Lo Còr de la Plana
Grand Performances
California Plaza, Downtown LA
Evening show starts at 8 pm
The all-male French acapella group Lo Còr de la Plana is unlike any other band touring today. The music is sung in a disappearing language called Occitan. The voices are sometimes augmented with hand drums and tambourines with vocal melodies related to Arabic music, Gregorian chants, and percussive call-and-response hintings from Africa. LA Weekly calls Fishtank Ensemble “…the rompin', stompin' leaders of cross-pollinated Gypsy music.” This is a wild experience you’ll never forget.
MICHAEL RUNION
Bootleg Theater
CHIEF 12a
MICHAEL RUNION 11p
MINI MANSIONS 10p
"Michael Runion's career has been dedicated to making the music he believes in - heartfelt songs filled with truth and melody. As a constant figure in the bands that surround the Rilo Kiley collective including Jenny Lewis's solo projects and Sub Pop signed indie power pop four-piece The Elected, he has helped mine a vein of authentic American songwriting playing bass, steel guitar, guitar and supplying vocals. His solo work seeks to display his own unique voice while remaining informed by the music that Michael has continued to surround himself with." - Fred Perry, Subculture
FUTURE OF THE LEFT
JAPANDROIDS
DEAD PONIES
Spaceland
Future of the Left - Listen - Watch
I’d like to humbly ask my peers to stop using “ex-Mclusky” tag with these guys, because with Travels With Myself and Another, they’re done fucking around. Every seemingly strange left turn from their debut, Curses, is stranger, carried further, and more focused and much catchier here. The band still starts and stops on a dime, the vocals are still layered and ambitious even when seething, the song titles still raise a challenging bar for the music to live up to (”Yin/Post -Yin”, “You Need Satan More Than He Needs You”), and the low-end on the guitars still sound like angry bears. Granted, this is how both Mclusky and FOTL built the niche that drew in a loyal, fervent audience, but Travels is the sound of band who still have a lot they want to prove.
With a few striking exceptions, most of the keyboards from the band’s debut have been ditched in favor of searing guitar tones (see “Chin Music” or “Land of My Formers”). Many of the albums’ hooks come from strident, almost militaristic melodies– I doubt that “Arming Eritrea” is too concerned with real geography, but damned if I wouldn’t help fund the revolt now after the record’s screaming, indelible opening track. The woozy march of “The Hope That House Built” is an existentialist call-to-arms, while the mid-tempo chug of “I Am Civil Service” floats up a few melodic, playful bars just to shoot down with its blistering chorus. Straightforward and snarling, these tracks suggest the band still thinks modern rock might be a genre worth infiltrating and upending. – Pitchfork
With:
Japandroids - Listen
Dead Ponies
8:30pm / $12 / 21+
Club Underground presents
ANAVAN
DAZZLER
Echo
Anavan - Listen - Watch
“Equally in debt to their noise-rock contemporaries and mid-80’s synth-electro, Anavan throw pop music into a big noisy blender and deliver the results with a ferocity rarely seen in an electronic music trio. After breaking through with their 2006 debut on GSL, the band’s three-piece synth-punk attack was honed via relentless touring and further exploration of their three-person dynamic. Anchored by Aaron Buckley’s drums, the bass and synth attack of Bret Berg and Molly Williams lock in with a sound that defies their less-is-more lineup.” – CJAM
With: Dazzler
9pm / $8
Deerhoof - Listen - Watch - MP3
And sure enough, within the first three songs Offend Maggie revels in its playful, welcoming nature. Leaping from urgent, almost foreboding intro chords in ‘The Tears’ and ‘Music Of Love’ to the hopscotch melodies of ‘Chandelier Searchlight’ would be a fantastic feat for any other band, but we’ve come to accept this sort of thing as the Deerhoof norm.
How, though, can a band so rhythmically and melodically skewed envelop you so wholly? The answer can be found on the title track where Satomi Matsuzaki’s spindly, delicately fey voice winds its way around touching, finger-picked guitar refrains: it resonates by retaining a punch even when bursts of violence punctuate the music. More than ever, their tenth album continues to place emphasis on this intertwining of chiming vocals and elaborate, delicate musical orienteering.
