DJ kidPEACE & DJ CutmarC @ The Beauty Bar

Credit: The Beauty Bar, Hollywood

For a Wednesday night in Hollywood off of Cahuenga Boulevard, the Beauty Bar was getting its mind blown by the funky beats of guest DJs kidPEACE and CutmarC. The interior was warm and playful with an aura of pink ambiance befitting of a retro beauty parlor inspired bar. Imagine a mid 1960s set up your grandmother would adore but wouldn’t understand – equipped with faux retro hair dryers, vanity mirrors, vintage beauty décor in the window front, and even a photo booth ($5)…alongside a fully stocked bar.

While taking a shot of rum I noticed that a woman and her boyfriend opened the double doors, peeked inside, and walked up to the bar and asked the bartender if they could get an actual haircut. The bartender looked amused and told them that they were mistaken and asked if they wanted a drink. They declined and exited embarrassed and still hair challenged. My friend, rogue hairstylist and co-guest DJ, CutmarC joked that he should set up shop right there on the bar floor in front of the window so passerby’s could come in and get a cut while they drink. Not a bad idea, I thought. This idea could be good for promotion. It is, after all, the Beauty Bar. Why not make people even more beautiful in La La Land?

                The atmosphere surrounding the Beauty Bar was busy and buzzing with customers getting free bubble gum flavored vodka shots from four very sweet, giving, and camera clutching women in bright pink Britney wigs. My guess is that they were trying to capture all the evidence of debauchery going on. Not a bad set up you finely disguised, sneaky, liquor toting ladies. Outside there was a live television shoot going on – complete with lighting and worried people with clipboards and hands free sets telling patrons on the sidewalk  (who could care less) to move because they were trying to get a scene shot.  You could hear DJ kidPEACE supply the fuel for their shoot with her set of spins starring Bob Marley and The Wailers, Lake Side, and pushing the party into overdrive with songs by Indeep, and Dr Dre. The crowd looked like they were loosening up and gettin’ on their good foot!

It seemed the speakers were sending out a mighty fine buzz because all you could see coming down the street and stopping in front of the Beauty Bar was the Pap. It must have been TMZ because you could see their flashing bulbs and feel their invasiveness from a mile away. You could have sworn that a Hilton or a Lohan tried to escape them by actually walking down the sidewalk trying to escape them. Fueling the beats, DJ kidPEACE and CutmarC shimmied everyone into the jam of some real old school dance classics by The Commodores, James Brown, Rick James, and Stevie Wonder to name a few. After they puppet mastered the dance floor into a funk storm with The Gap Band and Warren G, they brought the bass bumping of Chromeo, and Ducksauce to the mix. At the close of the night DJ kidPEACE ended her set on a high note with her own favorite band Guns N Roses. So money.

Rockers Give Back To LA Youth @ The Avalon

Photo Credit: Love Absurd Productions

Sunday November 22^nd, 2009 The Los Angeles Youth Network hosted a sold out concert, LAYN ROCKS presented by Slash and Friends, at The Avalon in Hollywood. The event was hosted by comedian George Lopez and rock headliners Slash and Ozzy Osbourne. The night’s acts featured collaborative performances by Slash, Ozzy Osbourne, Perry Farrell, Billy Idol, Travis Barker, Chester Bennington, Andrew Stockdale, Dave Navarro, and an opening performance by Juke Kartel. 

The night was full of surprises, with Slash and Friends rocking out to Led Zeppelin’s “Immigrant Song” and “Tangerine”, Thin Lizzy’s “Jailbreak”, Wolfmother’s Andrew Stockdale belted out “Woman”, and “By The Sword” off of Slash’s upcoming album. A surprisingly bad ass performance by Chester Bennington during the Zeppelin song “Good Times, Bad Times”. Billy Idol performed “Out Ta Get Me” and “Rebel Yell”. Bennington also nailed “Slither” along with “Paradise City” performed by Stephen Adler on drums and Duff McKagan on bass! Perry Farrell sang “Mountain Song”, “Sympathy For The Devil”, and an unforgettable version of “Jane Says”. Ozzy Osbourne began his set with “I Don’t Know”, “Iron Man”, “Crazy Train”, and ended the night with an unforgettably sung “Paranoid”.

Photo Credit: Love Absurd Productions

The Los Angeles Youth Network, LAYN, is a non-profit organization devoted to ending “homelessness one kid at a time”. At one of the three LAYN homes the youths (12-21 years old) that come through are provided with what many take for granted – a place to sleep, food in their stomach, water, medical services and even counseling, as most come from abuse, were neglected, or abandoned. Without LAYN many of these kids would become a part of the frightening reality that, “Nearly 150,000 people live on the streets of Los Angeles” and that out of that large number “Over 10,000 kids sleep on the street in abandoned buildings and under freeways each night”. It is because of charitable donations made by regular folks like you and I that help the Los Angeles Youth Network provide these kids with “9000 home nights, 13000 meals, 6500+ hours of counseling, 1000 hours of education and tutoring, and 300+ arts and recreation hours” per year.  Imagine if no one contributed to these kids and future adults’ lives.

