Friday, July 28, 2006
So we're heading into August and we're winding down the summer season. Perfect time to start checking out shows before "Back to School" sales start causing anxiety for kids and their parents... The one and only Quetzal perform at the Temple Bar tonight. They remain to be one of the great bands of Los Angeles. Notice we did not insert either "Latin" nor "eclectic" in that statement since none of those words do them justice... Mika Miko celebrate the release of C.Y.S.L.A.B.F. at The Smell on Saturday. It's one of the better records of the year, punk rock or otherwise, which should be no surprise since they're pretty much kicking everybody's sorry ass right now. "Jogging Song" is our favorite, but we'll save that one. Anyway, if you haven't seen them live, be prepared to be scarred for life... Our good pal Alexi finishes up his tour at the Troob on Monday. His new album Time Without Consequence has been getting mixed reviews from locals, perhaps since it took him a few years to finish it and his brand of somber-sensitive folk may have past its peak. Still, seeing him live is always a good thing. That's what all the ladies say anyway... Speaking of ladies, that's a mighty fine lineup at the Hotel Cafe on 8/1... Big show of the week very well might be the Peaches, EODM, Burning Brides tour hitting up the Fonda on Friday. Props to those who put this tour package together. Those who didn't catch Peaches at Little Radio a month ago should save your bus money for this one.
Quetzal - "Planta de Los Pies" (MP3)
Quetzal - "Planta de Los Pies" (Video)
Mika Miko - "Capricorinations" (MP3)
Alexi Murdoch - "Orange Sky" (MP3)
Friday, July 21, 2006
Lots to do this coming week... Kate Earl returns after some time being holed up writing for a new record. "Beats!!," she Blackberried us. Word to your mother, Kate. She performs at the Hotel Cafe at 9pm tonight... Speaking of beats, anyone check out the new J5? Not into that Dave Matthews track at all (and that was before we even knew that was DM), but the rest of the album is fairly standard old school Jurassic with "Red Hot," "End Up Like This," and "Baby Please" the most likely to hit a nerve with hip-hop heads. Storch's production on "Brown Girl" is a good change of pace for the group but kind of reeks of "We need Black Eyed Peas kinda money." J5's new album Feedback comes out 7/25 and they perform at the HOB on 7/24 and 7/25... Lisa Germano also putting out a new album this past week entitled In the Maybe World and it's easily one of the most beautiful records of the year. She performs at Largo on 7/27 before going on her first tour in a few years... Anyway, later on tonight, Sennett and Runion of The Elected perform at Spaceland with Whispertown 2000 and Bellows from Neva Dinova... Those of us who still think Reign in Blood is one of the greatest albums of all time will probably be drowning in sweat at the Long Beach Arena when Slayer's "Unholy Alliance" finishes up their U.S. dates. We haven't seen them in almost two decades so we fully expect to be crushed by many kids who weren't even born in 1987. Hooray. New Slayer album, Christ Illusion, hits stores on 8/8... After which, we'll be grabbing our glowsticks and pacifiers before heading out to Giant Village to catch Digweed, Deep Dish, and anyone else spinning until 4am. This lineup almost makes people forget what happened seven months ago... You can't get anymore intimate when Cat Power returns to McCabe's Guitar Shop on 7/27. One of the first places L.A. ever saw Ms. Power throw a tantrum... For the two people not going to Flaming Lips on Sunday, 400 Blows performs at Spaceland with Oneida... Shoot Out the Lights have been working on their new album for a few months but come out for a good lineup at the KF with The Clean Prophets and others on Monday... Since we're on a new release furore, we should also mention that Silversun Pickups, Mika Miko, Earlimart, John Doe, and Flogging Molly all have albums out this week (details below)... Bundle up, it's cold outside.
la-underground NEW RELEASES 7/25:
JOHN DOE - For the Best of Us (Yep Roc)
EARLIMART - Answers And Questions 7" (Suicide Squeeze)
FLOGGING MOLLY - Whiskey On A Sunday (Side One Dummy)
GRAN BEL FISHER - Full Moon Cigarette (Hollywood)
JURASSIC 5 - Feedback (Interscope)
MIKA MIKO - C.Y.S.L.A.B.F (Kill Rock Stars)
SILVERSUN PICKUPS - Carnavas (Dangerbird)
SLOW MOTION REIGN - Slow Motion Reign (Serjical Strike)
ABBY TRAVIS - Glittermouth (Abby Travis)
Shoot Out the Lights - "Parasite" (MP3)
400 Blows - "The Beauty Of Internal Darkness" (MP3)
Lisa Germano - "Too Much Space" (MP3)
Friday, July 07, 2006
Oh, summer. The heat of bodies in motion around the city. Kids out of school. Nine-to-fivers playing hooky. Tourists. No worries though. Summer is in our top four of all seasons and generally a good time to get out and stretch the legs. So we thought we'd point out some good leg-stretching hotspots this weekend, ramble about random nothingness, and discuss the state of affairs in N. Korea. But mostly just ramble.
Darker My Love has the Spaceland residency in July (new album out 8/22 on Dangerbird) with one show that should have everyone salivating. Midnight Movies is the special guest on 7/17. MM recently tested the waters and blew away everyone with their new material at the Echo last weekend so you'll need to circle this date on your planners. Twice... Speaking of residencies, The Oohlas/The Ettes, Ferraby Lionheart, and Bedroom Walls are just a few of the month-longs you should be hitting up in July... Lavender Diamond has signed to Rough Trade in Europe and Stark will be headed out to the UK for a few tease dates. She has a date or two in town before then. One of them was her fantastic opening set for Jenny Lewis at Spaceland the other night, a performance which garnered youngster remarks ranging from "Is this chick for real?" to "Sooo cute." Oh, kids. Comedienne Tig Notaro took the stage during set breaks. She's a pretty sharp comic that we caught on Last Comic Standing. We already heard the "No Molesta" joke on LCS but the "We're here, we're queer. Get used to it" bit was a big hit, even with us -- and we haven't laughed since Jared Leto joined a band. By the way, thank you Ms. Lewis. It's been a long while since we've seen you without the use of binoculars, which is the reason we gave up some nice Garden Box seats to that flavor-of-the-month boy band at the Hollywood Bowl. Having attended the first fifty or so shows RK ever did we haven't had a need to see them in the monsterous venues they've been playing lately. But going back to where it all started was a nice treat for us and probably everyone else. Really good show with a finale that ended with a nice walk through the crowd for her encore. That girl seems to always know when we're trying to hide from her... Great lineup at the Fonda tonight, coincidentally featuring two bands that RK used to pal around with: Ozma, who took RK on their first U.S. tour; and Irving, who spent their early days sharing residency nights with RK. And of course the return of The Rentals. Such a no-brainer... Saturday is a rough one. How we intend to split equal time between the Troubadour and Safari Sam's will involve a bit of magic and the running of red lights... Speaking of magic, we caught a bit of the Magik Markers set at the Smell. At least we think it was Magik Markers. Noisy bands all look alike. Whoever it was, the output was really angular, experimental stuff, which is always nice to listen to when one receives demos and demos of verse-chorus-verse schlock, but the hype on them is a bit much don't you think?.. Tanya Haden had a baby boy back in June. We're so happy for her and her girlfriend-stealing husband... Check out two favorites The Shys and Monsters Are Waiting on Monday for The Shys CD release/Retone Records showcase (fka Leftwing Recordings) at the Troubadour. Their album Astoria comes out the following day and we hear they're getting some buzz now that their on the frontpage of Myspace and all over MTV. It's free, all ages, and probably the last time you'll see "free" and "all ages" mentioned in the same paragraph with those two bands... Yes, we missed Redd Kross last week. One of our all-time favorite bands and we missed them. But that's just how good the show we did go to was.
Please go out and support local bands this summer, concern yourself with what's going on in N. Korea, and drink and drive responsibly -- ok, just support local bands. Los Angeles loves you.
Magik Markers - "To Catch a Gremlin (F U Dude, Seriously)" (MP3)
Magik Markers - "Fuck You" (MP3)
Darker My Love - "What's A Man's Paris" (MP3)
Darker My Love - "Summer Is Here" (MP3)
The Rentals - "Please Let That Be You" (MP3)
The Shys - "Astoria" (MP3)
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Have to admit being a bit teary-eyed when we saw the lineup put together on Saturday down in San Pedro. Top-to-bottom probably our favorite show of the year, not so much for the performances (perfection) or the atmosphere (not cold), but it's always nice to have a gathering of our friends to just hang out and listen to music. The Sweet Hurt was celebrating the release of their lovely new EP Everyday Mistakes by inviting some of their Top 8: Ferraby Lionheart, Correatown, and Let's Go Sailing. The band's gone through some ups and downs over the years as an off-and-on foursome but appears to be on a permanent upswing as a duo. Plus, the songs are absolutely lovely.
The evening began with Ms. Levy of LGS kindly filling in last-minute with the charming indie-pop she's known for, playing songs from her highly-anticipated album The Chaos in Order. She was joined by Ms. Sweet Hurt on a few songs on guitar. Word is we'll be seeing a lot more of these ladies together onstage. The Sweet Hurt themselves were fantastic; assisted nicely on keys by Raymond Richards of The Idaho Falls (producer of their new EP)... who coincidentally will be in the studio in the coming weeks with Correatown. Some new recordings from her will be arriving soon we hear and if "Liar, Liar" is any indication of her direction, we're prepared to buy in bulk. The evening ended with the wistful tunes of Mr. Lionheart who seems to be making new fans each time he strums his guitar, all of whom are in dire need of a full-length album. Especially us.
The Sweet Hurt on Myspace
Correatown on Myspace
Let's Go Sailing on Myspace
Ferraby Lionheart on Myspace
The Sweet Hurt - "Lost Again" (MP3)
Correatown - "I Tell Myself" (demo) (MP3)
Let's Go Sailing - "All I Want from You Is Love" (MP3)
Ferraby Lionheart - "Tickets to Crickets" (MP3)
Ferraby Lionheart performs every Sunday in July at Tangier. Let's Go Sailing performs at El Cid on 7/25.
