Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Last weekend, when most of Los Angeles was transfixed on some awards show, we drove down to Santa Ana to see music's other biggest night at the Constellation Room. We hadn't planned on it, really, but it was the last night of Zola Jesus and Deradoorian's month-long U.S. tour, traffic was going to be Sunday light, and as a backup plan we could always try out that new ramen burger joint down the street in case we couldn't sneak in. Still, the clincher for us even contemplating the idea of going out on a #DowntonNight was Bouquet who was a fairly late add to the lineup and a band we hadn't seen in awhile. (We know there are two L.A. bands named Bouquet but we're talking about the less hardcore punk one).
We have been fans of anything Carolyn Pennypacker Riggs has done over the last decade from Palms to The Finches to guest appearances in L.A. Ladies Choir and supergroup duets like Jung Bouquet with Charlyne Yi. And, of course, her latest duo Bouquet. Something about the precise tranquility of her voice that goes beyond the obvious comparisons to twee queens Tracyanne Campbell and Rose Melberg that makes her so fascinating. It also could be her always-witty in-between song banter -- like her adorable jab at punk band Leftover Crack (who were headlining The Observatory next door that night). In any case, the band is releasing an equally adorable 10" on March 10th through the great Folktale Records. "In A Dream" contains everyone's favorite Bouquet songs including "Come To Your House" and "Falling" (whose chorus fade-out induces tears of joy every. single. time).
Bouquet performs 2/15 at The Echo, 3/8 at Origami Vinyl, and 3/29 at Center for the Arts Eagle Rock (record release show).
Friday, January 23, 2015
It's been a year since we've done anything. We blame it on laziness. Or busy-ness. Or the fact we weren't even in Los Angeles for most of 2014. No matter, we're making up for it a bit by having this party show/show party and we're only inviting the best of the best. This means you, the very few that have chosen to stop by this relic of a site to read about stuff we love. And, on Saturday, pehrspace will be a veritable utopia of stuff we love.
The beloved "50-capacity" performance/art gallery (which next year celebrates its 10th anniversary) is once again our space du jour for what might be the only show we have time to present this year. Taking the stage will be one of the most beautiful collections of artists we have ever been privileged to be in proximity to -- most of whom have done quite a few shows with us over the years such as...
* Pageants - If you didn't see the video we posted recently about what they've been up to and how awesome they are, just know they have a new album coming out this year and they'll be playing a bunch of new songs from it including our fav "Free," which soundtracks that video we were talking about earlier in this sentence. Guys, this album is sooooo dope.
* Doom and Gloom - Nate and Lisa Cole have been back in Los Angeles for several months now and we have seen them zero times. Moreover, the only evidence we have of their return to LA is through our obsession with their respective Instagram accounts. Saturday might be the only hard proof we have of great things to come. Castledoor, forever.
* Tom Brosseau - Quite possibly the finest and most prolific singer-songwriter of his generation once again graces an la-underground show to unveil some of the new songs off his forthcoming album, Perfect Abandon, produced by the great John Parish (PJ Harvey, Sparklehorse). A few days later, he'll be experiencing what true winter feels like when he and his usual Friends tour the Northeast so be sure to give him a warm New Year's hello/farewell hug.
* Rainman - We mentioned above that we were in LA only a handful of days in 2014. What we didn't mention is that those days usually centered around Rainman shows just to see her perform "Downtown Long Beach" and "Keep My Mouth Shut" and "It's Only Midnight" and... so on. Rachel Rufrano is perfection.
We've never done shows with three of the artists on this lineup but it's not for lack of trying...
* Jazz Mills - She's a rarity. A true classic. A they-don't-make-them-like-this-anymore type of human being. If you don't know what we're talking about, you never saw Cowboy & Indian in their prime, or have notifications for her Facebook posts on readiness level maximus, or witnessed her just last week hypnotize a Hotel Cafe crowd. Spoiler alert: She's going to blow you the fuck away.