Deerhoof’s world, then, remains something of a mystery as they end the fourteenth year of their recorded career. It’s still overflowing with all kinds of aural fauna and sonic life; incomparable and often hard to describe. The best way to approach this band is to stop comparing them to the usual reference points – instead, it’s far more rewarding to accept Offend Maggie as a land of its own making, something to be indulged, explored and, finally, cherished. – Drowned in Sound
With:Busdriver - Listen
Avocet
8pm / $12.00 advance, $14 day of show
Free 'NPR Music At Newport' Samplers
To download two free 12-song samplers of music from the artists featured by NPR Music at the folk and jazz festivals in Newport, R.I., this August, click the images or "Download On iTunes" links below, and the songs will automatically begin downloading into your iTunes account. If you do not have an iTunes account, follow these instructions and then return to this page to click the links again.
In the 3D adventure, Sam Flynn (Garrett Hedlund), the tech-savvy 27-year-old son of Kevin Flynn (Jeff Bridges), looks into his father's disappearance and finds himself pulled into the same world of fierce programs and gladiatorial games where his father has been living for 25 years. Along with Kevin's loyal confidant (Olivia Wilde), father and son embark on a life-and-death journey across a visually-stunning cyber universe that has become far more advanced and exceedingly dangerous.
Vaudeville and Wet Cassette Out Today on Itunes!
The day has finally arrived- JAXART in partnership with South Bay label OTIK Records have two awesome full length digital albums out today on Itunes!
Vaudeville's new "Devil's Knocking" LP and the debut from Wet Cassette "From God's Fang" featuring members of The Rolling Blackouts and The Voyeurs!
Head on down to the Itunes Store and pick up a copy!
Vaudeville on Itunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/We
Wet Cassette on Itunes:
http://itunes.apple.com/We
Karen O Creates Supergroup For 'Wild Things' Score; The Dead Weather's Jack Lawrence Joins The List
Alright, so on Friday, we gave you a first listen of Karen O's score to "Where The Wild Things Are" by putting a close ear to a 'WTWTA' featurette that starred director Spike Jonze and author Maurice Sendak talking about the creativity behind the clip, and it obviously featured some of the original music written for the film. The music is "childlike" as she said it would be and quite wonderful actually; everything that we had hoped for.
Some of it was really uptempo too and even Arcade Fire-like which makes sense given the fact that original test-screenings for the film early last year featured a lot of AF music (/Film spotted the AF similarities when they saw footage of 'Wild Things' at Comic-Con this weekend too) - MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Discoveries From The Pitchfork Music Festival
All Songs Considered - Each summer, the Pitchfork Music Festival draws thousands of fans to Chicago to hear three day's worth of performances, by more than 40 bands. It's a mix of some of the best new and largely unknown, independent bands of the year. On this episode of All Songs Considered, host Bob Boilen talks with freelance reporter Jacob Ganz about some of the music Ganz discovered while covering this year's festival, which ended July 19. LISTEN AFTER THE JUMP
Download this show in the All Songs Considered podcast.
ROBBIE FRAN!!!
Online Poll: Jon Stewart Is America's Most Trusted Newsman
Well, in a result that he will probably accept as downright apocalyptic for America, The Daily Show's Jon Stewart has been selected, in an online poll conducted by Time Magazine, as America's Most Trusted Newscaster, post-Cronkite. Matched up against Brian Williams, Katie Couric and Charlie Gibson, Stewart prevailed with 44 percent of the vote. Now, if we're being honest, he probably managed to prevail as the winner precisely because he was the odd man out in a field of network news anchors. - Huffington Post READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP
That there is our good friend Horchata! Tell 'em 'Chata!!!
