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Samples from four tracks of the new Spank Rock
EP are streaming at the duo's MySpace
page. You can get a a taste of that -- the Philadelphia duo's [Naeem Juwan,
pictured] "Bangers & Cash" EP is due out this fall on Downtown, with a new
album planned for early next year -- to warm up for the electro-party-dudes' set
Saturday at the Neighborhood
Festival. Or you can just load Nocturnal's website and trance out.
out, but here goes:
Touts for Friday, Sept. 28
Critical faves the National , whose album
"Boxer" will get mounds of attention on the best-of-2007 lists, headline the
Wiltern. ... Comeback kids Imperial Teen play
Spaceland. ... Big night at the Hotel Cafe: Sylvie Lewis has a release show for her
new album ""Translations" at 8; Rob Dickinson (ex-Catherine Wheel) has a
solo outing at 9; and Jim Bianco
continues his string of Friday night parties at 10. ... Low starts a two-night stand at the Troubadour.
... Girl Talk parties at the
Echoplex. ... Dirty Harry celebrates
the release of her album "Songs From the Edge" with a show at the Knitting
Factory. ... And El Ten Eleven
celebrates the release of "Every Direction Is North" at El Cid.Touts for Saturday, Sept. 29 Bright Eyes with
the L.A. Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl; the indie dance-oriented Neighborhood
Festival at Exposition Park; the electronica rave Nocturnal Festival in downtown L.A.;
and the music/art/film collision called the Swerve Festival headquartered at Barnsdall Art
Park.
the dance crowd will be nuts for the likes of the Chemical Brothers, Paul Van Dyk and
Carl Cox at Nocturnal; and the Faint, Spank Rock and Crystal Castles will offset some of
the, ahem, other acts at Neighborhood.
On the lawn at Barnsdall in the afternoon, Foreign Born and the Black Angels will play at Swerve;
Bonde Do Role leads the Swerve dance
party at night at the Echoplex.Service Group (at the Scene Bar) and Sasha Sacket (Tangiers) have
record-release shows, while the Good
Listeners bring their good vibes to Bordello.Touts for Sunday, Sept. 30
after Saturday, DeVotchka leads the
afternoon lineup at Swerve, and We Are
Scientists play the festival's closing party at the Echoplex.
Tucked away near the bottom of the bill for Saturday's Neighborhood Festival -- the indie dance
party at Exposition Park mounted by DJ Steve
Aoki and his Dim Mak label -- is Brother Reade, an L.A. duo that makes
old-school hip-hop which, at a glance, might seem out of place at an event featuring
such electro hotshots as the Faint, Spank Rock and Chromeo.
"We're thrilled that we're attached to the L.A. club scene," says rapper
Jamz (born James Joliff), who, with DJ Bobby Evans (born Erin Garcia), released their
Brother Reade debut, "Rap Music," this summer. "It's one community that's
latched on to our music in a wonderful way. Then again, in the beginning hip-hop was
four-on-the-floor disco songs with guys rapping over it."
Jamz and Evans are boyhood pals from Winston-Salem, N.C., who reconnected in L.A.
after moving west. Originally drawn to rock, Jamz expanded his diet quickly. "Kids
in small towns are kinda music omnivores," he says. "We were into anything
that wasn't being sold to us."
In Los Angeles, the pair's skills became quite the attraction at loft parties, and
they signed a deal with Record Collection. Unlike a lot of modern hip-hop, the album was
made without any guest turns. It's a throwback "to an era when things weren't as
industrialized," Jamz says. "Our intention is to take a classicist approach to
rap, but not to ignore the last 20 years of the movement."
||| Next post: More on the weekend.
L.A.'s Dangerbird Records , its thumbs
in its suspenders after being nominated for alternative label of the year by trade 'zine
Radio and Records, is offering a slew of free downloads. Click here to download Darker My Love's
2006 debut album in its entirety, as well as four tracks from Dappled Cities (a
three-song EP and a Loving Hands remix of "Fire Fire Fire.")
Speaking of Darker My Love , the
psych-rock quartet is in the studio with producer Dave Cooley working on a follow-up
(targeted for release next summer) to that 2006 disc. A tour with the Warlocks is
planned -- and maybe a couple dates on a big tour. Stay tuned.
The Mint is marking is 70th year with a special
series of shows over the next couple of months. The mid-city venue has had an
up-and-down history, with its fortunes (and music bookings) looking brighter since it
re-opened in 2005 after a facelift orchestrated by new owner Todd Christensen. It has
especially been a haven for the L.A. alt-country scene.
The shows include tonight's performance by Beausoleil featuring Michael Doucet; an
Oct. 4 appearance by Country Music Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin; the Hacienda Brothers
on Oct. 12; Tim Reynolds on on Nov. 9, Pancho Sanchez on Nov. 23; and two dates by
the Charlie Hunter Trio in early December. So here's to the Mint ...