Photo Credit: Love Absurd Productions

LAYN not only helps youths NOW, it helps prepare them for the FUTURE. Their services provide at risk youths with transitional living programs, vocational and placement services, independent living and job training, that helps to make sure that each kid “successfully completes the permanent transition away from street life to a safe and secure living environment to fully participate in society”. LAYN graduate and fellow guitarist/bass player Jill Avilez, shared why the program is still so important to her. She says, “I was lucky to end up at L.A.Y.N. The program and its supportive staff helped save my life and pull me out of my darkest times. I can wholeheartedly say that if I didn't end up at the Beachwood house I most likely would have committed suicide. They helped me get back into Hollywood High School and influenced me to get better grades and focus more on my arts. They supported my creative self when almost no one else did and it and gave me the confidence to be the unique individual that I am today. I was guided with the tools to help overcome deep mental and emotional trauma and emancipated the program a high school graduate to go on to a 4 year State University to pursue my artistic ambitions". Jill is one of the fortunate“80% of our youth” who “exit our program to live successfully with their families, in foster or group home placements, or independently”.

Jill reminds us that “Not all youth get a chance to explore their own potential and have supporters who genuinely care about their growth and development. And not all youth can find their way to L.A.Y.N., but L.A.Y.N. needs to be there for the ones that do”.  Hopefully along with the celebrity rockers that helped host the LAYN ROCKS concert there will also be more attention to keeping kids off the streets and into a home where they are truly cared for by individuals who want to shed light on an otherwise potentially dark road.

Photo Credit: Love Absurd Productions

12th Annual Outdoor Skating Rink @ Pershing Square

Photo credit: LA Parks

Has it been forever since you've last seen an ice skating rink? Do you think that ice skating is only for New York-based romantic comedies? Well, you're wrong. Nows the perfect time to dust off your pea coats, mittens, scarves, and Nancy Carrigan-esque moves. It's Winter! That means it's time for some serious ass falling on ice!

Here's the deets:

• 532 South Olive Street, Los Angeles, CA 90013.
• Open everyday Thursday, November 19, 2009-Monday, January 18, 2010. 
• Admission: $6 plus skate rental $2! Great prices! 
• Some days have concerts!!!
• Check out their website here!
• The Downtown On Ice Winter Holiday Festival is on Saturday and Sunday December 12 &13, 2009!

Miike Snow Animal (Mark Ronson Remix)

Armand Van Helden & A-TRAK Present Duck Sauce - aNYway

UCLA DJ PANEL: Destructo/A-Trak/Skeet Skeet

Photo by kidPEACE Media

After selling out the two day dance festival HARD Haunted Mansion, Gary Richards/DJ Destructo joined DJ A-Trak and DJ Skeet Skeet for an intimate discussion panel with UCLA students and electronic music fans November 3^rd in Ackerman Grand Ballroom. They discussed their pasts, present, and futures as DJs and as young kids being influenced by music.

Photo by kidPEACE Media

DJ A-Trak kicked off the unmediated panel with his beginnings in Canada circa 1995 as a scratch DJ. When he was thirteen he would spend time “sneaking a couple of scratches on my dad’s record player”. Two years later he became the World Champion of DMC in Montreal (Montreal Battle) and moved on to the Italy World Finals where he proudly states that his mother accompanied him. He says that those battles are what “set off his career”. He attributes a lot of turntable influence on the San Francisco Scratch Movement, where he worked with Q-Bert, Mix Master Mike, Shortkut, and Apollo – The Invisible Scratch Pickles. He did battles, club gigs and was a hip hop DJ. He explained that his past as a hip hop DJ stems from delving into influences such as soul, jazz, and funk. He noted that he has a background in classic rock as well. Around 2004 he met a few DJs in Montreal and in New York while visiting his brother. This is also around the same time Kanye West picked him up as an official DJ where he toured with him for four years. He noticed that the DJs during this time were doing something new – mixing multiple genres in their sets.  A-Trak said that “the DJ sets became a whole mix of genres of anything that could make people dance without really paying attention to what genre or where the song was from, to the point where if it was like in a certain tempo range and it made sense then they would play it, so the tempos kinda went higher up in our sets” and that “It got to the point where this house record, this weird distorted European electronic record, would make sense next to this Outkast song and next to this old school Afrika Bambaataa song”. He believes that pop, rap, and rock music are each headed towards a dip in the electronic direction, “Electronic music is sort of becoming the norm for everything” and that “during the last few years everything’s been meshing”.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/djatrak

Photo by kidPEACE Media

DJ Skeet Skeet, or Skeeter, is from a small town in Iowa where “the only outlets for music were from…University of Iowa” where he used to go “picking up records and talking to people about music”. He was into punk and hardcore, Inside Out, and “Crappy metal core songs, thinking I wanted to be in Slip Knot”. He moved to LA when he was sixteen and received a football scholarship to San Jose State. There he did lots of music and design related things, “Messing around with DJing because it was fun”. He said he would typically DJ at frat and house parties. He reminisced about his life as a young music nerd, “Me and a bunch of dorky kids who couldn’t get into the cool clubs…were all playing weird records with guys like Steve Aoki”.  He quickly mentions his Paper Magazine DJ of the Year 2008 and then humorously shares that he and A-Trak are both “Pepsi DJs” – a little known fact that they both managed to forget about. They both noticed that there is a competitor’s water bottle on the table where Skeet joked “We can’t even drink this thing. You gotta tear the labels off” with A-Trak motioning to the bottle that “We’ll have to just write Pepsi on there”.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/djskeetskeet

Photo by kidPEACE Media

DJ Destructo, or Gary Richards took the mic and discussed growing up in Maryland and what it was like having a dad who is in the record business, “he never really made it to the soccer game but I got to see a lot of good music”, “[he] took me to a lot of concerts like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin when I was a little kid”. Richards says he discovered electronic music circa 1989-90 at clubs in downtown LA warehouses he would frequent. He listened to music like Kraftwerk, Run DMC, Luke Skywalker, and 2LiveCrew.  When he first discovered electronic music he was “hooked”. He knew he had to start throwing music events and started doing so in 1990-91. He only knew of a few DJs at the time so he began teaching himself to DJ.

On New Year’s Eve 1992/1993 he did an event called Rave America at Knott’s Berry Farm that sold out tickets to twenty thousand people. Rick Rueben saw how much potential the electronic scene had and approached him with an offer to produce the electronic and techno music Richards had been spinning and knew “that this electronic techno music…would blow up like hip hop”. So he started working with Rueben and signed XL Recordings, Lords of Acid, Prodigy, and Messiah. Richards thought that his dream job had become a reality but quickly realized that despite working with big names like Rueben that “nobody really cared”. This didn’t hinder his passion for music and he kept at it, working at labels like A&M and Interscope. After his brother signed Slip Knot, Richards began working with his brother signing metal bands. In 2006 he “decided that the record business is kinda for the birds these days because no one is buying plastic CDs” and “went back to where I originally started” organizing events such as HARD Haunted Mansion and DJing as his present moniker Destructo.

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/destructohard

As a deservedly proud promoter and DJ, Richards/Destructo mentioned that this New Years Eve will mark the two year anniversary of HARD and that A-Trak was also in attendance and will be headlining it this New Years Eve. In the past there have been such performers as Justice, Peaches, and 2LiveCrew. HARD New Years Eve and Destructo’s Birthday headliners for 2009 into 2010 currently include – Boys Noize, A-Trak, DJ Mehdi, and Destructo. Like any seasoned promoter and realist Richards shares some parting wisdom with all of the collegiates in the audience about how success in the record business really works – “You can work with the best music in the world, but you have to have a lucky break with timing” and “if you are at the right place at the right time and you have something super credible and good, you just get that one chance you know? I worked my whole career to get it, and with HARD it just hit. From two years ago til now it’s taken off. It’s cool that it’s taken off for all of us”.

After the discussion panel the audience was invited to comment, ask questions, and hang out after all the Q&A. The DJs were very humble and grounded for being musical celebrities. They shook hands, took pictures, and even discussed one-on-one with inquiring audience members. Fans were even able to get autographs and some were given HARD t-shirts, Fools Gold stickers (A-Trak’s record label), and almost everyone walked away with a mixed CD filled with tracks highlighting the night’s special guests.

HARD: http://www.hardfest.com/

MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hardfest

Twitter: http://twitter.com/hardfest

How To Make a No-Sew Superhero Cape

How To Make a No-Sew Superhero Cape on Howcast

Another LA Halloween: What To Do (For all ages and if you’re broke, or not broke yet.)

Photo credit: West Hollywood Costume Carnaval

Halloween isn’t just for kiddies with candy! You can find lots of ghoulish things to do around Los Angeles on a budget. If you like bar crawling alongside some of the most awesome and outrageous costumes in the LA area for FREE and ALL AGES then go to West Hollywood’s Costume Carnaval on October 31^st. The over the top event will be held on Santa Monica Blvd from Doheny to La Cienega (1 mile of fun!). Think of a giant train of people going down Santa Monica Blvd dressed in leather, as sexy bumblebees, pimps, school girls, zombies, maybe a giant penis or two, or even multiple Michael Jackson’s and just about any other costume you could contrive. 

As a veteran WEHO clubber it is most wise to get a taxi to the event and show up buzzed because there will be limited amounts of street parking (as blocks of Santa Monica Blvd. will be roped off) and extremely long lines for expensive drinks. If you want the best drink specials I recommend that you pay a visit to the always poppin’ spots like La Cantina and Trunks (Google it!). The best thing about this event is that there are three main stages devoted to music and there are other mini music spaces (PODS) throughout the carnaval.

