Radio Free Silver Lake

Cheap Trick: DIY Music Video with Matt Stone

In this week's installment of Cheap Trick, L.A.-based music video director Matt Stone shares his wisdom and expertise on making fresh, inventive music videos with very little money.

1. Make sure your idea is as original and interesting as possible.
If you are going to ask other people to donate their time or money to help you bring your ideas to life, make sure your idea is as strong and thought out as possible. Run though many ideas and make sure that the message you are putting on film is worth making and is done in the most creative way possible. Once your ideas are solid, practice explaining your idea to others so that when you are ready to rally the troops to help you out, you're able to communicate your ideas clearly and enthusiastically in order to recruit the best talent possible for your video.

2. Don't shoot on film.
Don't shoot on film. Also don't write your treatments on stone tablets or create your budget on an abacus. I know, I know, you LOVE film and you own a Holga, a typewriter, and only wear sweaters from Goodwill so you know the aesthetic value of using shit your grandparents used. Forget all that. No one on YouTube is going to notice that your music video was shot on 35 mm when they are watching it on their smartphones. They will only be wishing that instead of blowing the whole production budget on film processing that you would have taken more time storyboarding and coming up with clever ideas.

If one of the big selling points of your music video is that is was shot on film then you are doing it wrong. The only people that will care about the film stock you shot on are your film school friends and recent graduates, and they are all unemployed and will not be paying you to direct anytime soon. So get the cheapest, best-looking video camera you can  and hit  'Record' 'cuz you can shoot for days on that thing without costing you more than hard drive space.

I think the best camera for the money is the RED Epic. It has the best bang for your buck. If you are on an even smaller budget, a Canon DSLR looks great—if you treat it right. Instead of just handholding a DSLR, put it on a tripod or stabilizer. Also when in doubt use your iPhone. It's a great little camera and chances are you have it on you all the time.

 

Deadmau5 "Head Games" from Butter Studios on Vimeo.

Matt's only cost while making Deadmau5 "Head Games" was the $200 to rent his friend's RED camera for two hours.

3. DIY means DIY.
When you first start making music videos you might not be able to afford a stylist, cinematographer, or craft service so you will have to do some of these things yourself. If you're going to be a filmmaker you should be obsessed, you should be reading and practicing all aspects of filmmaking all the time. If you don't, I guarantee there is someone else out there that is and will get more opportunities then you because of their passion.

If you need a video shot on the cheap, then teach yourself to be a great cinematographer by reading and watching the greats. The Internet has all the resources you could possibly need to teach yourself filmmaking. Take advantage of Google and practice with a DSLR in your backyard until you are Roger Deakins. For tips on how to shoot things on a budget there is a great site called cheesycam.com. They are always up to date on new gear that gets the job done cheaply.

4. Never waste a frame. Plan and have a clear vision.
The more you storyboard and create animatics (moving/timed storyboards), the more you will know if something is working. When storyboarding I do everything, from drawing stick figures on printer paper to creating a full 3D animatic in Cinema 4D. I think you should make storyboards in whatever way you think will work for the project. I usually draw my storyboards at least three times, and by the last time they are much better. They aren't better in terms of the drawings, but the shot selection gets better and more honed.

When you're working on a budget you won't be able to afford many days on set. If you know exactly what you are shooting weeks before you get to set then you won't waste time and money shooting things that will end up on the cutting room floor. Also you'll  have more time to get things right on the shots that are needed. Storyboard then storyboard again. You should not be wasting any frames.

5. Trade with other artists.
There have been countless times that I haven't been able to afford something that I wanted for a video but was able to sweeten the deal by offering my services with cash. I am a designer and VFX artist by day and have used those skills to barter with musicians who did scores for me in trade for logos, or producers who budgeted a video for me in trade for VFX on a project they were working on. Make sure the deal is outlined on paper first so both parties know what they are getting out of the deal. If you can't pay for something all in cash, offer a trade of services. You'll be surprised how open many artists are open to working out trade deals.

6. The idea is king.
I have seen $30,000 videos turn out horrible and $500 videos turn out great. The idea is king! If you only have $500 to make a video make sure you have a million dollar idea. Not an idea that will cost a million dollars but an idea that will look like a million bucks because it is so original and captures the audience so well that the audience ignores the lack or production value or star power.

Go Go Bizkitt!'s "Jump," shot for only 2k.

7. It helps to have prior work so people understand and respect your style.
Everyone has heard that it takes money to make money. Well, it takes good work to make more good work. It helps to have work that you have made to show other people your style and level of finish you want to achieve. You don't need a lot of previous work but even one short piece that nails your own personal style at the level of production quality you want to work at. I'm talking a 30 second or one-minute short. You can make a film or animation by yourself for no budget. It's hard and the options for what you can do will be limited but it is possible to make something great that shows your individual style for little or no money. Make something great by yourself so people see your dedication, passion and ability, this will convince them to be part of the next thing you want to make.

8. Your first few films are going to suck.
Yup, your work is gonna suck and so did mine and everyone else's. Make as many shorts/music videos as you can so that you can get out all those bad and stereotypical ideas out and done with. Eventually you will get better so don't spend 30k on making your first music video instead make 10 videos for 3k . I guarantee that your tenth 3k video will look much better then your first 30k opus. Making videos is like making love: it takes practice to become good at it, and the more you do it, the more comfortable you will be.

About Matt: Matt Stone is a designer, motionographer, and filmmaker based in L.A. He was recently the recipient of an LAMVF Award for his direction on the Deadmau5 "Head Games." A musician himself, his music video directing credits also include Go Go Bizkitt!'s "Jump."  Matt is currently Creative Director of Butter Studios, a premier boutique multi-media marketing and creative services agency.

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How to Make a Music Video That Doesn't Suck

Cheap Trick: How to Make a Music Video Cheaply

How to Make a Music Video That Doesn't Suck

By Leah McKissock

In this installment of Cheap Trick, music video director Leah McKissock sheds her insight and know-how on making a decent music video with little monetary funds.

No one ever said making music videos was easy. Making good music videos on a low-budget is even harder. I’ve been making music videos independently (outside the system of reps, production companies, and commissioners) for many years and have been slowly working my way up to bigger budgets. However, no matter how much the budget increases, it doesn’t change the process. My producer and I are always trying to find a way to push our budget as hard as we can. We always have to cut our own pay way down (or entirely) and we always have to try to work out deals with everyone. It doesn’t have to be this way, I suppose, but if you care immensely about the quality of your work it kind of goes with the territory. If you’re interested in making low-budget music videos that can stand strong against the big ones, than my list of 7 tips (based on personal experiences in dealing with this) could serve to help you in your difficult journey ahead.

Tip #1: Give yourself time
“Haven’t you heard the saying? Good, fast, and cheap–everyone wants all three, but it’s only possible to have two!” said my cinematographer on my last music video shoot. As I was stunned by the bold wisdom of her argument, I began to realize that this basically sums up the unavoidable problem with filmmaking. In music videos, when you consider the “iron triangle” concept you’ll especially find that what most bands and record labels ask for is impossible. That said, you need to carefully consider all three of these game-changing factors (good, fast, and cheap) before you even start planning the video. Since you can’t make your video good, fast, and cheap all at once, you have to decide which of these are your biggest priority. In all of my experiences, the first thing I choose to let go of is “fast.” “Good” is my main priority because what’s the point of making the video if it’s not. “Cheap” isn’t up to me, but time is just there, so why not spend more of it making the video good?

All of my videos (especially the lowest budget ones) took a lot of time to make. Often 6 months total from beginning to end. This I would say is probably the most important tip I could give. You have to make sure that no one is rushing you to complete the video in an unreasonable amount of time (and by unreasonable I mean “will affect the quality of the final product”). I definitely cannot stress this piece of advice enough. Another important thing to note is that you have to make sure that both the song and artist you’re making the video for is worth all of that painstaking time and energy. You’re essentially spending a lot of free time (yours and others’) to make something that promotes the artist more than yourself, so it’s best to feel passionate about the song and work with nice people who appreciate your efforts.

Tip #2: Make “low-budget” cool
Sometimes low-budget videos have a charm and quirkiness that expensive ones will never have. I say use that to your advantage. Make the low-budget aspects of your video look that way on purpose. To me, this is how all the greatest filmmakers achieved something special on a low budget; and in music videos a lot of the best concepts are simple and done in a clever way.

LBCK, "Start" from Leah McKissock on Vimeo.

My video for LBCK, “Start,” for example, cost 1K. We shot it on a Canon 5D over the course of 2 days, with a 15 person crew (that all worked for free), in a small lighting studio at my school. The video relies mostly on a stop-motion animation effect, done in front of a solid white screen and towards the end of the video, a green screen. The idea was for one dancer to do the same choreography over and over again as the color of her hair and wardrobe pieces change to the beat of the song. If we had a higher budget (or if we wanted to be lazy), we could have just keyed out each changing element and altered them in post, but instead I wanted to take the long route and make it look low-budget on purpose. I made our dancer (Eloise DeLuca) do the choreography and change costumes hundreds of times. She knew ahead of time that this was the schedule, but definitely started to hate me by the end of it. When the video was all cut together and done though, it was clear that making the changes in-camera gave the video a lot more life. At the end of the day, I think you have to let the video be what it is. Make your video proud of it’s own low-budgetness!

Tip #3: Keep the crew small
The less people you have on set, the less people you have to pay and spend money on feeding. Obviously, you can’t exploit people. Each department has to be comfortable with their support team for the work they’re accomplishing, but you have to be reasonable. A lot of film sets have too many people standing around doing nothing. You have to really figure out ahead of time (with each department) how many people you reasonably need to pull it off. When on a low budget the simpler the concepts are and the less crew members you need, the better.

Tip #4: Shoot where you know
Locations can be one of the most expensive parts of filmmaking. The best way to get around this problem is to shoot in places you already have access to (like your apartment or your school). The other way to add production value to your video is to shoot guerilla-style in locations with good natural lighting. Often if you have a very stripped-down cast and crew and are shooting on a small camera, you can get away with this. I’ve even done it on larger cameras (like the Arri Alexa) and haven’t gotten stopped because the area was low-key enough and we shot what we needed very quickly. Definitely keep your shots simple and strip it down to less shots if you’re going to take this approach, but I do highly recommend it for low-budget videos.

 

McKissock at work on the LBCK's "Start."

 

Tip #5: Get a kick-ass producer
Your producer’s job is one of the most difficult when dealing with low budgets. If you don’t have a producer that kicks ass and truly believes in your project, then they won’t be able to make the tight financial constraints work. The most valuable thing a project can have is a producer with killer connections. You can get all kinds of deals if your producer knows the right people (i.e., good crew members, equipment, and services all for less). My best producer has saved me thousands of dollars and made my projects look like they cost 5xs as much. Find someone that you click with and knows how to stretch a dollar like crazy.

Tip #6: Find student deals
If you’re a band looking for someone to make you a low-budget video or you’re a director looking for a producer, I highly recommend you find a student in film school. A student in any film department will have access to equipment, tons of spots on campus that you can shoot in for free, access to discounted permits, and mad discounts at prop houses. (Side note: *If you live in LA, go to Sony Props and ask about their student discount. It’s insane!).

Directors and producers who are already graduated from film school will have a much more difficult time trying to make something on a super low budget. So bands, go find a talented student to make your video if you’re trying to make it with less than 5K. Trust me, they can stretch that budget way further than anyone signed to a production company can.

For example, another video I directed while I was a student was for His Orchestra, on a project called “Black Coffin.” This video was shot in 1 day and done entirely on a stage of a theater at my school. Everyone worked for free and we borrowed a lot of equipment from the film department. When you’re in film school, a lot of people are looking to gain experience as crew members, but also, all of the dancers in the video were students as well which helped the project out enormously. Finding student deals is the only way I was ever able to pull off ultra low-budget music videos while still maintaining high production value.

His Orchestra, "Black Coffin" from Leah McKissock on Vimeo.

Tip #7: Wear multiple hats
Another essential tip in making a cool low-budget music video is to wear multiple hats. Although you can’t do every position on set (that would be suicide), you can however do a couple of jobs that are easier for you to do than to try and communicate what you want to others. For me, the areas I used to do myself while simultaneously directing were usually production design and editing. I still edit my own projects all the time because a) you save money and b) you can get what you want easier and faster. Obviously, the jobs that you take on will be different for each director. Some people shoot their own videos instead of having to hire a cinematographer, other people produce their own stuff, etc. All I know is that if you want to save money in certain areas, find what else you’re good at doing and wear multiple hats. This is crucial for pulling off your vision on a low budget.

In conclusion to my 7 tips, here is a link to my latest music video. Although this video is not so low budget (according to most people’s standards these days), all 7 of my tips were still applied to the making of this project and it certainly wouldn’t exist otherwise. Good luck to your low-budget music video making! I hope my tips and advice will find you well.

Lena Fayre - Belong To You from Leah McKissock on Vimeo.

About Leah: Leah is a music video director based in LA. She began making films at the tender age of 8, tinkering with her parents’ video camera and oftentimes experimenting with stop-motion animation and in-camera effects. Her awards include the Grand Prize of the OnVidi Student Video Contest and the Best Student Video at the 2011 Los Angeles Music Video Festival (LAMVF). You can learn more about her at leahmckissock.com

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Cheap Trick: How to Make a Music Video Cheaply

Favorites of 2012 - RFSL Staff Edition, Part 1 Albums

By Staff

Here are some of the Radio Free Silver Lake staff’s favorite albums and EP’s we’ve been listening to from the past year. Every December as we consider our lists we realize just how much music is out there and how many records we hadn’t heard in the past twelve months. In particular RFSL’s focus on live and local music means that there are many national releases that we don’t get a chance to spend as much time listening to as we’d like. Without attempting to be encyclopedic in any way, but from our point of view, here is the music we like and want to share with our readers from 2012.

Jed, Video Free Silver Lake

Favorite Albums of the Year (LA Albums)
Lavender Diamond - Incorruptible Heart
Races - Year of the Witch
bikos - Let Down Your Avant Garde 

Favorite Albums of the Year (Non-LA albums):
Valdimar - Um Stund
Corin Tucker - Kill My Blues
Sharon Van Etten - Tramp
Tilbury - Exorcise
First Aid Kit - The Lion's Roar

Brad Roberts, Senior Editor
I think it's only fair, when making a best-of-the-year list, to admit outright that all I heard was just the tip of the musical iceberg of the world's music. After spending a lifetime with them, I know my musical tastes very well. I know what appeals to me and I know what doesn't, though I try to keep an open mind and am amenable to broadening my horizons, I don't want to waste time on what the music industry terms popular music.

Favorite Albums of the Year (LA Albums)

1. Earlimart - System Preferences

Cheap Trick: How to Make a Music Video Cheaply

The LAMVF Musicians/ Filmmakers Collaborative offers a way for musicians to make high-quality music videos on a shoestring budget.

Howdy, dear and loyal RFSL readers! We’re kicking off Cheap Trick, a series of tips and interviews to help musicians get shit done on a shoestring budget. Our first installment is an interview with Sami Kriegstein, founder of the Los Angeles Music Video Festival (LAMVF). The LAMVF is a pretty awesome annual showcase of music videos featuring work from filmmakers from around the world.  Now entering its third year the festival is scheduled for May 4-5, 2013. They also host the LAMVF Spotlight, a really cool monthly directors showcase at Downtown Independent movie theater. Past featured directors have included Isaac Ravishankara, Dugan O’ Neal, and Nicholaus Goossen.  Admission is a measly suggested donation of $5 (chump change, amirite?) and you score a free T-shirt, plus there’s $2 drinks. I hope to get my homebody butt over there one of these nights.

We were lucky enough to interview Sami Kriegstein, founder (LAMVF about a special collaborative program, which pairs musicians who have a minimum of a $1k budget with a video music director to make a stellar video for not much money. Here’s what Sami had to say about program:

How did the idea for this unique program come about?
I remember looking around when I was in college at USC and everyone I knew was either an aspiring filmmaker or an aspiring musician, and all of them were making music videos. But they were doing it separately, in parallel. My musician buddies were struggling to find directors for their videos, my filmmaker friends didn’t seem to know any bands. It became very clear to me that there was a need for some sort of bridge to link the two communities. They need each other.

How will the filmmakers and musicians connect with each other?
Musicians will submit songs they’re looking to make videos for along with relevant information like budget available, aesthetic they have in mind, timeline, etc. Directors will be able to preview the songs and submit video treatments directly to the bands. There aren’t any guarantees with this processit’s more about forging the connection. My instinct is that some amazing collaborations will emerge.

Why low-budget films in particular?
If you were to ask an “industry professional” they’d probably tell you that at this point, all music videos are low-budget. They’re talking of course about budgets today in comparison to budgets 10-, 15-years ago. The definition of low-budget is a bit relative and therefore hard to define but we’re basically looking at mostly $0-$5K, stretching up to $10K in rare cases. If the program is successful, there’s no reason it couldn’t some day expand to include larger budgets but we’re more interested in helping the “little guys” – the emerging artists who just need that small push in the right direction.

How did you recruit the filmmakers? Who are some of the music directors who will be participating?
We’ve begun recruiting mostly through our monthly newsletter and via word-of-mouth. We’re tapped into a great community of directors who’ve already established themselves as up-and-comers who I very much hope will participate but our main goal is to inspire the next generation to hop on the music video band-wagon, kids in film school, etc.  Ultimately, participation will be dictated by the quality of the songs submitted.

Are you planning on focusing on LA-based directors first, or directors from all across the U.S.?
We’ll be focusing on LA-based directors as a proof-of-concept. There’s so much activity in the music and film industry here already, it makes the most sense to keep it local!

How does this program relate to the annual LAMVF fest?
Videos created through the program will automatically be entered into the festival and we’ll try to do some recruiting at the event as well. Some day there may be an entire category dedicated to these videos.

What do you hope to achieve with this program?
The program is meant to both bridge the gap between indie filmmakers and indie musicians, and to raise awareness around the groundbreaking work being done with music videos today. More people than ever before are making music videos, amazing ones. It really is a renaissance of sorts. But no one’s talking about it. We hope to change that.

How could this benefit the music and film community in Los Angeles?
We want to help foster a real sense of community and support for music video lovers. People get into this business for pure love of the art form and it can often feel daunting or isolating. We hope the LA Music Video Festival will be able to establish itself as a platform for music video collaboration and a springboard for new and excellent work. We want to help discover the next Michel Gondry, then introduce him or her to the next White Stripes. Wouldn’t that be cool?

For more information about the program, contact Colleen Curlin at [email protected].

The Deadly Syndrome on All in Time

by Joe Fielder

One of our favorite LA-based indie rock/pop acts, The Deadly Syndrome recently released their third album, All in Time.

That made us happy, since we've still been listening to Nolens Volens, their excellent sophmore release, pretty regularly.

We liked this album, so asked the group to write a bit about the making of a few songs on it. And Mike Hughes -- band member, multi-instrumentalist, and producer -- agreed.

Here's Mike on four tracks off of All in Time, along with streams of the songs in question:

"It's a Mess"

Sometimes you can write a complete song in 15 minutes, sometimes it takes 4 years. This one took 4 years, which seems absurd to me in retrospect, because musically its really simple, 2 chords, no changes. It started as a little guitar sketch, then I added the big bass and drum part, and forgot about it for a long time. When we were figuring out which demos to pursue for All in Time, I remembered that little idea, and thought it might make sense amongst the other songs we were leaning towards. It was passed around, and its completion is a testament to the collective writing process. This song proved really hard for me to mix, and didn't really sound right to me until I handed it over for mixing to Dan Long, and he absolutely crushed it.

"Joseph Porter"

As a demo, this song was really pretty, and almost entirely acoustic. Will also had the lyrics done, and it came to the rest of us as a pretty complete thought. After we started working on the other songs, I dove back into this one, to sort of inject some of the aesthetic that the record had begun to take on. In practice, this meant adding ethereal electric guitar layers, vocal effects, and the glitchy drum beats. The main percussive element is actually based around a random sample I made. In a totally goofy exercise, I was trying to record a really nice creaking sound the bathroom door in my house was making, and while I was recording, I dropped a bunch of cable slack on the wooden floor, and it made this really great noise. After a bunch of processing, it became the glue that held the rhythm section together.

"All in Time"

This song was one of Chris' demos. The first half of the song was complete, but didn't have an ending. I really liked the repetition of the words "all in time", and thought it would be cool to zero in on that sort of meditative, hypnotic side of it. I took his demo, and programmed the extended looping second half, while we were still in the demo building phase of pre production. When it came time to record, we tracked the basics, guitars, and drums, and then re-did vocals. For whatever reason, we couldn't recreate the vocal magic that happened on the original demo, so I lifted the vocal right out of the demo, and that became the lead vocal track on the finished version. It was recorded with the onboard microphone of Chris' macbook!

"Whatever comes our Way"

I always saw this song as sort of a microcosm for the record as a whole. This was another instance where I took a demo of Will's, that was a complete song in its own right, and sort of dismantled it, and gave it that start stop feel, and tried to inject more of a "hypnotic" vibe with the addition of the extended outro, and glitchy drums and synths. The most fun part of altering this one, was taking out the steady beat that ran throughout the original demo, and adding those heavily compressed and overdriven drum fills. We were also very lucky to have our friend Angela Correa (Correatown) lend her voice to the transitional section in the middle. It was feeling a little spare, and she really made if feel finished. This song has all of the elements you find spread across the rest of the album, there are pretty, acoustic sections, great lyrics and vocals, big acoustic drums and overdriven guitars, ambient parts, as well as programmed glitchy electronics and drum machines.

Last in Class on the Songs of Last in Class

by Joe Fielder

We caught up recently with The Movies-alum Jessica Gelt about her new band Last in Class, who have the Monday night free residency at The Satellite through October.

Here's Jessica on the background of her bandmates and seven of the group's songs:

I'm super-excited about the band, which features singer/songwriter Emily Wilder on vox and guitar (Wet & Reckless), Charlie Wadhams on drums (Rex Aquarium, Sweet Hearts, The Movies) and Chris Watson on lead guitar (Russian Bones, Juliette and The Licks). The music has been compared to Gun Club and Bleached, but I like to think it's got its own thing going. Part punk, part pop, all heart.

The caveat for all these songs is that they are all written by Emily Wilder who is the best lyricist I've met since Timothy James of The Movies. She refuses to use cliche twists of phrase in her songs and the result is a certain freshness that you don't often come across.

"Stop"

This song thrives on a stop-and-start rhythm. It's a playful song. Like most Last in Class songs, this is a love song of sorts. And just because it's a love song doesn't mean that it's about the love of a person. It can be about love of a sound, or of a combination of notes, or of a particular frame of mind. We had difficulty making this song come together in a cohesive way because of all the weird changes. But now that we have it down it's one of our favorite songs to play.

"Tied to the Moon"

Emily wrote this last fall after we both got a little too excited during a full moon party. Sometimes life can just get you so riled up that you feel like you're going to float away. Or maybe that's not life, maybe it's just whiskey.

"Drug Song"

A great musician and friend named Laura Jordan co-wrote this song with Emily a long time ago. The two were living together in a little post-heartbreak shack in Silver Lake, if I remember the story correctly. (Em tells me so many stories--and I, her. We are each others' diaries, but we don't always keep our facts straight.) This song is now called "Cigarettes" because that's really the only vice the whole band keeps trying to kick. That and, whiskey.

"Broken Backs" I can't say too much about this song because it's pretty personal. Let's just say that there were tears involved, and a lot of steps. Someone might have carried someone else down some steps and a back was possibly hurt. Not broken, mind you, just hurt. There was probably a broken heart in there somewhere, though. Broken hearts hide in most of these songs. It's what makes them sing.

"Untie Me"

Have you ever been so in love that you just want to smash the other person's face in? In a good way, of course. Well, that's kind of what this song is getting at. It's a "I'm really into you" anthem. So much so that I want to put your head in a blender and drink it--kind of thing. C'mon, we've all been there, right?

"Walk Me Home"

The title of this song says it all, "Walk me home!" Sometimes a girl has got to be walked home. Sometimes she shouldn't be out on the streets scraping up her knees (that's a lyrical paraphrase, too). Emily and I live in Echo Park, just a few blocks away from one another, and we walk each other home. A lot. Other people walk us home, too. We have relied on the kindness of strangers.

"Don't Settle"

Searching for the perfect someone is a universal in music, and that's what this is about. Except that it's a plea to not accept anything less than the very best. Don't settle. The right love--the real love is out there. And that's true for everyone. For Last In Class, at the moment, that love is each other and our music.

Best of 2012 So Far: Part II (Lazy summer edition)

By Kathryn Pinto

Early in July Brad Roberts gave you his picks for the best music of the first half of 2012 and we promised you a Part II. Summer is lazy; there are lots of shows to see. After a little vacation, here are my album picks for January to June of this year. This is not a comprehensive list--there are far too many albums released for one person to absorb everything--but it's an opportunity to point out some of the best music we’ve heard this year with a focus on emerging acts and live music.

Rademacher - Baby Hawk (Part III of III) (Self released, 2012)
Baby Hawk III is simply the record I’ve wanted to listen to more than any other this year. Malcolm Sosa’s songwriting is unparalleled, but it is his chemistry with his band (particularly Kim Haden) and effervescent production from Josiah Mazzaschi at the Cave Studio that lifts the Baby Hawk trilogy above all earlier Rademacher records. Impressively, Sosa's lyrics create expansive visual imagery with very few words. “We were all drunk and dreaming/popcorn on the ceiling” from “Who Knew Love” might be one of the most evocative turns of phrase I’ve heard this year. The instrumentation and production on Baby Hawk III percolate up through the songwriting, setting loose the tracks to be something that compels you to roll down your car window and sing out to the summer sky.

Auditorium - Nights Worth Living (EP) (Self released, 2012)
There are so many good things going on here. Spencer Berger as a one-man show is an enormously talented songwriter and vocalist, but he’s also not afraid to be uncool, or more precisely, to be unhip. Free to geek out in both writing and arrangements, Berger fills these songs with tremendous heart and humor. “The Sex Offenders” could be the most wrong thing written in a song except that it rings true and very funny. “There's a bunch of sex offenders living down the street from me/
But I guess if they've found forgiveness in the law/
Then there's probably some hope for me.”

Japandroids  - Celebration Rock (Polyvinyl, 2012)
Sometimes music at its most essential is a physical thing. It’s the way guitar strings and vocal chords vibrate, sound waves push through the air. It’s the heavy weight of damp sweat in the air, bodies so close together at a show that someone else’s saturated t-shirt slides against your skin. It’s about raw release. Music like this doesn’t care about beautiful construction--just holding itself together enough to shout along, raise a first, and push toward the front of the stage. Go for broke sound, all guitars and exhilaration. Japandroids call it Celebration Rock.

Show Review: Seasons, Manhattan Murder Mystery, Torches, Body Parts Following PASS THE MUSIC, Echoplex (7/30/12)

by Brad Roberts

What a way to start the week. With a blow-out worthy of a Saturday night! I've heard the night described as epic and awesome. It was both. Monday July 30 will be remembered by me as a day that bled into Tuesday and maybe even into Wednesday. Am I still somewhere at the Echoplex? This review will probably be a little blurry.

The plan was to attend the screening of the documentary, PASS THE MUSIC, at 7:30, followed by live sets from four bands. But I had to get home from work, eat something, and get over to Echo Park, all within about an hour. It couldn't be done so I ended up getting off the bus around 9 as I saw Ben Golombrunning up the street with a Blu-Ray player under his arm.

It was needed to show the music videos for Seasons and Torches, following the movie, which was running late. I was glad because I got to see the last segment with The Movies and see some of the filmed performance they gave at Bordello which the documentary shows in beautiful color and with great sound. Powerful stuff! As erratic and unpredictable as Timothy James live shows could be, when the guy was on...he was on! And this performance shows it off.

The Echoplex was filled with a crowd of friendly faces and could have been a scene right out of 2009, when a night at Spaceland used to seem like a private party with all the usual suspects. It just showed me how vibrant and alive the music scene still is in 2012. And the live performances were an affirmation of that fact. Body Parts opened the show and they showed an admirable command of the stage with their high-pitched lead singer effortlessly in control of a very flexible vocal range. Their songs were odd and quirky in a retro-new wave kind of style. Fun band.

But the venue was filling up, and there were many distractions, and people to talk to, so I couldn't give the band the attention they deserved. I'll just say I enjoyed what I heard and I liked their style. There was lots of patio action outside making it necessary to check out what was going on out there periodically. Seamus Simpson, Kathryn Pinto and I even posed for a RFSL staff photo. I feel like the happy idiot.

Celebrate Record Store Day on April 21st!

By Jackie Lam

 

The 5^th annual Record Store Day is right around the corner and takes place on Saturday, April 21. It's the time to step inside your neighborhood record store, smell the crisp vinyl encased in their sleeves and enjoy the physical tangibility of the record. RSD is a special day to pay homage to an listening format that still remains the favorite among audiophiles, has outlasted less-superior mediums while enduring the constantly changing music industry.

 As usual, there will be a boatload of special vinyl editions of tracks released just for RSD,  which include Deerhoof/Of Montreal, Foster the People, Grouple, Blitzen Trapper, Animal Collective, Arcade Fire, Destroyer, Beach House, and Minus the Bear.  Here's the haps on the great free in-store performances, sales, freebies, and giveaways the local music shops have planned for the day: 

Happy Birthday Radio Free Silver Lake: Now We Are Six

By Kathryn Pinto

"If music isn't my full-time girlfriend, it's at least a mistress I have set up in a really tacky apartment like in Goodfellas."
--Joe Fielder, November 2011

Six years ago February Joe Fielder launched a music blog he once described to me as “a love letter to the Silver Lake music scene.” A year later in a really terrible office at an awful job in Arizona I found the site when I searched for information about bands that I had heard on “song of the day” podcasts--bands like the Little Ones, Division Day and the Silversun Pickups. From that cubicle, surrounded by the walking dead, music wasn’t entertainment, it wasn’t my boyfriend. Music was a lifeline to kindred spirits; proof that there were other people out there in the world whose souls weren’t dead.

Reflecting on our birthday we looked back to the first year of Radio Free Silver Lake when Joe ran the site nearly single-handedly. It’s pretty impressive how much ground Joe covered, establishing many of the columns that continue today like band interviews and the Monday Show Low Down, which was a bit shorter in the early days. In a music landscape where the hip and the clever often pull focus from the very good music being made every day, on February 21, 2006 Radio Free Silver Lake issued a manifesto:

I'm not a music snob.
[…]I figure it's worth getting out there, because the reason I'm doing this is since I really like sharing good music with people, not cause I want to come off like some sort of monocle-twirling, indie rock authority or anything.

I'm lucky enough to live in the heart of Los Angeles, a town with a friggingly I-CAN'T-BELIEVE-IT-SOMETIMES incredible local music scene. There are great bands playing every night of the week -- signed and unsigned -- and I catch a lot of shows here.
So, this blog …will exist to mention good new albums, upcoming concerts, and so on.

This is a good time to take a look back at some of the best posts from the early days: