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)
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Can you do more of these type of postings? I'm always wondering what's good to go and see. Thanks!!
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# posted by 
: 7/11/2006 03:37:00 PM
: 7/11/2006 03:37:00 PM<< Home