* Rachel Fannan - How we snuck thee Rachel Fannan on this lineup is a friggin' coup because there is no way this woman should be slumming any show we do. Yet here she is. The lady we first remember hearing about as a member of the supergroup Tres Sirenas when visiting our alma mater in Santa Cruz, then going on to join Sleepy Sun alongside solo ventures Birds Fled From Me and Only You, not to mention voicing 2013's best sync. Still, she's way underappreciated in this town but on Saturday and that point forward we're going to appreciate the hell out of some Rachel Fannan.
* Sprïng - We don't go out nearly as much as we used to so it wasn't a random coincidence that we ended up out in La Puente last summer to see who we think is one of the best new bands of the last few years. If you've got something to say about that, listen to their fantastic debut album Celebrations and come see them close out the night on Saturday. Then prove to us that they aren't. They're down south for the winter from Vancouver so let's give them a sunny welcome, Los Angeles.
Can't believe we typed all that out.
January 24, 2015
la-underground presents:
PAGEANTS
DOOM AND GLOOM
SPRÏNG
TOM BROSSEAU
JAZZ MILLS
RAINMAN
RACHEL FANNAN (ONLY YOU)
LAU DJs Luke+Margot, CRQLR, LT
pehrspace
325 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
All Ages/$5/7pm
RSVP
Bands start sharply at 7pm
Food and beverage will be available
$5+ (donate to the bands as much as you can)
It's been a long time since we posted anything and we generally wouldn't stray from our "blogging is dead" stance if it not were for our longtime love of the band Pageants and the recent tragic demise of Hof's Hut in Bixby Knolls. Just a week prior to the fire, we ventured down to Long Beach to have lunch with Pageants' lead singer Rebecca Cole and guitarist Devin O'Brien and out of all the great places we could have gotten our grub on that day, we settled on Hof's.
If would be one thing if all we did was eat and run, but of course we didn't. We video recorded it, put our favorite Pageants song off their upcoming album underneath it, and packaged it into a fancy music video feature thingy for you all to enjoy.
Pageants performs 1/24 at pehrspace. Debut album comes out later this year.
Dedicated to Hof's Hut and the beautiful city of Long Beach, CA.
Labels: free, hof's hut, long beach, pageants
Monday, September 15, 2014
Los Angelenos know we are spoiled. Because of our year-long drought-driven sunny weather, our festival season never ends. But what about smaller cities with shorter outdoor concert seasons? You know those fans in the comments section of band postings asking "When are you coming to ____?" and we just laugh because we rarely need to ask those questions. And even when we do get big bands in LA, we leave early to beat the traffic. That's part of the reason why we visited Raleigh, North Carolina recently to celebrate Hopscotch Festival's 5th year -- to see what music appreciation looks like again.
For Angelenos unfamiliar with Raleigh or failed geography like us, it's the capital of North Carolina and one-third of The Triangle betwixt Durham and Chapel Hill, each about 30 minutes apart. So it's no backwoods town. It's full of hip shops, restaurants, clubs, late-night eats, museums, and the usual cultural milieu fit for the state's fastest growing city. Still, it feels small, perhaps like downtown Santa Monica with everything easily within walking distance to each other, which makes Hopscotch Festival very accessible to even those LA peeps who need to drive from The Echo to the Echoplex because they're too far apart.
Festival highlights included getting our feet wet (literally; it poured rain nearly all night) on Day 1 running around to see Deniro Farrar (the man is a damn genius),Yvette (pretty incredible), and Deep Sleeper (who soundtracks the video we put together below). On Day 2, we thoroughly enjoyed the company of some LA friends Clipping. and Open Mike Eagle at Pour House Music Hall, not to mention excellent sets from Priests, Winston Facials, and Potty Mouth. For the final day, we were absolutely entranced by Witch Mountain (who played a few weeks earlier on their tour at the Viper Room) and were front and center for White Lung, Eternal Summers and Sun Araw to finish the fest.
We very much enjoyed our stay in Raleigh. For Angelenos thinking about heading out next year, we recommend hitting up local sites like NCMH, NCMNS, and Pullen Park (pictured above and it's even prettier than that in person), all of which were pretty cool and free. Hopefully, we'll be back next year.
