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One-liners for the long weekend

[One sentence apiece, over and out, and out for the weekend ...]

Compare lineups and decide for yourself, but $40 for a Summer Strummer ticket and $35.50

for the Detour Festival?

My holiday weekend heavy-rotation handful: "The Ortolan" by the Deadly Syndrome; "Astronomy

for Dogs" by the Aliens; "A

New Hope" by Minipop; "Let Us Now

Praise Sleepy John" by Peter Case;

and "The

Brit Box," the four-disc box set coming in October from Rhino.

And,

by the way, the Deadly Syndrome

turned its song "Eucalyptus" into an arena-rocker last night at the Roxy.

People (and some of them may be your friends) are all atwitter over the new

Britney Spears "Gimme More," which is all glitch and heavy breathing and so

disposable I'm tired of it after streaming it once here.

It'll be almost like getting of town for the weekend -- Brian Jonestown Massacre,

Saturday and Sunday, at the Echoplex.

No explanation, but the Little Ones have cancelled

their West Coast tour dates with Voxtrot, including Sept. 23 at the Fonda.

PJ Harvey has scheduled a show Oct. 15 at the

Orpheum.

Imagine that, the Cold

War Kids, headlining the Wiltern, on Nov. 23.

Happy 30th birthday, Morning Becomes Eclectic (special programming all

weekend).

There's one of those nifty art space shows tonight with a pretty

strong lineup of locals; details here.

Stores like Urban Outfitters make me break out in a sweat, but I'll be stopping by to drop

$14 on the two-disc charity

compilation "Give.Listen.Help #4," which features tracks from the likes of

Patti Smith, Coldplay, Mew, Silversun Pickups, The Go! Team, Travis, Rilo Kiley, Band of

Horses, Interpol, Cold War Kids, Air and Blonde Redhead.

Happy long weekend

... 

Read Full Story Read more One-liners for the long weekend

The Like prepare to record sophomore album

[Colleague Frank Farrar catches up with local favorites the Like:]

Fans showing up to hear old favorites from the Like at Spaceland on Wednesday were out of

luck. But there didn’t seem to be too many disappointed faces after the still-young

group’s energetic set cast entirely of new material.  It’s been a couple of years

since the Like’s debut album, “Are You Thinking What I’m Thinking,” came out -- and that

CD recast songs on earlier EPs. No surprise, then, that the trio reveled in playing some

new stuff.

At one point during the typically casual, amiable show, singer-guitarist Z Berg

responded to an inquiring mind by promising that a new album “will come out after we

make it.” However, after the set, she said she expects Geffen will release it next year,

and the Spaceland set was just the second of two shows the band wanted to do before

going to Europe in October to record with producer Youth (the Verve, Crowded House).

Some of the new songs may have felt a little underdeveloped, and the first ones were

marred by a sound mix that came off like Rock Night in an underwater grotto. But once

that got cleared up, the band’s strengths came through: the Blondie-fied ’60s girl group

allure of “Release Me”; Charlotte Froom’s confident bass playing, especially on the

evening’s closer; Tennessee Thomas’ increasingly vital drumming (she sure likes those

toms); and Z’s upper-register vocals, which can give the music a particularly memorable

signature touch as it cascades from throbbing garage psychedelia and mid-’60s pop to

visions of prog and even a lilting, tamed-down ska line here or there.

“We’ve got a thousand new songs,” Z joked after the show. OK, narrow it down to the

500 best and you’ll have something.

Read Full Story Read more The Like prepare to record sophomore album

With them, it’s not just another day at the Office

Office

Songwriter Scott Masson is not the first art-schooler to turn to pop music as a means

of self-expression. Indeed, the 28-year-old frontman of the Chicago quintet Office credits the year he spent at

Goldsmiths College in London, segueing from struggling painter to installation artist,

for changing his point of view.

“It taught me how to look at the world with a more critical eye and be more focused,”

the singer-guitarist says, remembering that as he emerged from undergrad school in

Michigan he was “kind of lost.” Speaking of his early musical excursions, he says, “I

was really only talking to myself rather than bringing in the world.”

With the Sept. 25 release of Office’s debut “A Night at the Ritz,” Masson and

bandmates Tom Smith, Alissa Noonan, Erica Corniel and Jessica Gonyea will be bringing

themselves to the world, dance beats and cheeky humor intact. Office’s glammy

histrionics (think Pop Levi) and stuttery synths (think the Cars in stop-and-go traffic)

put a hip-shaking twist on boy-girl vocal pop. The album was almost five years in the

works. “Our greatest hits that no one’s ever heard,” Masson says with a laugh.

Office caught the attention of James Iha, who signed the band to his New

Line-affiliated Scratchie Records. Masson jumped

at the chance to work with the ex-Smashing Pumpkins guitarist “rather than some

business-type A&R man,” he says. “Plus, I just like the idea of a small label.”

||| Office performs Thursday night at the Roxy with standout local bands the Deadly Syndrome, Let’s Go Sailing and the Western States Motel as part

of Filter’s Revenge of the Sunset

Strip program. In late September, Office will tour with Earlimart, including Oct. 24 at the Troubadour. (no L.A. dates

listed, but Oct. 23 at the Casbah in San Diego). [Thanks to commenter Jenn, who pointed

out the Troub date that was not on Office's original schedule.]

||| Download: "The

Ritz."

Read Full Story Read more With them, it’s not just another day at the Office

Downtown L.A. to have a little Bloc Party on Oct. 6

Blocparty_2


Downtown L.A.'s newest block party will get a visit from Bloc Party on Oct. 6.

The British quartet will be one of the headliners for the second annual LA Weekly Detour Music

Festival, held within boogieing distance from Los Angeles City Hall. Tickets,

which go on sale at noon Thursday, are $30.50, Attendees get you four stages of

music, plus DJs and displays of art. This just in: Presale

tickets are $30.50, but that price expires at 10 tonight; regular tickets will be

$35.50.

