Umphrey's McGee will share song roots at House of Blues

Umphrey’s McGee is always looking for the next big thing to make its fans feel as connected to the Chicago-based jam band as possible. Events such as the UM Bowl and the band's “Stew Art” concert series have given fans the ability to manipulate the group's live set through online votes and texts in just about every context imaginable. So, it’s a little weird to think that an intimate “Storytellers”-style acoustic set, scheduled for a sold-out L.A. crowd Friday, is uncharted territory for the band.

“It’s definitely the first time we’ve done anything like this, as far as stripping back the layers of some of the meanings of our songs,” said keyboard player Joel Cummins.

On Friday, the band rolls into the House of Blues in West Hollywood for a double-set performance beginning with a low-key matinee set its members are calling “True Hollywood Stories.” However, unlike the popular E! documentary series, we’re not sure how much murder and scandal will be involved. But we do expect plenty of witty banter between jams.

"And there's plenty of embarrassing stories in there, as far as songs we've written," Cummins said.

The band is making its first L.A. stop since the release of “Death by Stereo” in September 2011. For Cummins, who recently moved to Venice from the band’s home base in Chicago, this will be his first hometown show as an Angeleno. And although surf and sun in the wintertime have been a welcome change from Midwest snowstorms, Cummins says L.A. has been a difficult market for Umphrey’s McGee to crack, with its sandal-wearing, virtuosic fusion of world music, folk and progressive rock, despite its enormous following at festivals throughout the country.

Damian Lazarus offers Burning Man mix, Crosstown Rebels' L.A. gig

British electronic producer and DJ Damian Lazarus, who relocated to Echo Park a few years ago, has had a great run of late. His record label, Crosstown Rebels, is home to some of the world's most acclaimed deep house and techno producers -- Detroit's Seth Troxler, London's Deniz Kurtel, Art Department, and Lazarus himself, who evolved from electronic music A&R man in the 1990s to DJ to producer to label head to, most recently, Burning Man devotee.

Crosstown Rebels' most recent collection, "Rebel Rave," is an apt title, and the label will celebrate its success -- along with Lazarus's most recent mix, "Get Lost 4" -- on Saturday night at the Music Box, where much of its roster, including Lazarus, Kurtel, L.A.-based Droog, Troxler (who will be debuting in L.A. his Visionquest collaboration, which includes fellow Detroiters Lee Curtiss, Ryan Crosson and Shaun Reeves) and others, will throw an all-night party featuring both live performances and DJ sets. 

But Black Rock City is on Lazarus' mind, where in 2010, he explains at the beginning of his two-hour mix, LazPod 22, "I got to experience a truly inspirational festival. Being there last year made a huge impression on me, and this music that I put together for you has been fermenting since that time, and I now feel ready to offer it. It may not make easy listening for everyone -- the following does go to some magnificantly weird places, and it was inspired by a very special arts gathering in the desert."

Hip-Hop Loving Hipsters celebrate one-year anniversary, premiere exclusive Pop & Hiss mix

The rap on "hipsters" is that they don't like rap. Ostensibly, they're zeitgeist carpetbaggers hopping onto whatever is the hot trend du jour. When Pitchfork and the Fader told them to worship Lil Wayne, Clipse, and Cam'ron, they did, only to distance themselves from the genre when dubstep or chillwave or witch house or chillstep* became the next big thing.

No one told this to Adam Weiss (no relation) or DJ Stereotype, the mustache-wielding and occasionally mullet-clad pair behind the Hipsters Who Heart Hip Hop nights that have gone down over the last year in Echo Park. Granted, their "Swag It Out" nights at the Short Stop spin for Gucci Mane, Lil B, and Soulja Boy with a fervor that would turn Ice-T apoplectic. But they display a deep love of hip-hop that goes far beyond a gimmicky dance or an ephemeral trend.

Though many critics smirk at their record collections from a decade past, Hipsters Who Heart Hip Hop have made it their mission to promote often overlooked or unsung artists, including the Machina Muerte crew and the Shapeshifters as well as the rappers who congregate at the Low End Theory. For all the censure that their name may inspire among hip-hop purists, the Hipsters' approach is one that commands respect and goes beyond ideology or contemporary taste.

They really do love hip-hop, and in a media environment that prizes the temporal and the shiny, it's comforting to know that they promote those whom they like, regardless of popularity and without caprice.  And for their first-anniversary show at the Echoplex on Thursday night, they've wrangled a lineup worth braving the unwashed bearded masses for. Performers include Low End Theory beat junkies Free the Robots and Dark Horsemen (the team-up of Dibia$e and Jonwayne), plus just announced suprise guests Ras G and Ninjasonik. Tucson funkster Zackey Force Funk rounds out the beat slate.

