Radio Free Silver Lake

New Track: Marvelous Toy "El Infiel"

By Kathryn Pinto

At the risk of overstating the obvious, Marvelous Toy has released some pretty great material this year. Tomorrow night "El Infiel" the first single from their upcoming album Not Moving, makes its television debut on American Horror Story on FX. In anticipation, Radio Free Silver Lake is streaming a sneak preview of "El Infiel." As I wrote earlier of the band, "We fell hard for Marvelous Toy when they played at Radio Free Silver Lake residency at the now defunct Labrie’s in Glendale. Somewhere between the colorful narrative storytelling of the songwriting and the high energy theatrics of the live show, Jordan and the band leave it all on the field with a goofy sincerity and high octane performance."

Marvelous Toy "El Infiél" by rfslpinto

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Marvelous Toy's single 'El Infiél' will be featured this Wednesday on the Season Finale of American Horror Story on FX on December 21st at 10pm.

MUSIC WE LIKE: The Henry Clay People

Album recommendations by Kathryn Pinto

The Henry Clay People-This is a Desert EP (TBD)

The known world is divided into flyers and gigs if you believe Mike Watt of the Minutemen. The gig is the thing, where a band has the most creative control over their music. Everything else (videos, interviews, facebook pages) is a flyer to get people to the gig. A record is a flyer and the Henry Clay People are a live band. Sure, front man Joey Siara is a pretty good, if underrated, songwriter given to cleverly poetic turns of phrase, but the reason to care about this band is that on stage the Henry Clays connect with their audience from the first moment the guitar pick strikes a string.

This is a Desert was released this spring just as a wave of malaise settled in dark over the East Side, musicians and writers asking, “Does any of this matter? Is anyone listening?” The Henry Clays fire back with five songs burning against the claustrophobia of a conventional life. “…they’re telling us to stay inside/but we’ve been stuck inside for the better part of our lives/and we just want to watch something burn,” sings Siara on “California Wildfire.” Sometimes the lyrics have a meandering perfection and sometimes they’re a bit obtuse. Sometimes the band plays like a band and sometimes they stumble all over each other in barely controlled chaos, but whole is always greater--and more magical --than the sum of the parts. The floppy-haired laid-back delivery is a screen for a profound connection to their audience, who are also held back, constrained and can’t quite get ahead. Does any of this matter? Yes, it absoultely matters. This is music that saves your life three minutes at a time.

The Henry Clay People "California Wildfire"

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The Henry Clay People play with Lady Danville at the UCLA Hammer Museum Thursday July 28 at 8pm, FREE, part of the Also I Like to Rock summer concert series.

Album Review: Art Brut - Brilliant! Tragic!

By Seamus Simpson

Eddie Argos needs a hug. That’s the overriding feeling I have when I listen to the new album from Art Brut. He’s a guy second guessing himself at every turn. In the opener “Clever Clever Jazz” he bemoans the fact that his friends are not appreciative of his new direction in music, and with good reason. It’s depressing.

Now don’t get me wrong. I like a good sad song more than most people, but I want my Art Brut to be happy, even jovial. I want this to be the band that bragged about hanging out at the DC headquarters in New York. The band that screamed that there is no Green Lantern other than Hal Jordan! Sadly, that band is not on this album.

The music is as tight as ever and one of the reasons I was able to get over Argos’ best Jonathan Richman impression was that the songs are impeccable. In the same way I don’t really enjoy Morrissey so much as the guy has awesome back-up bands. The thing is I liked Argos until now. It’s not that his lyrics aren’t as wry and full of wit as they used to be, but this set of songs are the ravings of a broken hearted man. They remind you of your first love broken heart. We’ve all had that feeling, but it’s coming from the “happy” guy in your group of friends. That takes some time to get used to.

Interview: the Lonely Wild, Part II

By Jed

We return with Part 2 of my interview with the Lonely Wild. Radio Free Silver Lake presents the Lonely Wild's record release show this Thursday, February 24 at the Bootleg Theatre. I strongly recommend checking out the show.

Local Band, Global Market

"I've gotten three phone calls already from my aunts and grandmothers saying 'How do I get the music off of my computer?'"

RFSL: How did you end up getting reviewed in Israel?

Carroll: No idea! We debuted the record, and it showed up on bandcamp's top charts and I think he saw us on there.