There's a strong local contingent in the lineup -- Moving Units, Autolux, the

Aggrolites, the Deadly Syndrome and Nico Vega are on the bill. And plenty of others:

Justice, Satellite Party, Kinky, Comedians of Comedy, Turbonegro, Teddybears, the

Raveonettes, Shout Out Louds, Celebrity Skin, the Aliens, Busy P, Noisettes, Scissors

for Lefty, Johnossi and Augie March. Among the DJs: Franki Chan, Travis Keller and Bruce

Perdew.

Makes you want to start a band called the Street Closures.

◊ ◊ ◊

By the way, if your tastes run a little more neighborhood-y, the Eagle Rock Music Festival is

again scheduled opposite the Detour. Mia Doi Todd, the Pity Party, Chuchito Valdes,

Bodies of Water, the Front and the Mormons are among the acts playing the evening affair

along Colorado Boulevard.

Photo of Bloc Party from www.blocparty.com.

Read Full Story Read more Downtown L.A. to have a little Bloc Party on Oct. 6

Driveblind steers clear of Geffen, debuts new songs

Driveblindalbum
When I first saw and heard Driveblind, I was

pretty sure the sextet from Aberdeen, Scotland, could be the next big thing. Of course,

it was after midnight at a smarmy club on the Sunset Strip and I had not yet learned

it's best to check your critical thought processes with one of the uppity doormen. I was

seduced by Driveblind's leviathan anthems and Scottish accents -- not to mention that

they named themselves after a Ride song.

That was four years ago. The short story is: Driveblind signed to A&M, which

folded into Geffen, which never quite seemed happy with the album the fellows were

making, which delayed it seemingly interminably. Which happens. "Driveblind"

came out last October, a solid if overpolished effort, and whether it was the product or

the dearth of promotion, the album failed to gain the band any momentum.

Now Driveblind and Geffen are parting ways. "A mutual thing," guitarist

Nick Tyler says. "We're not happy; they're not happy."

And the band (a quintet with the departure of rhythm guitarist Cameron Taylor) is

striking out on its own. Driveblind headlines the Troubadour tonight, ready to

test-drive some new material that Tyler describes as "more upbeat." He adds,

"We're trying to shake the cobwebs off."

||| Stream four new demos on Driveblind's MySpace page. And Rehearsals.com has some

Driveblind stuff here.

||| Driveblind plays the headline slot at the Troubadour tonight; up-and-coming blues

band Back Door Slam performs at 9:30.

Read Full Story Read more Driveblind steers clear of Geffen, debuts new songs

Springsteen sets L.A. tour date

Pjharveysmall
Happy Tuesday. You might be jazzed about the Boss' announcements -- Bruce Springsteen

& the E Street Band are playing Oct. 28 in Los Angeles (venue TBA) and the very

rocking new single "Radio Nowhere" is available for free here -- but the fact that P.J. Harvey has new music on the way is great

too.

Harvey's new album, due Sept. 25, is titled "White Chalk." No U.S. tour

dates have been announced yet.

You can stream "Under the Ether" here.

◊ ◊ ◊

Are they really charging $30 for a ticket

($40 at the door) for the Summer

Strummer festival in Santa Monica on Sunday? I mean, Brett Dennen and Mat Kearney are nice singer-songwriters and

all, but the lineup is filled with acts who play around town a lot, draining a lot of

the cachet from their appearances there. Maybe people will be excited to see Duane Peters both play and skate.

Or maybe they'll just show up to ogle the emcee.

◊ ◊ ◊

Touts for Tuesday, Aug. 28

Crowded House and the

Greek and Gogol Bordello and the Fonda are the big shows, but there are plenty of club

choices: The Watson Twins and Everest play a benefit for the Circle X

Theater at Spaceland. ... No Age celebrates

the release of "Weirdo Rippers" with a 7 p.m. in-store at Amoeba. ...  The Finches finish up a run of Tuesdays at

Bordello. ... The Amateurs and the Lonely Years play the Let's

Independent night at Boardner's. ... I See Hawks in LA headline at the Echo. ... And Map comes in from the Inland Empire to play

the Silverlake Lounge.

Read Full Story Read more Springsteen sets L.A. tour date

Mostly, F-Yeah’s ‘danger’ is just a minor threat

[It's good to have colleagues -- especially guys like August Brown who will tell

me what I missed at Sunday's second night of the F-Yeah Fest without sticking his tongue

out and going "nyah-nyah!"]

The latter night of F-Yeah Fest begged one

big question -- what constitutes punk rock in 2007? Is it the shirtless, Iggy-aping

sex-god sneer of Pissed Jeans' Matt

Korvette? The icy noise blasts of local chin-strokers No Age? Deerhunter's Bradford Cox picking a fight

via e-mail with freelance writer (and occasional Buzz Bands contributor) Jeff Weiss for comparing his band to Wyld

Stallyns?

Yes and no on all counts. The violent, physical sounds of the F-Yeah fest were on

their own terms invigorating, especially since the Eastside rock scene has gone belly-up

into tedious psych-folk and bizarre attempts at torch songs for underfed (and

undersexed) white kids.

But to coalesce it all into one loose scene, with its own designated weekend-long

showcase replete with a Dewars sponsorship, seems further proof that any danger in

underground music gets swallowed whole by omnivorous, consumptive hipsterdom before kids

can get anxious for the revolution.


Read Full Story Read more Mostly, F-Yeah’s ‘danger’ is just a minor threat

Those Moz ’special packages’

What's the real cost of the special

packages to see Morrissey for all 10

nights of his run at the Palladium? Well, it's $391.50, as publicized. Plus $96 in

Ticketmaster convenience fees. And plus $20 for UPS delivery.

This apparently constitutes the promised "savings of over $50" over the

surcharges incurred by buying individual tickets. Makes my head spin. But it'll make Moz

fans' wallets open.