WEHO Costume Carnaval Line Up:

Vaudeville Stage (@ Almont): Vaud & The Villains (18-piece ragtag house band), Silk Sisters Aerial Acrobat duo, Lux Lacroix (burlesque artist), Karis (hula dance artist), Eve La Dare Stilt Artist.

MC: Vaud Overstreet

Illusion Stage (@ West Knoll): Christopher Wonder (illusionist), Jacqui Kreisler (contortionist), Machina Candeo (fire dancers), Robert Baxt (macabre magician), Pasha & Vladamir (body balancers), Circus Troupe.

MC: Christopher Wonder

Arcade Stage (@ San Vicente): Jeffree Star, Powder, Crush 333, Coronation of the Carnaval Queen (Ricki Lake!), Carnaval Costume Contest.

MC Momma

Music Pod DJ Talent: Zen Freeman, Mia Morretti, Daisy O’Dell, Aaron Colbert, Unification Theory (visual artist), A Graffitti Painting Installation (visual artist).

For more information please check out the West Hollywood Costume Carnaval website here!

Photo credit: HARDFEST.com

If for some reason you have money in your pocket and you want to dance all night you should go to HARD Haunted Mansion. The tickets, going at $75 per night at regular admission and $135 VIP, will sell out! So get your tickets right now and here! Haunted Mansion is going to be ALL AGES and 2 nights long, starting Friday October 30^th and ending Halloween night! Bring money (expect $10-15/beer, $5/water bottle) and bring anything else low-key. There will be lots of costumes! Think women dressed in their sexiest costumes and men to be as trippily dressed or as scantily dressed as possible. Think glow sticks, candy kids, luminescent black lights, light shows, and dilated pupils all around. If you will be partaking in shenanigans (legal and illegal) PLEASE be safe! Get a designated driver or taxi! And remember – Peace, Love, Unity, and Respect! 

After such a massive electronic letdown like HARD Summer where the party got shut down before midnight by the 5-0 and because people were acting rowdy (because some young folks can’t handle their stuff) I think that HARD Haunted Mansion will definitely bring the cosmos to this party! They’ve got a lot to prove with the LA scene again, so I hope – no, I KNOW – that headliners JUSTICE and Deadmau5 will completely hypnotize and redeem the HARD name.  The music will not disappoint! 

HARD Haunted Mansion Line Up:

Friday:

HARD Stage

8:00 Franki Chan, 9:00 Danger, 10:00 A-TRAK, 11:25 The Bloody Beetroots, 1:00 2MANYDJS, 2:35 DEADMAU5.

Expo Hall

8:00 Staccato, 9:30 Harvard Bass, 10:45 Don Rimini, 12:15 Special Guest, 1:30 MIXHELL, 2:45 Special Guest.

Saturday:

HARD Stage

8:00 CLASSIXX, 9:00 Buraka Som Sistema, 10:10 MAJOR LAZER, 11:15 BASEMENT JAXX, 12:30 JUSTICE, 1:50 Special Guest, 3:00 MODESELEKTOR.

Expo Hall

8:00 PAPARAZZI, 9:00 Shinchi Osawa, 10:30 Steve Aoki, 12:00 CROOKERS, 1:30 Special Guest, 3:00 Zombie Nation.

**I am only attending Night #2 for Haunted Mansion so check back with our site for pictures and a review from HALLOWEEN NIGHT!!!**

In the meantime check out these links!

HARD MySpace: http://www.myspace.com/hardfest

Facebook for Gary Richards: http://www.facebook.com/destructo

Follow on Twitter: http://twitter.com/hardfest

Photo credit: HARDFEST.com

Throwback Thursday - Marvin Gaye "What's Going On / What's Happening Brother"

Who wants to go Friday?

Click here to get more Discotheque info!

New Album Release Tuesday 10/20/09

Electric Six - Kill - MySpace/Website

Florence and The Machine - Lungs - MySpace/Website

Fuck Buttons - Tarot Sport - MySpace/Website

Kings of Convenience - Declaration of Dependence - MySpace/Website

Sufjan Stevens - The BQE - MySpace/Website

White Denim - Fits - MySpace/Website

Themselves - Crowns Down - MySpace/Website

Thanks to MetaCritic for all the new and upcoming album release info!

Bad Veins @ Kilby Court, SLC Utah 10/12/09

Bad Veins, 2 man power house.
Photo Credit: Daniel Gentry

Reel to reel used during the show.

Photo Credit: Daniel Gentry

Daniel & Logan with Bad Veins after the show.

Photo Credit: Daniel Gentry

Check out Bad Veins MySpace!


Support Kilby Court by clicking here!

