Hey! It's our friend Ashley!
Meet Ashley Jex: Founder of JAXART Records
If Wonder Woman had hung up her cape and chosen to give up her life of fighting crime and instead wanted to get into the local music scene, she may have asked some pointers from Ashley Jex. At the tender age of twenty five, Jex has created a local music empire. Not only has she launched a very influential record label, JAXART out of her living room, she still makes time for her music blog,Rock Insider, and her band The Monolators, and somehow her day job. She can do it all. LAist caught up with Jex in her industrial epicenter (aka living room) to ask her how the heck she manages to stay awake. Here is some of what was said...MORE AFTER THE JUMP
MEAT PUPPETS
Amoeba Records @ 7 pm
It's been a long, strange trip for Arizona trio Meat Puppets, who are finally back together and creatively thriving after a decade of false starts and tragedies, such as the incarceration of bassist Cris Kirkwood, who was imprisoned for a couple of years and seriously wounded after being shot twice by a security guard in a bizarre incident outside a Phoenix post office in 2003. He's apparently since recovered from various drug addictions and rejoined his singer-guitarist/brother Curt Kirkwood and new drummer Ted Marcus on the Puppets' 2007 comeback album, Rise to Your Knees (Anodyne). The band are now on a new label, Megaforce, for the release of their latest CD, Sewn Together, which is a wonderfully satisfying work that evokes classic mid-'80s era albums like Up on the Sun. As ever, Curt sings with a laconic drawl, even as his guitar bubbles over with madly psychedelic riffs on tracks like "Love Mountain." The Puppets ramble through bleary-eyed country numbers like "Smoke" and stretch out into stranger territory on the elegantly trippy piano ballad "Clone," where Curt ruminates about scientists "cutting up the molecules of gold" to create "the perfect sheep" who "can fly a fancy plane." Somehow, it all does get sewn together in a mix of styles that's both head-spinning and earthily rocking. - Falling James, LA Weekly
GOLDEN ANIMALS 12a
IMAAD WASIF 11p
AMANDA JO WILLIAMS and MATT ONEILL 9p
ARIZONA 10p
GOLDEN ANIMALS
"Golden Animals mine that particular epoch of mild psych and blues rock-- especially the middle part, when 60s idealism gave way to the dope-daze haze of the 70s" Pitchfork
"Their ragged eclecticism is a winning one, taking detours into slide country, beat up folk and starry desert ballads" Uncut
"Here is some bad haiku in regards to the new Golden Animals LP Free Your Mind….Like Jim Morrison
Bareback in the desert sky
Delaney Bonnie"
- Aquarium Drunkard
Matt Gangi has this precious, high-pitched voice, one that adds a delicate, if off-kilter, layer of sound to his band Gangi's songs. Not that there aren't a lot of layers to begin with. Gangi creates bedroom electronic rock music, if that makes any sense, filled with samples and rhythms and stops 'n' starts galore, but unlike a lot of preciously antiseptic music, Gangi's has a layer of dirt over the surface that gives it an analog warmth, employs loads of echo to give the sensation of a warehouse space or an underground, features distorted electronic guitars strumming along with cymbal-heavy percussion. It's a strong, constantly surprising sound that the band perfectly captures on A, its recent album. - Randall Roberts, LA Weekly
Welcome to Matt Gangi’s extremely stylized yet vaguely recognizable world. Gangi’s debut, A, acquires strength from not only the exemplary songwriting, but the vast array of musical personalities that the band displays. In a span of minutes, they could turn from Neil Young to Jethro Tull. And to that end, Gangi certainly shows signs of musical schizophrenia—juxtaposing various elements that shouldn’t mesh, and yet somehow they do. But, ultimately, what great artist doesn’t suffer from some sort of acute sensitivity to their surroundings?