Read Full Story Read more Those Moz ’special packages’

Doe hits the spot at Safari Sam’s

Doe1_2




[One Illinois-born fiftysomething attends a show given by another

Illinois-born fiftysomething, and lives to blog about it:]

Given the way John Doe's music can inhabit

your brain -- I've been humming "Golden State" for almost two days straight

now -- it's no surprise how the X Man's presence carried the room Saturday night at

Safari Sam's. Playing in a steamy room to an appreciative crowd that spanned at least a

couple of generations, Doe and his parade of talented collaborators gave you a 90-minute

warm-and-fuzzy.

There was original material -- including a healthy dose of stuff from the album many

are calling his career-best, this year's "A Year in the Wilderness" -- there

were covers, there were rockers and folk songs, and there was even a moment of

reflection: "Having been taken for granted a couple times in Los Angeles," he

told the crowd, "this is nice to see."

Doe2
Doe, sweating through his dress shirt and justifiably magnanimous with his praise of his

side players, gave back as much as he soaked up. I chuckled at one point when he seemed

to get ahead of himself -- for some reason I thought of the jokey T-shirt that a local

rock band gave me last fall for my 50th birthday. It said: "Middle age is all the

rage."

I'm sure that Friday and Saturday, when he is fronting X at the House of Blues

Anaheim, that'll be even more of a joke. But at Sam's on Saturday, in the genial company

of members of Dead Rock West (drummer

Bryan Head, bassist David J. Carpenter and vocalist Cindy Wasserman backed him after

playing an opening set), Doe's songs were as vital as anything you'll hear from anybody.

Kathleen Edwards joined him to duet on "Golden State," and Dave Alvin brought

his estimable guitar talents onstage for a few numbers.

And I don't think anybody took one note for granted.

◊ ◊ ◊

Postscript: Doe also got a boost from Dead Rock West keyboardist Phil Parlapiano, who

filled in for ailing Doe regular Nick

Luca. Amazingly, Parlapiano hadn't rehearsed any of the songs he played on.

Luca, by the way, has an album coming out Sept. 25 by the quartet that bears his

name. It's titled "Fractions;" he'll play the Knitting Factory on Oct. 23.

||| Stream a nice acoustic version of "Golden State" here.

Photos: Top, John Doe duets with Kathleen Edwards; above, Doe with Cindy Wasserman,

Dave Alvin and David J. Carpenter (background). By Kevin Bronson / LAT.

Read Full Story Read more Doe hits the spot at Safari Sam’s

Festival earns high marks, though one bouncer gets an F

[Colleague Liam Gowing sends me this little narrative from Saturday's opening

night of the F-Yeah Fest in Echo Park:]

It was an evening of treble-heavy highs and one deep low at the first night of F-Yeah

Fest 2007.

The Echoplex was the spot to be for the “traditional” punk bands: Toys That Kill tore it up with thrashy pop-punk

imbued with Bro-down choruses that seem to go hand in hand with a South Bay ZIP Code.

Likewise, the Fleshies, who added a glam

edge to their gobbing-and-spitting anthems.

The real weirdness, however, was upstairs at the Echo, where Bobby Birdman was doing his thing --

crooning mellifluously over gloppy, canned digitalisms -- with an endlessly oddball

approach that evoked Bjork fronting 8-Bit. Love it or hate it, it was, in a word,

singular. I for one, was down with it.

Up next at the Echo were the Mae Shi, who

were explosive and fun as usual. Powered by the magical, funk-a-licious Omnichord --

yes, the children’s toy -- “Run to Your Grave” was just one of the sing-a-long,

clap-your-hands and-stomp-your-feet standouts. The crowd really went nuts for the

anarchic closer, “HLLLYH,” however. There was crowd-surfing -- like legitimate,

triumphal, festival-style crowd-surfing -- which was a quite a thrill to see at the

Echo.

Leaving the Echo behind in a race to see Greg Ashley -- he of the giant pop

obfuscation that is “Medicine F* Dream” -- I was waylaid by an iconic act of guerilla

rock 'n' roll that goes back as least as far as the Beatles’ “Let It Be”: A sloppy,

scrappy little quartet from Garden Grove called AM, which had neither applied for nor been

invited to play the festival, set up on the sidewalk two doors down from the Echo and

began to play an impromptu set of good-times garage-rock. Explaining the tactic, co-lead

singer Fonzie said, “[Heck with] venues, [heck with] shows. We’ve got a portable

generator!”

But what should have been a nice little diversion became an ugly little incident when

two bouncers from the Echo decided that the foursome posed a clear and present danger to

the festival and attempted to shut it down. Taking a cue from Ringo, the kids kept

playing despite some unnecessarily aggressive alpha-male posturing. Instead of waiting

for the end of the song to issue his decree, however, one of the muscle-bound bouncers

actually tackled singer-guitarist Felipe mid-riff, railroading the skinny non-threat

against the iron security gates along Sunset, knocking his guitar -- and probably his

spine -- right out of tune. That was the end of that.

Shame on you, F-Yeah Fest. Of all fests, you should know better.

Read Full Story Read more Festival earns high marks, though one bouncer gets an F

Schedule announced for F-Yeah Fest

It's a punk-rock weekend.

You have the fourth annual F-Yeah Fest

bringing a great lineup of avant-garde musicians, artists and comedians to Echo Park

(read my colleague Pauline O'Connor's story here); you

have the Warped Tour wrapping up its wild

summer at the Home Depot Center; and you have the legendary John Doe finishing his long tour with a hometown

show at Safari Sam's.

The complete F-Yeah Fest schedule can be found on the blog here. [Do not click if the naughty word

in the festival's name offends you.]

Read Full Story Read more Schedule announced for F-Yeah Fest

Phoenix and the Turtle plays to a new scene

Nbtphoenix

This might sound like another of those warm-and-fuzzy posts written in the haze of

last night's music, but the second installment of Now Blog This on Thursday at the Scene

turned out to be, for me, what an ideal club outing is supposed to be. You see a good

set or two or three from known quantities, plus you hear something that's completely new

and different.