Sam Sparro is a child of the '80s
who's lived on three continents, who's partied hearty on each of them and who,
musically, had never made it out of his bedroom. Until now.
Last month, the 24-year-old native of Australia released his debut EP, "Black
& Gold," and proceeded to wow a crowd at the downtown club Bordello with
vintage crooning -- you didn't doubt for a second that he used to do Curtis Mayfield
covers -- over sexed-up electro-beats that couldn't hide the fact that, as he says,
"Yeah, I grew up as a club kid."
Sparro's DIY recordings came with the help of producer Jesse Rogg of the Modus Vivendi Music imprint, who signed him
(and signed on as DJ) after seeing him perform at the What Club. "Even in the final
mixes you can hear the air conditioner," Sparro says, noting that Rogg helped him
achieve the place where "classic soul and classic funk . . . combine with the music
I listen to now.
"It's kind of somewhere between the church and the club."
With his full-length recording in the works -- "It'll have a more futuristic
sound," he promises -- the singer hopes to induce his L.A. club crowds to move
their bodies. "People here are really jaded," says Sparro. "They stand
around most of the time with their hands in their pockets."
||| See Sparro perform tonight as part of the Hell Ya promotion at the Echo. Also:
Up-and-coming Orange County quartet Voxhaul Broadcast , among others.Stream Sam Sparro here .Touts for
Thursday, Sept. 27
fine homecoming show for the Broken
West, who've been touring hard most of the year behind their early-'07 release on
Merge, "I Can't Go On, I'll Go On." The Parson Redheads and Bodies of Water also join in. ... Hot Hot Heat rock the House of Blues Anaheim ...
The Ruse ends its Viper Room residency. ... And Sarabeth Tucek plays at the Hotel Cafe.
Great Northern's blissed-out pop
is more appropriate for a sylvan outdoor setting than a shopping mall, but that's where
the L.A. quartet will be playing tonight, at the Gap-stained Hollywood & Highland
complex. At least it's for a good cause.Ladytron (alas, they were to be the opening
band for Pet Shop Boys at the Hollywood Bowl before PSB canceled), is the second in a
series of events called Public Displays
of Affection -- designed to encourage use of public transportation. Admission is an
incoming subway or bus ticket. It runs from 7 to 10 p.m. and capacity is limited.
-- how about a public transport mix CD? Here's your first track: "You Look
Good on the Train."]
Daylight" is one of the loveliest local releases of the year. I don't think I ever
got around to posting the video for "Home," so enjoy this while I finish up my
list of other great music to see tonight:
The Sex Pistols , marking the 30th
anniversary of the release of their only album, "Never Mind the Bollocks ... Here's
the Sex Pistols," will play what is being described as a "private club
show" on Oct. 25 at the Roxy Theatre on the Sunset Strip. The gig comes in advance
of five November shows in the band's native England.
Tickets are being given away during on-air promotion on Indie 103.1 (KDLD-FM), where Steve Jones is a
DJ.
Originals John Lydon, Paul Cook, Glen Matlock and Jones last played in L.A. at the
Greek in 2003. This reunion comes with the corporate backing of Indie 103.1, the
video game Guitar Hero (for whom the band re-recorded "Anarchy in the U.K.")
and Helio. Make what you will of that -- they did a tour called "Filthy
Lucre," after all -- but this will technically be the Pistols' first club gig in
L.A.
files.
Don't know about you, but I'll be listening to Indie 103.1 Thursday morning for that big
"show announcement" the station has been ballyhooing.
I'm guessing it's a Sex Pistols
show
in Los Angeles. I have no confirmation, no secret sources, no inside info. But
all signs (including the Nov. 8 show that was announced in London) point to a show here.
Obviously, there's Steve Jones' position as DJ and almighty keeper of the jukebox at
the station -- not to mention the fact that the word "legends" has been
uttered. But also there is this business about the Sex Pistols having reunited to
re-record "Anarchy in the U.K." for use in the video game Guitar Hero III:
Legends of Rock. The song, originally on the Pistols' one and only album (which came out
30 years ago this fall), will be reissued on vinyl on Oct. 1. The album will be
re-released on vinyl on Oct. 29.
The Sex Pistols in a video game?
Here's Jonesy's quote, from the press release: "It was great for Guitar Hero to,
in a way, get us back in the studio. I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out but it
actually turned out great and I think everybody held their own. I like [Guitar Hero]
because my friends' kids like it. And I like what kids like."
End of advertisement. Bring on the show.
Today's quandary: Which Mercury
Prize
nominee to see in Los Angeles tonight?
You can't raise a pint without dripping on an important English band, what with the
"nu-rave- is-just -something-we-made-up" Klaxons having sold out the Fonda Theatre,
home-recording electro-shoegazers Maps
playing Club NME at Spaceland and punk-reggae-rap phenom Jamie T roughing up the Troubadour. Of course, the
Klaxons took home the big prize and are coming around for, what, the third time this
year? Maybe you saw them
at Coachella. Maybe you saw them in the '80s.
