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[One sentence apiece, over and out, and out for the weekend ...] Summer Strummer ticket and $35.50
for the Detour Festival ?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.
by the way, the Deadly Syndrome
turned its song "Eucalyptus" into an arena-rocker last night at the Roxy.
Britney Spears "Gimme More," which is all glitch and heavy breathing and so
disposable I'm tired of it after streaming it once here .Brian Jonestown Massacre ,
Saturday and Sunday, at the Echoplex.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.Cold
War Kids, headlining the Wiltern, on Nov. 23.Morning Becomes Eclectic (special programming all
weekend).
strong lineup of locals; details here .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.
...
[Colleague Frank Farrar catches up with local favorites the Like:] 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.
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."
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.
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.
& 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 .
($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
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.
[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.
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.
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."
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.
[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.
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.]
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.
(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.
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.
[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.
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.
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.)
◊
Blog This showcase at the Scene in Glendale. See Wednesday's post for details on my
nominee, Aushua .
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.
◊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
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.
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."Sister Saves." Touts for Wednesday, Aug. 22
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.
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."
fourth annual F-Yeah Fest in Echo Park.
Photo of Matt Popieluch, center, guitarist Lewis Pesacov and members of Nevenka, by
Kevin Bronson / LAT.
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."
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 ."In the
Shape."
Photo: Ariel Rechtshaid, left, Garrett Ray, Lewis Pesacov and Matt Popieluch
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:
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.
[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 .
◊ ◊ ◊
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).
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.”
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.”website .
ALO tonight at the Troubadour and plays at 3 p.m.
Saturday on the Bates Stage at Sunset Junction.
and Adam Topol by J.P. Plunier.
August Brown's story on one of Saturday's night headliners, Blonde Redhead , here .
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.
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.
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."
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:
[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.]
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.
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.”
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.
hoping that Fountains of Wayne , who
played a rather perfunctory opening set, was paying attention.
"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.
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.’”
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.]
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."
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."My Own
Blood."Highlights this
weekend
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.
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.
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.