Support & listen to Utah Free Media by clicking here! 
Or go to www.utahfm.org. 12 to 3pm, (Mountain Standard Time) & listen to The Jam Session with Dag on Utah FM. 


Note: I am now accepting submissions (articles, photos, mp3s, videos, etc) for all shows and events from all over the place (world and universe). 


So, submit all info to me here!!!

Throwback Thursday - Betty Davis "Game Is My Middle Name"

"Anti Love Song"



I hope y'all enjoy yourselves some Betty Davis - she's a funky outer planetary bad ass! Respect. Shoutout to Jill Avilez who introduced me to her. I love you Jill!!! <3

Ground Coverage: Eagle Rock Music & Arts Fest

        Stumbling off the 81 bus, my friend and I danced past the always musically forward Rastafarian Ice Cream Truck and dashed over to the best taco truck on the block, Tacos La Estrella: Tacos & Burritos (they gave me a free Coke with 3 of the best carnitas tacos I’ve eaten in a minute) to calm our stomachs. After getting started on a promising foot we began our trek along Colorado Boulevard and experienced the oddest look into our peers’ futures in the form of super-eclectic-fashionable families. At about 5ish in the afternoon it seemed like there was no end in sight to all theses “stroller hipsters” walking around with their 2.5 person families making me feel bad for being slightly intoxicated, yielding an American Spirit, trying to make my way down the street with a barely understandable map.

Five-ish came and went and there I stood, map in hand, feeling like Zelda, trying to map out a way we could see the bands we wanted to check out - and had a map FAIL. The map, the one with all the pictures and set times on the back became tedious and cryptic, but we still tried to figure out where and when some of the bands were playing. It became difficult to maneuver the festival because, one - some of the stages were basically on the same stage just called a different thing (Kingsize Soundlabs Stage/The Ship Stage). Two - they were hidden and not directly on Colorado Boulevard (American Legion Hall). And three - the set times of one DJ ran later than expected (which should always be expected, Soul in the Park/Future Music Stage). There’s only three things to do when put in a confusing situation - try to make the best of it, adapt, and move on.

We ended up finding the American Legion Hall tucked between Merton Avenue (Caspar = over-priced-gourmet-world-food alleyway) and Colorado and ended up stumbling in on Random Patterns’ set. The American Legion was what I imagined was used for old World War dances, except that Random Patterns set the mood for a very loud and distorted prom band. Not that they played prom songs, but their entire set was muffled by the blaring speakers that bounced off the acoustics of the hall. You could tell that despite the loudness not even the saxophonist and the amazingly intense drummer (props to the guy who helped him get part of his cymbal set back on stage after it fell off) could salvage the music quality.  Just a note: NO props to the lighting guy who kept shining bright production lights in the eyes of the band. Good job (sarcasm) guy. I guess you get what you pay for at a free concert. Although the band started out rough and loud, I give them props for making the best out of the semi-discouraging things occurring around them. Way to keep at it! That doesn’t mean I don’t have a small complaint to the band – say the track title loud and clear for the people who are jotting down notes about you. It’ll help come review time. Or turn down your amps so we can make out the song title through the lyrics. Thanks. Much appreciated.

Next we headed into the Coffee Table Lounge, the only sports bar on Colorado and a great selection of $5 beer, and decided to look at the map again to plot our course. After being pushed to the edge of confusion, again, we got up and decided to find the next stage – Soul in the Park/Future Music Stage. Basically, we went to go find the electronic and DJ stage. We got there and caught Computer Jay’s set and a DJ by the name of Free the Robots. Computer Jay began his set with what sounded like a thousand rabid pigeons cooing at the same time, except that they were digitalized. I think the guy said that he was using an Atari 600 to create whatever sounds he was making, and that was alright with me. I didn’t know that’s what it took to create those kinds of sounds, but I now see why it sounded 8-bit. Most of Computer Jay’s mixes were low key and appropriately chill for a Saturday afternoon. Free the Robots took the stage and immediately had sound problems. He quickly overcame this and moved on to an intense mashup of edgier and sexier beats.  At one point the guy used some sort of “Close Encounters” crazy aleatoric sound that inspired some wobbly toddlers to start dancing. Hell, I even got down! At this point the sun was about three quarters down and the alcoholic brown bags started coming out. People became braver, more nocturnal, and friendlier. The full moon helped too. We didn’t get to see DJ Nobody like we hoped because Free The Robots went over time, but that’s okay because it pushed us to move on to The Ship Stage to see The French Semester.

                On our way to the Ship Stage my friend and I noticed that there were lots of people wearing t-shirts that said “The Rock 90041” and “Mount Wash 90065”. I don’t know if it was my jealousy that I didn’t have on a “90501” zip code t-shirt to represent (!) but I was not feeling it. What I was feeling though was the little wooden stage a group of about 8 or 10 performers set up curbside of the 7-11! That was the most unexpected awesomeness that came out of the night. They each had what looked to be ukuleles with 8 strings! The people playing the ukuleles stood around the wooden stage and two women began dancing and clicking their heels to the beat. I don’t know what their name is, but if anyone knows, let me know! The Latin/Spanish/I don’t know-inspired performance was mind blowing and inspirational, since they were not a featured band and just randomly appeared! They even accrued their own dancing crowd! And since the crowd kept growing and show time for The French Semester was near, we moved on.

One thing about the indie rogue band The French Semester is that they have a sound that directly reflects their influences (The Zombies, The Flaming Lips, and Neutral Milk Hotel) and also has an honest, simple-complicated, yet modern-classic acoustic rock sound that they have and own. To me, they sound similar to a band called The Anniversary and share a deep rooted psychedelic Velvet Underground sensibility that’s set off by the tambourine and accompanying female vocals. Come performance, each band member approached their instruments, stage, and crowd with a sort of mature fearlessness (maybe this came from their recent spring ’09 tour). They kicked off the set with a new song “A Shoutout to the Underside” (EP out in a few months!), jived into “Backwards Rolling” and “The East Man” (both from full length album Good Friends Only I Could See), and then gave the good-sized sea of concertgoers three more new TFS tracks, “Deep Tissue on a Saturday Night”, “Lessons on the Autoway”, and ended their album-diverse set with “The Large Bouquet”. They rocked it and the crowd thanked them with genuine hoots and claps for helping to create an easy transition from laid back summer into nostalgic and bittersweet fall.

                Out of all of the performances I saw I think my favorite memory comes from the group of 8 or 10 musicians who managed to play their 8-string ukuleles or guitars in unison, each strumming, plucking and singing while two dancers on a makeshift stage click their heels to the beat. They weren’t even on the bill and they had a stage and had a focused and intensely joyful audience to dance and keep beat with. That’s what I love about hometown music festivals – they’re smaller than mainstream ones and promote the growth of independent musical talent within a local and larger cultural realm. I can’t wait for next year’s Eagle Rock lineup. Who will be the next band to catch the attention of our ears?

All photo credit goes to Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock

10th Annual Dia De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead)

Come celebrate the lives of family or friends who have passed on. Dia De Los Muertos is being held Saturday October 24, 2009 at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. For those of you who don't know what Dia De Los Muertos is: it is what others may know as All Souls' Day (Catholics) or Dia de Finados (Brazil) and is celebrated in Mexico and Latin America on November 1st and 2nd. However, in LA I think they are starting a few days earlier. Anyways, it is a celebration and way for people to get together and remember their beloved family and friends who have died (including pets!).

 To cite a source, Wikipedia says that "Traditions include building private altars honoring the deceased, using sugar skulls, marigolds, and the favorite foods and beverages of the departed, and visiting graves with these as gifts." So, if you're looking to remember those who have died in a positive and memorable way I think you should go to Dia De Los Muertos at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery. Bring something to remember a loved one, or just keep them in mind, while participating in a unifying event. Everyone will die one day, I guess that's what unifies us. But, at the same time it's not that sad because maybe there will be people celebrating your life at an event such as this one day. I guess what I'm trying to say is that death is made to be so serious, why not reserve one evening to remembering the lives of the dead as if they were alive.

More Info:
Saturday October 24th, 2009
4pm-11pm

The Ceremonial Altar Set-Up:
Friday October 23rd, 2009
5pm-onward

Cost: $10/person, children = free.
Dress: You can come dressed how you are or in Calaca apparel
Be prepared to: Celebrate the lives of the dead! Eat Mexican cuisine! Enjoy Day of the Dead altars, art, skulls, and merchandise! See traditional Aztec blessings and regional musical-dance group dedications! An evening concert! Family activities! Contests! Historical lecture about Dia De Los Muertos! Have fun!!!
Come: EARLY for parking!
Bring: $10 for parking!

Address: Hollywood Forever Cemetery
6000 Santa Monica Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90038

I'm definitely going to this. xo

Photo Credit: LA Day of the Dead

Throwback Thursdays - Sleep Walk by Santo & Johnny (1959)

Tangled Up In Blue by Bob Dylan

New Album Release Tuesday 10/06/09

Air – Love 2 - Website/Myspace 

Basement Jaxx – Scars - Website/Myspace

Built to Spill – There is No Enemy - Website/Myspace

The Gossip – Music For Men - Website/Myspace

The Happy Hollows – Spells – Website/Myspace

The Raveonettes – In And Out Of Control – Website/Myspace

Roseanne Cash – The List – Website

The Cinematics – Love and Terror – Myspace

Bob Dylan & His Band @ The Palladium!!!

Photo by Last.fm

October 13 through the 15th and two nights @ The Greek Theatre at U.C. Berkeley October 10th and 11th!
What an awesome random little tour to take for one of the actual "monsters of folk". The tickets will run you $50-56 dollars or more depending on the service charges from Live Nation and Ticket Bastard.