Cal State trustees approve 20% fee hike, faculty and staff furloughs
As several hundred students shouted "vote no" just outside the door, California State University trustees voted this afternoon to raise student fees by 20% for this fall and furlough all staff, including college presidents, two days a month. - READ THE ARTICLE AFTER THE JUMP
A Folk Rock Dream Team, The Tallest Man On Earth, A Tribute To George Harrison, More...
All Songs Considered, - They call themselves The Monsters Of Folk: Jim James, frontman for the band My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst of Bright Eyes, and singer-guitarist M. Ward have joined together to form a kind of folk-rock dream team. The three have put together a new album of original work, with producer Mike Mogis at the helm. We've got a cut for you this week. Also on the show: Jim James has recorded a solo tribute album to George Harrison, under the name Yim Yames; Swedish singer Kristian Matsson, a.k.a. The Tallest Man On Earth; John Davis, formerly of the band Georgie James, has a new project called Title Tracks; Phil Elverum of The Microphones returns with a new band he's calling Mount Eerie; guitarist Bill Frisell composes new music for a series of rural photographs from the 1920s; and the sprawling, neo-psychedelic group Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros. LISTEN TO ALL THE TRACKS AFTER THE JUMP
hahahahahaha!
Forget the Trash Bag, Bring a Towel
By MELENA RYZIK
The only thing cooler than a pool party on a summer night in New York City is a secret pool party.
And the only thing cooler than that, as a few enterprising developers recently discovered, is a secret pool party in a pool made out of a Dumpster on the banks of the Gowanus Canal in industrial Brooklyn.
On a rented lot that’s hidden from the street they have erected what they call a lo-fi urban country club: three connected pools housed in Dumpsters; a boccie court; some lounge chairs, grills and cabanas. On Saturday night just three dozen people got the nod to check it out, at an afterparty for the art journal Cabinet. “Please don’t forward,” the invitation read. READ THE ARTICLE AFTER THE JUMP
Look what originally linked me to the article (the source link is off of ONTD). I laughed out loud. Hard. People are again avoiding my office. Here it is: Source, with pretty typical video of hipsters swimming in fucking dumpsters.
Oberst, Jim James and M. Ward Form Monsters Of Folk Supergroup
When Jim James, M. Ward, Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis hit the road together in 2004 under the banner “An Evening With: Bright Eyes, Jim James and M. Ward,” insiders referred to the tour as “Monsters of Folk.” The name stuck, and now the quartet have announced an official release under the moniker: their self-titled album is due September 22nd.
The My Morning Jacket, She & Him and Bright Eyes members carved out time in Malibu and Omaha studios and spent two years working sessions into their already packed schedules; Mogis produced the album. The band’s reps promise an LP of road-worn, sun-soaked fables with brilliant choruses and some electronic elements.
Oberst is also the subject of a profile in the new issue of Rolling Stone, in which Conor talks spirituality, Leonard Cohen and retiring the Bright Eyes moniker to hit the road with the Mystic Valley Band. As for Monsters of Folk. check out their free MP3 download here!Sonic Youth In Concert
NPR.org, - After spending nearly 20 years delivering crunchy, underground guitar rock for a major label, Sonic Youth has returned to its indie roots for its 16th studio album, The Eternal. Out now on Matador Records, Sonic Youth's latest effort is among the band's finest, with a fuzzy, tightly orchestrated mix of psych-punk rock and noisy jams. The band showcased the album in a full concert, recorded live from Washington, D.C.'s 9:30 Club July 7. - LISTEN TO THE SHOW AFTER THE JUMP
The following read is whole heartedly dedicated to Mat Ward!
Does The Music You Listen To Reflect Your Intelligence?
By Carrie Brownstein
Have you heard of or read the book Spent, by evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller? In it, Miller posits that "each of us is born with our own individual level of six big traits: intelligence, openness to new things, conscientiousness, agreeability, emotional stability and extroversion. These modules are built into humans and other animals (apparently squid can be shy)..."