Whether it be a consequence of listening to too much Young (pre-Harvest days) or not, Gangi’s high-pitched crooning effectively captures his signature nasal tenor. A’s opening track “Commonplace Feathers” definitively delineates the distinctive inner workings of the aforementioned folk-rock wizard. Even the ragged claw-hammer style of acoustic guitar, which often makes its way to the foreground, is worthy of comparison. - LAist
With:
Saint Motel
Free Moral Agents
Crooked Cowboy
8:30pm / FREE / 21+
Lately I’ve been so knocked out hearing these great and gorgeous pop tunes created and performed by the lovely Juliette Commagère. You might know her as the Keytar-slinging, charismatic front woman for the adventurous indie-rock band Hello Stranger, which she formed with drummer Joaquin Cooder; or you might have heard her singing and playing on recent endeavors by Avenged Sevenfold and Puscifer. That varied batch of interests hints as to the unclichéd gifts of the multitalented Commagère, which are given a fuller flowering on her new solo album, Queens Die Proudly (Aeronaut Records). A vividly orchestrated pop-art project veering from the wistful and elegiac to the epic and otherwordly, Queens is like a No. 1 chart-topper from another dimension, where remarkably memorable songs are given evocative musical twists via her classically designed song structures and sensual ’70s synth stylings. On her recent cross-country residency stints, Commagère has assembled local orchestras (via Craigslist!) of strings and horns, which brings a radiant gleam to her superb material. - LA Weekly
With:
Grizzly Owls || Listen
Paige Stark
8:30pm / FREE / 21+
Ben Harper Explores Rock With Relentless7
World Cafe, May 8, 2009 - Over the past decade and a half, Ben Harper has grown from college-radio mainstay to world-renowned headliner for his blend of folk, rock and blues. His new incarnation with Relentless7 is a project 10 years in the making, starting back when Harper first became a friend of guitarist Jason Mozersky.
Relentless7 isn't just another one of Ben Harper's side projects. Instead, the band replaces Harper's past sound with stripped-down rock, which it plays in a session with World Cafe host David Dye. Relentless7's debut album, White Lies for Dark Times, weaves Harper's soulful singing together with energetic drums and cascading electric guitars.
Hear The Full Ben Harper & The Relentless7 SessionASI and EL ECHO PARQUEÑO present:
URB magazine interviews DRAKE for their 15 annual next 100 issue:
" yes he was wheelchair jimmy on canada's saved by the bell-ish melodrama"
Read the article HERE
The video of the first single from NYLON Records' Plastiscines
It's just so, so, NYLON Records-y...
Ida Maria:
Neurosis Meets Sass In 'Naked'
By Christian Hoard
NPR.org, May 6, 2009 - Long before the U.S. release of Fortress Round My Heart, Ida Maria Sivertsen was an indie-rock It Girl overseas and on music blogs here. By the end of 2009, "I Like You So Much Better When You're Naked" may well be overexposed. But until then, it's best to enjoy it as a likable slab of garage-pop that's both confessional and bloody-good fun — a song where the singer wears her heart on her sleeve, but prefers to wear nothing at all. MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Exclusive First Listen:
Grandaddy's Jason Lytle
Hear His Entire Solo Debut Two Weeks Before Its Official Release
Few songwriters possess Jason Lytle's gift for telling stories. In a 15-year run as the frontman and creative force behind the Modesto, Calif., rock band Grandaddy, Lytle penned an inspired catalog of neo-psychedelic pop songs, with gut-punch tales of destitute drunks, failed suburban dreams and at least one robot that died from a broken heart. They're songs that unfold with the plainspoken elegance of a Raymond Carver short story, striking a curious and utterly affecting balance between the cosmic and the comic...more after you click on the image above.
Sonic Youth Sneak Preview,
The Year's Best Jazz Record (So Far), More
The New York-based group Sonic Youth has been making some of the most inspired and influential rock music of the past quarter century. The band is about to release its 16th studio album and its first for the Matador record label. The Eternal won't be out until June 9, but you can hear an early cut on this edition of All Songs Considered. Also on the program: Pakistan-born singer Natasha Khan and her Bat For Lashes project; music from the grasslands of China and Mamer; French singer Marianne Dissard; Ethiopian jazz legend Mulatu Astatke and the Londo-based jazz group Heliocentrics; and the Atlanta-based rock group Manchester Orchestra. Listen to the entire story! Just click on the image above!