It would be worth the half a hundy to go and see "the" Bob Dylan perform. Let's be honest, when's the last time you know for sure that you're going to be able to see one of the last great rock idols, rock?  A good friend and also a very reliable source told me that she's seen him more than once and he performs all of his songs differently than how they are in their original versions. He always changes it up. You've got to respect a guy who knows how to keep his own material fresh by always evolving it. The guy has been around the same amount of time my grandparents have been around and that's saying something for the longevity of his spirit and the timelessness of his back catalog of music.

Some other concerts you should check out are:

• MUTEMATH @ Club Nokia Oct. 10th 
• Yo La Tengo @ The Avalon Oct. 15th
• Roger Daltrey (the lead singer from The Who) @ The Orpheum Theatre Oct. 17th
• The Pogues @ Club Nokia Oct. 17th
• Owl City @ Troubadour Oct. 20th 
• Echo & The Bunnymen @ Nokia Theatre Oct. 24th

FREE: Eagle Rock Music & Arts Festival

Luckily, I'll be covering this gig. So, check back later for more on it!
'Til then go here for more info on it and who's playing.
And go here for bar info on Colorado Blvd.

Listen To This: The Raveonettes

Their new album 'In & Out Of Control' can be listened to in its entirety on Spinner.com's website. I may be a little faded but I know good music when I start catching myself groovin down doing that "yes nod".

This album is has raised the bar for all the "The" bands because it actually has a story to tell. Listen to it from beginning to end. Don't jump the gun and start it from the most attention grabbing (and honest) track titles "Boys Who Rape (Should All Be Destroyed)", "D.R.U.G.S." and "Suicide", set aside that extra motion in your everyday gesticulation and start from the beginning.You wont be sorry you did it.

 'In & Out Of Control' is just like how you'd envision anyone out of control. You go  from one thing to the next, but always relishing in the thing you're throat deep in. It flows to great emotional heights and spins into dark human lows. Saron Foo's clipping and evolutionary (from beginning to end!) vocals and Sune Rose Wagner's intense instrumentation are dizzying in an electrifying body highish and mind excavation sort of way. "Bang" kicks everything off with an upbeat and fun summery tune. I didn't know if the pop was going to be a one time thing or become an overdose.

I stuck around and "Gone Forever", a more serious, hollow, and distant sound engulfed me. It has an intimate longing and self-reflective bare bones style to it. After you are dropped off into a Joy Division-esque loneness the slinky bass line in "Break Into Cars" comes in shattering and crashing into "Breakup Girls". "Oh I Buried You Today" is slow and weepy. It makes me think of a wispy Skeeter Davis song. Foo's voice in "Wine" is warm and smeary, like the hazy glow you get while drinking wine. Or drinking too much. Anyways, listen to The Raveonettes and dream away in your room. You'll have an 80s flashback at some point, I guarantee it. Especially after "Last Dance". You'll get it once you listen. "Heart Of Stone" is my favorite at the moment. Gonna go take a 3rd listen...

Go to their MySpace here!

Photo credit: The Raveonettes MySpace

Bars on Colorado Blvd.

For Saturday's Eagle Rock Music & Arts Festival there are bars on Colorado Blvd. WEST!
NOT EAST!

Check it out...

View Larger Map

Throwback Thursdays - A Message To You Rudy by The Specials

Behind Blue Eyes by The Who (it's all about 2:28!)

HAPPY ROCKTOBER!!!!!

Eagle Rock Music & Arts Festival: Tastemaker of 2010

           Like the last eleven years the Annual Eagle Rock Arts & Music Festival is being held Saturday October 3rd from 5pm until 11pm FOR FREE (all ages)! Yes, FOR FREE! The street festival will commandeer six blocks of Colorado Boulevard in sunny and humid Eagle Rock, California. There will be three main stages (even more sub stages): Global/World, Indie/Emerging, and a Kids’ Stage. Just to let you know ahead of time, you should probably take public transportation like the Metro if you want to get there without having to hock over what’s left of your savings for parking. So, get there early, and get there smart. Save your money for the food booths!

And as with most music you have to weed out the stuff you don’t exactly vibe with and hang on to dear life to the ones you do mesh with. So, I hate to do it, but I’ve researched a lot of the artists on the bill and I’m only recommending you stop by certain live acts, which I entitle:  “My Faves By Stage”. The stages I look forward to the most are these six: Emerging, American Legion Hall, Kingsize Sound Lab, The Ship, Razorcake/Zocaloc, and South in the Park/Future Music Stage. Although I pride myself on my super human concert going abilities, I am merely still a mortal human so I can’t make it to each, but I will try to make it to a few of them. You gotta pick your battles people!

Drawing from past experience I take that each of these stages represent what the independent music scene in Los Angeles is all about -- variety. Some of last year’s performers turned this year’s Indie darlings include: Earlimart, Edward Sharpe and The Magnetic Zeros, Princeton, and Mika Miko. So because of past reputation you can bet your sweet headphones that this year’s diverse lineup’s gonna bring it and bring it for FREE.

