'Snow in Los Angeles' is a weather phenomenon and a new all-ages indie fest
Recent meteorological events may have sucked the irony out of the name "Snow in Los Angeles," an all-ages music festival debuting Sunday. But we can't imagine a better way to pre-game for the holidays than catching the Mae Shi, Daedelus, Rumspringa and Busdriver with a pack of super-rad teenagers like the four kids in the Tape, the aspiring concert promotion collective that curated the festival and whose music blog is already better than yours. Imagine if the F Yeah Fest's Sean Carlson had a bunch of 14- to 16-year-old interns who commandeered the Echoplex for the gnarliest living room show ever, and you get the idea.
"We actually try and hide our ages to be taken more seriously," said MacKlin Casnoff, one of the Tape's founders, all of whom met at NoHo's Oakwood School. "I figure [being young] is a good thing, it gives us exposure, but sometimes we'll show up at shows and ask for our press passes and they'll look at us like 'Are you serious?' "
After hooking up with Rumspringa's Itaru de la Vega and the Ghettogloss Gallery for clubland connections, the quartet made the jump from blogging to show booking with Snow, their inaugural concert and, they hope, the first of many to come. It's a great time to be an ambitious underage rocker in L.A., what with the Smell becoming a national metaphor for art rock and all.
Casnoff plans to turn the Tape into a multi-limbed beast of blogging, record label and concert promotion, all while still needing to carpool over the Hill to get to indie-friendly environs. Booking agents should take note, though: Don't be surprised if future installments of Snow turn into a local Coachella for kids who would rather live "Rockville, CA" than watch it.
"We offer a different perspective on booking concerts that people our age will be interested in," Casnoff said. "I feel that if you include so many genres, you get a great look of the L.A. scene as a whole."
-- August Brown
Photo courtesy of the Tape
