Thursday, January 06, 2011
Something occurred to us when we were asked to help out with tonight's show at The Smell: We love The Smell. Seems appropriate to come to this realization when the little/big space on Main Street just happens to be celebrating their 13th Anniversary this weekend.
We do have many fond memories of The Smell over the years. Many include our favorite local bands' early shows (Mia Doi Todd, Irving, Rilo Kiley, Rizzo, The Sharp Ease, and Jesca Hoop's first L.A. show back when she was more of a performance artist and way more unpredictable) to some of the best shows we've ever seen bands like The Aislers Set, Deerhoof, Crystal Castles, and Monotonix. A new generation of young people seem to come through every few years but Mr. Smith always stays true to its origins (it still smells like urine as if homeless people still break into it at night), which is probably why it continues to succeed. It was the venue you went to if you weren't old enough to get into Al's Bar or The Garage and, amazingly enough, it outlived them both. We should also mention that back when it first opened up on Main, you wouldn't be caught dead parking on the 3rd St. side of the block. The only streetlights at the time in that whole area were on 2nd St. so if people didn't get parking there then you just didn't go to The Smell that night. Of course, 3rd St. was and is where we have always parked and that is why our car has been broken into as many times as it has (including twice in one night while enjoying Black Heart Procession). Oh, how we love The Smell.
Which brings us to this show on Thursday. This is a good one. We caught Peter and the Wolf (as one of his aliases Traffique) play a show coincidentally with Black Jesus at the Hotel Cafe just last summer, which we've already noted incessantly as being one of our favorite shows of 2010. The Hotel Cafe probably wasn't really the type of scene for an artíste like The Wolf and we doubt any of the chatty crowd that night even remembers his 15-minute set of strangely beautiful pop crooning. But while most people seemed more interested in toasting their vodka cranberries to "Grey's Anatomy" bands, the lucky few got a taste of some deliciously dark tunes from a fabulously cross-dressed wolf.
Moses Campbell is coming off their most intense year yet with the release of their debut album Who Are You? Who Is Anyone, big-time gigs on big-time stages, and the departure of what would have been our future wife Daniela Jimenez. Word on the street is that a new album is already on the way and it sounds amazing. Full disclosure: "Word on the street" = member of Moses Campbell.
Black Jesus are a 7-member mammoth of a band featuring four handsome men and three gorgeous ladies that we'd all like to make our husbands/wives one day. When you hear them do harmonies you'll want to marry them too, especially when you realize that they're not even into the chorus yet and you're already crying. A new record is out soon and we're pretty sure all the cool bloggers will be putting it on lists 12 months from now. This is our third show with them in three months and it will never get old.
Speaking of old... The Monolators. Aww, you know we kid because we love them more than you do. We've done a Monolators show every year for like the last seven years and they remain to be the most memorable nights of our lives. Their new double vinyl EP "Silver Cities/Ruby, I'm Changing My Number" is available now. We think it's the best collection of songs they've ever recorded.
Ok, so somewhere amongst all these silly paragraphs is a show we're trying to promote. It stars each of the bands mentioned above and the venue mentioned above the above. Do it for The Smell. Do it for yourselves. Do it for America. But, most of all, do it because Los Angeles loves you.
January 6, 2010
Los Angeles Loves...
PETER AND THE WOLF
MOSES CAMPBELL
BLACK JESUS
THE MONOLATORS
with DJ Molly (KXLU)
The Smell
247 S. Main St.
Los Angeles, CA 90012
ALL AGES / 9pm / $5
FACEBOOK EVENT
Peter and the Wolf - "The Bonsai Tree" (MP3) Limited time download
Moses Campbell - "Annabelle" (MP3) Limited time download
Black Jesus - "Black Jesus." (MP3) Limited time download
The Monolators - "Silver Cities" (MP3) Limited time download
