with:
The Polyamorous Affair || Listen
Light
Go see ONE TRICK PONY
[rsvp with them after the jump - $5 list]
"i used to flirt with failure. now we're married. "
- One Trick Pony
It’s not exactly a revelation to think of the music by new L.A. quartet Robotanists as “cinematic” — the previous project in which husband-and-wife principals Sarah Ellquist and Daniel de Blanke were involved, Loma Lynda, was a multimedia collective (including filmmaker Jason Bognacki) that fused movies and rock.
“It was exhausting,” Ellquist says. “So many bands now have a visual element, but it’s very labor-intensive. We decided to trade it in and do straight-up music. We wanted to be able to pick up and play.”
- ||| Download: “Wait a Minute Here”
On their debut EP “Close Down the Woods,” Robotanists root around in the electro-noir explored by Mazzy Star and Portishead, with Ellquist’s sultry voice narrating the way through forays into the dark both metaphorical and literal. Their [click to continue...]
WILDERNESS / SAN SERAC / MOONRATS
Echo
Wilderness || Listen || Watch
For a band named Wilderness, the Baltimore quartet make dissonant art-rock that’s distinctly urban, full of throat in a way that develops when you’re shouting to be heard in cities that never break or breathe. They specialize in a kind of crescendo minimalism: Through two albums of often shapeless cacophony (featuring thick, intertwined guitars and tom-and-kick drumming), they’ve crafted long-form songs that, though patient and deep-lunged, rely on the anthemic bursts to which they lead. At the fore but not the center, then, there’s lead singer James Johnson, whose slurred vocal style’s been compared to figures like John Lydon and David Byrne. But within such minor tempests, he’s not a frontman per se: His warbling disconnects from the words issued and becomes just another instrument, his lyrics broken down into simple repeated cries and chants that rise above the band’s shapely chaos, a further element of their dim but aspirant atmospheres. - Village Voice
The members of Florida-cum-Baltimore-based band Wilderness have been working together for 11 years, and it shows in the maturity of their sound. James Johnson's plaintive, cerebral musings about capitalism are mostly lost without a lyric sheet, but live, his vocals act like another instrument, adding more satisfying tones and textures. Released earlier this month, the band's new Jagjaguwar record, (k)no(w)here, offers a strong follow-up to 2006's popular Vessel States. Tearing through a set of similar tunes, Johnson is as emotionally engaged as it gets; at times, it almost sounds like he's crying. And who's to say he isn't?
with:
Tangier Lounge's monthly Digital Cabaret event redefines the concept of modern dinner theater, updating classic nightclub entertainment for contemporary audiences. In its December edition, contenders submit videos, skits, and other numbers on the theme "Make It Funny." Performances are complemented by live music in true modern cabaret fashion, and the entrant amassing the most laughs wins.
¡¡¡ MARK YOUR CALENDARS !!!
Screening: THE WRESTLER
LACMA
December 12 | 7:30 pm | Bing Theater
Mickey Rourke stars as Randy "The Ram" Robinson, a onetime superstar of the mat. Now battered and estranged from his daughter (Wood), he ekes out a living getting beaten bloody in high school gyms and community centers around New Jersey as part of a tight-knit community of wrestling buffs. But when a violent heart attack and invasive surgery forces him into retirement, his sense of identity starts to slip away. He begins to evaluate the state of his lonesome life and his relationship with an exotic dancer (Tomei). Winner of the Golden Lion at the Venice film festival, the film is nominated for Male Lead and Best Feature at the 2009 Independent Spirit Awards. "A triumph from start to finish... Rourke gives the kind of performance that caps, redefines and reinvents careers." –Scott Foundas, LA Weekly. Special guest: Director Darren Aronofsky.
*No one under 18 admitted. This film is rated R by the MPAA for violence, sexuality/nudity, language and some drug use.
View full schedule of films. >>
Does MOCA Need New Leadership?
MOCA's Geffen Contemporary is leased from the City for $1 a year | Photo by pink_fish13 via the LAist Featured Photos pool on Flickr
MOCA's grim financial outlook is no secret, and although there has been public mobilization to help raise the profile of the museum's plight and show whoever will pay attention that Angelenos want their art, some see the changes that need to come as being more fundamental.