On the rap side, they've recruited Labwaste (made up of scene vets Thavius Beck and Subtitle) and Nocando, who has been having a quietly great 2011, officially remixing El-P, being named a Hip Hop DX Next, releasing Mike Eagle's "Rappers Will Die of Natural Causes" on his Hellfyre Club imprint, and unveiling the first leak from his Flash Bang Grenada project with Busdriver.

In honor of the event, DJ Stereotype has compiled a mixtape featuring all the artists on the bill. It's one of the best things that hipsters have done since last year's Twin Shadow record. Admission is $12 at the door, but they may give you a discount if you were at the first Can show in Cologne, Germany.

Download: V/A - Hipsters Who Heart Hip Hop Mix for Pop & Hiss (Left-Click) [MP3] 

* I invented "chillstep" Tuesday, but if we keep saying the word, it will become a legitimate genre by fall. I assure you.

Tracklist after the jump. 

The Lonely Island taps Michael Bolton, Snoop Dogg, Santigold for 'Turtleneck & Chain'

 

In the mood for your next fix of the Lonely Island? "Saturday Night Live’s" comedy trifecta of Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccone are back. And this time, they’ve got an even greater posse of pop stars entering their realm. On Thursday, the irreverent rhyme slingers announced the full list of artists who collaborated with them on their sophomore album, “Turtleneck & Chain,” which is due out May 10.

The album is a  highly anticipated follow-up to the group’s 2009 platinum debut, “Incredibad.”  While the first album saw the group spitting verses with T-Pain , E-40 and Norah Jones, the new album takes the Lonely Island to very surprising and strange territory. The “Turtleneck” roster includes Michael Bolton, Snoop Dogg, Beck and Santigold, along with Justin Timberlake, Akon, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj and "SNL’s" Kenan Thompson.

“Motherlover” (featuring Timberlake), the third single from the album, is available now on iTunes.

With a handful of singles floating around, there are early signs that this album packs serious comedic punch. The album’s gold-selling first single, “I Just Had Sex" (featuring Akon),  has garnered digital sales in excess of 700,000 since its Dec. 18 release. YouTube views of the music video have surpassed 80 million. The group performed the song live at Comedy Central's 2011 Comedy Awards.

The album’s second single, “The Creep” (featuring Minaj and John Waters), has already garnered YouTube views in excess of 19 million. Check out the full tracklist for the album and the accompanying DVD of video shorts, sure to make you laugh, cry and wet yourself.

"Turtleneck & Chain" tracklist:
1) "We're Back!"
2) "Mama"
3) "I Just Had Sex" (featuring Akon)
4) "Jack Sparrow" (featuring Michael Bolton)
5) "Attracted to Us" (featuring Beck)
6) "Rocky"
7) "My Mic -- Interlude"
8) "Turtleneck & Chain" (featuring Snoop Dogg)
9) "Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde" (featuring Rihanna)
10) "Trouble on Dookie Island"
11) "Falcor vs. Atreyu - Classy Skit #1"
12) "Motherlover" (featuring Justin Timberlake)
13) "The Creep" (featuring Nicki Minaj and John Waters)
14) "Watch Me Do Me - Classy Skit #2"
15) "Threw It on the Ground"
16) "Japan"
17) "After Party" (featuring Santigold)
18) "No Homo"
19) "No Homo Outro"
DVD
1) "We're Back!"
2) "I Just Had Sex" (featuring Akon)
3) "The Creep" (featuring Nicki Minaj)
4) "Motherlover" (featuring Justin Timberlake)
5) "Shy Ronnie 2: Ronnie & Clyde" (featuring Rihanna)
6) "Threw It on the Ground"
7) "We'll Kill U"
8) "Reba (Two Worlds Collide)" (featuring Kenan Thompson)
9) "Great Day"

-- Nate Jackson

Photo: The Lonely Island  Credit: Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times

Baltimore band Wye Oak: Juggling loneliness and aloneness on their new 'Civilian'

In the liner notes for the new Wye Oak album, "Civilian," Jenn Wasner explains that her new songs are about “aloneness (the positive kind)” and “loneliness (the horrible kind)." With help from Andy Stack, the other half of the Baltimore duo, she has fashioned music that alternates between the soothing calm of aloneness and the thrashing discord of loneliness — not from song to song, but from section to section within each song. Threading it all together are Wasner's melodies, a tunefulness that made Wye Oak a natural opening act for the recent tours by Spoon and the Decemberists.