My faves from the Emerging Stage are: Faraway Places, Fol Chen, Free Mortal Agents, and No Age. Faves from the American Legion Hall Stage are: Shakey Graves, Random Patterns, Bob Bruno, and Pocahaunted. Faves from the Kingsize Sound Lab Stage are: Andrew Lynch and Alaskan Summer. From the Ship Stage: WonderGround, Ovideo, The French Semester, Nico Stai, and of course The Happy Hollows. On the Razorcake/Zocaloc Stage are: The Ignorant, Carnage Asada, and Apples and Onions. Last and final of my favorites are on the South in the Park/Future Music Stage with: DJ Nobody, Jeremy Sole, and last but not least, Peanut Butter Wolf.

This event will be packed in waves since everyone is trying to find things to do for free nowadays. So please, be prepared for some musical and cultural interaction with your fellow Angelenos. Maybe meet up with a few friends for a bar crawl down Colorado Blvd or just get out in the sun for while, since you’re out of the office anyways and it still feels like Summer.  Make note of all these artists because you will definitely hear more about them in 2010…

Flyer By The Eagle Rock Center for the Arts

Listen to the bands beforehand:

Emerging Stage Faves:

Faraway Places - http://www.myspace.com/thefarawayplaces

Fol Chen - http://www.myspace.com/folchen

Free Moral Agents - http://www.myspace.com/freemoralagents

No Age - http://www.myspace.com/nonoage

American Legion Hall Stage Faves:

Shakey Graves - http://www.myspace.com/shakeygraves

Random Patterns - http://www.myspace.com/randompatternsmusic

Bob Bruno - http://www.myspace.com/bobbbruno

Pocahaunted - http://www.myspace.com/pocahaunted

Kingsize Sound Lab Stage Faves:

Andrew Lynch - http://www.myspace.com/andrewlynch

Alaskan Summer - http://www.myspace.com/alaskansummermusic

The Ship Stage Faves:

WonderGround - http://www.myspace.com/wonderground

Ovideo - http://www.myspace.com/ovideomusic

The French Semester - http://www.myspace.com/thefrenchsemester

Nico Stai - http://www.myspace.com/nicostai

The Happy Hollows - http://www.myspace.com/thehappyhollows

Razorcake/Zocaloc Stage Faves:

The Ignorant - http://www.myspace.com/theignorant

Carnage Asada - http://www.myspace.com/familiacarnageasada

Apples and Onions - http://www.myspace.com/applesandonions

South in the Park/Future Music Stage Faves:

DJ Nobody - http://www.myspace.com/nobodyelvin

Jeremy Sole - http://www.myspace.com/musaics

Peanut Butter Wolf - http://www.myspace.com/pbwolf

New Album Releases - Tuesday September 29th ♪

Bebel Gilberto - All In One - Acoustic/Electronic/Nu-Jazz/Sexy
MySpace/Website

Kris Kristofferson - Closer To The Bone - Country/Rock/Folk/Acoustic/Legendary
Website

Swell Season - Strict Joy - Acoustic/Alternative/Indie Darlings
MySpace/Website

La Roux - La Roux - Electronic/Rock/Clubby
MySpace/Website

Zero 7 - Yeah Ghost - Electronic/Beats/Female Vocal/Sexy
MySpace/Website

Strung Out - Agents Of The Underground - Punk/Rock/So Cal Bro Rock
MySpace/Website

Comedy Wish List: Kevin Smith

Photo by View Askew

You better watch 'dem stitches in your side if they aren't done healing from Doug Benson's MMJ Tour! Because next up in the batting line is Kevin Smith at the Orpheum Theatre, October 24th. You know him from such films as Clerks (OG and roman numeral II), Mallrats, Chasing Amy (Affleck killed that movie, or maybe I just hate his character), Dogma (I changed my mind, think I just dislike Affleck), and most notably as Silent Bob in Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back (heart). You can check out his IMDB here if you have to know all about his career. View Askew, his official website, shows that he'll be visiting 12 lucky audiences, making their ears fall off with sheer hilarity and opinionated rants. If you still can't wait to be apart of his methodical madness then go to his blog. Yes, I said blog. Don't worry, I just found out too! It's called, My Boring-Ass Life. And it doesn't stop there!!! Go to his MySpace. Ok, I'm done promoting. He can do that himself. Get your tickets from Ticket Bastard for $46.50-56.50 plus that handling fee they try to hustle you for. Good luck with trying to get into this dude. I say good luck because you're gonna get stoned and totally forget I told you about this and then you're gonna remember two days after or two hours before and shit your geeky self...but, if you arrive, arrive baked and don't forget the tickets! Don't forget about the SModcast! 


Click on the Comedy Wish List: Kevin Smith title up there to listen to a session of the SModcast.


xo