Nbtswitchblur The night

(curated by four L.A. bloggers, including this one) delivered the gritty, horn-infused

indie rock of Le Switch; the lovingly

fractured, ghost-inspired pop of the

Deadly Syndrome; and the dense, soaring anthems of Aushua. All were familiar to me beforehand.

But not Phoenix and the

Turtle, who arrived seemingly out of nowhere to start the night. Well, not out of

nowhere. LA Underground invited the band to

make the trip in from Yucaipa, and I don't know

what the music scene is like in Yucaipa, but this quartet has got to be the best indie

rock band out there. Their proggy compositions stopped and started, swelled and receded,

purred and thundered, as if by magic, with Valerie Curtis' work on the violin and

keyboards and Cahn Curtis' array of guitar textures giving the music a very cinematic

feel. Overall, it was a set that rewarded early arrivals.

Until next time.

Nbtaushua

Photos: Top, Cahn Curtis, Valerie Curtis and Bill Barrington of Phoenix and the

Turtle; inset, Aaron Kyle of Le Switch; above, Nathan Gammill and Phil Neujahr of

Aushua; below, the Deadly Syndrome's setlist. By Kevin Bronson / LAT.

Nbtdeadlylist

Read Full Story Read more Phoenix and the Turtle plays to a new scene

Moz, bloggers, downloads and mall music

[Random notes for Thursday ...]

Morrissey today announced a 10-night

stand at the Hollywood Palladium -- the final shows at the venue before it closes down

for renovation. The dates are Oct. 1 through 13 (Moz takes three nights off during the

run), and before you crack wise about the number of people (some you may even know) who

will attend every show, know that promoters are offering a special deal for

fans who want to attend every show.

Morrissey
Starting at 10 a.m. Monday, package deals giving the Moz faithful 10 nights for the

price of nine go on sale. The deal also gets attendees a commemorative ticket, the

opportunity to go to the head of the queue and, presumably, much better odds of catching

the man's shirt when he tosses it into the crowd near the end of the show.

How much are the tickets? This just in: The special

packages are $391.50. before the leviathan surcharges

Ticketmaster is sure to add. That would put single-night tickets at about

$43. No word yet. Hope I don't have wait to click on LiveNation.com or

Ticketmaster.com on Monday.

(Updated:

Thanks to commenter Torr for pointing out a phrase I missed in the press release -- that

buying a 10-show package eliminates individual ticket surcharges.)

◊ ◊



This little online compendium is one of four presenters tonight for the Now

Blog This showcase at the Scene in Glendale. See Wednesday's post for details on my

nominee, Aushua.

It's a fine bill

all around -- with the Deadly

Syndrome, Phoenix and the

Turtle and Le Switch playing -- and I

wouldn't be surprised if this is the last time the Deadly Syndrome plays a club this

small. The quartet's fine debut album "The Ortolan" comes out next month on

Dim Mak, and the band has an album-release show on Sept. 8 at the Echo.

◊ ◊



Brandishearer
Amoeba Records (the label) has a couple of nice songs for download here. One is "Lullabies" from Brandi Shearer (pictured), a San Francisco-based

singer-songwriter whose album "Close to Home" is getting some attention. The

other is "Long Black Limousine," a live recording from a 1969 concert by Gram

Parsons with the Flying Burrito Brothers.

◊ ◊ ◊

Elsewhere Thursday, Aug. 23

There's music in the

courtyard at Hollywood & Highland tonight, and while I usually steer clear of

buildings with Gaps, Run Run Run is

playing. ... The always-fun Hell Ya! night has Eastern Conference

Champions and Maxeen playing at the

Echo. ... No Age and the Mae Shi play the Troubadour -- both will

also be playing this weekend's F-Yeah Fest. ... And Carlos Guitarlos is at the Silverlake

Lounge.

Read Full Story Read more Moz, bloggers, downloads and mall music

Fast times with O.C. quartet Aushua

Aushua2

The Orange County-based quartet Aushua has been around only a year, but the

band is building itself to last. "We want to be in a band that matters,"

singer-guitarist Nathan Gammill says. "Hopefully, we can be pop in a classic sense,

making music that's very relevant and that speaks to people we know."

The rough-edged anthems on the foursome's self-released "Hold On!" EP are a

good start. Gammill -- with Neujahr brothers Phil (bass), Eric (guitar) and Lee (drums)

-- recorded the five songs last October using portable studio equipment in the Good

Shepherd Chapel on the campus of Concordia University in Irvine. Both the band and

producer Eliot Richardson had to, um, give thanks the session was allowed to go off.

Now, Aushua is getting ready for a follow-up. Although the initial batch of songs

came mainly from Gammill and Phil Neujahr, "the songwriting is pretty organic now

in that everybody in the band does his own thing," the singer says. "We just

kind of know when the song is ripe."

Just last weekend, a new batch came to fruition -- Aushua recorded four new songs,

with Thrice guitarist Teppei Teranishi at the

controls. Coming off a handful of gigs in the L.A. area and a residency in July at the

Detroit Bar in Costa Mesa, the quartet of early twentysomethings seems to be racing

through the learning curve. "We grew from that," says Gammill, "we

learned a lot about just playing a club."

As for the band's name, Gammill explains Aushua is a made-up word, and while it has

some benefits in the Internet world (the band is the only thing that comes up on

Google), nobody quite knows how to spell it when it's spoken. "Word of mouth has

been a little tough," he concedes.

||| Aushua performs Thursday night with the Deadly Syndrome, Phoenix and the Turtle and Le Switch at the Scene in Glendale as this blog's nominee for

the Now Blog This showcase. The fine folks at LA-Underground explain Now Blog This her

e.

||| Download: "Sister Saves."

Photo of Aushua at the Silverlake Lounge by Kevin Bronson / LAT.

Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 22

The Yeah Yeah Yeahs
have sold out the

Mayan, so if you're ticketless and in the mood for some good music: The Stevenson Ranch Davidians and the Black Pine play the Echo. ... Frankel is

among the performers at the Silverlake Lounge. ... Cary Brothers, supported by Stars of the Track and Field, plays the

Troubadour. ... Australia's Eskimo Joe plays

Club NME at Spaceland. ... And the Letter Openers will be

nice and sharp at the Kiss or Kill club at

El Cid.