So what's an Anglophile to do -- which might be my sort of crowd?
I consulted longtime pal and sometimes-blogger the Riverboat Captain , an English expat now
ensconced in the southern hemisphere, to try to get a snapshot of the fans.
klazo , meaning 'to shriek.' Expect fin haircuts, glow sticks, low-top sneakers,
wheat grass juice and bottled water, entheogens (look it up) and plenty of
people still hoping for a Stone Roses reunion."
"Pete Doherty-style trilby and
haircut (dilemma: can't wear large headphones at the same time), quite posh,
desperately trying to shed public school associations. Daddy is 'something in the city.'
Hobbies: anti-capitalist rallies, using public transport. Drinks: Mummy's gin."
Can't imagine Maps fans drinking anything, but they might be enthusiastic -- 'I come
from Northampton too! I make music in my bedroom as well , that's why I
totally relate to what Jimmy is doing! "We Can Create" -- you see!
You do call him Jimmy, don't you ... we all do. It's like ... totally ironic how he
checks classical composers but he uses synthesisers, which sound really fresh and
exciting.' "Touts for Wednesday, Sept. 26 !!! at the Avalon, mellow out with Sara Lov (supporting Buddy ) at Bordello, check out Gliss at Boardner's or hit the Roxy for Hello Stranger .
Foreign Born got a little tube time
Tuesday night, and as television cameos go, this one, on the new NBC show
"Chuck," was pretty killer. The L.A. quartet, whose album "On the Wing
Now" just came out on Dim Mak, is giving away a free download (for today only) to
celebrate. (If I'm reading the storyline correctly, the blonde is a CIA agent charged
with protecting her nerdy date. Go nerds!)See Foreign
Born this weekend at the Swerve
Festival.Download: "Into Your
Dream."
Eli and Mary Chartkoff look more like the nice couple who’ve volunteered as museum
docents than rockers who thrash out garagey, 3-minute anthems that sound as if they were
kicked off the “Nuggets” boxed sets for being over-educated. But therein lies the charm
of their band, the Monolators , who, if
nothing else, remind you never to judge anybody by his fitted shirt.
EP, “You Look Good on the Train,” advances the good-humored agitation they set to tune
on last year’s album “Our Tears Have Wings,” and the addition of bassist Andrew Bollas
and guitarist Tom Bogdon has quashed those male-female duo comparisons the Monolators
heard while the Chartkoffs performed as a twosome.
“That was really a matter
of necessity — we’d had other members but they kept dropping out,” says Eli, who, in
fact, does work in the library at Occidental College (his wife teaches at Cal State
Northridge).
The new lineup has re-energized the singer-guitarist, perhaps in
the same way starting the band did. “I’d been in a series of bands that fell apart in
depressing ways, and I’d given up on being in a band,” Eli says. “I met Mary at a party,
and my ears perked up when she told somebody she played drums. Our first date was
playing music together. Drummers are hard to find — that’s the genius thing about being
married to one.”
||| See the Monolators perform tonight at
the Echo. Also playing: the Amateurs , Mezzanine Owls and Summer Darling .
||| Download : "You Look
Good on the Train."
Touts for Tuesday, Sept.
25
night to take in some music -- if you're not hitting the Arctic Monkeys /Voxtrot show at the Palladium, or sucking your thumb
with this guy at the El Rey, or wondering what
all the fuss is about over Midlake at the Fonda,
you have these nice, cozier opportunities: Ex-Jayhawk Mark Olson [left] brings his luscious
twang to the downtown club Bordello. ... The Mulhollands put an exclamation
point on their residency at the Key Club. ... And Mystery Jets (who open for the Klaxons on
Wednesday) lead the Dim Mak party at Cinespace.
[One in a series designed to keep one finger on the pulse
of the local music scene and the other on the "download" button:]
The Hectors have a sense of humor to
go along with their pop chops, which is only natural when you consider the L.A. quartet
has a boyfriend-girlfriend songwriting team, influences ranging from the syrupy to
Fugazi and a drummer who wanted to name the band the Lollipop Guild.
done an interview (of sorts) to promote today's release of their second EP,
"Sometimes They Collide." Watch it here and take notes.
says of the foursome that began in songwriting and recording lessons with beau Jim
Saunders (bass) and expanded to include Robert Bonilla (guitar) and Erik Greene (drums).
"The EP has a little bit of everything, from hooks to sludge."
has the poppy "Cold Star" (reminds me of Letters to Cleo ), an anxious ditty
called "Carol and Sanford" -- "about a really shy Bonnie and Clyde,"
Dinner says -- and the brooding "I Drove All the Way From Bridgeport to Make It
With You," a line lifted from the Woody Allen movie "Stardust Memories."
