This is a really good week for very strong shows. The biggest of which is, for me, An Evening with Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaimanon Monday, performing a free-form concert experience at Wilshire Ebell Theatre that appears will be a mostly unscripted review-style offering of songs from Palmer and spoken word musings from author Neil Gaiman. This is how I get to spend Halloween night.
The Monolators, now a three-piece, have a show on Tuesday at The Echo where they open for Shonen Knife. I have my own show on Saturday night highlighting two bands that have some of the nicest members I know (among so many!) Both Downtown/UnionandTorches have been on my list of favorite local bands for some time now so I'm thrilled to have them co-headlining my Feed Your Head night at Lot 1. When you throw in Aaron Kyle's Geronimo Gettyand Steve Sigl's Schoenberg Knife Fight Ensemble it ends up being more like an evening with friends.
Text by Kathryn Pinto Photos by Kathryn Pinto and Jennifer Pinto
I’m back from CMJ and just beginning to recover from four days of music in New York followed by another three regular nights of music in LA. The CMJ Music Marathon began in the early 1980’s as an opportunity for college radio geeks to get together in New York City to meet college radio geeks from other places and run amok in the city, go see an whole bunch of bands and drink too much. In 2011 “Left of the Dial” has been replaced by an IP address, bloggers have taken on the role once held only by college radio music directors, the cramped apartments where out-of-towners crash are found in Williamsburg not Alphabet City, but little else has changed. A plague of geeks, drunks and music freaks descends on the couches and streets of New York to see as many of the 1200+ bands as humanly possible. Here is how one writer did it, and some of the most notable bands I saw.
Seeing new bands is the whole point of CMJ, but you can’t really go wrong with scheduling in a couple of bands you love, especially if you haven’t had a chance to see them play live more than once or twice. Hey Marseilles, the Seattle orchestral pop band, just finished recording their second album, mixed by Tucker Martine. The band played a midnight set at the Bowery Ballroom straight off the plane from Seattle (well, with a bit of a detour to the “ball store” to buy a trailer hitch), one of the strongest, tightest sets I saw at CMJ. When the seven-piece band--strings, accordion and horn in the mix with shades of gypsy music in the spirit of Devotchka and Beirut--played it was as if they had been touring together for a month or more, rather than mixing and completing their second album in the studio for months. The set was about half songs from their debut album To Travels and Trunks, and at least half new songs. The band concluded the set with “Rio,” a great end to an evening and a long day. The band simply exudes excellent musicianship, which is refreshing in a sea of garage rock.
We here at RFSL are unabashed fans of both LA indie rock act The Happy Hollows and lead singer Sarah Negahdari's solo work Pisces. The Hollows have recent gone through a number of changes, but started playing out and recording again, and Sarah has likewise been recording for Piscesand playing shows as well.
Here's a promo for the show, a new video for the song "Voodoo," and an interview with Sarah about the latest for The Happy Hollows and Pisces.
Welcome back! Where have The Happy Hollows been? What's new? Who is your new drummer?
Thanks, Joe! It has been a solid year of writing, recording, and then more writing for both Happy Hollows and my solo project. I can't even tell you how good it feels to be performing again!
We had to take a break from live shows in early 2011 because our drummer, Chris, suddenly had to leave the band, and it took quite a few months to find the right guy to replace him. In the process of finding our new drummer we began creating our next album. I started writing all of the songs on drums, actually, and Charlie moved to synths. We wrote for a few months like this, experimenting with different sounds and different ways to write songs.
Hey kids! If you're looking a high-quality time this Halloween weekend at a low cost and for a worthy cause, swing by Pehrspace for a special all-ages show this Saturday night featuring sets by CAMal, Vanish Valley (with Andrew McAllister as the frontman of the band, who is a former Phil Ek and Tucker Martine collaborator), and Sanglorians. There will be DJ sets throughout the night by Tom Child of LA Record.