Wasner finds it hard to get much aloneness once she and Stack hit the road, and their current headlining tour brings the duo to the Echo on Thursday night. So earlier this month she was savoring the chance hang out by herself at her home in Baltimore’s Bell Foundry, an abandoned factory taken over by artists in the city’s up-and-coming Station North scene. But she agreed to sit down with Stack and a reporter at the dining table in the Foundry’s steeply slanting common area and explain the dichotomy that fuels the new disc.

“Aloneness is when I get things done, when I listen to music and write, but I don’t get enough of it," she lamented. The 24-year-old's big eyes stared out from under her strawberry-blond bangs. “Loneliness is the other side of the coin. Then I feel disconnected and anxious, and my brain goes running off in a bad direction. Sometimes I've felt the loneliest in a crowded situation."

Franki Chan talks Check Yo Ponytail 2, Death Set and IHEARTCOMIX, preps SXSW party

There’s one reason why sonic melting pots such as IHEARTCOMIX records' monthly event Check Yo Ponytail 2 manage to survive: The mish-mash lineups generate a lot of energy.

Tuesday’s record release show for Brooklyn, N.Y.-based punks the Death Set marks the seventh CYP2 show at the Echoplex since it resurfaced in November. Adding a slew of high-octane buzz bands to the bill, CYP2/IHC founder Franki Chan continues to help desegregate L.A.’s heavily partitioned music landscape.

The woofer-rattling lineup at the Echoplex also includes hip-hoppers Ninjasonik, Low End Theory resident Gaslamp Killer, electro poptress Zowie and garage rock hybrid Biker’s Daughter.

“They may be different genres, but they all have the same type of energy and they’re all coming from the same place, how they want to do music,” Chan said. “They’re all people that exist as leaders of their own scenes.”

Started in 2006 at the now-defunct Safari Sam’s, the original CYP was meant to be a band-focused alternative to the hoard of DJ nights in L.A. As the sweat-soaked parties grew in stature, the club got really big, really fast. In 2008, Chan halted CYP at the peak of its popularity to focus on his label and his DJ career.

Since its reemergence in November, CYP2 has opened its doors for underground acts of all pedigrees.

“There’s so many great artists in L.A. and so many things going on, but as far as live shows, it feels very broken up,” Chan said. “You go to Hard L.A. for dance stuff, you go to FYF shows to see punk stuff, and there’s nothing really in the middle ground… We just wanted to have an event that could show that.”

Tonight's Death Set  show offers L.A. crowds an evolved brand of three-chord savagery a la Beastie Boys. The impending release of its sophomore full-length, "Michel Poiccard" (out today on Counter Records/Ninja Tune), effortlessly  aligns with CYP2’s eclectic bent.

“The record isn’t just a punk record,” said vocalist Johnny Sierra. “There’s song that I think you’d be whistling down the street as well as sweating at a show to. There are different styles that we took on for this record that I’m really glad that we did.”

All this growth came in the face of debilitating loss over the course of 2010 as the band pressed on with the record after the 2009 passing of former guitarist Beau Velasco.  That, combined with Sierra and guitarist Dan Walker’s recent move from Baltimore to Brooklyn (by way of Gold Coast, Australia), has made for a rather hectic year thus far.

With Velasco’s spirit permeating Death Set’s record in everything from samples of his voice to unabashed song  title tributes (“I Miss You Beau Velasco”), the band rages on and whirls into its L.A.  record release show at CYP2 with full force displayed in tracks such as “Slap Slap Slap Pound Up Down Snap.” The track even comes with its own handshake,  a tidbit that’s certainly worth learning if you plan on raging at Tuesday night's show.

If you're headed to Austin, Texas, for South by Southwest, IHEARTCOMIX will be celebrating with a party at the Beauty Bar on Thursday. The Death Set will be performing there too, along with an impressive roster including She Wants Revenge, Pictureplane, Big Freedia and Chan himself on the decks.

-- Nate Jackson

Upcoming: The Growlers interpret the bizarre songs of Tonetta

Some things defy easy explanation: crop circles; the enduring popularity of the "Big Momma's House" franchise; and why a grown man would tattoo an ice cream cone onto his cheek. Go ahead and file Tonetta in that category.