The latter song was also on the Hectors' first EP, which the band isn't sharing anymore,
because, well, "none of us were very happy with it."
better mood now. They will celebrate "Sometimes They Collide" with a show
tonight.See the Hectors, along with Radars to the Sky and Tigers Can Bite You , as part of the
"Let's Independent" one-year anniversary bill tonight at Boardners. It's a
free show presented by local blog Radio Free Silver Lake .
||| Download: "Proof of Sale."
dates by the English quintet the Orange
Lights -- including a show Tuesday at the Viper Room -- have been canceled after the
band's bassist sustained injuries during a performance last week in London. According to
one report, Chris Gittins was attacked by a person wielding a bread knife after an
acoustic show. From the band's management:
for canceling their North America dates in both L.A. and New York due to a serious
injury to the hand of bass player Chris Gittins. An unprovoked incident happened in
London which resulted in us also canceling a headline show at London Barfly the
following evening."Jason Hart ,
former touring guitarist for Spiritualized. Its debut album, "Life Is Still
Beautiful," was produced by Ken Nelson (Coldplay) and Chris Potter (the Verve) and
mixed in L.A. by Chris Lord-Alge. The band will try to reschedule the shows in Novmeber.
For a guy whose voice resounds as if he's issuing the Ten Commandments instead of
singing in a post-punk band, Editors
frontman Tom Smith admits to a bit of confusion over reaction to the Birmingham,
England, quartet's sophomore album, "An End Has a Start."
"Of
course, when you get out of bed in the morning and read something cynical about
yourself, yes, it stings. But [the reviews] don't seem to be unified in the things that
are wrong with it," he tells me before playing a show in Portland, Ore., part of a
tour that brings the band to Los Angeles tonight. "I wouldn't change a single thing
about [the album]. And no matter where we are or how small the venue, there is always
someone who's been there since Day 1."
And heady days those were;
Editors' first two singles -- "Bullets" and "Munich" -- propelled
them into the limelight in England, where they were nominated for a Mercury Prize, and
the U.S. release last year of "The Back Room" helped them land a spot at
Coachella. To some, Editors were just another Joy Division/Echo & the Bunnymen
acolyte; that Coachella set made me think they had out-Interpolled Interpol.
I know this sounds kind of dog-ate-my-homework, but I had a fairly substantial
end-of-the-week post prepared this afternoon, but it seems to have been lost in a
browser crash. Briefly, it suggested very strongly that you see this man at 7:30 tonight at the Greek, buy his
album on Tuesday and then went on to
recommend a million things you could see and hear this weekend. Well, not a million, but
lots, from Cat Power to Boys Noize. Darn.
Download
"You're a
Wolf"
if you haven't already. And have a good weekend. I will get better.
-->
night, I had never attended a show at the Hollywood Bowl . I know, I know, it sounds
almost criminal, since I've lived just over the hill for about five years. But owing to
a general aversion to large crowds and an often-noncommittal attitude toward the acts that draw them , I'd managed to avoid this
singularly Los Angeles experience.
communal-music-experience happy pill than seeing Arcade Fire on Thursday. It was the
sixth time I've seen the band, at six different venues -- the first being a 300-capacity
club in Silver Lake where it got so crazy that the group ended up playing percussion on
the ventilation shafts above the stage. The virtuosic chaos generated by the 10-strong
Montreal collective was too big for that room, to be sure, and on its second trip to the
Bowl on Thursday, its set felt almost like performance art. All that pandemonium,
dispensed like bread crumbs to hungry little creatures bobbing in and out of the
geometrically tidy partitions that make up the Bowl's wedge.
beautiful.LCD Soundstystem provided a second
excellent reason to traipse up the hill, with James Murphy and gang delivering a set
that matched Arcade Fire's in energy but couldn't have been more different in form. With
LCD, it's all about repetition and order. The beats are insistent, and the riffs come at
you again and again. If Arcade Fire's exuberance seemed fuel for a wistful optimism, LCD
always seemed to me to be the soundtrack to a healthy cynicism. The huge disco ball that
was brought in for the occasion was not just a prop; it was a wink.
nerdy blogger drank some wine, high-fived some people in the aisles, moved around a
little bit to ward off the autumn chill, looked at the ribbons of light in the night sky
and vowed to come back sometime. With a better-stocked picnic basket, a better camera
and more friends.
LAT)
Division Day , the L.A. indie-rock quartet whose
album "Beartrap Island" is being re-released (on iTunes today, and in stores
on Oct. 2), is offering a free remix or cover song every Tuesday for eight weeks. It's
nice of them, considering what they've been through with this album; after the foursome
self-released it last year, they was signed to a start-up label that planned to issue
"Beartrap" last spring. But the start-up label never quite started up.
Enter L.A. imprint Eenie Meenie , home
to Great Northern, Irving and Goldenboy, among others. The label has signed Division
Day, and now the remastered album -- with two new tracks -- is on the way.
||| Download the band's cover of Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence."
