Monday, October 05, 2009
We left for the hills over the weekend to spend some time staring at the desert while listening to some good music at Manimal Festival. This was probably the best top-to-bottom lineup of bands of any festival this year and with many of these bands growing past the small stages of Silver Lake it was nice to see them all in such a relaxed setting. With the exception of Chairlift and EXITMUSIC canceling, the festival was nearly flawless thanks to Manimal founder Paul Beahan's tireless work. This one will be hard to top. Also, shout outs to the Joshua Tree Inn, which is still a pleasant stay after all these years; Route 62 Diner (Har Mar and friends were seen taking up all the booths); and Mastodon Peak for kicking our ass on Sunday morning.
So, in case you haven't figured it out already, the wonderful month of October is upon us...
Residencies this month include: Jonneine Zapata, Light FM, Correatown, Kyle Krone & Chris Wulff (of The Shys), The Fling, Jack Wilson, Jr., Manhattan Murder Mystery, Mad Gregs, Rats, Jamie Drake, Jon Brion, Pilar Diaz, Joey Ryan & Katie Costello, Cricket and the 2:19, Tony Lucca, Marie Digby, and our good friend Astrella Celeste (daughter of Donovan)...
Release shows include: Light FM (their whole residency is a release party), Breakestra, Pizza!, Mozella, Ancestors, Greg Laswell, Sheila Nicholls, Thavius Beck, Meaghan Smith, Louden Swain, Dawn McCoy, "L.A. Lights," The Paper Raincoats, Dietra Kruschev, Toy Robot, James Webber, Jason Diaz... Tomorrow, two of our favorite records of the year come out with The Happy Hollows releasing Spells and Dead Man's Bones releasing their debut self-titled. Get them both.
Festivals and big events this month (yes, some already happened) include: Eagle Rock Music Festival, Manimal Festival, Monster Massive, Hullabaloo, Hard Haunted Mansion, Part Time Punks Festival, Longhair Illuminati Art & Music Festival, KCRW's Masquerade Party, Low End Theory 3 Year Anniversary, Smokeout 2009, Droid Behavior 7 Year Anniversary, Elaine Layabout's Hella Hipster Hoedown #5, Ennio Morricone with the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, An Evening with R. Crumb, the return of Sunny Day Real Estate and The Jealous Sound, and probably a ton of other Halloween-related events...
We're presenting two shows this month. One at The Echo on 10/26 for Correatown's free Monday residency with Sweden's First Aid Kit and San Diego's Joanie Mendenhall (all of whom we've had a crush on at one point in our lives). And we're also presenting a Halloween slash Autumn party at pehrspace on 10/31 with Asa Ransom, Eliza Rickman, and The Blind...
Happy belated birthdays over the weekend to Jeff Weiss (Passion of the Weiss), Josh Klinghoffer (Warpaint), Shannyn Sossamon (maudegone/Sissy), Josh Caldwell (Les Blanks), and one of celebrated a birthday as well. Lots of birthdays this week too: Angela Correa (Correatown), Jason71 (Eskimohunter), Juliette Commagere, Jeff Electric (Downtown/Union), Lisa Cole (Castledoor), and Jimmy Fusil (Bloody Robots) to name a few...
Also, sad news to report... While hanging out at Pappy & Harriet's we learned that Amy Farris passed away last week. We first saw her play with Kelly Willis on tour many years ago but she didn't really come to our full attention until she released Anyway on Yep Roc in 2004. And, in the last few years, she was a bit of a regular at our local watering hole The Cinema Bar. Her voice was unmistakably Nanci Griffith-esque and pure heart of gold Texas. Circumstances of her death are reportedly a bit vague at the moment, but what's clear is that she was a great musician and an integral part of L.A.'s alt-country scene. We'll miss her.