Tonetta is the stage name of a Toronto native named Tony Jeffrey, who has been recording a variety of sleazy and cheap lo-fi pop songs for the last 28 years. Roughly three years ago, he discovered the wonders of YouTube and realized the medium's potential to propel his singular brand of bizarre to semi-stardom. Since then, he's become a video celebrity of sorts, thanks to his outre guitar pop and outlandish videos. Song titles include "Lady Gaga," "Jewish Girls," "Hitler," "Jesus" and "Drugs Drugs Drugs."

Often appearing nearly nude, he's been repeatedly banned from YouTube for flouting their censorship rules. When he does clothe himself, costumes can include anything from white face, bikinis, fright wigs, dresses and leather -- lots of leather. His only analogue is the Oakland avant-weirdo Lil B, who has cultivated a fan base through prolificacy, shock tactics and sheer entertainment value. Both write songs about random celebrities and Jesus, and seem as though they'd be fun to invite to your party.

The Smell's Riot Grrrl X-mas Carnival donates to Downtown Women's Center

For the last three years, the holiday cheer of the Smell's Riot Grrrl X-mas Carnival has thrived on two things: fiery, female-fronted punk bands and $5 donations. Since 2007, the show's proceeds have gone to benefit the Downtown Women's Center. Meanwhile, this winter's slam dancing soiree aims to gather chord crunching musicians from L.A. to the Bay Area to support the good cause by generating a solid helping of ruckus and sweat.

The line-up includes raucous Oakland quartet the Splinters, locals La Sangronas y El Cabron, the Outskirts, Anus Kings, Toy Attica and Santa Ana's the Bellhaunts. Whether you're a fan of throat-shredding rage to folk storytelling, the line-up appears to pay homage to punk rock of all pedigrees.

Tapping the underground scene for some seasonal giving is a Smell tradition that Susana Sepulveda--the event's founder and member for La Sangronas--hadn't counted on when she threw the first Xmas Carnival (not originally a Riot Grrrl show) as a one-off gig with the hope of doing some proactive charity work for the holidays. Now going on its third year with the blessing of venue owner Jim Smith, the show has become absorbed in the Washington-based feminist musician movement.

This Riot Grrrl gig is also open to local artists and zine publishers looking to display their wares for show-goers at the Smell. Thanks to increased popularity by buzzing word of mouth, Sepulveda says the event's donations to help to fund a newly added DWC Residence building filled with affordable housing units for homeless women in the community. Those looking for new ways to use head banging for a good cause might add this to their post-Christmas list of things to do.

-- Nate Jackson

Riot Grrrl X-mas Carnival at the Smell, 247 S. Main St. Los Angeles,  Sunday, Dec. 26. (213) 625-4325, www.thesmell.org. 9 p.m. $5 at the door (additional donations for the Downtown Women's Center are welcome). 

 

 

Waiting for the New Jack Swing revival: A Bell Biv DeVoe video primer

The next time you catch yourself pining for the days of New Jack Swing, just remember there’s at least one group out there that’s keeping the pre-Kanye Roland 808 synth-clap sounds alive.

 Yes, the members of Bell Biv DeVoe parted with their flat tops decades ago. But there’s no question that watching the crisp dance moves and high-top fades in videos like “B.B. D. (I Thought It Was Me)” and “Poison” can rekindle the memories of '90s R&B with one click of a mouse.

Members of Deer Tick, Delta Spirit and Dawes join forces as Middle Brother

 
 
Anytime a collection of well-respected frontmen join forces, the term supergroup will inevitably get bandied about. But you won’t hear the members of Middle Brother ascribing that lofty title to themselves anytime soon. Yes, members John McCauley III (Deer Tick), Matt Vasquez (Delta Spirit) and Taylor Goldsmith (Dawes) have a hefty helping of the indie folk buzz in their respective corners. But even after the year of exposure each of their primary bands has  had (everything from new albums to night-time appearances on "Letterman"), their humble moniker pretty much tells us where they stand on the issue.

“I don’t think any of these bands are on the level of what you’d normally consider a supergroup,” says Goldsmith, whose L.A.-based band is set to release a new album next year. “As of now, we’re definitely one of the little guys.”

Humility aside, the sprawling three-part harmonies blanketing the band’s woodsy, acoustic balladry will likely turn heads. L.A. fans are getting their first live taste of the band Monday during  a benefit concert for Invisible Children, a nonprofit dedicated to aiding impoverished children in various parts of war-torn Uganda, at the Troubadour in West Hollywood. (Read more about the benefit over at Brand X.)