Then: the Tandemoro remix of the album track "Ricky." And
then: the band's cover of Sunny Day Real Estate's "Every Shining Time
You Arrive."
||| See Division Day perform at the Echo on Oct. 2.Touts for
Thursday, Sept. 20
an Irish bar: That's Ike Reilly's music. The Chicago-area troubadour hits town with his
band the Ike Reilly Assassination for a
gig at Spaceland tonight behind its new release, "We Belong to the Staggering
Evening." Reilly played solo earlier this summer as support for Tom Morello on the
latter's Nightwatchman tour.
Recommended if you like barroom poets.Download: "When Irish Eyes Are
Burning."Also: This little
gig at the Hollywood Bowl tonight is apparently the show of the year.And also: The New
Pornographers, with Lavender Diamond
opening, play the Fonda Theatre, and it's not sold out. ... The Airborne Toxic Event joins
Maxeen for a show at Costa Mesa's Detroit Bar. ...
Film School has a free show at Amoeba at
7. ... And Hello Stranger greets
the crowd at Filter's Revenge of the Sunset Strip night at the Roxy.
Year Long Disaster don’t get your attention,
the familiarity of the L.A. trio’s riffage will — tight, bluesy metal that sounds as if
they swaggered into the middle of a Led Zeppelin-ZZ Top bar fight.
the old stuff,” singer-guitarist Daniel Davies says. “You always want to know where
things come from. You hear the Stones talk about Muddy Waters and you say, ‘What is
that?’ When I was 12 and Nirvana did a David Bowie cover, I knew I had to check that
out.”
son of the Kinks’ Dave Davies.
Drummer Brad Hargreaves manned the kit for Third Eye Blind , and bassist
Rich Mullins toiled for hard rockers Karma to Burn and Speedealer. And
Robbie Robertson’s son,
Sebastian, manages the band.
you’re gonna be all right,” Davies says of carrying his famous name. “And if you have
the band to back it up.”
fingers. Four years ago, Davies and Mullins were battling demons. “We were living in a
room dreaming about starting a band, just wasting days. We were drinking and taking
drugs,” he says. “I remember I had 76 cents the day my dad left to go back to England.
So we went to rehab to try to pull it together.”
Disaster’s self-titled debut is due Oct. 9 on Volcom
Entertainment, home to hard rockers (and notoriously outrageous showmen) such as Valient Thorr and Riverboat Gamblers , with whom YLD is
currently on tour.See Year Long Disaster tonight at the
Roxy Theatre. Also: Oct. 7 at the Fonda Theatre as the support act for
Turbonegro .
Download: "It
Ain't Luck."
Russell)
Run Run Run seems to
be edging slowly away from the shoegazer stylings that put the quartet on the L.A. map a
few years ago. Oh, on cue from front man Xander Smith's lyrics, the guitars will still
ache and rustle and rumble, but on the band's forthcoming new EP, "Good
Company," the approach is more straight-ahead. The new material was conceived in
small town upstate New York and marked the first time the band had written songs as a
group.
catch some of the new stuff:Download: "Julie."
See Run Run Run perform tonight at Safari Sam's with the Dilettantes (new project from Brian
Jonestown Massacre's Joel Gion) and the After Midnight Project , among
others.Touts for Wednesday, Sept. 19 The Little Ones and the Deadly Syndrome in one club
tonight, for 8 bucks? Nice job, Detroit Bar .
... The Vacation headlines the Viper
Room, and, yes, they have a song called "Destitute Prostitutes," but the
poster promoting the night is pretty tasteless, even if it was intended as some sort of
social commentary by its creator, front man Ben Tegel. ... Ian Ball of Gomez joins in at the Buddy
residency at Bordello. ... The New
Pornographers play the Fonda Theatre. ... There's the West Indian Girl/Softlightes
show at Spaceland [see yesterday's post]. ... And Peanut Butter Wolf holds forth with a bunch of
cool collaborators at the Roxy.
[Midweek tidbits while you warm up for Thursday night's show at the Hollywood
Bowl:]
Your frenzy will have to wait.
An inaugural festival called Girlfrenzy featuring chart-toppers Sheryl Crow , Avril Lavigne , Fiona Apple and Miranda Lambert (as well as
up-and-comers Sara Bareilles and Colbie Caillat ) has been postponed.
Girlfrenzy was scheduled for Oct. 27 at the Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre, and only this
week organizers had announced the addition of a second stage for even-more-fledgling
females. The event will be rescheduled in 2008, a press release from co-promoter
LiveNation said. Why was the plug pulled? "No reason was given,
unfortunately," a representative says.
