End of Summer Review - All Scene Guy

As summer comes to a close, let's look back at some of the highlights from August.

First we welcome a new voice to Radio Free Silver Lake and next week I'll follow up with a recap of some of the most memorable highlights I enjoyed at last month's Echo Park Rising.

ALL SCENE GUY:

Music collective and record label All Scene Eye co-chair Jayk Gallagher reviews the bands he books, and other LA shows too!

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SUN AUG 9:

 

The line up for Melrose Trading Post was particularly tasty this past August 9th-- one of the more entertaining of the All Scene Eye events we throw every second Sunday.  While music is wonderful, I also strongly anticipate this monthly auditory affairs because I can wander the market, purchase shirts from Coast To Coast Vintage, and consume some glorious crepes and lychee lemonade in the food court. Literal heaven. (Cuz I'm dead.)

 

GhIANT (at right) opened up the line up at 11am, and I must admit Don was more awake and livelier than I, with his vibrant and jocund personality undulating all over the place.  He is an extremely pleasant person.  He set up his equipment and began his spare and haunting loop-pedal extravaganza.  Highlights of GhIANT include his exceptional high tenor and falsetto voice, the humor which infuses his music, and the moving soulful vulnerability he communicates in his songs.  I was gifted two vinyls by this generous individual. "Open up your heart, but keep a watchful eye," has been stuck in my head all week.

 

After GhIANT were BARRIE AND THE STARZ (below) who delivered an absolutely earth shattering performance.  Imagine Rainbow Bright and Strawberry Shortcake lip synching to Beyonce and you'll get an idea of the visual flavor of B&TS. Lead lady Barrie Rose has painstakingly curated the embodiment of her whimsical vision over the past year or so, which culminated in a recent debut at The Satellite.  This came a hefty chunk of time after her leaving her former band Tes Elations, which was an extremely different two electric cello deal that involved her barefoot incantations, and was a collab with Isaac Takeuchi, who now fronts Inner Ecstacy.

 

In any case, Barrie is joined by two dancers / back up singers named Patrice and Tiara, whimsical names to go with extremely whimsical choreographer. Barrie was dressed in a pink wig and boa, and I haven't even talked about the music yet.  Imagine a pink frosted wedding cake decorated with Malibu Barbie has replaced the lead singer of Little Dragon, and you may start to understand the sound.  I will always compare things to LD because I have no depth of experience in electronic music.  Barrie's music is like a blown bubble gum bubble-- It is cute, fresh, fun, funny, happy, and ever so slightly poignant.  In one of her songs she sings about being an adult living like a child, and the willingness to view the world with a child-like positivity is clearly present in the music.  Check it out if you enjoy happiness.

 

Next up were SLEEPING FOREST. Two people I don't know too well yet. One of whom had excellent electronic beats, the other of which sang lady-like over the beats with a huge dose of reverb. A pleasing aural excursion.

 

SF were followed by GRIT, who are an extremely exceptional rock band which you should view before they get too famous for their own good.  One trouble the band has is their name, for it is the name of many other things, including at least one well known historic punk band, and some other bands too.  But, in the tradition of bands with difficult to Google names (Girls for example. Or Thee Rain Cats who just changed their name to Channel.) perhaps no one cares.

 

In any case, front lady Kat Meoz (at left) has a decidedly excellent throaty rasp which is reminiscent of a grunge Melissa Ethridge.  Grit is power chord blues grunge rock.  It's not complicated or overly intellectual.  However, it is excellent music for rocking out. Definitely my type of music.  The best feature of the music is Kat's absolutely killer voice.  One song "I Would" stands out to me so far as a poignant song with solid lyrics. Looking forward to hearing more!

 

BRENDA CARSEY (at right) rounded out the line up with her incredibly voice.  Someone afterward compared her to Fiona Apple and boy is that a horrible comparison. The only similarity is the piano.  Fiona Apple didn't sing like Brenda Carsey.  Brenda has a huge range, and the kind of pipes that can fill up a room.  She really kills it on the low notes, singing notes that most women can't sing, but also equally rocks the high end.  Another reason she's not like FA is because Brenda's music is strangely infused with R&B and Funk in an indescribable way.  There's something very different going on with Brenda Carsey.  Innovative chord changes, eclectic rhythms-- There's nothing pedestrian or expected about Brenda's songs.  Her five string bass player lays down a mean solo as well.

 

Since we all felt like, Brenda took an extra long set, and may have played for an hour? Wowing the people that were just innocently trying to chow.  Some lady signed up for her mailing list, and after Brenda's set some guy came up talking about Sony and Capitol Records, and some Japanese lady came up talking about putting her on the radio.  Obvs everyone was about as impressed as I always am when I see Brenda.

 

Well that's all I've got to say about that... Next month we'll have Sam Marine (11 AM),  Love Ghost (12 noon), Genessa Gariano (12:45),    Old Man (Lucas Guerin at right) (1:30) and New Evil (2:30), which is another really varied, interesting, talented line up.  So I'm going to be snacking on my chicken pesto sun dried tomato crepes and enjoying the crap out of that on Sunday, Sept 13.  At Melrose Trading Post,