Monday, August 29, 2005
I have a new girlfriend and her name is Audrey Kawasaki, one of the famous new faces in the L.A. art scene. My love for her work first transpired at her "not so soft" solo show at the Black Market earlier this year where her oils on wood collection of baby-faced dreamy-eyed coquettes made attendees swoon and sweat. "All the Real Girls" opening reception for her new work was held Thursday at Gallery 1988 with Lisa Alisa. Gorgeous to say the least. And of course most everything was sold even before the doors opened, including my favorite "Pink Girl" (pictured). The exhibit runs through 9/9 with a limited edition print of "Two Girls" available for purchase.
Saturday, August 27, 2005
I've been waiting six months to use that headline. My little sibling recently moved to L.A. and I took him to his first concert at The Cocaine where The Monolators played with Death House Chaplain. Earlier in the month, they performed at The Scene with The Words, The Transmissions, and E>K>U>K. Probably the best show they've done as a duo. New recordings are leaking as I'm writing this...
The Monolators - "We Fell Dead" (MP3)
The Monolators - "Kids on Fire" (MP3)
The Monolators - "Best Friends in Space" (MP3)
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Is anyone else tired of hearing 'thick marine layer'? It's August for the love of gosh.
A few days after Carla Werner's plane arrived from Ausralia, we got her on stage at the Hotel Cafe with some friends Angie Hart and Angela Correa. Quite clearly, the highlight of the month as far as my ears are concerned. All three ladies were hot but that might have been because of the humidity.
Met some readers of this silly blog at the Echo where I had to get my monthly dose of Summer at Shatter Creek and Sabrosa Purr. SASC is on the brink of brilliance in translating their great new album onto the stage. A little ways to go yet though. Meanwhile, Sabrosa's sonically-charged passioncore is getting more beautiful by the minute -- slightly pretentious, but hey that's the price of beauty...
The next day made a quick stop at the Temple for an early set by Kelli Scarr, former lead vocalist for Moonraker, a band you probably never saw but should have. Fans of Feist, Cat Power, and other willowy songbirds should be following Scarr closely. She needs to move back to California on a permanent basis though. New York is quite undeserving... Shortly after, I was at Highland Grounds for Carlos Olmeda and GP. Some guy behind the bar threatened us to follow their one drink minimum stupidity or he'd kick us out. This is just another reason why Highland Grounds continues to be the drive-by venue of Hollywood -- we often drive by to get to the better clubs. Anyway, Carlos sounded great. I do still believe Mraz owes him a good chunk of his income though. Mraz, coincidentally, was on Leno that night. The only thing interesting about that was that to his right was our old good friend Bill Bell on guitar. Long time no see...
A pretty monsterous lineup at Spaceland on Wednesday with The Cribs, Nine Black Alps, Need New Body, and Pit Er Pat but only the very uber kids -- who do a lot of mp3 blog scanning -- and industry stars seemed to give a damn. Hardly anybody showed up. Too bad for you... Finally, Inara George kicked off her August residency on Monday. Cellphone messages all day asking if I was going to the oolala lineup at Spaceland but the late add of Irving made the Echo the champ of the night. Mark Lane opened and I'm glad I caught part of his set this time having missed all of it at Inara's CD release earlier this year. I'm really liking his brand of cool California pop/folk. Irving is another beast altogether. I'll confess that I used to be obsessed with this band when they first started. Actually, Jenny Lewis and I would sometimes discuss how obsessed we both were -- Rilo and Irving used to be quite the chum chum duo around town (I wonder what happened). Seeing a lot of their shows was one thing, buying dozens of their first hand-made ep was another (they were selling them for like $3 or something). I haven't seen them in a long while and there isn't a real good reason why I've missed the better part of their last couple years but after this show I think I'm back to being a rather huge fan of this band. Wow. And I'll leave it that. However, you might want to be at their 8/18 show w/Dengue Fever and The Movies. Inara was more lovely than usual. There was a glow about her on this night. Perhaps it was because she was surrounded by a stellar group of musicians that included Mike Andrews and Joe Kennedy. Or maybe it was the presence of special guest Van Dyke Parks playing accordian on "Fool's Work". Or perhaps it was just me being completely enamored with this lady's music, especially the beautiful encore "Oh, My Love". Hmm... Maybe it was the weather.
Irving - "The Curious Thing About Leather" (MP3)
Summer at Shatter Creek - "Your Ever Changing Moods" (MP3)
