Radio Free Silver Lake

Show Reviews: Death To Anders Residency Night Two at Casey's Bar (2/11/12) and Judson McKinney Residency Night Two at Silver Lake Lounge (2/13/12)

by Brad Roberts

On Saturday night, February 11, I took my first trip to Casey's Irish Pub downtown. No one could believe I hadn't been there before since they've been hosting local indie band residencies for about a year now. And though the bar has supposedly been around only since 1970, it looks a lot older and is steeped in old downtown Los Angeles ambiance. I was surprised at how beautiful it looked and the friendliness of the experience.

Death To Anders is doing a February residency there and I had to take in the "BIG OLD PARTY" theme night as the hard rock and roll trio of The Health Club was opening the night and the hard partying Manhattan Murder Mystery were going to bring the festivities to a screaming conclusion. And they did!

The Health Club deliver such tight, short gems that they are able to play a lot of songs in one set, and they're so varied and interesting that you still want more when they're done. Gerard Fortich's plaintive vocals bind together the different styles of songs they write and the solid professionalism of Katya Arce on Bass and Gabriel Montez on drums and voice combine to form a band that is rapidly becoming one of L.A.'s most reliable musical entities.

Show Review: Aaron Embry at Hotel Cafe (2/2/12)

by Brad Roberts

Whenever I talk to people about the great "Let's Independent!" shows at Boardner's, the one that invariably turns up near the top of the list is the Amnion/Fol Chen/Princeton show of March 18, 2008. Talk about a night to remember! Wow, is it really nearly four years ago? I recall thinking, during the Amnion set, that I had never heard music like this before, and it struck me like the discovery of a new planet. Music that could embrace an unlimited range of styles and still emerge a coherent whole.

Aaron Embry and his wife Nikki Embry were the center of the band and I was so taken by their live performance and, subsequently, by their album, Amen Namo, that I called it the number one record of 2008. I still stand by that assessment. I saw Amnion as often as I could until life intervened and they became parents, moved east for a spell, and Aaron joined up with Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, accompanying them on tours, both here and around the world.

Flash forward to 2012 and Aaron Embry is climbing back on stage as a solo act (at present) and on Thursday, February 2, I witnessed pure magic at Hotel Cafe as he cast a spell on a rapt audience, ready to be taken on a sweet and mystical journey. I felt transported to a place where time stood still as Aaron began playing his trusty guitar, his harmonica and singing new songs that are so plain-spoken and honest that there's no trace of self-consciousness.

Show Review: Seasons at The Echo (1/30/12)

by Brad Roberts

During the amazing Seasons residency at The Echo of January it seemed like every week one or more of the bands performing would blow the top of my head off. And they weren't bands I hadn't seen before, often they were bands I've see a dozen times. But there was just something about these evenings that brought out the best in these musicians.

I won't go into detail about the former weeks, except to say these bands included One Trick Pony on Jan. 2, Tenlons Fort on Jan 9, George Glass and The Lonely Wild on Jan 16, Downtown Union and The Health Club on Jan 23. The night of January 30 didn't seem so much like rock bands but a series of orchestras taking the stage to overwhelm us over and over.

Show Review: Little Red Lung and Pisces at Hotel Cafe (1/10/12)

by Brad Roberts

I've been trying to catch up with Little Red Lung and Sarah Negahdari's newest project, Pisces, for a while now. So when Zoe-Ruth Erwin (photo at right by Chris Aguilar, also below) invited me to come out to the Hotel Cafe to review the Little Red Lung set on Tuesday, January 10, and as soon as I learned that Pisces were also on the bill, I jumped at the chance. And it's so close to my home, how could I refuse?

A nice crew of familiar faces dotted the audience here in the heart of Hollywood on a week night. And as has been the case at all the shows I've attended since the first of the year, there was a palpable sense of excitement in the air at this show too. Hard to assess and even harder to explain, it's as if people are reaching out for something out of the ordinary or striving to expand their horizons. Maybe it's just a response to the bad economy, or the mad political circus going on until November. Maybe it's just the spectacle of seeing Newt Gingrich have a temper tantrum worthy of a seven year old.

Whatever it is, this show had the effect of making one forget the outside world and just concentrate on the journey these musicians were taking us on. Little Red Lung is a musically ambitious project headed by Zoe-Ruth Erwin which stretches and expands the boundaries of what is known as indie-rock. Heavily European in its influences, it mixes sweeping cinematic arrangements with quirky, unpredictable melodies supported by Zoe-Ruth's lilting soprano. She plays keys as well with impressive concentration, yet never neglects engaging the audience with her natural charisma.