-- Pairing: The opening act for the Jesus and Mary Chain on Oct. 23
at the Wiltern Theatre is Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, for those who can tell their BRMC
from their JAMC.Practice: Warehouse space in downtown
was apparently scarce, so Van Halen went ahead and rented the Forum to rehearse for its
Nov. 20 show at Staples. Nice room, but those acoustics! Anyway, Blabbermouth blabs
about it here . Another (lowercase) blabbermouth tells me that Eddie Van Halen
was shreddilicious, playing one long guitar solo with mouth agape as if to say, "I
can't believe I'm doing this." His son, Wolfgang, who's playing with the band, came
over after the song and tapped him on the shoulder: "Good job, Dad." Then,
during "Runnin' With the Devil," David Lee Roth pulled Eddie's fuzzy hat down
over his face and announced this solo would be done "Stevie Wonder style." It
didn't look rehearsed. And Eddie nailed the solo, note for note.
Perfect: Did I mention how right I thought the Bravery was for Tuesday
night's Maxim Style Awards bash at the Avalon?Posed:
This is a shameless ploy by a publicist to get his band's name out there the week before
the group's album is released, but I will fall for it this time: A Maryland girl was
suspended from middle school for three days for having a photo [at right] of the
pop-punk quartet All Time Low hanging
inside her locker, according to the publicist. The band (on L.A. imprint Hopeless Records ) will perform in the
Southland Oct. 20-22, ostensibly fully clothed.
Two local artists with new albums highlight tonight's club frolicking.
Nightfur's "She Lives" (out today)
is an intense, almost foreboding trip into vintage psychedelia, all stripped down for
maximum effect. The music is a collaboration between two visual artists, Jason Brown (a
filmmaker) and Matt Groller (a painter). More on these guys [pictured above] later, but
tonight should be promising in the cozy confines of Bordello .
Robert Francis' winsome indie-pop
offers a dreamy look into the inner workings of the heart. His album "One by
One" came out last month on Aeronaut Records. And that's Juliette Commagere of Hello Stranger backing him on vocals on the
lovely title track. Francis is playing at Safari
Sam's tonight with a bevy of other local artists (Peachfuzz headlines) -- including an old
favorite from Orange County, Primitive Painters . How old an old
favorite? I still recommend folks seek out "Dirtclods," their album from 1992,
and if I find out they played "All Great Things" tonight and I missed it, I
will be sad.
||| Stream Nightfur's "Judy" here .
||| Download Robert Francis' "Love for Me."
Other touts for Tuesday, Sept. 18
Animal Collective plays
the Fonda Theatre. ... And my arm is being twisted to give Clap Your Hands Say Yeah another
chance. My hands have stayed firmly in my pockets on previous encounters. A fellow very
familiar to L.A. audiences, Elvis Perkins , opens as CYHS
starts a three-night at the Troubadour. ... Meanwhile, after a week off, the Mulhollands resume their residency
at the Key Club's Ruby Tuesday promotion.
[Here's the bit from my print column last
week on the new West Indian Girl:]
around 4th and Wall streets is not exactly postcard material, especially after 9 p.m.
"It's not that happy a place," bassist Francis Ten says. "At night, it's
just rows of homeless people. When you first go down there it's a bit
intimidating."
There, working in the wee hours in a loft studio, Ten and his bandmates in West Indian Girl made their sophomore album,
"4th & Wall" (due Oct. 23 on Milan Records). But the album owes as much to
4th and Wall as it does to what happened on the road, where a studio project started by
Ten and singer-guitarist Robert James grew from a duo to a sextet -- "and became a
real band," Ten says.
West Indian Girl's debut came out in 2004 on Astralwerks, but Ten and James struggled
to re-create it live. Now, with singer Mariqueen Maandig, keyboardists Nathan Van Hala
and Amy White and drummer Mark Lewis on board, it's as if the sextet's artfully layered
dream-pop underwent assertiveness training.
"It was a completely different writing process, having the different
personalities and emotions come into play," Ten says. "A lot of these songs
were fleshed out on the road, so instead of a song just being written and recorded in
the studio, it's allowed full gestation."
From the jammy, intrepid glimmer of "4th & Wall," you'd never suspect
it was shaped amid the grit and desperation of late-night downtown. "We've always
been laced with a certain degree of positivity," Ten says. "The nice thing is
that we're doing our own thing; we're not looking over our shoulder thinking, 'Oh,
there's another band that sounds like us.' "
||| See West Indian Girl on Wednesday at Club NME at Spaceland. Also
playing and highly recommended: the
Softlightes. [See below.] Stream
"Blue Wave" and "Indian Ocean" here .
Photo: Mariqueen Maandig, left, Amy White, Nathan Van Hala, Robert James, Fran Ten
and Mark Lewis (by Lucy Hamblin).
Softlightes:
"Have you been to the Gram Rabbit
residency at Spaceland?" somebody asked me this weekend. "I've never seen so
many people in costumes."is Gram Rabbit. The local
outfit that claims Joshua Tree as its home is always entertaining, and thanks to some
quick work by filmmakers, the music video for the song "American Hookers" --
off the band's forthcoming album, "RadioAngel and the RobotBeat" (due Nov. 13)
-- has footage from the first two Mondays of Gram Rabbit's stint in Silver Lake. Enjoy:
Touts for Monday, September 17
other worthy shows tonight -- including a chance to see the Donnas in the cozy confines of the Viper Room.
