‘The Scenesters Run LA’: a week of music and film starting Friday

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A tedious joke about a tired topic claims that the ‘only good hipster is a dead hipster.’ If that’s the case, then the corollary implies that ‘The Scenesters Run LA’ will be a good time.

After all, the week of events being held at the Downtown Independent theater is billed by its promoters as ’14 bands. 7 awesome evenings. 4 dead hipsters. 1 hilarious whodunnit.’

Curated by comedy troupe The Vacationeers and Funny Ha Ha, the online home of music journalist Chris Martins (disclosure: Martins is a friend and an occasional contributor to The Times), the weeklong series is held in honor of the theatrical run of the ‘Scenesters,’ whose one-line summary describes it as a music-inspired black comedy/murder mockumentary set in Silver Lake.’

The film was voted ‘Best Comedy’ at the Hollywood Film Festival and most interesting of ‘Slamdance.’ Considering the subject and scenes depicted, it is a reasonable bet to expect a candlelight vigil for the Silver Lake Walking Man, an encomium to the virtues of intelligentsia, and sundry monologues from ‘A Streetcar Named Desire,’ sponsored by Cafe Stella.

In more concrete news, each night of the event -- which runs from from Friday to Aug. 26 -- features performances from well-regarded local bands. Friday commences with a secret guest with a penchant for white-boy funk, and a performance from Sister Mantos, who are described as ‘lo-fi mutant disco--’ which presumably means aliens recording Donna Summer covers on four-track. The rest of the schedule can be found at Martins’ blog and includes performances by, among others, Spirit Animal, Le Switch, Slang Chickens, Big Search (Matt Popieluch of Foreign Born’s solo project), and Lord Huron.

There will also be a secret performance Sunday night featuring an emissary from the Low End Theory world who has been creating much noise with his recently released debut album. Those looking to escape the Sunset Junction heat would be well-served to check it out. And in case you were wondering, the person who killed the hipsters was Coldplay.

Download:
MP3: Spirit Animal-’Ants’

MP3: Le Switch-’How We Imagined It’

-- Jeff Weiss