According to Miller, "Driving an Acura, Infiniti, Subaru or Volkswagen is a sign of high intelligence. Driving a Cadillac, Chrysler, Ford or Hummer is a sign of low intelligence. Listening to Bjork is a sign of high intelligence, while listening to Lynyrd Skynyrd is a sign of low intelligence."
Naturally, it was that last tidbit that caught my eye.
Sure, most of us are music snobs, whether we want to admit it or not. And we are guilty of making snap judgments based on a Phish or Korn bumper sticker, an Evanescence or Fall Out Boy T-shirt, or, even worse, someone's glaring lack of musical knowledge (as in, "You've never heard of Black Flag?!"). But do we really think that country or Southern music fans are dumb, and that listeners of wackadoo Scandinavian music are smart? That seems like a stretch. - READ MORE AFTER THE JUMP
I was listening to this story over the weekend, really great perspective on the man's style and the times. Then, I looked up the page and found some additional footage that's a great compliment to the profile...
Johnny Cash's 'Big River'
By Mark O'Connor
Johnny Cash was a boyhood hero of mine. When I was 9 and 10 years old I would spend hours singing his songs and imitating the way he played the guitar. I even enlisted my mother to help me transcribe all the lyrics off of his albums. He sang about prisons, trains, about love lost and love found. One of my favorite songs of his is "Big River."
The rhythmic phrasing and vocal performance by Cash in "Big River" is remarkable; its energy and drive replaces any need for drums or percussion. Cash's own guitar strumming riff was quite memorable as well. He strummed up the neck with a dynamic crescendo. - LISTEN AFTER THE JUMP
La Santa Cecilia is a Los Angles based Latin group with a distinctly unique sound. Using traditional instruments in a non-traditional way, the band is able to create a sound that extends beyond the boundaries of the Latin genre. Each band member infuses his and her own musical influences into the group, making the music fun, danceable and romantic.
Proposal Seeks to have Sunset Junction Festival Free for 3 Zip Codes
From LAist:
Unless Sunset Junction Festival organizers address local resident concerns and businesses, the festival is unlikely to be permitted by the city. So far, the Silver Lake Neighborhood Council, who represents the area at a grassroots neighborhood level, has voted against the festival in its entirety. For their meeting tomorrow, the agenda (.pdf) lists has a motion for consideration that seeks to alleviate some of those concerns:
The SLNC has voted against the Sunset Junction Street Festival in its present form. This was done on behalf of the Silver Lake residents and businesses that endure hardships & extreme distress regarding parking, traffic, poor safety control and financial demands. I, Patricia McGrath therefore move that the SLNC ask that the following conditions be applied for 2009, if this festival is to be held this year: (1) All Silver Lake residents and their families in zip codes 90039, 90029 and 90026 be allowed entry for free; and (2) Separate beer gardens be designated for alcohol, so attending individuals and families can find and walk in alcohol-free environs.
Safe to say, that's a lot of people. Even if passed, it doesn't mean it becomes law, nor does it mean festival organizers have to make it so. Neighborhood Councils are only advisory to the City Council. But Councilmember Eric Garcetti has made it clear that the neighborhood council is playing an important and strong role in this case. - MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Diane Birch
In Concert
WXPN - Singer, songwriter and pianist Diane Birch sounds like a seasoned veteran, due in no small part to her extensive world travels as a child. But she's only just released her first album, Bible Belt, which skillfully blends soul, rock, jazz and pop. Hear Birch perform live in concert from WXPN and World Cafe Live in Philadelphia. LISTEN AFTER THE JUMP
Dirty Projectors: Balancing Head And Heart
By Will Hermes
It's been around 30 years — since the CBGB's era — since New York City has had a really vital rock scene. But they've sure got one now. Albums by Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear have already been flagged as two of this year's best. And I think another adventurous young band with Brooklyn roots, Dirty Projectors, has made a third.