Schneider: We had some random stuff. We sold a vinyl record to a guy in Australia. I don't want to know how much this thing will cost to ship it.

Carroll: We'll figure it out. Buy a plane ticket.

RFSL: Were you able to translate the Hebrew?

Carroll: Well, he spoke English in the email, and it was kind of funny because I went down and looked at his website and a lot of his stuff was American folk music. I checked it out and he had a big section on the Dust Bowl, and Woody Guthrie, he had Iron and Wine on there.

Ryan: He had some good taste, you know?

Carroll: If you use Google translator, you can kind of see what he was trying to say.

EP Review: Dum Dum Girls He Gets Me High

(To post 2/17)
By Nick Martinez
Don't call me a sucker because I love the Dum Dum Girls.  They are the real deal.  Talent, beauty, and the true spirit of rock'n roll are just a few of the tricks they've got up their fishnet sleeves.  They are also very shrewd about choosing their collaborators.  Head Dum Dum, Dee Dee Gartrell, co-produced the new He Gets Me High EP, with the assistance of Richard Gottehrer (writer of such classics as "My Boyfriend's Back" and "I Want Candy") and Sune Rose Wagner of the Raveonettes.  The Dum Dum Girls share a similar retro sonic aesthetic with the Raveonettes.  The former lovingly covered the latter's "Heart of Stone" last year, available for YouTube viewing or, if you're crafty enough, download.  The Dum Dum Girls are no strangers to doing amazing covers of awesome songs.  On their web site, they are keen on posting "songs of the week" in a wide range of genres.  Before Christmas, a lovely rendition of The Strawberry Switchblade's "Trees & Flowers" was posted on the site at the urging of fellow retro-enthusiast Andrew VanWyngarden of MGMT.  Their ace covering of classics continues on the new EP, but this time Dee Dee and the girls take on Morrissey/The Smiths with a rather straightforward cover of "There is a Light".  The vocals are faithful to Morrissey's almost to a fault (depending on how you feel about his vocal stylings).  It's a beautiful cover, but it shouldn't be the highlight of this collection. 

The standout track of this four-song EP is, without question, "Wrong Feels Right".  In just two-and-a-half minutes, the song packs an exciting wallop of George of the Jungle drum-rolls and twinkling, dreamy guitars.   When the "...it happened overnight, it's wrong but it feels right..." chorus of the song bursts forward, you're already singing along in your head.  It feels right alright.  The thing that feels most right about this new song is that it features Dee Dee's voice more clearly that some of the band's previous releases.  This was extremely nice to hear on recording after seeing the band live.  Dee Dee's live vocals, as any of you who have seen them live or searched out their performances online know, are jarringly more effective and less affected than the sometimes effects-dominated vocals of many songs on the band's full length.  This song captures a little more of that vocal purity, which I hope is also featured on their next full length release.

Band Spotlight: Count Fleet

By Jacob Summers

Five years of living in Los Angeles have given me a great opportunity to watch a few bands grow and develop their sound over years of gigging. I've seen drummers come and go, instruments added, and taken away, while others toil over recordings and rehearse their live show to perfection. Maybe a new band name is all you really need for a re-emergence. Who knows? It can take a while to craft your sound, believe me, I understand! When the experimentation starts to take shape and things start to move in a direction that gives you a marketable sound while maintaining originality, it's exciting! You finally see those years of craft is paying off, as is the case with Count Fleet.

After recording last year at Red Rockets Glare with producer Raymond Richards, the group has made a few modifications to the band line up, but more importantly are the roles played by the two main members: Elliot Glass: guitar and vocals; and Caitlin Dwyer: bass and vocals. Previously the group played as a full band (different backing band) working under the name, The Fall Trees.  Currently the group has taken shape as a duo, backed by members of another outstanding local group and newcomers to the scene, Saint Sea Hat.  

Band Spotlight: Captain Ahab

by Octavius Poirier

Captain Ahab is playing The Smell 13^th Anniversary this Saturday night. If you’ve never seen them, then you MUST go. To be a person interested in music, or with any sense of humor, seeing Captain Ahab is obligatory.

If you don’t have any background on Captain Ahab at all, and you go into a show “cold” you’ll either be totally confused at how quickly the songs change or just how noisy and continuous everything is…or you’ll be stoked to see such a noisy no holds barred electronic experimental band. In reality, his songs are melodic, danceable, and fun as hell…they just get remixed and shortened like crazy live. This is why his live show is so amazing as an electronic act. The show is always different, improvised, and escapes the stereotypes of “live” electronic music which Kraftwerk demonstrates so well in the “We Are the Robots" video.

To me the themes and history of how his albums have developed makes Captain Ahab one of the most interesting electronic groups in Los Angeles since 8-bit.

Back in 2004, Captain Ahab’s first album The Sex is Next came out. I liked the album art, but the album in general was pretty straightforward, serious electronic music.  At the time, electro had just had a revival with the label Morr Music, and bands like Peaches and Ladytron. Captain Ahab was touching on some of that old school techno we all knew and (maybe) used to love. I remember hearing about him performing at “Sloppy Joes” in Culver City to a group of KXLU DJ’s on one of their nights. Besides that one mention….  I saw the album at the station but it didn’t really strike me, so I didn’t book him at the electronic club I ran at the time called “Data Age.” Where is that club now?  Closed.

In April 2006, After the Rain My Heart Still Dreams transcended the status quo techno music he was doing before. This album had more lyrics, it had elements that people into rock could enjoy, it partied like no other, and it blew my mind. Anyone who’s been to The Smell between 2006-2009 has probably seen Ahab at some point or another and had an amazing time.

Show Spotlight: Big Whup Video Premiere Party at Pehrspace Monday December 13

By Kathryn Pinto
The month of December is packed so chock full o’nuts and good shows that if you blink you might miss something extraordinary. We told you yesterday and we’re telling you again today, don’t miss the all ages Big Whup Video Premiere Party at Pehrspace on Monday. There are plenty of reasons to attend (the bands, the promise of “quirky bliss,” the brown bag bar), but the clincher is this: Geoff Geis and his hot lady band mates revealing nigh all but what is covered by a strategically placed feather.

Big Whup will premiere videos for "B.O.N.I.Z.H.E.A.R.T. <3 <3 <3," directed by Kate Gill and "Cover My Eyes," directed by Matthew Chevlen. Live music from Big Whup, Kid Static, Peter Pants, David Liebe Hart & Adam Papagan (formerly of Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!), and DJ Kyle Mabson.

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The Big Whup Video Premiere Party takes place at Pehrspace, 325 Glendale Blvd.,  Monday December 13 at 9pm.

Veil Veil Vanish Record Release at Spaceland (4/8/10)

By Seamus Simpson

Last Thursday night I ventured out to Spaceland to catch the record release of Veil Veil Vanish’s new album Change in the Neon Light. I left very impressed with both what I saw and heard, causing me to think this is a band that is going places. This band has come far in their endeavors and it is starting to pay off.

First up at the show was In Waves. A band I have been hearing about on the fringe but have yet to actually catch myself.  It was good that I showed up to a show on time for once. I can’t say I fully understand what they are trying to do as a band. The songs were good, but I felt at time that maybe they were not fully fleshed out ideas. I am not sure of the band’s timeline, but if I had to guess I would say they were only a year or so old. Not that this is actually true so much as it is the impression I got – good or bad. They had a simple setup of guitar, bass, keys, and drums, a setup that worked well for what they were doing.  The drummer in particular was mind blowing to watch. I just felt that if the rest of the band matched his sheer ferocity that the band would be a better band. Add this laid back approach musically with over saturated reverb on the vocals, and I feel it becomes a little harder to even understand what they are doing. That said, I would see them again on a different night where maybe they had a better slot and were more in tune with audience.

Album Review: The Deadly Syndrome – Nolens Volens

By Jackie Lam

The Deadly Syndrome’s second album, Nolen Volens, scheduled for release on March 23, is a rare breed of sophisticated songsmithing that manages to be minimal and uncluttered, yet moody and complex. A follow-up to their debut album, The Ortolan,  released in 2007, Nolen Volens is anything but sophomoric. The ten songs by the Silver Lake indie quartet are like a bunch of sad, visceral montages fastened together with ethereal synth sounds, cascading acoustic guitar and trembling vocals. You feel as if you are getting pulled into someone else’s nostalgia and sorrow, and don’t mind in the slightest bit.