This show is part of theArroyo Time Bank's Time Bank Arts Initiative, where fun, live events are made more accessible to the public, benefitting both local artists and musicians as well as supporters. The cost for the show is $5 or 1 Time Dollar at any participating Time Bank in the area . What is a Time Dollar you ask? As Time Banks are communities defined by regions and operate within a bartering system, a Time Dollar is equivalent to an hour of service. And in these lean times, it is a great alternative for those with useful skills and time at their disposal, but little money.
In addition, those volunteering at Pehrspace at this Saturday's show will be earning Time Dollars (one hour of work = 1 Time Dollar) that they can then use to exchange for services around the community such as car repair, child care, yoga classes, and art classes at the Armory Center for the Arts. So any way you look at it, it's a win-win situation.
Doors at 8:30 pm | all ages Pehrspace 325 Glendale Blvd. Los Angeles CA 90026
1) bikos is, in my opinion, one of the local bands most underappreciated, despite a tremendous talent, somewhat unconventional but still catchy songwriting, and live charisma. "That is Mine", the new vieo from their soon to be released record Make Your Sound Sound (release date 11/8) shows off some of what make bikos so noteworthy. The video consists of some mesmerizing live action painting to accompany the track. Come to their release party at the Silver Lake Lounge on November 10. Despite the cash bar, it will be totally worth it. Also check out their new website. And their in-store at Origami records on November 20.
Text by Kathryn Pinto Photos by Kathryn Pinto and Jennifer Pinto
So there we were, Radio Free Silver Lake in New York City, at the CMJ Music Marathon. Here in Silver Lake and Echo Park we listen to a lot of music and we see a lot of live shows. On this site we cover bands that impress us, the ones we want our readers to see and hear. We’re not music snobs and we’re not out to trash a band that has a lackluster album or a lousy show, but at our best we try to find challenging, new or unexpected music and not just present easy picks. Our hope for CMJ was to delve into the madness of a big festival to get some perspective on the music scene outside of Silver Lake. Here are some highlights. Full coverage of the Marathon continues Thursday.
Wednesday
Best: Hey Marseilles as a live act and as people, Improvised interview locations, reunions at the We Listen For You Party, Finally hearing a compelling argument for the cassette renaissance from band Radiation City
Worst: Rain, the transfer from the L train to the F/M at Union Square
Shows seen: Nerves Junior, The Pass, Arms at Pianos; Lord Huron, Hey Marseilles at the Bowery Ballroom
One of the week's highlights is the show Radio Free Silver Lake is putting on for the Escalator Hill residency on Tuesday at The Central which also features RFSL favorites, Radar To The Sky, and a once-in-a-lifetime reunion of You Me & Iowa. This is well worth a trip over to Santa Monica, though, If it weren't on the same night, I would attend the big BuzzbandsLA Third Anniversary bash at The Echo with the superb line up of Everest, Hands and Death To Anders. Damn that Kevin Bronson...and congratulations! This is one concert-heavy Tuesday night.
And Halloween takes over next weekend as it becomes a four day festival, right through next Tuesday. Just look at the listings for Friday and Saturday...
LA's indie pop act The Bentleys are the kind of band you want to book for shows: They have a host of great tracks, they're fun to see live, and deserve to get much more attention.
They recently came out of a self-imposed sabatical to release a four-song EP (which you can stream below) and begin playing out again and have a show tonight at Club Underground (which you should check out).
We spoke recently with frontman Dennis Bentley and guitarist/vocalist Ron Suazo about their return.
How you guys been? You've been off the radar for awhile. What have you been working on?
Dennis Bentley: Trying to balance the necessities of life with our motivation of being creative. You know, all that 'growing up' stuff.
