wrenching songs, "Into My Arms."
If you watch the dual-screen preview for "Treat Me Like Your Mother" here, and you're anything like me -- a big ol' scaredy-cat who covers her eyes when anyone on screen so much as alludes to violence -- you'll get the chills just from the sound of the wind and guns cocking. Not much is known about what happens in this video, but it has been said that Alison Mosshart shoots Jack White.
Perhaps you are interested in wearing the clothes of a maybe murderess? Good, because Venus Zine, in a cute promotion, is giving away Mosshart's outfit from the video. (Full disclosure: I worked for Venus Zine way back in the day.) The Kills mistress will award the "pre-blood soaked versions" of her Diesel jacket, Hometown Heroes shirt and Nudie jeans to the winner. Ladies, imagine wearing that tough get-up to Little Joy on a Friday night. You will only need some mud-caked cowboy boots to complete the look.
--Margaret Wappler
*Greil Marcus once called the Stranglers "a loathsome sub-Doors quintet." Yep, that's about right.
Any video that shouts out "Go Ask Alice," working in a pizza parlor and New Order's "Confusion" is alright by me, but when it's in service of a disco cut as lithe and NYC-noirish as Holy Ghost!'s "I Will Come Back," it's enough to make one forget that Friday is still a few hours away.
Henceforward, therefore, I am currently hosting a dance party of one in the features department if anyone wants to stop by 2nd and Spring streets right now and join in.
In "The Odyssey," the alluring harmonies of the Sirens would seduce passing sailors to their doom. During the Dirty Projectors' deeply strange and often riveting Troubadour set Wednesday night, the band's three female singers had an opposite effect. Just as a song would threaten to go off the rails in a flurry of West African guitar riffs and fidgety drumming, Projectors' vocalists Angel Deradoorian, Amber Coffman and Haley Dekle would lock into a chord or a call-and-response that would bring the tune back to a safer place.
Not an easy place, necessarily. The band's byzantine, inside-out arrangements of guitar, voice and rhythms didn't always translate. But every song had at least one moment when the Projectors' deconstruction of pop, R&B, noise and choral music was a visceral pleasure unlike anything else in recent music.
First, it must be said that whatever kind of a ship David Longstreth runs during those days-long practices, the commitment is plainly, mind-breakingly evident live. I haven't heard arrangements that involved and precisely performed outside of Disney Hall, and it's probably only a matter of time before Longstreth and Nico Muhly team up for an Afro-pop "Ring" cycle or something. But the Projectors' traditions are also wholly contemporary -- it's clear they're as versed in T-Pain and D'Angelo as they are in Thomas Tallis. "Stillness Is the Move," the slinky first single from their newest and best album, "Bitte Orca," comes across as kind of deadpan and glassy on record, but live it felt like a completely earnest (and worthy) hat tip to the slow-jam party pop of Keri Hilson and Mariah Carey, albeit through a fractal of Brooklyn weirdo. The title track of "Rise Above," their wholesale demolition of Black Flag's "Damaged," completely inverted the power dynamic of the seminal hard-core band's angry clarion call; the airy falsettos made one feel like they'd already risen over pretty much everything.
What do you get when two incredibly creative musical minds sit down to simply talk with no agenda and nothing to hawk? Two guys mostly talking about where they grew up, the lost works of Euripides, and performing live without proper amplification.
Silver Lake's own Beck Hansen has just launched a series on his website "featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction."
Beck's fatal move was choosing Tom Waits as his first guest. Not because Waits isn't much of a conversationalist -- just the opposite. Once you document a free spirit like Waits riffing without a net, how is Beck going to top that?
In Part 1 of their conversation together, Hansen and Waits provide so many good moments that you're doing yourself a disservice by not readingthe whole thing. Beck swears in the conversation that people today are obsessed with "Best Of" lists, and we're not going to argue.
After the jump are the three best moments of their exchange.
The musical -- essentially, a two-hour tribute concert that employs Jackson impersonators to showcase many of the singer's best-known songs -- will begin traveling across Europe on Jul. 21 and will be performed in several American cities at some point in the next 12 months, an announcement said.
Thus far, "Thriller Live" dates have been set for such cities as Munich, Barcelona, Paris, Amsterdam, Prague and Copenhagen.The show, which has toured the UK since 2006, was created by Adrian Grant, a Jackson associate who wrote "Michael Jackson: The Visual Documentary," although neither Jackson nor his family were involved in "Thriller Live's" production.
Thus far, the city of Los Angeles has collected about $17,000 to help pay for the Michael Jacksonmemorial held Tuesday at Staples Center. Our news blog L.A. Now has the latest, and reports that the city now places the final costs at $1.4 million.The LAPD says it spent at least $1 million, according to L.A. Now.
The city has been asking for donations to help deter the costs of policing and other public services needed for the event. The city also missed out on receiving some donations (potentially), as its website was down for 12 hours Tuesday evening.
L.A. Now has the statement from the mayor's office:
"After collecting more than $17,000 from hundreds of donors in support of the Michael Jackson Memorial Tuesday morning, the City's Information Technology Agency could not handle the high volume of traffic or adequately respond to frequent and prolonged server crashes," Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa's office said in a statement.
The city's donation site -- of which a screen shot is above --is now up and running, for those who tried and failed to contribute.Earlier today, newly elected City Controller Wendy Greuel was unhappy with the amount spent to feed the city's first responders during the memorial. The box lunch total: $48,836. Read the latest on Michael Jackson on L.A Now.
The increase was to be expected, as SoundScan's tabulates its numbers through Sunday, and this marked the first full week of sales since Jackson's passing on June 25. Withmassive interestin Tuesday's memorial at Staples Center, interest in the artist's music isn't expected to slow any time soon.
Jackson's sales were led by his hits compilation "Number Ones" (Sony), which moved a total of 339,000 copies, up from the 108,000 it sold in the previous sales week. To date, the album has sold 2.3 million copies.
Jackson's "Thriller" is a distant second to the hits package, having sold 187,000 copies this week. Often cited as the bestselling album of all time, with reports putting its total worldwide sales at anywhere between 40 million and 100 million, "Thriller" has sold 4.8 million copies since SoundScan began tracking data in 1991, an impressive figure for an album released in 1982.
Of Jackson's 800,000 albums sold, about 140,000 came from the digital sector. Last week, that number was higher, as 241,000 of Jackson's 422,000 albums sold were downloads. Billboard reports that distributors ran out of physical CDs in the wake of Jackson's death, and online purchases were no doubt fueled by the sudden surge of interest in the wake of his passing.
Jackson's top-selling digital single in North America last week was "Man in the Mirror," which moved 217,000 downloads. "Billie Jean" was behind that with 199,000 downloads. All told, Jackson sold about 2.7 million digital singles over the last week. If you include the Jackson 5 in Nielsen SoundScan's totals, Jackson has been responsible for more than 6.2 million downloads.
Jackson's titles are eligible only for Billboard's "top pop catalog" chart, as they are older than 18 months and have fallen below the top 100 on the main pop chart. But no matter, as there's little to distract from Jackson at the top of the main pop chart.
The current U.S. pop chart is topped only by the latest edition of the hits compilation series "Now! That's What I Call Music." The 31th volume in the collection opens this week with 169,000 copies sold.
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Summer ushers in great acts, Jonas Brothers tickets are this month's hottest concert ticket. U2 Tickets are quite popular, as the band hits the road this June.
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a better choice? Hey, it might have even sold out.There were whole rows of seats empty at the Forum, as reflected in the above picture.