This weekend's LA Times featured an opinion piece by Tim Rutten, calling for officials from the City of Los Angeles to step in and for MOCA's board and top execs to be replaced. Calling the museum "one of the essential windows on the restless, searching, cosmopolitan creativity of this city's 21st century spirit," Rutten says that because MOCA's Geffen Contemporary sits on land leased from the City ("for $1 a year" no less) and that the City brokered the deal for their Grand Avenue facility, Los Angeles proper "has played a crucial role in MOCA since its inception 30 years ago." - LAisth (more after the image jump)
M. Ward announces tour and pre-sale tickets
Singer-songwriter and modern-day troubadour M. Ward announces plans to hit the road this winter and bring audiences on both sides of the Atlantic tracks from his highly-anticipated release, Hold Time (February 17th, Merge Records). Amidst producing and arranging Zooey Deschanel's indie pop gems and being the "Him" of She & Him'scritically-acclaimed Volu
Fans will have the opportunity to purchase tickets in advance. Pre-sale for the US shows begins Tuesday, December 9 and ends Thursday, December 11. Tickets for all shows in the US, UK, and EU will go on-sale to the public beginning Friday, December 12.
Password for pre-sale: holdtime
For more information and to purchase tickets, please visit www.mwardmusic.com
M. Ward tour dates in full:
Wednesday, February 18 Boston, MA @ Somerville Theater
Thursday, February 19 New York, NY @ The Apollo Theatre
Friday, February 20 Philadelphia, PA @ Trocadero Theatre
Saturday, February 21 Washington, DC @ Sixth and I Synagogue
Wednesday February 25 London, UK @ Borderline
Thursday February 26 Paris, FR @ Café de la Danse
Friday, February 27 Amsterdam, NL @ Paradiso
Wednesday March 4 Los Angeles, CA @ Music Box at Fonda
Thursday, March 5 San Francisco, CA @ Palace of Fine Arts
Friday, March 6 Seattle, WA @ Showbox At The Market
Saturday, March 7 Portland, OR @ Aladdin Theater
December is list-making season. And for us music journalists, it is a time to look back on scores of albums, reflect upon the music and recapitulate our favorites. But this year, just like the last, we took this opportunity to flip that tradition upside down, asking the artists that influenced us what influenced them. The prompt was not limited to albums that came out in 2008. Black Keys - Attack And Release The Western States Motel - "Oh World" -- Robert Francis might write the songs of an old soul, but he is still just 21 — and maybe feeling it, when it comes to his next step musically. “Thing are kinda moving slower than I want them to,” he says. It was back in August 2007 when his critically lauded debut, “One by One,” was released on local imprint Aeronaut Records, earning comparisons to the likes of Jeff Buckley, M. Ward and Conor Oberst. After assembling a live band and touring behind the album, he got to work on another. “I started a second record with the idea it would come out on Aeronaut too,” he says. “Then all these [bigger] labels got interested.” It’s premature to talk about a signing, his management says, but while the business [click to continue... This spirit is less palpable in the imagery, however, than in the materials themselves, which look as though they could have been gathered by the very characters Reid is assembling. Old photographs, discarded bits of linoleum and cardboard, toothpicks, strips of satin, velvet, corduroy and upholstery — all are fragments drawn from the world at large, once the fabric of another picture, another story. Every surface exudes a sense of history. Collage is a widely practiced and seldom dazzling genre, but Reid approaches it with a rare degree of concentration and sensitivity, assembling and manipulating her materials with the same care that she shows in choosing them. The works range from letter-size to poster-size, and Reid is equally adept at either end of the scale. The smaller compositions are tight, intimate and jewel-like; the larger, assuredly expansive and monumental. No inch of surface area is squandered or overlooked. The fastidiousness with which Reid treats these once discarded materials invests them with a kind of opulence that seems an extension of her reverence for her subjects. Whether by choice or necessity, her vagabonds have set about living life by their own systems of value. In Friday's paper, look for reviews of David McDonald, Annie Wharton and Jason David at Jail Gallery; Lillian Bassman at Peter Fetterman; and Peter Sudar at Mihai Nicodim. -- Holly Myers [Keyboardist-singer Morgan Kibby resumes her tour diary as M83 embarks on the U.S. leg of its tour. Previous diaries here.]
The Western States Motel's Top Ten of 2008
Picture via the Western States Motel's Myspace
MGMT - Oracular Spectacular
Blitzen Trapper - Furr
TV On The Radio - Dear Science
Ratatat - LP3
Creedence Clearwater Revival - Self Titled Reissue
Brightblack Morning Light - Motion To Rejoin
Happy Hollows - Imaginary EP
Dr. Dog - Fate
Tobacco - Fucked Up Friends
This last year LAist's Molly Bergen not only saw the band perform, but interviewed them as well.
Maeghan Reid
Chung King Project
Maeghan Reid’s solo debut at Chung King Project — one of the strongest in recent memory — revolves around the figure of the drifter, the gypsy, the nomad or the outsider. Solitary silhouettes roam her collages with walking sticks in hand and bags slung over their shoulders. Small groups gather in makeshift camps; buildings loom in vast isolation, on the peaks of hills or surrounded by plains. There is a prevailing sense of both alienation and freedom, exclusion and liberation.
new SMASHING PUMPKINS video
Produced by our good friend Miss Megan Duffy!
G.L.O.W.
KCRW Music Director Jason Bentley's Top 10 Albums of '08
1. M83 - Saturday's = Youth (Mute)
2. Santogold - Santogold (Downtown)
3. Jamie Lidell - Jim (Warp Records)
4. Adele - 19 (XL Recordings/Colombia)
5. Vampire Weekend - Vampire Weekend (XL Recordings)
6. Juana Molina - Un Dia (Domino)
7. Little Dragon - Little Dragon (Peacefrog)
8. The Black Ghosts - The Black Ghosts (IAMSOUND Records)
9. Portishead - Third (Mercury Records)
10. Jazzanova - Of All the Things (Verve)
NEW CHAPTER FROM MORGAN KIBBY!
M83: Back in the USA, big in the Big Apple
Dear Friends and Family,
Just a small note to let you know that I am writing a tour blog for the next three months while I am traveling and playing with M83 throughout Europe and the US. The blog will be hosted by Kevin Bronson who was a senior music writer and editor for the LA Times. I am thrilled and honored that he asked me to do this. Should you have the time and the inclination to check it out, the link is as follows:
BUZZ BANDS
I hope this email finds you all healthy and happy, and hopefully i will see you while I'm on the road.
Lots of love,
Morgan
Barragan's mixes it up for Echo Park hipsters
It's Wednesday night at Barragan's and, as usual, packs of twentysomethings jam into the shoebox-sized bar, the dark-paneled restaurant booths, the upstairs banquet room and rooftop patio. They shout to be heard over the throbbing sounds coming from a D.J. spinning records as weary waitresses and bus boys bring free nachos. But the big draw at this Echo Park Mexican restaurant on Wednesday is not the music or the food. It's the $2.50 margaritas. On a good "Margarita Wednesday" the restaurant pours about 1,500 drinks... (read more after the jump).
Help the Fire Victims
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is encouraging residents and businesses to help support the hundreds of displaced families due to the Sayre Fire by donating to the Red Cross of Greater Los Angeles, the organizations that is acting as the lead agency on shelter management and the current relief effort.
"Overnight, hundreds of families have found themselves homeless and relying on the care of their community," Villaraigosa said. "Just ten days before Thanksgiving, I encourage all Angelenos and businesses to come to their neighbor's aid and pitch in what they can." They are accepting cash donations and in-kind gifts.
Looking to do more? Help the community-at-large in other ways: check out the latest PhiLAnthropist column.
Here's some video I shot of Soko the other night
Industry Insiders: Alexis Rivera, Pied Piper
How did you got your start in Los Angeles, and how did you became such a heavy in Echo Park?
Read the BlackBook article
Echo Park Named One of Top 10 Great Neighborhoods
And when you hear that, you might find yourself asking which Realtor came up with that ranking. Luckily, this time there is some creditability behind the designation: the American Planning Association. They "singled out Echo Park because of its breathtaking topography set in the hills above downtown, historic architecture, pedestrian-oriented streets and stairways, and engaged residents who, over the years, have gone to great lengths to protect and preserve their community," according to an APA release (add: their website has more info and history on why EP was chosen) .... more after you click on the image!
SUBMIT YOUR PICTURES!!!
THE MAE-SHI @ Spaceland
THE MOVIES @ Spaceland
DENGUE FEVER @ Viper Room
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