Read Full Story Read more Fast times with O.C. quartet Aushua

Voices raised (and quieted) as Foreign Born celebrates

Foreignbornrr2


Foreign Born's half-time opus

"Union Hall" sounds like the kind of song that could change the course of

nations, or at least inspire a labor uprising or two. (Never heard it? Go here.) Its big background chant and

stomping percussion are the kind of sonic metaphors of which hits are made. And even if

"Union Hall" isn't a real place ("It's more symbolic," singer Matt

Popieluch told me last week, while crediting guitarist/composer Lewis Pesacov with

coming up with the notion to slow the song down), it never took on more shape than it

did Tuesday night at the Los Angeles quartet's record-release show at the Echo.

A dozen members of the L.A.-based women's chorus Nevenka -- which performed the set in between

shoegazer opener In Waves and the

headliners -- joined Foreign Born onstage to lend their voices to that chant, and the

song darned near burst at the seams. It was a joyous occasion to begin with, since the

performance marked the long-awaited release of Foreign Born's album "On the Wing

Now," and friends of the band were already buzzing about one generally positive review the album received Tuesday.

Nevenka's cameo, along with its set of Eastern European folk songs, gave the evening an irresistible charm, even beyond the oddity that Earlimart was having its

record-release downstairs at the Echoplex. Musicians are forced to play over patrons'

conversations all the time in rock clubs, but some customers Tuesday empathized with the

less-amplified singers plying tunes from Macedonia, Bulgaria, Georgia and elsewhere in

the Balkan region: They shushed their fellow audience members.

Now that's good folk.

||| Sample some Nevenka: "Deda mogik'vdesa."

||| Foreign Born also performs Sunday as part of the second-day lineup of the

fourth annual F-Yeah Fest in Echo Park.

Photo of Matt Popieluch, center, guitarist Lewis Pesacov and members of Nevenka, by

Kevin Bronson / LAT.

Read Full Story Read more Voices raised (and quieted) as Foreign Born celebrates

Ears Wide Open: Following the Stevenson Ranch Davidians

Stevensonranchdavidians

[Another installment in our locally

famous local-music awareness program:]

Don't be deceived by the religious connotations in their band name -- the Stevenson Ranch Davidians

aren't cultists. "It's very tongue-in-cheek," singer-guitarist Dwayne

Seagraves says, "but people don't always get it. Some people think we're a

religious band."

The Davidians -- who are indeed from the Santa Clarita Valley development Stevenson

Ranch -- do have their devotions, however. On "Psalms, Hymns & Spiritual

Songs," their self-released album from last year, the quartet visits the altar of

Britpop as rendered by the likes of Travis, the Verve and Blur, not to mention the

pop-psych pioneers of the '60s. The Davidians nurture their version of that sound with

songs that are patiently paced, gently couched in reverb and simple in lyrical

approach.

Seagraves and band mates Jessica Latiolait, Bryan Showalter and Cary Chafin are

already writing songs for a follow-up to "Psalms," which was recorded in

Raymond Richards' Red Rockets Glare studio in Rancho Park. The album has been picked up

by a European indie label for distribution, so the foursome hopes to tour there later

this year.

||| Stevenson Ranch Davidians, with the Black Pine among the supporting acts,

perform Wednesday night at the Echo.

||| Download: "Beginnings and

Ends."

Read Full Story Read more Ears Wide Open: Following the Stevenson Ranch Davidians

Foreign Born’s ‘On the Wing Now’ finally takes off

Foreignborn

How happy is L.A. quartet Foreign

Born today, now that its long-awaited debut, "On the Wing Now," is

released?

"You have no idea," singer-guitarist Matt Popieluch says.

Yes, Popieluch and band mates Lewis Pesacov, Garrett Ray and Ariel Rechtshaid

constitute another L.A. group that has found little but frustration on the business side

of making music. Foreign Born emerged in 2004, released the promising "In the

Remote Woods" EP in 2005 and solidified itself as a band to watch with a residency

at Spaceland that summer. The quartet recorded its album that winter, pressed some

copies itself, toured and waited.

"Everything on the business side was very elusive," Popieluch says.

"But the world is full of arbitrary reasoning. It's a question of how you navigate

that.

"Yes, I wish things had happened a little quicker. Every prolific musician wants

to keep current with himself, keep a rhythm going. . . . The industry is a distraction,

it's a pain, it's a necessary evil, but the creative process happens whether you like it

or not."

Now, after months of "being broke the whole time," Popieluch says -- not to

mention having written the next album -- Foreign Born emerges on the roster of Steve Aoki's ascendant Dim Mak label, perhaps as the imprint's

smartest release.

"On the Wing Now" reveals the band's feel for anthemic '80s rock shaded by

complex arrangements and cathartic moments that make the likes of Modest Mouse or Arcade

Fire so appealing. Rechtshaid's insistent bass lines pull the band's dense guitars and

Popieluch's potent vocals toward big emotional payoffs.

Foreign Born plays tonight at the Echo supported by the women's choir Nevenka, which

specializes in Eastern European folk music (and will back the band on "Union

Hall"), and dream-rock trio In

Waves.

Elsewhere Tuesday, Aug. 21

The second of Earlimart's two release

gigs for "Mentor Tormentor" has been moved -- tonight's show will be at the

Echoplex (downstairs from Foreign Born's show). The Parson Redheads and the Pity Party open. ... Folk duo the Finches have been charming Tuesday

night crowds at Bordello this month, playing songs off their smart (and smartly

packaged) album "Human Like a House." There's another installment tonight. ...

The Henry Clay People hold forth

at the Scene in Glendale. ... Kissing

Cousins pucker up at Safari Sam's. ... And pop-punkers In Theory rock the Key Club on its all-ages

Tuesday in front of residents After Midnight Project.

||| Download: "In the

Shape."