Tuesday, March 18, 2014
We arrived a few days prior to the Interactive portion of the festival to hang with friends, relax, and just prepare for the biggest week of the year for music, film, and tech. A few us were scheduled to do some hack and photoshop battles on Thursday night so we spent much of that day sitting poolside at the Hyatt prepping for 12 straight hours of screenburn. Tech highlights included Adobe's CJ Gammon and their free buffet at the Raddison, Funny or Die's Super Serious Show (feat. Jerrod Carmichael, T.J. Miller, and others), and most importantly Neil DeGrasse Tyson's quite moving keynote conversation prior to the premiere of Cosmos on Fox. Film highlight (we only got into one) was Boyhood, which was Oscar-caliber incredible -- although we have to admit we helped a bit on it. We also interviewed the lovely Lily Baldwin and Nicole Disson for their short film Sleepover LA but our camera bag containing most of the footage was stolen outside of Red Eyed Fly. We're hoping to put something together with what we have but for now watch this. As for music, we sadly didn't find a lot of new bands that blew us away. Those that we did love were mostly the same bands we've seen in the past at the festival or back in Los Angeles. Still, J.C. Satàn, Russian Red, Wolf Alice, and Inner Oceans lived up to the hype. L.A. bands did well too. Banks, Moses Sumney, and Youth Code were three of the most talked-about bands on the airplane home, which not only shows how good our scene is right now but also how diverse.
See you next year, Austin.
The above photo is ATX airport waiting for our luggage trying to sneak a photo of the entire staff of Jimmy Kimmel Live who were in town shooting the festival.
Monday, December 16, 2013
And then she just left.
Without knowing all the back story of her departure, we do know she moved first to New York and then to Berlin where she now lives. She's been working on music, both for herself and for others, including an upcoming film with Oscar winning director Shekhar Kapur (Elizabeth) and Oscar winning composer A. R. Rahman (Slumdog Millionaire). She's also currently working on an EP with German house gods Âme and in January she'll head to Iceland to finally record the music she performed four years ago in Los Angeles. After which she's hoping to get back on a stage where her music is obviously best heard and where, we believe, she's most at home. And, hopefully, that home is Los Angeles.
We love K Á R Y Y N.
Follow K Á R Y Y N on Facebook/Twitter/Soundcloud
Labels: k a r y y n, karin tatoyan
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Black Friday is an odd day to present a show. The day before, we're all thankful for our family and friends with a day-long feast of food and football. The next day we're grasping for game consoles and computer tablets with one hand and pepper spraying faces with the other. If you've survived the day, by the time Friday night comes along you just want to decompress. And decompression is partly why we thought of this show. The other reason, obviously, is that having Tom Brosseau, Kate Earl, and Lia Rose together on one lineup is utter perfection. Not only are they three of our most favorite artists of all time but they are also three of our most favorite people -- on the planet. We've known each of them musically and personally going on ten years and we couldn't think of a better trio to serenade us out of 2013.
Tom Brosseau recently returned home from a short tour of the other half of the U.S. with Sean Watkins. We know these little treks to-and-fro he's been doing for the last decade have given him a well-rounded view of the world and are at the root of his often clever and charming songwriting style. While not necessarily having to be travel songs or road hymns, the thoughtfully vivid details in his lyrics are the kind perhaps only imagined on long drives from city to city. And it is this unique perspective that has filled six wonderful albums worth of music with a seventh, entitled Grass Punks, coming 1/21 on Crossbill Records. Produced by Watkins, the album again showcases Tom's delicate prose and even more delicate natural falsetto, but it's at his shows that these songs really come to life. And, on Friday, we have the honor of seeing one of the best pure singer-songwriters of our time share some songs of his life travels.
We all probably know the story. Almost exactly ten years go, Kate Earl moved to Los Angeles from Chugiak. The stage-shy, pretty Alaskan girl with the big, soulful voice captivated us and every major label in town. A lot has happened since then. Even knowing Kate all these years we needn't have to pry too much into all those happenings. We just need to listen to her latest album Stronger, see the running theme of song titles like "I Don't Want to be Alone," "Is There Anyone Out There," and "Not the End of the World" to understand the amount of emotional difficulties she's had. But the songs don't wallow in self-pity. Rather, they're actually quite uplifting 70's-inspired folk rock tunes. She plays her first show back in town on Friday after recently finishing a huge summer tour with Matchbox 20 and Goo Goo Dolls, playing new songs in likely a much more stripped-down way than the massive venues she's starting to get used to. She'll also be donating all of her earnings to her family in the Philippines. Mahal namin si Kate Earl.