The all-female quartet's crunchy new album, "Bitchin'," will be released
Tuesday, and they will be joined by the
Randies and Girl in a
Coma at Indie 103.1's weekly shindig. ... Also, the Happy Hollows (at the Echo) and Satisfaction and the Valley Arena (double-teaming the
Silverlake Lounge) continue their residencies. ... Matt and Kim are headlining the Troubadour.
... Evan Slamka of Marjorie Fair is
among tonight's players at Bordello. ... And the Sounds are back in town, playing at the
Santa Monica Civic.
[I'm sure fantastic photos exist from Friday's very fun activities at the Echo.
None, however, turned up on my camera. Instead, here is the video for Calvin Harris'
song "Acceptable in the '80s." Compare it to what was acceptable Friday at
Club Underground:]
five minutes these days, many of them dipping into a seemingly bottomless well of
Velveeta for bouncy synth lines and wink-wink humor and solemn genuflection at the altar
of dance music. Because, everybody tells me every day, people like to dance.
Coast debut of Calvin Harris , a
6-foot-5 and slightly brash Scotsman who needs work on his stage banter but not on his
catchy electro. Infected by songs such as "Acceptable in the '80s" and
"Michael Jackson," the youthful Undergrounders couldn't wait to shake their
bodies and spill drinks on people.
in a T-shirt given him for appearing on Indie 103.1's "Jonesy's Jukebox Jury"
earlier in the day, conducted the proceedings with aplomb -- no matter that the
performance was largely smoke-and-mirrors, since much of the backing music was coming
not from his players onstage but from computer tracks. Harris explained that his
guitarist couldn't get a visa, and his keyboardist moved over to guitar, and some
brightly dressed fellow named Captain Zesty was filling in on keys, etc., etc. and etc.
The crowd was under the impression everybody was playing, but it was more karaoke than
anything.
wave-flavored set played earlier by NYC trio BM
Linx.here . And stream BM Linx's "Understanding
Orange" here .
[Apologies for the dearth of material here recently; this blog has been in
organizational rehab. It'll be back strong, and soon. Meanwhile, contributor Jeff Weiss sends us this memorandum from
Thursday night's show at the El Rey. I love it when he says
"leviathan":]
music means you go to a lot of shows, two or three a week, 52 weeks a year, the wide
majority of them decent but unspectacular. Thursday night was not one of them. It was
one of those rare evenings that validates a music obsession, a crystalline burst of
clarity intimating to you that you’re in the presence of real greatness.
Scoff all you want, last night Wolf
Parade
proved once again what anyone who has caught them live already knows: They
are the real deal. Testing out material from their yet-untitled sophomore Sub Pop
effort, Wolf Parade displayed exactly how much they’ve grown since emerging from
Montreal a few years ago burdened by seemingly insurmountable levels of hype. And the
new songs? Well, let’s just say these aren’t the twitchy yelp-rock that the band blew up
on, they’re leviathan prog-rock behemoths, full of arena-rock drums, itchy keyboard
riffs and even beefy guitar solos.
The secret to the band’s success is the dynamic between its songwriters Dan Boeckner
and Spencer Krug. Boeckner stands center-stage, heavily tatted and emaciated in his
skinny jeans, veins bulging out of his neck like Springsteen in a post-Modest Mouse
world. Spencer Krug sits off to the left, sitting on his knees, pounding away at an old
beat-up keyboard, looking like the proverbial boy next door, if the boy next door had a
penchant for writing eight minute symphonies about graveyards, snakes and angels. In
their solo projects, both Boeckner and Krug showcase exactly how talented they
individually are, but in Wolf Parade, their strengths seemingly fill in the other’s
weaknesses, Boeckner’s arena-rock sensibilities reining in Krug’s eccentricity, Krug’s
avant-garde genius shaping the Boeckner tunes into menacing anthems.
In the course of the 80-minute performance, the band played roughly a half dozen new
tunes. They were all woozy, bruising and beautiful. It’s still a bit early, but if these
songs are any indication, Wolf Parade will not only going to avoid the sophomore slump,
but they seem to be shaping up to be one of the best bands of their generation.
The White Stripes have canceled
18 U.S. concerts through Oct. 10, including a Sept. 19 date at the Forum with
local-guys-made-good Cold War Kids
opening.
According to a statement from the band:
"The White Stripes
announced today that they are canceling their
apologize to their fans. We hate to let people down and are very
sorry."
Hollows
latest indie darlings in Silver Lake thanks to an almost pugilistic mix of stinging
guitars, turbulent rhythms and shouted vocals.
Negahdari’s yelping — is it tortured or is it joyous? And all that racket laid down by
bassist Charlie Mahoney and drummer Chris Hernandez: angry or exuberant? Is the trio
happy? Or hollow?
and then you turn over the stone and see what’s underneath,” she says. “I even love it
when I occasionally look out and see people in the crowd laughing. It’s not necessarily
the thing you’d think a rock ’n’ roller would want.”
-- imagine that somebody rewired the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, or squeezed the Pixies into a
compact-car parking space -- coalesced quickly. Negahdari had almost given up forming a
band in 2005 when she found Washington, D.C., transplants Mahoney and Hernandez on
Craigslist. “We got together, played one song, and I said, ‘OK, we’ve got a show in two
weeks,’” Negahdari says. “Meeting them catapulted me into a different dimension.”
praise; now the trio is distributing a four-song sampler during its at the Echo. The
songs are from an album's worth of material the trio has recorded with David Newton (the
Little Ones, the Blood Arm). See: The Happy Hollows
play free shows tonight and the next two Mondays at the Echo. The Western States Motel is among the
openers tonight. Download: "Monster
Room."
stick without hitting some sort of music festival this month.
conflagration is the weekend of Sept. 28-30, when you can get Grand, Nocturnal,
Neighborhood and Swerve. You'll need an event planner to manage these two days -- either
that or good seats to the season-ending Dodgers-Giants
series.Swerve Festival , whose stated intention is
"to celebrate West Coast creative culture." It's a film/visual arts/music
gathering at Barnsdall Art Park and the Echoplex, offering screenings of, among other
offerings, the Ian Curtis biopic
"Control" and the Paskowitz family
documentary "Surfwise."
announced yet, but sources say Devotcha
and We Are Scientists will join the list
of previously revealed indie acts the Black
Angels, Bonde Do Role and Foreign Born (among others). There's an
impressive roster of visual artists who will
be mounting exhibitions over the three-day festival too. I think folks used to drink a
lot of Red Stripe at shindigs like this, but that might be out of fashion now.
camps -- the crooked-haircut indie kids will no doubt favor Dim Mak's Neighborhood Music Festival (use that
link only if you aren't really tired of "Glass Danse") and will feature the
likes of the Faint , Mickey Avalon , Spank Rock , Crystal Castles and, of course, Steve Aoki . (My sleeper pick on the bill: Brother Reade .) It's a $40 ticket and
will be held in Exposition Park. And if you look art-damaged enough you're liable to get
your photograph up on one of those spiffy web galleries .Nocturnal Wonderland , with Chemical Brothers , Paul Van Dyk and Carl Cox , among a host of others. It's a $55 ticket.
And if you stay until the event ends at 4 a.m., you won't want anybody taking
photographs of you, let alone posting them on the web.
Because there's the Grand
Avenue Festival on Sunday. At least it's not the same day as the LA Weekly Detour Festival , like it was last
year. The free, daytime event will feature chamber music, the L.A. Philharmonic and some
interesting pop flavors, including East L.A.'s Upground , the sultry trip-hop of Bitter:Sweet and the cool dudes from Dublab DJing.
because Detour and Tarfest follow the first weekend in October.
Paul Schroder
The mind-bending narrative twists and live-wire musicality on the last album by the Henry Clay People put the L.A.
quartet on the must-see list for scenesters who like their pop smart, fast and fun. But
to hear singer-guitarist Joey Siara tell it, the band might be evolving backward.
"We grew up listening to a lot of punk rock. A lot of bands start from those
punk-rock roots and go from there," Siara says of the new material that he, brother
guitarist Andy Siara, drummer Eric Scott and singer-bassist Noah Green are preparing to
record. "We're kind of doing the opposite. Even the lyrics aren't as
esoteric."
Not that the last album, "Blacklist the Kid With the Red Moustache," didn't
have plenty of charm beyond its title. Arriving at an aesthetic that makes them sound
like the teenage sons of Built to Spill gone off their Ritalin, the Henry Clay People
make song puzzles with smile-while-you-rock titles like "Elly vs. the Eczema
Princess" and "The Bandage on the Bloodclot."
Even the band's moniker -- it's named for the 19th century politician and failed
presidential candidate
-- is liable to raise some eyebrows. "It was either 'the
Henry Clay People' or 'the Forgotten Presidency of Chester A. Arthur,' " says
Siara, who majored in history at UC Santa Barbara. " 'Henry Clay' got a moderate
thumbs-up from the band."
Something of a test-tube act in its early stages (the band made an album without
having played live in L.A.), the quartet has racked up some 70 gigs since September.
"That's given us a little bit of confidence," Siara says. "Playing shows
elicits some kind of response, for better or for worse."
||| Tonight, the Henry Clay People help the Happy Hollows kick off their
residency at the Echo. THCP also play Sunday at Alex's Bar in Long Beach.
Download: "Children of
Chin."
Also tonight
Gram Rabbit starts a residency at
Spaceland, with Sky Parade supporting.
... The Valley Arena launch a string
of Mondays at the Silverlake Lounge. ... The
Prix, the Minor Canon and Satisfaction tee it up at Indie 103.1's
"Check ... One, Two" night at the Viper Room.
The Happy