Photo: Ariel Rechtshaid, left, Garrett Ray, Lewis Pesacov and Matt Popieluch

Read Full Story Read more Foreign Born’s ‘On the Wing Now’ finally takes off

Weekend wrap-up: The heat (and Blonde Redhead) was on

What a delightful musical weekend. If you like being body-slammed in a sauna, that

is.

Those who staked out a spot early were rewarded at Sunset Junction. My informal poll

of "street-fairers" who endured the scene revealed three mind-blowing sets --

Blonde Redhead and Morris Day and the Time

on Saturday, the Buzzcocks on Sunday -- several other good ones and various and sundry

bruised and sore body parts. Sunset Boulevard seems to have a size problem.

The Buzzcocks, of course, played Friday night at a packed-to-the-gills Spaceland too;

one longtime fan told me she thought it was their best show ever. Um, she was the one

leaning on the monitor upfront. Still, it's hard to believe these pop-punk originals

have been around more than three decades now. Pete Shelley even joined local

outfit  the Adored onstage for a

rendition of "Homosapien."

Meanwhile, I was across town at the decidedly less crowded Santa Monica Women's Club. That's right. It's a

93-year-old building on 4th Street that has an old-fashioned auditorium, a cool balcony

and just enough glitchiness that a rock show there seems very DIY. Hey, the club used to

throw USO parties for servicemen there during WWII.

Friday's trip to Santa Monica was for Earlimart's record-release show -- the Westside

edition. There's another, on Tuesday at the Jensen Rec Center in Echo Park, to celebrate

the release of "Mentor Tormentor." But this show came via a promoter who's

trying to bring indie music across town, and the Women's Club is a great place to throw

an all-ages bash.

So there was Earlimart, playing its new music to the hilt and blowing the power.

Front man Aaron Espinoza mingled in the modest crowd while it was restored. It was like

playing a gig at a junior high, somebody said, and that assessment was spot on. Those

who showed up were happy kids, if not from Earlimart's serenely beautiful new material

then from Castledoor's earlier set. The L.A. six-piece, fueled by Nate Cole's soaring

vocals and boyish charm, seems ready for substantially bigger stages right now.

As for Sunset Junction, grumbling about the heat and the crowds just about equalled

the praise for the music. That's the trade-off. Autolux (which stuck to its old stuff

rather than test-drive new material due to monitor problems, I was told) earns such

accolades every time they play, but it was New York trio Blonde Redhead that turned in a

set to remember.

This from blogger-pal Jeff Weiss:

"It sort of reminded me of Love’s set three years ago: a legendary band rising

above the cluttered bedlam of the Junction and delivering a set for the ages, a

performance unlikely to be topped all weekend."

Monday, Aug. 20

If you're not hitting the Beastie Boys' show at the Greek, tonight is a good

opportunity to check out one of the three Eastside residencies. Not only are the

residents worthy, but the supporting acts are good too:
Low Vs Diamond (with Oliver

Future supporting) at Spaceland; the Crash Kings (with the Waking Hours) at the

Silverlake Lounge; and Manic (with Minutes Til Midnight) at the Echo. ... The Beautiful

and Damned and the Hanks are playing Indie 103.1's "Check ... One Two" night

at the Viper Room. ... RX Bandits are back for a second night at the Troubadour.

Read Full Story Read more Weekend wrap-up: The heat (and Blonde Redhead) was on

Preview the new Rilo Kiley album? Streams good to me

[Random end-of-the-week notes:]

Rilo Kiley is letting us hear their new album,

"Under the Blacklight," nice people that they are. The album comes out Aug.

21. Stream it now through Tuesday at the band's MySpace. The Times' pop music critic, Ann

Powers, has an in-depth look at the band and the new album coming in Sunday's

newspaper.

By the way, Tuesday is a strong day for local releases -- Earlimart, Foreign Born and the Section Quartet are also

dropping new albums. Am I forgetting anybody?

◊ ◊ ◊

The finals of radio station Star 98.7's Rockstar

Search are tonight at the Key Club. The winner gets $25,000 and a deal with Ironworks Music (co-owned by Kiefer Sutherland

and singer-songwriter Jude Cole). I am always leery of contests, battles of the bands

and any music awards that artists have to pay to enter, but I dutifully run down the

finalists here: Venice folkies Zanzibar

Lewis, O.C. neo-soul dude Drew Bray,

pop quartet Kat'l-ist ("the

phonetic spelling of catalyst," the website kindly points out), Garvy J (who I don't know much about but whose

music sounds most interesting from MySpace sampling), and piano-tickling Brooke White.

◊ ◊ ◊

Emma Burgess
has to

cancel some shows (including tonight's at the Viper Room) because of throat ailment. ...

On Saturday, the rockers who run the club Kiss

or Kill will be having their own little Sunset Junction party -- they've booked a

dozen bands to play the room at El Cid (with a couple hours off in the early evening for

flamenco dancers). See the link for the lineup. ... And the Submarines and Pop Noir will be playing the Hang the DJs Sunset

Junction After Party at the Echo on Saturday night.

◊ ◊ ◊

Weekend picks

The Buzzcocks warm up for the Sunset Junction

action by playing Spaceland tonight with the

Adored. ... Earlimart has the first of its record-release parties, tonight's in

Santa Monica (see yesterday's post). ... Los Lonely Boys are at the Greek tonight, and

George Clinton and crew hold forth there on Saturday night. And the Beastie Boys are at the Greek on Sunday and Monday

(and Sunday isn't sold out yet).






Read Full Story Read more Preview the new Rilo Kiley album? Streams good to me

Culver City Dub Collective fuses island sounds

Ccdc




One of the most surprising albums to emerge this year from the nooks and

crannies of the Los Angeles music scene is largely the work of two guys you’d be

surprised work together at all.

“Dos,” the debut from the Culver City Dub Collective,

grew from a love for reggae and bossa nova shared by drummer-songwriter Adam Topol and

guitarist-producer Franchot Tone (grandson of the actor). Not that the project came to

fruition quickly — the pair and their A-list collaborators assembled the album, a

labyrinthine mesh of island sounds, jazz and electronica, over four years.