This is our third Lia Rose show we've presented in the last eight months. 'Obsessed much' might be the understatement of the year. But this girl is just that good, Bricks & Bones is just that fantastic, and Los Angeles is just that oblivious that we will put on as many shows as it damn well takes to get this lady heard. Of related importance, her performance of "Myself for to Blame" at our last show with her created such a perfect formation of tears in our eyes that the watery lenses temporarily gave us 20/20 vision. Do you understand what we are telling you? Her music heals people and stuff. A few more shows and these bum knees of ours will be good as new. She opens the show on Friday and will likely be playing a few songs off her new album Heart of Winter to get us in the holiday spirit so get there early for a good cry sesh.
Goodbye, 2013.
November 29, 2013
Los Angeles Loves...
TOM BROSSEAU
KATE EARL
LIA ROSE
Pieter
420 West Ave 33, Unit 10
Los Angeles, CA 90031
All Ages/8pm/$5-10 donation (all money goes to artists)
FACEBOOK EVENT
STREET PARKING ONLY
Bring blankets, pillows, and stuff to sit on..
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
In one of our final shows of the year, we have chosen Lot 1 Cafe as our locale to host a trio of ladies we are honored to have on one lineup. We have had our eye on Daena Jay, Nettie Rose, and Pluto Fury for some time now so it is quite fitting that we will be closing out 2013 with all three of them together at last.
Given the amount of television usages of her music it's a bit of a surprise that not many locals have heard of Daena Jay. Her live appearances admittedly aren't too frequent but when she does grace a stage her talent is straight to the point. The lady can flat-out write songs that hit nerves, specifically the nerves that trigger teardrops flooding from one's eyeballs. And if you doubt this then haven't listened to "Lead Us Home" as much as we have. After a bit of a well-deserved break (she recently got married), look for a new EP in the coming months out on CatBeach Music (home to our friends Fielding and Moxi) and hopefully more shows as well.
When we first discovered Nettie Rose, she was just a teenager humbly singing her twangy Country tunes at open mic nights around Santa Monica. Five years later, the young lady (now 21 years old) is celebrating the release of her debut album People I Know. Her charming storytelling style of songwriting recalls the golden era of Country music the likes of Gene Autry, Patsy Montana, and Hank Williams, outpouring through a perfectly unrefined voice suited for long rides down dusty trails. "Ride Ride Ride" remains to be her signature song, a remarkable piece of songcraft to be released by a girl in her early 20s, no doubt, but even more astonishing in that she wrote it when she was sixteen and yet it still holds up against some of the best Country songs we've heard in the last decade. Do buy her new album (available now on iTunes) and please help her celebrate it tonight at Lot 1.
We've gotten several DMs asking who Pluto Fury is and we really cannot say for sure. It could be a new animated prime time series on FOX or it could be someone we randomly saw a handful of times a few years ago stun a packed crowd at Room 5 then sing the national anthem at Dodger Stadium all before they turned the age of 15. Hypothetically, if it were the latter and they were now attending a prestigious arts school that has churned out some of the best new bands out of Los Angeles in the last few years, then it would behoove us to get them to play one of our little shows before they have handlers telling them not to consort with "music bloggers." So that's what we did. Hypothetically speaking. Get there early to see them. Factually speaking.
That's the show. And there is no cover charge. Why? We don't even know. At the very least, this should be a Typhoon Haiyan benefit concert or something but we believe you will spend your hard-earned money wisely tonight whether it be to victims of natural disasters, Lot 1's infamous Tuesday $5 all-you-can tacos, or a new Nettie Rose record. Just know that this show costs as much as a slow dance with us to a Daena Jay tune. Absolutely free.
November 19, 2013
Los Angeles Loves…
DAENA JAY
NETTIE ROSE record release
PLUTO FURY
Lot 1 Cafe
1533 Sunset Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026
18+/9pm/Free but donations to the bands are encouraged
FACEBOOK EVENT
