Friday, November 30, 2007
Hello, Ms. Precipitation. We've missed you. Goodbye, November. We'll never forget you.
Gran Ronde appears on KXLU's "Demolisten" tonight. Buddy celebrates the release of his new album Alterations and Repairs at the Hotel Cafe with special guests. Aimee Mann kicks off her 2nd Annual Christmas tour with Nellie McKay and others at the El Rey. Jonathan Richman performs at Safari Sam's. Hello Stranger and Io Echo take on Club Underground. L.A. Record Player #2 at Charlie O's with Moris Tepper, Restaurant, and Crooked Cowboy. And his unholiness Ozzy Osbourne sing Christmas carols with Rob Zombie at Staples... On Saturday, Sea Wolf takes their pals Patrick Park and Sara Lov down to Rhythm Lounge. Side note: Patrick Park-era Sea Wolf with Tanya Haden is still our favorite version of Sea Wolf. Opening reception for Shepard Fairey's new works at MK Gallery. Create:Fixate celebrates six years with a "Reunion" at their new location... On Sunday, The Locust and Upsilon Acrux do the do-see-do at the Knitting Factory. The Locust were recently robbed in St. Louis and lost irreplaceable gear. Go to show and buy merch. They need it. Foreign Born opens for VHS or Beta at the El Rey. Summer Darling and You Me and Iowa at Spaceland for free. The Mae Shi and Anavan open for Damo Suzuki at Safari Sam's. And Live From Little Tokyo celebrates their second release with The Henry Clay People, Correatown, The Soft Hands, Master/Slave, and others.
Rain, rain don't go away...
Buddy - "Westgate" (MP3)
Hello Stranger - "Plain And Simple" (MP3)
The Locust - "We Have Reached An Official Verdict: Nobody Gives A Shit" (MP3)
Monday, November 26, 2007
We couldn't eat another bite of turkey...
Nothing like a good week of places to go and things to see when you've had a long week of gluttony. That sort of rhymed.
November Monday residencies end. They've all been pretty great. Softlightes show has been moved to Echoplex for the big movie shoot being shot at Spaceland this week... The big shows of the week are the Troubadour's 50th anniversary nights with James Taylor and Carole King. The guestlist might be more star-studded than the bill. But those shows might be a bit out of your income bracket no matter how good a song "You've Got a Friend" is. So why not check out the shows that were moved from the Troubadour to make way for King/Taylor: Los Campesinos! play at the Echo; From Monument to Masses and Don Caballero at Safari Sam's; and Sea Wolf plays an afternoon free show at UCLA... Meiko, HoneyHoney, and The Sweet Hurt lead the way at the Hotel Cafe on 11/28. Also, at the Hotel Cafe, The Nightwatchman begins his three-week residency on 11/29.
Tickets are now on sale for the debut performance of RRIICCEE at Rec Center on 12/22. The project teams up Vincent Gallo, Eric Erlandson, Rebecca Casabian, and Nikolas Haas and from what we've heard it's going to blow your socks off... Sex and Breakfast, starring Macauley Culkin and Eliza Dushku opens 11/30 at Sunset 5 with a Q&A with cast and crew. The soundtrack features some of L.A.'s finest including Sea Wolf ("Leaves in the River", "Neutral Ground"), Ferraby Lionheart ("Won't Be Long", "The Ballad of Gus and Sam"), Mezzanine Owls ("Dark Too Early"), The Good Listeners ("Ideal Love", "Red Envelope", "Condition Down"), and The Willowz ("I Wonder")... Tickets for DJ Shadow and Cut Chemist's "Hard Sell" tour go on sale 12/1.
Get out there. You need the exercise.
Monday, November 19, 2007
It's a short week this week because in a few days everyone will be piling Butterballs and Stove Top Stuffing in our faces, followed by the ever-important post-Thanksgiving shopping frenzy. But we have much to be thankful for this week...
Ms. Holly Palmer performs at The Bordello tonight with Pedestrian and Cydney Robinson. Casxio, Meho Plaza, and B.R.A.M. play at the Silverlake Lounge. Gran Ronde opens for Razorlight at the Music Box. Sunday Drivers and Softlightes at Spaceland. Bad news: Sam Sparro cancelled his show tonight at Viper. Good news: There will be considerably more room to do the centipede... On Tuesday, the long-awaited return Merrick begins at The Bordello. Joe hosts his Let's Independent at Boardner's. The Front and Tweak Bird are at The Scene. Monolators' weird folk side project Cobra Lilies are at Mr. T's Bowl. Kissing Cousins at All Star Lanes. And Solare play at the Key Club... Wednesday, The Prayers headline Club NME. Correatown closes out their November residency at Bordello. And our plane at LAX takes off just after midnight.
In other news: Miranda Lee Richards' new single "Life Boat" is now available on limited edition vinyl through Sonic Cathedral. Miranda is currently in the UK supporting the release... Ms. Emma Burgess is in the running for some Rolling Stone contest. No one knows what will happen if she wins (it's a tight race), but we're hoping it involves this... Roger Sanchez, MSTRKRFT, Kaskade, Z-Trip, Robbie Rivera, LA Riots, Lazaro Casanova added to GIANT Maximus lineup... And if you haven't gotten Autumn de Wilde's photo book "Elliott Smith" yet, do it. The forward is by Beck and Chris Walla and contains some stunning imagery of our dear friend Elliott.
Friday, November 16, 2007
Did the warmth of the sun reinvigorate this week or what? It kind of felt like a desert or a dessert depending on if you like things sweaty or sweety. And sweetly sweaty was how this week went. Like how good was The Smell last night? So good we had to do this and this (or this). As for the boys in Totally Radd!!, you should never have to apologize for equipment failures. You're Totally Radd!!, for pete's sake.
Some big sweet/sweat shows this weekend... Amateurs and I Make This Sound lead an impressive lineup at Spaceland tonight. The Mormons, The Primos, and A.M. do the same at the Knit. And Health, xbxrx, Aids Wolf, and Abe Vigoda are going to set The Smell afire... Saturday, Ferraby does an in-store at Penguin on Melrose at 3pm. Fear and The Gears play all the oldies at Safari Sam's. Jeremy Jay has a CD release show at pehrspace with The Finches. The Parson Red Heads do jumping jack handclaps at The Echo. The Warlocks and Darker My Love do the tango at the Troubadour. And if you've never seen Yo-Yo Ma and Stott you're in for a treat at Royce Hall tomorrow (the program includes Shostakovich's op. 40 sonata and Piazzolla's Le Grand Tango)... Sunday, we're stopping by Felt Club to pick up all the best stocking stuffers from L.A.'s best arts & crafts kids. Everloving showcases their topline bands Willoughby, Buva and Biirdie at McCabe's. No Age, Mika Miko, and Jay Reatard kick off pogofest 2008 at The Smell. And Rademacher pulls out some big guns for their Spaceland residency with Aaron and Ariana from Earlimart, Tigers Can Bite You, and The Karabal Nightlife.
The Primos - "Cook Book" (Live on KCPR) (MP3)
Abe Vigoda - "The Garden" (MP3)
The Warlocks - "So Paranoid" (MP3)
The Karabal Nightlife - "I Know Too Much" (MP3)
Wednesday, November 14, 2007
Oh, dear. Please, don't make this a regular thing. We like taking Wednesdays off to cleanse ourselves of blogodor. You know that smell you get from wallowing in RSS feed all day.
Anyway, some announcements: The future mother of our children, Reid Speed just released a new mix that is making all the cool kids bounce... Bodies of Water are back from their tour with Phosphorescent. Check out fun photos on their Myspace. And if you haven't heard it yet, they've also done a cover of R.E.M.'s "Everybody Hurts" that you must rock out right this minute... Mighty Six Ninety has been added to the Club NME show tonight at Spaceland with Castledoor... Find out why ten inches excites The Monolators... KROQ announced their "Almost Acoustic Christmas" lineup with Muse, SSPU, Spoon, The Shins, Feist, Modest Mouse, and JEW on their much more Pitchfork-friendly second night. Bad Religion, Linkin Park, Rise Against, Paramore, Serj Tankian, Avenged Sevenfold, and Angels and Airwaves lead their Hot Topic heaven first night... Speaking of Christmas shows, The Fold is presenting "A Christmas Sweater Party" on 12/14 at Crash Mansion with The Deadly Syndrome, Eskimohunter, The Happy Hollows, The Mae Shi, and The Pity Party, aka probably the best lineup of the year... Siouxsie Sioux comes to the Music Box on 2/15 and 2/16... Rolling Stone announced their Ten Artists to Watch and, as usual, are a few years behind... Spider Problem is shooting a new video at Little Radio on Saturday (12pm) and need extras... Hugh Hefner signs his new book, "Hugh Hefner: Playboy Cover-to-Cover", at the Grove's Barnes & Noble tomorrow... Look for "Spaceland on Ice" to return to Pershing Square 12/6-1/10... Funny, pudgy boy Patton Oswalt sits in for Steve Jones' "Jonesy's Jukebox" tomorrow on Indie 103.1... John Travolta will be doing a Q&A tonight at the Aero following a screening of "Hairspray"... Read why Sir Alex Church tends to distance himself from Los Angeles (tear)... Rumors are surfacing that Oasis will do a secret show while in Los Angeles early next year mixing their new album. Rumors that this will happen in C's bedroom were probably started by C herself.
Reporting live from the la-underground, back to you in the studio.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
We've known Ms. Correatown for a little while now. Long enough to know that while the name "Correatown" may encompass its new band members and a new full-band sound, in truth, it's still all about Angela Correa.
We briefly met Lady Angela in passing outside of San Diego's singer-songwriter haven Lestat's when she still lived down there some five years ago. We didn't know much about her until she moved to Los Angeles and started playing shows with our mutual friend Tom Brosseau (as the folk duo Les Shelleys). Since then, she's become one of our favorites, quietly building a following of slo-folk enthusiasts, murder ballad aficionados, and people who just love a purty voice. And since we fall under all those categories, it was perhaps destiny that we would fall madly in love with Angela Correa.
Her previous releases (Red Room Songs in 2002, Murder Ballads & Other Songs in 2004, and Correatown in 2005) were mostly demo-style recordings with little instrumentation, giving way to Correa's sweetly melancholic croon and deeply felt lyrics. So when listening to "All the World (I Tell Myself)", the first track off her pre-release EP Echoes you know Correatown, the band, means business. But while adding a bit of production may have made songs less bare than they once were, nothing is lost in Correa's narrative, which is as vulnerably honest and poetic as ever.
Correatown began their November residency last week playing all new songs from the forthcoming new album. The band featured a stellar cast of musicians, Rob Poynter (The Harpeth Trace) on drums, Wendy Wang (The Sweet Hurt) on bass, Matt Eckel (The Natural Disasters) on keyboards, and Raymond Richards (The Idaho Falls) on guitar. A new album (co-produced by Richards) is expected to come in 2008 which means you'll have to wait entirely too long to get a hold of songs like "Racing Tides", "Green Cotton Dress", and "Far Far Away". To hold you over, however, listen up for Ms. Correa in the new John C. Reilly biopic parody Walk Hard, in which she sings for "Darlene", played by Jenna Fischer (The Office).
Correatown performs November 7, 14, and 21 at The Bordello. Photos from the first week are here. Advance copies of the new EP "Echoes" are available at shows. "Walk Hard" hits theaters December 21st. Check out the trailer.
Correatown - "All the World (I Tell Myself)" (MP3) from the new EP "Echoes" Limited time download
Angela Correa - "Hardship To Be" (MP3) from "Correatown" (2005)
Les Shelleys - "The World Is Waiting For The Sunrise" (MP3) from Les Shelleys Vol. 1 & 2
Monday, November 12, 2007
Yesterday was greyer than grey.
Gliss returns from a month on tour to celebrate their official CD release at the Viper room tonight. Shiloe, The Morning Benders, and Idyllists open. Monday residences are down right fierce. So is Tig Notaro at Largo... Tomorrow, No Age and Mika Miko open for Black Dice. The greatness that are Cat Hair Ensemble and Dorian Wood play at Bordello... Wednesday, Correatown residency at Bordello and HoneyHoney residency at Hotel Cafe are turning heads. The lovely Sara Lov opens for Magnet at the Roxy. Castledoor opens for Polytechnic at Spaceland... On Thursday, a big launch party for the Bombshell Aliance 2008 Pinup Calendar at the Hotel Cafe. The calendar features the gorgeousness of Quincy Coleman, Liz McGrath, Meiko, Correatown, Holly Conlan, Lissie, Arrica Rose, and others in Alberto Vargas-like poses. All proceeds of calendar sales will go to the Sojourn Services for Battered Women and their Children. Additionally, proceeds from this show will go to a one-year scholarship for a young girl to attend The Silverlake Conservatory of Music. All of this courtesy of I HEART. That's pretty awesome, yes? We'll tell you right now, we're buying a ridiculous amount of those damn things. Ridiculous... Also, don't forget Lydia Lunch returns to L.A. this week promoting more new work as well as doing some collaborative spoken word. If you've never seen her, you must.
Gliss returns from a month on tour to celebrate their official CD release at the Viper room tonight. Shiloe, The Morning Benders, and Idyllists open. Monday residences are down right fierce. So is Tig Notaro at Largo... Tomorrow, No Age and Mika Miko open for Black Dice. The greatness that are Cat Hair Ensemble and Dorian Wood play at Bordello... Wednesday, Correatown residency at Bordello and HoneyHoney residency at Hotel Cafe are turning heads. The lovely Sara Lov opens for Magnet at the Roxy. Castledoor opens for Polytechnic at Spaceland... On Thursday, a big launch party for the Bombshell Aliance 2008 Pinup Calendar at the Hotel Cafe. The calendar features the gorgeousness of Quincy Coleman, Liz McGrath, Meiko, Correatown, Holly Conlan, Lissie, Arrica Rose, and others in Alberto Vargas-like poses. All proceeds of calendar sales will go to the Sojourn Services for Battered Women and their Children. Additionally, proceeds from this show will go to a one-year scholarship for a young girl to attend The Silverlake Conservatory of Music. All of this courtesy of I HEART. That's pretty awesome, yes? We'll tell you right now, we're buying a ridiculous amount of those damn things. Ridiculous... Also, don't forget Lydia Lunch returns to L.A. this week promoting more new work as well as doing some collaborative spoken word. If you've never seen her, you must.
Friday, November 09, 2007
We understand that many of us have been a bit out of sorts lately with that flu bug floating around and that whole lethargic feeling that comes with cloudy weather. So there's nothing like a weekend of shows to turn frowns upside down...
This weekend, a caravan of huge touring bands roll through town beginning tonight with Joanna Newsom at Walt Disney, Of Montreal at the Avalon, Loudon Wainwright III at the El Rey, Fog at Spaceland, Jesu at Echoplex, and M.I.A. at The Wiltern, among others... Saturday, we have front row tickets to Stars at the Orpheum but we may have to give them up to hang out with some friends. Still, you might also want to check out Zach Galifianakis at Largo, The Octopus Project at the Roxy, The Swell Season/Martha Wainwright at the El Rey, or Saturday Looks Good To Me/Cryptosize at the Echo... On Sunday, we most definitely will be at The Masque 30 year anniversary then perhaps stop by The Scene for a benefit for Distortion Felix's Manny Nieto new studio with DF, Moonrats and The Pity Party then hop on over to All Star for the Rademacher/Karin Tatoyan dual residency. Then we really must go see Totally Radd!! at The Smell because it's been ages.
This should hopefully get everyone back in good spirits but we'll reconvene on Monday for a full checkup.
Loudon Wainwright III - "Grey in L.A." (MP3) -- we still love you lwiii.
Martha Wainwright - "Bloody Mother Fucking Asshole" (MP3)
Distortion Felix - "I'm An Athlete" (MP3)
Monday, November 05, 2007
Hello, November. Nice to see you again.
Thanks to those who made it out to our Friday show. We were sad to see the night end. Sad, as in, we cried ourself to sleep that night. Photos up.
November residencies include The Airborne Toxic Event/Cavil At Rest down at Detroit, Casxio at the Silverlake Lounge, Softlightes at Spaceland, Correatown at The Bordello, Rademacher split residency at Spaceland and All Star Lanes, Restaurant at The Echo, HoneyHoney at the Hotel Cafe, The Actual at the Key Club, Karin Tatoyan at All Star Lanes, Keaton Simons at the Hotel Cafe, The Janitor at Mr. T's Bowl... The highlight of the month: the return of Merrick.
Other things happening this week... Jay-Z returns from early retirement for a sold out show at House of Blues on 10/6. Dublab celebrates 8 years at The Airliner on 10/7. Found Magazine continues their tour through Los Angeles. And Peanut Butter Wolf's B-Ball Zombie Tour hits Los Angeles on 10/8. Last shows ever for Voice on Tape and The Orphans.
Other news: Would the kids who stole Mika Miko's merch mag and Dean's record bag at last night's show at Dave's warehouse return them? We're seeing a lot of stuff being stolen from bands lately. Los Angeles, you're better than this... Check out KCET's new local music spotlight, "Rummage", in co-op with Indie 103.1.
Thanks to those who made it out to our Friday show. We were sad to see the night end. Sad, as in, we cried ourself to sleep that night. Photos up.
November residencies include The Airborne Toxic Event/Cavil At Rest down at Detroit, Casxio at the Silverlake Lounge, Softlightes at Spaceland, Correatown at The Bordello, Rademacher split residency at Spaceland and All Star Lanes, Restaurant at The Echo, HoneyHoney at the Hotel Cafe, The Actual at the Key Club, Karin Tatoyan at All Star Lanes, Keaton Simons at the Hotel Cafe, The Janitor at Mr. T's Bowl... The highlight of the month: the return of Merrick.
Other things happening this week... Jay-Z returns from early retirement for a sold out show at House of Blues on 10/6. Dublab celebrates 8 years at The Airliner on 10/7. Found Magazine continues their tour through Los Angeles. And Peanut Butter Wolf's B-Ball Zombie Tour hits Los Angeles on 10/8. Last shows ever for Voice on Tape and The Orphans.
Other news: Would the kids who stole Mika Miko's merch mag and Dean's record bag at last night's show at Dave's warehouse return them? We're seeing a lot of stuff being stolen from bands lately. Los Angeles, you're better than this... Check out KCET's new local music spotlight, "Rummage", in co-op with Indie 103.1.
Friday, November 02, 2007
Hello, friends. It was a great week and we're so glad we made it to a few shows, some of which were forever captured in our hearts.
There's a lot to do this weekend so pace yourself. First, you might notice that we aren't helping The Monolators with their awesome monthly First Fridays tonight. Truth is, they were sick of us and told us to get a life. After wiping away the tears, we set up our little show for tonight at pehrspace but we'll still be stopping by later since that lineup is radical. You might also want to stop by The Echo for the genius of Mezzanine Owls since that might be their last show for awhile as they head back into the studio with Andy LeMaster. Rock gods Redd Kross play at Echoplex. The Bronx sing love songs at Safari Sam's. Ferraby Lionheart has his homecoming show at The Bordello. Jon Brion at Largo. And the gorgeous Wait Think Fast perform at The Scene... Saturday, the big show is Xu Xu Fang, Lion Fever, Winter Flowers, and Magic Mirror at Spaceland. Health cancelled their show at The Smell but you can still go see the great Abe Vigoda, Meneguar, and Crime Novels... Sunday, Rademacher, n.lannon, and Light FM join forces at Spaceland. The Parson Red Heads return from tour to play The Prospector. Dilated Peoples pop collars at The Roxy. And Peaches and Tone Loc sing songs at The Avalon... Phew.
So excited for tonight. Gotta pee.
Mezzanine Owls - "Lightbulb" (MP3)
Redd Kross - "What's Wrong With Me" (MP3)
Dilated Peoples - "The Eyes Have It (Remix)" (MP3)
Thursday, November 01, 2007
Ok, so now that we've declared our love for them (and T Fort back in July) we can now extend the formal invite. This is our first all-ages show in awhile and we are very honored to be apart of it. We hope you can make it.
November 2, 2007
Los Angeles Loves...
AMNION
THE YEAR ZERO
EMA AND THE GHOSTS
TENLONS FORT
Free food and drink will be available. Free posters of the show will also be available.
pehrspace
325 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026 | Map
All Ages / $5 Donation / 9pm
Aaron and Nikki please look away, we're going to get fanatical right about now -- but we'll try and keep it short.
We can't recall the exact details but it was roughly ten years. We had just started writing for a certain publication and were asked to do a night at Fais Do Do. Thursdays (or was it Tuesdays?) at the club were called Mephisto and the resident bands one particular month were the beloved Devics and the one and only Aaron Embry.
Now, before we go on, we had heard about Mr. Embry through various music scene aficionados before this night. "Nothing short of brilliant". "The man is a genius". "Utterly inspiring". Those were the kind of words we heard all the time with bands those days and time and time again we were always more inclined to put them on the veritable punching bag/piñata. So being young and cynical we took in the so-called "brilliant, inspiring genius" in true Silver Lake hipster form -- arms folded in the back of the room with the usual look of disinterest.
Perhaps 10 -- at the most 15 -- seconds into the first song, we fell in love with Aaron Embry. It's a weird thing when that moment happens. It's like when you're in grade school and the girl you just passed a note to returns it with a circle-heart around "yes". Yes. We tried to pick a part what exactly we were listening to since we couldn't really classify it into anything we'd ever heard, but it was like burst of piano pop with jazz phrasing and several gallons of sheer and utter madness.
So we're stuck on Embry like glue for the next few years through various projects (some of which can found on his Wiki) but then quite suddenly he falls off the face of the earth and no amount of Google hacking can find any trace of him.
2007 comes and word of a new Embry project with wife Nikki surfaces called Amnion. Again, Google fails to provide any information other than its biological reference, which we still find interesting and ultimately rewarding if we ever see "embryos in mammals and reptiles are protected by this membranous sac" on Jeopardy. An appearance on KXLU's "Demolisten" and shows at The Bordello and The Hotel Cafe soon come and we are back in love. His music has changed only in that there's a certain sense of peace and optimism about everything. We don't exactly understand where that's coming from, but we feel it. And it's a feeling that only reaffirms our belief that the man is...
Brilliant... Genius... Inspiring.
Amnion performs at pehrspace on 11/2. You can also see Aaron Embry perform with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros and Anders & Woods. New album coming soon.
Amnion - "Praise God For the Light Within Me" (MP3)
Amnion - "Here Goes Nothing" (demo) (MP3)
