Radio Free Silver Lake

SXSW 2012 Road Report: Seasons, The Lonely Wild

By Kathryn Pinto

RFSL Brad and I had been talking about South By Southwest all year, scheming about booking showcases, plotting our caravan out to Austin. But in the end with the numbers on the board, it just wasn’t to be. Then at the eleventh hour Manhattan Murder Mystery asked us to present a showcase of LA bands at District 301, including The Henry Clay People, Seasons, Torches, Judson McKinney and  Salt Petal. Even without your intrepid writers in Texas, the first Radio Free Silver Lake SXSW show was born. At the same time some really good people from the Eastside music community stepped up to help us out with tour reports, photos and all manner of assistance. Here are some photos from Austin and reports from the road. As bands return from tour we will continue to update you with their tour diaries.

John Seasons (of Seasons):
“Our Trip in Austin was amazing. We played nine shows in five days and made new friends and fans, we stayed with an amazing journalist called Duggan Flanakin where like four other bands were staying, partied by the river in front of house every night, ate free bbq and beer everyday, it was amazing. To any band who has ever wondered if SXSW is worth your time, money, and effort the answer is yes!! It will be a experience you will never forget, SEASONS will be forever grateful to the people of Austin for taking us in as one of their own and promise to return every year!” (More photos after the jump.)

The Lonely Wild played so often that they posted a map that so fans could find every show, drunk or sober. One stop was the Tofu BBQ Blowout where Rich Russell of Texas band The Lonesome Heroes (who are playing Los Angeles in May) captured these photos. (Photos of The Lonely Wild by Rich Russell)

SXSW 2012 Tour Diary: (Azad from) Torches

By Azad Cheikosman of Torches

As if touring isn't crazy enough, we managed to fit all of our gear (lots of pedals 'n shit) and ourselves into a goddamn PT Cruiser. We could have toured in our big Chevy Club Wagon, but this time it boiled down to funds. Our ride was pretty smooth besides getting our car searched at Border Patrol in El Paso. The dog was freaking the fuck out and luckily Bridgette was able to hide her greens. By some strange cosmic coincidence we happened to be driving on the same stretch of highway as Voxhaul Broadcast in the middle of nowhere Arizona. Bridgette's dad shamed us for not mooning them.

Here in Austin we've seen loads of streets performers, weirdoes, and beautiful people. It's hard to catch everything because there's so much going on at once. There isn't enough time to see or hear everything, but it's fun to be able to choose and catch as many live sets as possible in a day. As for LA bands we've seen NO, The Henry Clay People, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Seasons and more. We also caught Stepkids, Erykah Badu, Trash Talk, Built to Spill. We were pretty bummed about missing Deerhoof, but there will be another time.

Show Spotlight: Radio Free Silver Lake Sunday Slog Showcase at SXSW

By Kathryn Pinto

The Radio Free Silver Lake Sunday Slog Showcase is an exercise in sheer endurance. After a week of free booze and all night shows, who will still be standing, ready to start a tour? We've got the most shit-together professional band (The Lonely Wild), the rawest hard living band (Manhattan Murder Mystery), the most fun, most heart all-weather band The Henry Clay People), Seasons--orbiting the earth in a class all their own--and a bunch of kids we just love to pieces (Torches, Judson McKinney, Salt Petal) and they're going to play you out of Austin this Sunday at District 301 on Sixth Street.

Even at the biggest, craziest festival of the year, RFSL is about music and not hype. Our friends over at Nonstop Sound once coined the term blogegomania, defined as "an over-confident rock 'n' roll mentality built out of blogspeak rather than the slog of the tour." We like that word SLOG (the guy's got a good ear) because it's the dirty, rough, mean tired that makes the songs light, that grabs you in the gut, that reasonates with the raw places in your own heart. This show is all about things worth getting out of bed for,  bands that will make you soul feel alive.

The Radio Free Silver Lake Sunday Slog Showcase featuring The Henry Clay People, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Seasons, Torches, Judson McKinney, The Lonely Wild and Salt Petall goes down Sunday March 18 1:00-6:30PM at District 301, 301 W 6th Street, Austin, TX, free show.

[Updated Corrected 3/16/12 4:15pm In an earlier version of this story the name of the band Salt Petal was incorrectly stated as Soft Pedal.]

MANHATTAN MURDER MYSTERY "TRAILER TRASH" from Gorillacoustic.com on Vimeo.

Show Spotlight: Killer Tofu at SXSW with Auditorium, Hands, Guards, Field Mouse and more

By Kathryn Pinto

We're still swooning from Auditorium's heart-stealing show at last week at the Bootleg. If you are in Austin today and you get out EARLY, like NOON you can see them play one of their few SXSW shows at the Killer Tofu party presented by I Guess I'm Floating, Small Plates & Ultra8201. It's a free show that also includes LA's own excellent HANDS as well as Field Mouse, Guards, and more. See set times below and get there early for the free beer while it lasts. The show goes down at Lovejoys 604 Neches Street, Austin, TX 78701, from 12 noon-7pm, 21+, free show.

12:00 – Politics
12:45 – Auditorium
1:30 – Hundred Waters
2:15 – Guards
3:00 – Cadence Weapon
3:45 – Hands
5:15 – Field Mouse
6:00 – Beat Connection
6:45 – Supreme Cuts

Auditorium

Hands

Guards

Field Mouse

SXSW 2012 Low Down: Bands to See from LA and Afar

By Kathryn Pinto

This week bands, writers, industry people and people who make serious money on things that have nothing to do with music come to Austin for South by Southwest (SXSW), a music conference and festival whose very name is a registered trademark. With Bruce Springsteen as a keynote speaker and playing a “secret show” it’s hard to make the case that (SXSW) is a showcase for emerging artists, and that’s been true for a while now. It’s too big, too crazy, too much of a thing. It’s like your high school prom. It’s so hyped that it couldn’t possibly deliver. You’re going to spend too much money, you’re not going to sleep and someone’s going to get laid--but it’s not going to be you. But the only kids not going are the ones staying home to play D&D. So there you have it. You're there. Did we mention so are we? Radio Free Silver Lake's Showcase at District 301 - (301 W 6th St., Austin, TX) with Manhattan Murder Mystery, Henry Clay People, Seasons, The Lonely Wild Torches and more.

What should you see? With more than 2000 official showcase acts, who the hell knows? I’m breaking it down into two ways:

Festival Report: Iceland Airwaves 2011

By Jed

During the week of October 12-16, I absented myself from my Los Angeles-based obligations to once again attend the greatest international music festival ever hosted in the North Atlantic -- Iceland Airwaves.  Since 1999, approximately 200-300 bands/performers and 10,000 attendees make the most of a rainy, chilly week in Iceland's capital city, Reykjavík, squeezing into music stores, bars and cafes during the day, and night clubs, concert halls and an art museum at night to catch bands from all over the world (I'd estimate that between 60%-70% of the bands were Icelandic).  As anyone who writes about Iceland will remind you, the entire nation's population remains well under 400,000, yet the wealth of high quality bands, from just about every genre imaginable, exceeds that of most American cities. 

As much as I have been drawn to the Iceland Airwaves festival for the bands, I have been equally if not more impressed by the fans that make the journey to the North to enjoy something a little bit different from the typical American or European music festival. Just as I did last year, I met delightful people from all over the world, genuinely interested in music, excited about acts they'd never heard of, some having engaged in fairly extensive research of the local scene, not at all snobby and driven to have as much fun as possible, often staying up until the early morning hours to dance, chat over a kebab, or have a few extra overpriced drinks. Airwaves provides an unusually friendly and open atmosphere where one feels just as comfortable striking up a conversation with a stranger from another country as a member of the band one just saw perform.

To answer a few questions people typically ask whenever I go to Iceland:

    1) No, although Iceland is quite north, in October the amount of daily sunlight is approximately similar to that in South California,

    2) Yes, the weather is cold, but nothing worse than a very chilly, rainy day in Los Angeles in February -- you can handle it quite easily, with a decent jacket, especially if you are from the frozen American Northeast or Midwest!,

    3) The language they speak is Icelandic,

    4) Yes, that's a real language,

    5) Yes, I did see Björk! and she was amazing,

    6) While traditional Icelandic food features some very unusual meats, most people most of the time eat the same food we eat here: pizza, kebab, sandwiches, burgers, pasta, hot dogs,

    7) Almost everyone speaks English quite well, often as well or better than the average American you'll meet on the street, and

    8) Yes, the economy is totally screwed, but no, most people you'll meet are not the bankers/politicians responsible for the crisis, so no need to feel resentful towards the Icelandic public. Furthermore, at least according to Paul Krugman, signs indicate that things are getting better in Iceland better than many other European countries.  

This is a long festival report, so I've summed up the highlights here:

Musical Highlights: Björk at the new Harpa venue, Retro Stefson, Gus Gus, Active Child, Yacht

Non-Musical Highlights: Afterparty Sunday night following the final act of the festival, chatting with strangers from around the world while eating kebab at Ali Baba, sitting in a jacuzzi at the Vesturbaer swimming pool Saturday morning

Lowlights: Wednesday night hangover waiting in line outside Nasa club to see Of Monsters and Men, locking myself out of an apartment and sleeping in a doorway, rain and wind

Dietary Highlights: The most amazing lamb soup I've ever tasted, Bæjarins Beztu hot dogs, Ali Baba kebabs (taste great, although 45 minute wait for a sandwich was too long), Svið (sheep's head)  

Favorite Icelandic Musicians That I Met at the Festival: Dr. Gunni (of S.H. Draumur), Lóa of FM Belfast, Unnsteinn of Retro Stefson, and the girls from Samaris, Heiða from Hellvar

Do I recommend this festival?: Strongly, especially to those in Europe, on the East Coast of the U.S. (or near any U.S. city that has a direct flight (NYC, Seattle, DC sometimes)).  I'd recommend it to anyone who likes music, even if that person knows little about Icelandic music specifically. At the risk of coming off all Burning Man (ICELAND AIRWAVES IS NOT LIKE BURNING MAN) I didn't meet a single person there who didn't love it, and come home with more friends than when they started.

The festival officially started on a Wednesday, October 12, but unofficial festivities began the day before.

Festival Report: CMJ 2011 New York Wrap-up

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.

A Band You Love (Hey Marseilles at the Mercury Lounge)

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.

Festival Report: Highlights from CMJ 2011 New York

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

Radio Free Silver Lake CMJ Preview

By Kathryn Pinto

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)

Photo File: FYF Fest 2011

By Matthew Heizman (photos)
and Kathryn Pinto (text)

A little while back the Radio Free Silver Lake team hit the FYF Fest hard and returned with more images from photographer Matt Heizman than we could include in our initial story. As we reported earlier, the logistics of the festival went smoothly and far more competently than any FYF in recent memory, allowing us to get down to the business of hearing the bands. We saw some pretty great acts: Ty Segall, Smith Westerns, the Olivia Tremor Control,  No Age, Guided By Voices, Explosions in the Sky,  and Dan Deacon who impressed us above all others. Here are a few shots. (Photos by Matthew Heizman, except where noted.)

Ty Segall:

Smith Westerns: