Radio Free Silver Lake

Discoveries from Culture Collide 2014

By Kathryn Pinto

Recently, Radio Free Silver Lake spent a long weekend taking in a slew of new music from all over the world at Culture Collide. The best music festivals deliver moments when excited fans, fresh from seeing a band for the first time, run into friends in a taco line or a crosswalk and ask, “What did you see? Who do you like? What are you going to see next?” Culture Collide, which took place last month in venues along Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park, is an event that is exactly the right size for discovering music. The lineup is rich with talent, tickets are affordable, there’s good food, and it’s easy to navigate and friendly. With all of these stars aligned, the experience was a chance to discover new bands and artists, to share finds and get excited about music all over again.

The fifth annual Culture Collide  in Los Angeles is an international music festival of bands and artists from more than 20 countries and includes a conference, Culture Collide Creative Summit, presented by Filter magazine. The event took place in locations along Sunset Boulevard in Echo Park October 16-18 this year. Venues included The Echo, Echoplex, Taix, The Church, Lot 1, and the outdoor Culture Collide World Stage, located at the Taix parking lot. There were excellent performances from new finds like indie rockers Autostrad from Jordan, The Kokoro (Israel), and bands we’ve seen before including headliners Cloud Nothings (USA) and hometown favorites like Haunted Summer and the Bixby Knolls. Here are our discoveries (and rediscoveries) from the festival. 

1. Dune Rats (Australia)
The most energetic set of the festival came from Dune Rats, a pack of skate rats from Brisbane, Australia who could go toe-to-to with any So Cal skate punks on brashness, sweat and pure party energy. They made the walls and low ceilings of the Taix Champagne Room shake with their bounding and sprinting across the stage. Think FIDLAR or the Orwells.

  2. Takeoffs and Landings (Peru)
Straight up indie rock made a strong showing at the 321 Lounge at Taix, emerging from places as unlikely as Peru. Led by one-woman ambassador of cool, Takeoffs and Landings injected fresh raw energy into that radiated throughout the festival.

How We Made The Record: Lost on Purpose - Ronin

How We Made The Record is a new feature on Radio Free Silver Lake. Each week we interview bands about the back story of their new album. We talk about the process of putting an album together: generating creative ideas, writing music, financing and production (recording, engineering mastering). For every record there are trade offs and compromises. There are problems that need creative solutions like choosing a studio, a producer, and developing great sound with limited resources.
We return this week with Lost on Purpose. Will Vander Wyden (The Ross Sea Party) has been recording solo as Lost on Purpose since 2003. He recorded Ronin with keyboardist and vocalist Jacquelyn Thropay. The album, which takes its name from the Japanese term meaning “masterless samurai,” was influenced by a two-month journey when Vander Wyden’s traveled though Japan, China and Southeast Asia. Ronin  is out now. -K. Pinto

By Will Vander Wyden

The Creative
What was the creative concept, or a point of departure for the album when you started? Did you have a unifying concept or just start writing songs? When did you write the songs: before you went into the studio, or did the tracks come together as you recorded?

The songs are all heavily influenced by my travels throughout Asia, particularly Japan. I’ve spent a fair amount of time there over the past couple years and even learned some Japanese. There’s just something about the way a different culture and language impacts the brain – it’s like parts of my mind I had never used were suddenly being molded in totally new ways. All of the songs on Ronin were affected by those experiences, to the point where I noticed that similar lyrics kept popping up in different songs throughout the album. Also, this is the first album where every song was recorded as part of the same process. In the past my albums have been more like collages, collections of songs recorded at different times and in different ways. You can even hear a difference in quality between some songs on my older records because I learned how to engineer better in between recording them! Ronin started out the same way, but as it took shape Jacquie convinced me to start from scratch and re-record every song as a unit. And that turned into the next year of my life. As for the writing process – the basic arrangements were “finished” when recording began, but not every part within those frameworks were written and in the end I occasionally rearranged some songs during the recording process… thank god for computers.

 

How We Made Our Record with The Damselles & The TC4

How We Made Our Record is a feature on Radio Free Silver Lake. Each week we interview bands about the different aspects of how an album comes together: generating creative ideas, writing, financing and production (recording, engineering mastering). We talk about the creative side of choosing a studio, a producer,  a sound, and  sounding good with limited resources. Many of our readers--musicians, recording engineers, and music fans--wanted to know the back story of how albums are made. We return this week with The Damselles & The TC4.  Three sassy singers and four guys to back them, The Damselles & The TC4 don’t walk so much as strut onto a stage like a wall of sound, choreographed dance moves and outfits on point. Today vamping more Pam Grier than Ronnie Spector, The Damselles & The TC4 drop their new album, Know How To Party (Otik Records) with all the explosive fission of an atom bomb. -K.P.

By The Damselles & The TC4
Photos by Sterling Andrews

The Creative
What was the creative concept, or a point of departure for the album when you started? Did you have a unifying concept or just start writing songs? When did you write the songs: before you went into the studio, or did the tracks come together as you recorded?

The concept revolved around how many times we can get away with saying "Hey" on the songs. Most of the band had written songs specifically for the group and once we had enough material for a full-length record, we decided to go record. The songs were pretty much 100% done when we went in. It only took us two days to track all the songs. Lickety split. 

(side note - a FREE download to the person that can tell us how many times we say "Hey" on the album. )

How We Made Our Record with United Ghosts’ Axel Steuerwald

How We Made Our Record is a new feature on Radio Free Silver Lake. Each week we interview bands about the different aspects of how an album comes together: generating creative ideas, writing, financing and production (recording, engineering mastering). We talk about the creative side of choosing a studio, a producer, how to come up with a sound, and how to make it sound good with limited resources. We thought that many of our readers, whether they are musicians, recording engineers, or simply music fans, would be interested in the backstory of how albums are made. Plus it's a fun & genuine way to get people excited about an upcoming album. We kick off the feature this week with United Ghosts. -K.P.

United Ghosts self-titled debut is now available on iTunes, on CD and gorgeous blue vinyl from local record stores and on mail order from Unitedghosts.com. United Ghosts play the Echo this Sunday July 7 for Part Time Punks.

By Axel Steuerwald (of United Ghosts)
Band photo by Aaron Lucy
Additional photos by Arian Soheili and the band

The Creative
What was the creative concept, or a point of departure for the album when you started? Did you have a unifying concept or just start writing songs? When did you write the songs: before you went into the studio, or did the tracks come together as you recorded?

We had a very loose concept, inspired by our surroundings here in our hometown of LA. We often feel [Los Angeles] gets misrepresented as being all lazy-hazy sunshine without much of an edge to it. We wanted to put that right, show a different side. “Echo Lake,” the lead track, and “Holes Into The Night” are definitely themed along those lines. So is “Unhypnotized” with its cultish video by Arian Soheili. Check out the video for “Echo Lake” for some more thoughts by the whole band. Saying that, it’s not trying to be a concept album. It’s about a lot of things.

As far as writing in or out of the studio, it’s both. We have a small recording set-up in a magical little Garage in Silverlake that we use for writing. Most songs start there or in the practice room before we finish them in a real studio.

Show Spotlight: Dana Falconberry with Califone, Radar Brothers and Blues Oblique Tonight at the Satellite

By Kathryn Pinto

Austin’s Dana Falconberry plays the Satellite tonight along with Califone, Radar Bros. and Blues Oblique (Michael Krassner & Wil Hendricks). The sound of Dana Falconberry’s voice conjures up a world like an exquisitely drawn picture book one intended as a gift, but saved for oneself. Her songwriting works in the same way, sweet but with enough grit and strangeness to lure you in and hold you with its conflicting complexity. When her pixie-ish vocals veer toward precious, a percussion line or harmony will inject a layer of eeriness into the mix. She is backed by a six-piece band that includes Christopher Cox of Austin's Tosca String Quartet. It is the backing from Cox’s string arrangements that create a fullness of sound that can support the subtle and delicate nature of these songs. Falconberry’s latest release Leelanau (Antenna Farm) is a nostalgic travelogue, musical drawings of places in northern Michigan where she has spent summers since childhood: Lake Charlevoix, Sturgeon Bay, Copperleaf. While one can listen to this album and hear the magic of woodland sprites, they are from a world of the imagination that is also strange and spooky. We are really looking forward to seeing this music played live tonight.

Opening the evening are the cinematic “electrified blues-folk” Califone, dark, hard rocking, psychedelic  Radar Bros. and the Silver Lake veteran duo Blues Oblique.

 

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Dana Falconberry plays the Satellite (1717 Silverlake Blvd., LA 90026) tonight February 28 with Califone, Radar Brothers and Blues Oblique playing in support. Doors open at 8pm, 21+, $12.

 

Video Free Silver Lake: Five Songs with Bikos

When we talked to Bikos about their show at the Smell to benefit Sounds for the Cause we also got a chance to ask them about the music that shaped them--music they wanted to share with our readers. As bandleader Gabe Pearlman put it,  "I decided to highlight life-changing music that each of the members of bikos first shared with me and/or otherwise call to my mind."

By Gabriel Pearlman (of Bikos)

Austin Wester, Drums.
DJ Shadow - Building Steam with a Grain of Salt
"...I'm a student of the drum, and I'm also a teacher of the drums too"

When Austin and I were 17 years old, we were participated in a statewide youth program called Youth & Government. We were in Sacramento lounging in the lobby of our group's hotel and Austin, who I at that point didn't know all that well turned to me, took his disc man headphones off and said "dude, you gotta hear this" and put the headphones on me. DJ Shadow's album Endtroducing, was just beginning. I had never heard anything like it.

 

 

Daniel Hur, Lead Guitar.
The Mountain Goats - Cubs in Five
"...and I will love you again"

Show Spotlight: Harley Cortez Art Show at 727 Spring

By Kathryn Pinto

Lines from Harley Prechtel-Cortez, the multi-talented frontman of Halfbluud and formerly of Red Cortez, is an exhibition of visual art opening this Saturday at Space 727 in Downtown LA. Artists Matt Maust and Cody Comrie join Prechtel-Cortez in this trio show, curated by Edgar Varela Fine Arts, one of the leading galleries of the downtown First Thursday circuit.

In addition to his projects with Red Cortez in its various incarnations (Weather Underground, Just An Animal), Prechtel-Cortez has worked in filmmaking and visual arts. Since last summer he has been posting studio work: paintings, drawings and collages on his tumblr page, as a kind of running online studio visit. The work is smudgy emoting portraits and figurative work that experiments with improvised texture and mark making.

Prechtel-Cortez has not slacked off on his musical projects this year, either. On January 15, he released a solo EP under the moniker Halfbluud (previewed on RFSL). That release 1st EP is available now on bandcamp and a second EP Shibuya is due out in February, according to the Halfbluud bandcamp page.

Lines opens Saturday February 2, with an opening reception that promises special guests and free booze while it lasts  from 6:30-10:30pm at Space 727, 727 Spring St, Downtown Los Angeles, CA 90013. For more information see the Lines event page on facebook.

 

Interview: Haunted Summer (John Seasons and Bridgette Moody)

By Kathryn Pinto
Photos by Amanda Glover

Here’s the story. You grow up with these guys, start a band, toil in obscurity for years playing tiny venues for nothing, and then something starts to click. People come out to the shows. Things start to happen. Better gigs, tours, little deals that mean you can buy studio time, make the record you want to make. But just when everything starts to come together, everything unravels. You just can’t get along with your bandmates, can’t make it work. It’s like putting on your favorite jeans, but they just don’t fit anymore.

In a most unlikely twist to this story, the two people who tell it very nearly this very same way found each other. Romance lead to collaboration and a new project called Haunted Summer. Bridgette Moody left Torches about the same time John Seasons left Seasons. Together they are heading in directions they couldn’t pursue in their former bands, making an eerie psychedelic orchestral pop. Radio Free Silver Lake caught up with the two recently at Lot 1 and sat down to hear about their new music as well as their departures from their previous bands.

Kathryn Pinto (Radio Free Silver Lake): Tell me about Haunted Summer, who’s in the band, what’s the sound, how’d it start?

Johnny Seasons: The band is me and Bridgette and we’re making all the music. Our live bad I is a band, with a string quartet, a harp player and drums and a bass player. The strings are going to be composed by Kaitlin [Wolfberg] who’s still in Seasons. She’s going to compose the strings, do a string quartet and we’re going o to co-compose with her on some songs, but it’s going to be a different sound from either of the bands we were in. And Bridgette, it’s her first time singing lead.

RFSL (to Bridgette): What’s your take?

Bridgette Moody: We’re both in a similar situation, just kind of working this whole thing on our own. We’re really excited, the response so far with just our really basic demos has been really positive and it’s been really exciting.

Show Spotlight: Sounds for the Cause Benefit Show for Laura's House Shelter with Bikos, Owls, Danger Friends USA!, SNACKTIME (cd release show), and Protect Me at the Smell Saturday 1/26/13

By Kathryn Pinto

Sounds for the Cause presents a benefit show for Laura's House domestic violence shelter Saturday night at The Smell with a lineup of great bands that includes Bikos, Danger Friends USA! , SNACKTIME (cd release show), PROTECT ME, and  Owls.  The show benefits Laura's House, a domestic violence shelter in south Orange County that has provided emergency shelter, crisis support, counseling and children's programs to women survivors of domestic violence and their children since 1994. Admission to the benefit is $5 donation or an unwraped toy for the children. The Smell is located at 247 South Main Street, Los Angeles, CA.

RFSL checked in with Bikos frontman Gabe Pearlman to hear more about the benefit and what the band has been up to.

Kathryn Pinto (RFSL): What has Bikos been up to lately? You had a 2012 release. Have you been writing? recording? touring?

Gabe Pearlman (Bikos): We've had a lot going on. I was really excited to release an EP in March, Let Down Your Avant Garde (available on bandcamp as a free download). Summer 2012 was really crazy time for our band, we had to take some time off.  Our drummer, Austin, had his first child, and we found out that our keyboardist, Jaron, was leaving the band. Jaron was there from the beginning, and still remains a dear friend and prized collaborator... not an easy loss. We've regrouped now and are back in the swing of things.

In May of 2012, just our respite, our producer/engineer Dean Nelson flew in from Canada to work with us on the new record, it's Post-Prom.  One week, tracking straight to tape. 13 songs.  Mixing was just completed shortly after New Year's. Final sequencing and mastering are happening soon. Dean was working with Beck in LA a few years ago when a demo of ours made its way to him. He mixed our first record, Make Your Sound Sound, and just added a little additional tracking. He was drawn to what we had put together thus far in the process. For this album, he was there the whole time and we really couldn't be much happier with what transpired that week and in mixing. Not sure how/when we're gonna release it's Post-Prom just yet.

Torches: Northwest Tour Diary 2012

Torches performing at Make Music Pasadena (photo by K.Pinto)

The much buzzed about eastside trio TORCHES set off northward on a tour to support their new album Heads Full of Rust four weeks ago with a AAA card, a big box of merch and a dream. Along the way they wrote down some notes about the scenery, sleazy clubs, friendly women and the vegan bounty of the Great Northwest. Road weary but stoked they share these tales with you,  good readers of Radio Free Silver Lake. TORCHES is back home to play July 30 at the Echoplex with Seasons, Manhattan Murder Mystery, & Body Parts.

By Azad Cheikosman of Torches

Day One - LA to Santa Cruz: June 29, 2012
We’ve embarked on our first northwest tour and we couldn’t be happier. The ride proved to be pretty smooth until we got a flat tire ten miles outside of Santa Cruz. Luckily a guy who works for a state-run highway program came to our rescue. Timing was perfect because he arrived minutes before the AAA guy got there. Shortly after we were back on the road again and arrived in Santa Cruz to play our first show of the tour. Metavinyl is a really rad record store and not to mention a great and intimate place to play a show. The place is pretty small, but it’s cozy and the people who watched were kind seemed to dig what we were doing. We haven’t ended our streak of selling albums at shows yet, which is a good sign…for now.

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Day Two – Santa Cruz to Humboldt: June 30, 2012
We were fortunate enough to be able to sleep in. I must have forgot to mention our friend Matt surprised us by showing up to the Santa Cruz last night. The only thing is…he didn’t make it to the show on time. It’s alright because we got some time to make a stop at Streetlight Records, the Boardwalk, and the beach. Now we’re on the road headed for Humboldt where Eric’s [Fabbro, the band's drummer] cousin lives. We’ll be staying the night in Humboldt before we head out to Portland in the morning. Tomorrow’s show takes place at Ash Street Saloon. At this particular moment in time we’re driving through the Redwoods.