Ron Suazo: For a couple years now we've simply gone through a lot of growing up, which includes getting grown up jobs and in one band member's case, getting married. It all pushed us away from being a band for a while. We still got out there and played a few shows here and there but it wasn't anything serious. In the meantime, there was still loads of songwriting and recording that took place. Part of our hiatus was spent going between finishing the new EP and starting up on a huge batch of songs with Dennis (guitar/vocals/keys) who was studying at the School of Audio Engineering (SAE). We're still working through a stash of songs in hopes of putting them out next year.
Congrats on the recent release of the EP. The tracks seem a little more in the direction of upbeat garage number "Ghosts Like Us," which is my favorite song from you. What direction are you guys pushing for with the new material?
DB: I don't know if we directly push in a direction other than making a great song we would otherwise listen to if another band wrote it. That's always been kind of the goal. Although given the chance we would love to able to lay down a sonically rich record and then go straight to a Guided By Voices lo-fi kind of thing.
RS: Songwriting is such an organic, natural process for us. We never pre-emptively decide to go into a certain direction. We only realize where we should go as its happening. At the time we were writing the songs for EP I had been listening to My Bloody Valentine, Superdrag's "A Head Trip In Every Key," Deerhunter's "Microcastle," and the Beatles, whose friend Alex Madras was the inspiration for our song "Magic Alex." It's funny, I don't think anything on the record sounds like a garage rock song. If so, that's cool.
The songs on the EP also remind me a bit of Detroit garage band The Dirtbombs. Are they an influence? Who are your influences?
RS: I can't say I've ever listened to the Dirtbombs. I've only heard of them and that they rock. I'm going to have to go on Spotify and check them out. (How's that for free publicity?) Wow I'm listening to them now and asking myself why I never took the time to listen to them. This is awesome. Thank you! Anyway...I think we're influenced by so many things all at once. I can say that we're endlessly influenced by the things we've always loved. They include 60s bands, 90s bands like Guided By Voices, and the anthemic quality of albums like Radiohead's "The Bends."
While I was off in Iceland living off hot dogs, sheep's head, licorice candy, and very expensive beer (and seeing Björk perform her new Biophilia album live!), Young Hunting's Ilya was kind enough to compose, curate, organize, and served up this week's Video Free Silver Lake. Enjoy the column and check out his band!
By Ilya
Hi, my name's Ilya and I play guitar and sing in LA's Young Hunting. Last month, Jed was kind enough to feature our video for "Ride On" on VFSL. He also asked me to write a guest video post, a request that I was flattered by until I realized that he just doesn't want to blog while he's on vacation in Iceland! I'm onto you, Jed!
1. The Cure "Friday I'm In Love": I could watch ten Cure videos in a row right now, no problem. This video makes being in a band look like so much FUN! Why so serious all the time, other bands?
Every October a zillion bands, or more accurately something like 2000; mostly young unsigned bands descend on New York City to play the CMJ (College Music Journal) Music Marathon. Marathon is probably a better word than festival or conference to describe what happens this week from October 18-22, although there are badges, expert panels and official showcases. Bands play marquee events as well as unofficial shows, parties and happenings. Writers, fans and industry people join in the melee to discover new acts, meet with other music obsessive, and to take the temperature of a loose amalgam of genres once known as college rock. Radio Free Silver Lake will be on the scene for a firsthand look and listen with an eye out to catch bands that haven’t yet toured the West Coast and to go support Silver Lake and Los Angeles bands playing in the Marathon. With that in mind we bring you our CMJ Music Marathon: LA bands playing CMJ and bands we’re excited to see for the first time. (For show locations and times check the CMJ Schedule or the band's web site.)
Silver Lake and Los Angeles Bands
The Californian The Californian, fronted by John Graney, is a modern surf rock band. Graney and the rest of the band members including members of the Break-ups and the Henry Clay People are musicians’ musicians. The surf sound is a framework, an invitation, an understandable way in to superb songwriting and musicianship. This band is terrific as a full band, stripped down acoustic; even their sound checks are better than three quarters of the sets I see. Graney will be playing the CMJ shows as a solo set. Not to be missed. (Friday Spike Hill, Brooklyn)
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