Favorite Live Shows of 2011: LA Bands Edition

Last week we brought you the favorite albums, EP’s and songs from our favorite Los Angeles bands, and today we return with bands’ picks of their top live shows of the past year. Here’s the word from Light FM, The Californian, Geoff Geis, George Glass, Death to Anders, Seasons, Wendy Wang and WALK. (Photo: Le Switch Final Show at the Satellite, courtesy of Aaron Kyle)

Josiah Mazzaschi - Light FM
The Kills - Emo's, Austin, TX  SXSW
So much energy for a duo! Great guitar sounds.

Shadow Shadow Shade - Lobsterfest, San Pedro, CA
Claire is my vocal instructor and I finally got to see her in action. They sounded so good!!

Rademacher - Fulton 55, Fresno, CA
I feel like these guys always put on a good show no matter what. They definitely vibe off their hometown people! Really great show!

Fancy Space People, The Smashing Pumpkins at the 9:30 Club, Washington D.C.
The sound was really good and everybody was having fun. SP totally rocked that night too.

Wild Flag at the Troubadour West Hollywood, CA
One of those moments where something magical happened. The spontaneity of their performance was truly inspiring.

Show Review: The Western States Motel Residency Tuesdays at The Roxy - On The Rox (11/8/11) (11/15/11)

by Brad Roberts

Let me tell you about some terrific shows that are going on over at The Roxy in West Hollywood in the upstairs room known as On The Rox every Tuesday night this month. I know that we at Radio Free Silver Lake have been featuring a lot about The Western States Motel lately and that we sound like their publicists, but, hey, we love this band. For myself, they've been a constant ever since I first got back into rock and roll six years ago.

Joe Fielder had the foresight to book them for the very first "Let's Independent!" back on September 26, 2006, to open for Great Northern and The Movies at Boardner's, where I saw them for the first time and became a fan immediately. In fact, Carl Jordan (above) told me on Tuesday that was only their fourth show, and yet I remember they sounded like a fully-formed musical unit at the time and their enthusiasm was infectious. Joe described their music as perfect for driving through the country in the sunshine with the windows down and the wind blowing, and he was completely right. 

After that night I followed them around for a while. Saw them through line up changes, attended the EP release party they held for Painted Birds Flying In The  Orange Mirror Sun at Safari Sam's that briefly  lived on Sunset back in Sept. 2008. The last time I saw The Western States Motel was at their residency that RFSL presented at LaBrie's in February which I attended each week. They seemed to be feeling their way into a cohesive musical unit. Last Tuesday, Nov. 15, they fully achieved that goal.

Photo File: A Couple Weeks of Shows--Escalator Hill, Youth Lagoon, Races

By Kathryn Pinto
(Text & photos)

Radio Free Silver Lake presented the final night of the Escalator Hill  residency at the Central SAPC in Santa Monica last month, when Radars to the Sky, Tizoc Estrada and a reunion of You, Me and Iowa, played in support. It was an incredibly frenetic evening of performances.

The following week Trevor Powers brought his bedroom pop project, Youth Lagoon to a sold out room at the Echo November 2nd. Accompanied by guitarist Logan Hyde, Powers transforms these tracks into a quietly, but forcefully compelling live show. 

Races released their Big Broom EP last night to a nearly full house and a warm reception by an audience of music fans, including members of several Silver Lake bands.

Show Review: An Evening With Neil Gaiman and Amanda Palmer at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre (10/31/11)

by Brad Roberts

I knew that the ticket said eight o'clock, but since when did that not mean that the show would start at nine. Anyway, on Monday, October 31, I settled into my seat for An Evening With Neil Gaiman & Amanda Palmer at the front of the Loge section overlooking the stage at The Wilshire Ebell Theatre around 8:45 (Gotta go home and feed the cats and myself after work) among an audience that was silent and in rap attention, directed toward the stage. The Jane Austen Argument were performing their last number and I was sorry I was late, because it was really dynamic. The lead singer, Tom Dickins, had regular clothes on, black pants, shirt...but over these was a black tutu and faerie wings, and while his accompanist on the piano was dressed like a normal woman, the Halloween theme was evident. And his voice was like that of a wounded angel, all quivery, with frequent forays into the falsetto range, and like Amanda, capable of soaring.

Being from Melbourne, he and Jen Kingwell, who form the two halves of the Argument, have been on tour with Amanda Palmer through Australia, and it's easy to see why she picked them. Their expressive use of highly stylized theatrical conventions is very much in the same vein as all of Palmer's projects. Their music is described as anti-folk and punk love but to me it sounded like Brechtian Cabaret style. I would love to hear more from them. 

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