Download this show in the All Songs Considered podcast.
Cool Kid's Gone Fishing mixtape is finally finished. Free download after the jump. The artist themselves are the ones who are giving out the mixtape download for free!
download here
From one my favorites, ROCK INSIDER:
Los Angeles by way of Oregon psychedelic pop outfit The Parson Red Heads have something to celebrate! Their new EP “Orangufang” is available on Rock Insider's very own little vinyl label JAXART Records!! Be sure to download to "Raymond" from the release above and order the 7 inch now to get the exclusive digital EP with two more amazing tracks.
The record is also available at Origami Vinyl in Echo Park. Read a great article about Origami Vinyl in the LA Times. It was featured on the front page of the paper! [READ MORE]
Exclusive First Listen:
Conor Oberst And The Mystic Valley Band's
'Outer South'
NPR.org - When Conor Oberst hit the road last year in support of his eponymous solo debut, he took with him a group of close, longtime friends he dubbed The Mystic Valley Band. The group of half a dozen musicians had helped Oberst record his country-flavored album in Tepoztlan, Mexico's Valle Mistico in early 2008. While on tour, Oberst and members of the band continued to write and share songs with one another, eager to capture the energy of their live performances. By the end of 2008, Oberst and The Mystic Valley Band had enough material for a second album, and entered a studio in Tornillo, Texas, to lay down 16 new tracks. The album they came up with, Outer South, won't be released until May 5, but you can hear it in its entirety on NPR Music as an Exclusive First Listen. CLICK ON THE IMAGE ABOVE.
the new must see...
Anvil: The Story of Anvil
meet the charm known as WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS
Watercolor Paintings - Telephone Wires from If You Make It on Vimeo.
some more really fun kids we met a few days ago...they go by name PANGEA
DENGUE FEVER
Sleepwalking Through the Mekong follows Los Angeles based band Dengue Fever on their recent journey to Cambodia to perform 60s and 70s Cambodian rock n' roll in the country where it was created and very nearly destroyed. The odyssey is a homecoming for singer Chhom Nimol and a transformation for the rest of the band as they perform with master musicians and record new songs along the way.
yeah, as many of you know from seeing them live, they're really THAT good! check out this footage from their current tour.
COMPETITION IS NOW OPEN!
The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council is a grassroots-level advisory committee set-up by a 1999 revision to the City of Los Angeles Charter that created the Neighborhood Council system. We represent our community on issues ranging from affordable housing and sustainability to arts, land use, education, and public safety.
Our 28-member volunteer Board of Directors represents residents, business owners, public and private sector employees, the homeless, social service providers, artists, and educators across Downtown and is elected by stakeholders every two years. Past successes include ArtWalk and other community events such as Park[ing] Day LA, Project Homeless Connect, community mixers and advocacy on many community issues.
The Downtown Los Angeles Neighborhood Council logo competition is now open through May 12, 2009 and we're looking to redefine our image to reflect the qualities of Downtown and the neighborhood we so proudly represent.
How to Enter: Enter up to three submissions and help us define our organization by emailing your submission to logo@dlanc.com. If you have any questions, please email us at logo@dlanc.com All entries will be on display for public viewing at the May 14, 2009 ArtWalk! MORE INFO AFTER THE JUMP
Silver Lake Neighborhood Council Says Sunset Junction Needs an Overhaul
[...]Ultimately, the Board voted unanimously in favor of a motion stating that it will "oppose the Sunset Junction Street Festival in its current format." What this means for the future of the popular festival is still unknown... LAWeekly.com
Relocation, fee changes, cancellation? Speculate wildly!
Here's some video of Soko's last and only known L.A. performance:
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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