“I’m definitely an advocate of making sure every detail is just right, and I’m sure

that made Franchot a little crazy,” says Topol, who has been Jack Johnson’s drummer

since 2000. “But having both those personalities in the same room can be great if they

can be kind and polite and make compromises.”
Mutual admiration helped too. Says

Topol: “I’d bring him my ideas and sketches, and he’d make it sound like a beautiful

painting.”

A lineup of heavy-hitting guests ensured the details were right. Among the credits:

Johnson, Ben Harper, Matt Costa, Money Mark, Piers Facini, Joey Altruda, Winston Jarrett

(Studio One), Jay Malinowski (Bedouin Soundclash), David Ralicke (Beck), Merlo Podlewski

(Dan the Automator) and Koool G. Murder (Eels). Now that’s a collective.

What makes “Dos” distinctive is the fusion of modern electronics and classic rhythms.

“The sub-bass was one thing that took it from retro into the realm of being a bit

modern,” Topol says, “although the drums gave it an organic feel.”

And when the CCDC plays Saturday afternoon at the Sunset Junction Street Fair? “It’ll

be a live band playing an electronic record,” Topol says. “It’s gonna breathe more. But

it’s gonna be great.”

||| Download "Big Long Gun" at the band's website.

||| CCDC opens for

ALO tonight at the Troubadour and plays at 3 p.m.

Saturday on the Bates Stage at Sunset Junction.

Photo of Franchot Tone, left,

and Adam Topol by J.P. Plunier.

◊ ◊ ◊

Check out my colleague

August Brown's story on one of Saturday's night headliners, Blonde Redhead, here.

Read Full Story Read more Culver City Dub Collective fuses island sounds

Sunset Junction: Easy does it

Sunset Junction is not a music festival.

It's a street fair, with carnival rides, booths, food vendors, hawkers, crazies,

oppressive heat and sweaty throngs of humanity whose alcohol intake is liable to affect

not only their manners but the various scents they emit. So your enjoyment of the live

acts on Sunset Junction's three stages will vary depending on your tolerance for the

hassles of communal music experiences.

Dawuni
The lineup assembled by Spaceland Productions certainly ranks with any from the past

five or six years. Again, the afternoon slots on the indie rock-oriented Bates Stage are

populated with some of the best ascendant bands in L.A. The Hoover Stage has enough soul

to save your soul. World flavors spring from the Sanborn Stage -- if you happen to have

a bad Sunday afternoon experience, go take in Rocky Dawuni (left) at 6:30 and see

if you don't feel better about the world.

This blog and my weekly column in Calendar Weekend dwells mainly in the indie-rock

world, and I could fold myself into a beach chair in front of the Bates Stage

(hopefully, in a shady spot) and have a fine two days. Of the 19 acts playing that stage

this weekend, 15 have been featured on this blog or in the column. Worth the hassles?

You bet, especially if you're among friends.

Drink plenty of water. These

folks are playing at 2 p.m. Sunday:


Upcoming post: My quick look at the Culver City Dub Collective, who are playing

Saturday afternoon.

Read Full Story Read more Sunset Junction: Easy does it

Earlimart back in business with ‘Mentor Tormentor’

Earlimart


Earlimart frontman Aaron Espinoza

flinches a bit when you ask about "Mentor Tormentor," the title of the band's

fifth album, as if you were going to slap his hand with a ruler for the rhyme and

wordplay.

"It refers to a multitude of specific things -- the band, the music, the

decision to even be an artist," he says. "To how I can feel completely

fortunate that we've done as well as we have, and yet there are days where I think it's

the worst thing that's happened to me."

Characteristically, the songs on Earlimart's long-awaited collection deftly avoid

those extremes. Emotions are seldom bold or stark; instead, like the orchestral nuances

that emerged in recording sessions with bandmates Ariana Murray and Joel Graves at the

Ship studio in Eagle Rock, they are like colors that run together in the wash.

Espinoza's voice carries the weight of his Everyman wisdom effortlessly, and the album's

tuneful sheen harbors complexities that beg to be considered.

There has been, however, some palpable "torment."

Read Full Story Read more Earlimart back in business with ‘Mentor Tormentor’

Sunset Junction forecast: heat, and Hot Hot Heat

Highs are forecast in the mid- to upper-80s for this weekend's Sunset Junction Street Fair, where dozens of

you -- OK, hundreds -- will be gorging yourself on carnival rides, food and music.

I looked that up just so I could share the new video for the song "Let Me

In" by Hot Hot Heat, which plays the

Spaceland stage on Sunday evening (more on the lineup in the next day or so). I was at

the Echo the night this was filmed, commenting to a friend (before I knew that a shoot

was going on) that some of the women outside the club that night looked a little Sunset

Strip to be hanging out on the Eastside.

Enjoy:

Read Full Story Read more Sunset Junction forecast: heat, and Hot Hot Heat

Squeeze plays an arresting reunion show at the Greek

[Colleague Liam Gowing slept in, asked me the last time I'd played "Singles

45's and Under" and wondered if I cared what he thought of last night's Squeeze

show. Of course I did.]

After spending the last decade not speaking to

one another, Squeeze principals Chris Difford and Glenn Tilbrook patched things up earlier this

year and hit the road for a short reunion tour. At the Greek Theatre on Monday, the

amphitheater was, at best, three-quarters full -- a shame because Difford and Tilbrook,

plus classic-lineup bassist John Bentley and new recruits Stephen Large and Simon Hanson

-- played a tight, exhilarating set.

Yes, the troops were rounded up to

support Universal's re-release of the band's catalog. And the setlist was chosen

accordingly; Squeeze played every song from the indispensable “Singles 45's and Under,”

along with chestnuts like the rockabilly-tinged “Messed Around.”