An experimental rock group with a shifting lineup, led by recent Yale graduate David Longstreth, Dirty Projectors can be playfully high-concept; the band has made a song cycle whose storyline somehow involves Eagles singer Don Henley and a highly abstracted remake of the LP Rise Above by the '80s punk rockers in Black Flag. But Bitte Orca — the band's latest release, so named because Dirty Projectors liked the sound of it — is more straightforward. It focuses on the mixed male and female voices of the band members. While parts are influenced by modern R&B, the arrangements are far different. The single "Stillness Is the Move," for example, strikes me as a bit like Destiny's Child teaming up with Talking Heads.
Theresa Andersson
One-Woman Wall Of Sound
By Rita Houston
Theresa Andersson is a one-woman band, and this was never more apparent than when she strolled into the WFUV studios with no band members, but two engineers — most solo artists don't travel with any. When I booked the interview back in the early part of this year, it was because I had seen her on YouTube where she had recorded a live version of her song "Na, Na, Na" in her kitchen. The video went viral and her kitchen became famous.
Andersson's new album, Hummingbird, Go! seemed to go back to the "wall of sound" era with a full band and all the trimmings, and yet here she was by herself, surrounded by drums, tons of floor pedals, slide steel guitar and a guitar on her back, and playing them all while singing. I thought I was good at multi-tasking, but this was a whole other level. - MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Taco Trucks: 2, Government: 0
The County tried to regulate the time a taco trucks could operate in one place and lost. On Friday, a similar, but lesser known Los Angeles city ordinance from 2006 was struck down by a judge. - MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Directors dig into Beat era
New films tackle Ginsberg, Kerouac, Burroughs
By STEVE CHAGOLLAN
If a handful of filmmakers get their way, they'll soon convince audiences the real Birth of the Cool predated punk music, the Summer of Love or even Elvis. Yes, the Beats are making a comeback in a spate of movies that summon the spirits of Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.
These writers and other key figures of the Beat Generation play prominent roles in three upcoming movies: "Howl," a narrative film from documentarians Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman ("The Times of Harvey Milk"); "Kill Your Darlings" from Christine Vachon's Killer Films; and what could turn out to be the ultimate road movie: the long-awaited adaptation of Kerouac's "On the Road," by Walter Salles and Jose Rivera, the director and screenwriter behind "The Motorcycle Diaries." - MORE AFTER THE JUMP
Grizzly Bear
An In-Studio Performance
Recorded Live At WNYC
The Brooklyn band Grizzly Bear releases one of the year's most hotly anticipated albums next week, but fans can hear some of its songs sooner than that: On Thursday, May 21, the group performed a special acoustic set, including material from Veckatimest, when it opened WNYC's American Music Festival with a live in-studio broadcast and webcast. Grizzly Bear performed new songs in the studio, with host David Garland welcoming the band and asking its members about their new music. LISTEN TO THE SET AFTER THE JUMP.
Exclusive Listen: Danger Mouse And Sparklehorse Team Up With David Lynch
Hear The Year's Most Mysterious Album In Its Entirety, Weeks Before Its Release
When the first cryptic bits of news about Dark Night of the Soul began trickling in earlier this year, it all sounded too good to be true. Though the whole project was shrouded in mystery, it appeared that Danger Mouse and Sparklehorse's Mark Linkous, two of the most inspired artists making music today, were collaborating on a new album. That alone was enough to get our geek gears spinning with excitement. But there was an unusual twist that few of us at NPR Music could make sense of: Director David Lynch was somehow involved. MORE AFTER THE JUMP
A Song That Gives You Chills, Dinosaur Jr., Black Moth Super Rainbow, More
All Songs Considered - Has there ever been a song that gives you chills down your spine every time you hear it? For Bob Boilen, it's "Who Knows Where the Time Goes?" written by Sandy Denny and performed by Fairport Convention. You can hear it on this edition of All Songs Considered and tell us the song that gives you chills — no matter what — on the blog. Also on the program: the sharp guitar playing of Sarah Siskind, adventures in sound with Black Moth Super Rainbow, the 12-string guitar explorations of James Blackshaw, the heavy emotions of Dinosaur Jr. and the electronic pop music of Passion Pit.
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.
Here's some video of on of Soko's few L.A. performances:
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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