In many

ways, the show was the antithesis of the Police’s

self-indulgent and ultimately limp-wristed reunion: Unlike Sting and company, Squeeze

played 'em like they wrote 'em, honoring the original arrangements with lock-tight

performances, and saving the improvisational impulses for the solos, which -- thanks to

Tilbrook’s speed-freak fretwork -- were just jaw-droppingly good.

Here’s

hoping that Fountains of Wayne, who

played a rather perfunctory opening set, was paying attention.

Read Full Story Read more Squeeze plays an arresting reunion show at the Greek

Film School graduates to an even more dynamic sound

Filmschool

"Hideout," the new album by Film School, isn't out until Sept. 11, but

it's already creating a buzz from those who've heard its buzzing guitars and

reverb-heavy dynamics. Its the kind of album that dares you to roll up your car windows,

crank it and be swallowed whole. If the band's debut album was a bit hit-and-miss,

there  are precious few misfires on this one.

Greg Bertens (the artist formerly known as Krayg Burton, at least on the first album)

and mates have relocated to Los Angeles from San Francisco. Let's see, that makes

tonight's show at Spaceland a hometown gig, then. Brilliant.

||| Download "Lectric."

||| Brooklyn's Pela is an opening act for that

show tonight. It will be drummer Tomislav Zovich's final tour with the band.

Touts for Tuesday, Aug. 14

Oh, what a night: The Magic Numbers and

the Little Ones bring their feel-good

pop to the El Rey. ... Dengue

Fever rocks the Knitting Factory. ... The One AM Radio looses his gauzy

bedroom pop on the Echo. ... Buckfast

plies its Anglophile rock at the Mint. ... Eulogies, the new trio assembled by

singer-songwriter Peter Walker, plays a set at the Troubadour opening for rockers the Wildbirds. ... The Finches and the Coral Sea entertain at Bordello.

... And Aushua plays the early set at the

Silverlake Lounge.

Photo by Marla Aufmuth

Read Full Story Read more Film School graduates to an even more dynamic sound

The High Strung gets a good read on its audiences

Highstrungwoods




Singer-guitarist Josh Malerman is hitting the books again, and it has

nothing to do with studying. “I’m sitting outside the library in Carson City right now,”

he reports enthusiastically by phone from Nevada. “They’ve got an Alfred Hitchcock

festival going on. It’s fantastic.”

It's Monday, and later the library would also host a rock show. Malerman’s

hyperkinetic trio, the High Strung,

would headline — another stop on the Detroit-based garage-rockers’ improbable National Public Library Tour. For

the third consecutive summer, Malerman and band mates Chad Stocker and Derek Berk are

turning libraries into places to be rocked, not shushed.

“It’s brilliant; I wish I’d thought of it,” Malerman says of the idea, hatched by a

Michigan youth librarian named Bill Harmer. “At first it was horribly awkward,

especially since we were told, ‘Play as loud as you normally do.’”


Read Full Story Read more The High Strung gets a good read on its audiences

The Mormons hit one out of the park

I am not necessarily a fan of the

Mormons, but as a baseball guy I just about did a spit take when I saw the

tongue-in-cheek poster for the Los Angeles band's current stand at Mr. T's Bowl. [Sorry

for the sloppy clean-up job; it's a family blog, you know.]

Mormonsposter1_2




Read Full Story Read more The Mormons hit one out of the park

Luther Russell makes his ‘Repair’

Lutherrussell




Luther Russell chuckles

knowingly when an interviewer remarks that the songs on his fourth album,

"Repair," seem kind of happily mopey. "That's me, smiling at everything

that could possibly be sad," he says, pausing and then laughing. "There you

have it. End of interview."

Yes, that's the album in a nutshell, but how

the 36-year-old arrived at his sage stage is the back story of "Repair," a

title you can take to mean "some sort of therapeutic thing, or the double-entendre,

like to repair home," he says.

Indeed, Russell's latest songs materialized after he returned to his native Los

Angeles in 2002 after eight years in Portland, Ore. "When you play a gig up there,

it's not like you're looking out into the audience to see who [from the record industry]

might be checking you out," the former Freewheelers frontman says. "I

realized, 'Hey, if I'm doing it here, it must be because I like it.' And when I moved

back down here, I brought that attitude with me."

But his move back to L.A. was fraught with real-life problems -- his divorce, as well

as illnesses in his family -- that slowed his artistic progress yet "probably

informed the songs," he says. When "Repair" was finally recorded,

virtually live and with producer Ethan Johns (Kings of Leon, Ryan

Adams), it was a quick process.

||| Russell plays Saturday night at the Echo. Among the openers is Sarabeth Tucek, whose album Russell

co-produced.

||| Download: "My Own

Blood."

◊ ◊ ◊

Highlights this

weekend

Great

Northern and the Comas make for a

great bill tonight at Spaceland, while Solare

plays at El Cid. That is, if you're not at the Hollywood Bowl watching Cheap Trick and the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra

performing Sgt. Pepper's. (Hmm.) They're channeling the Beatles on Saturday night too.

... Speaking of Saturday, the Avett

Brothers play the El Rey, and Ladybug Transistor and Castledoor rock Spaceland. ... Also

Saturday night, International Pop

Overthrow finishes up its 10th edition at the Knitting Factory, highlighted by a set

from the Waking Hours. ... And on

Sunday, it's MF Doom at the El Rey.

Read Full Story Read more Luther Russell makes his ‘Repair’

Rock the Bells is sold out

This just in: Rock the Bells, the big

shindig on Saturday at Hyundai Pavilion at Glen Helen featuring Rage Against the

Machine, Wu-Tang Clan, Cypress Hill, the Roots and Public Enemy, among many others, is

sold out. As you were.

Read Full Story Read more Rock the Bells is sold out

Tony Wilson, 1950-2007

Tony Wilson, the founder of

Factory Records and the man who promoted Manchester bands such as Joy Division, New

Order and the Happy Mondays, has died from complications of kidney cancer at age 57.

Wilson, below, introduced the set by the Happy Mondays at Coachella on April 29.