Radio Free Silver Lake

Show Review: Lost In The Trees at The Echo - March 20, 2014

by Brad Roberts

I always end up being unexpectedly overwhelmed by Lost In The Trees every time I see them. Thursday night, March 20, at The Echo proved to be no exception. Touring for the first time as a stripped down combo, departing from the large orchestral make up of the band before, they look more like a rock band now. It's an interesting direction for them to take, with no loss whatsoever on the impact they have on stage.

And this new ensemble is what makes their new album, Past Life, such a surprising departure from their previous releases. I'll have to admit, I was surprised at the crowd that pushed their way to the front as the band came on stage, with an urgency usually reserved for big, popular bands. Their audiences usually remind me of the studious and academic audience you would see at an Andrew Bird or Okkervil River concert. They now have an expanding fan base, probably from the heavy radio play of  Past Life. This makes me very happy as they have always deserved more acclaim.

Show Review: Mother Falcon and yOya at The Echo (2/12/14)

by Brad Roberts

I have been a little obsessed of late by yOya and have been anxious to catch up with them again after seeing them last October at Echoplex and getting their great EP, Go North. Not only vocally and instrumentally proficient, but masterful composers as well, the EP has been on constant rotation ever since. When I saw they were playing the Mother Falcon (at right) residency at The Echo this Wednesday, February 12, I found this was going to be a perfect opportunity to see, not only yOya, but a band I definitely needed to know about.

Researching Mother Falcon I discovered an orchestral ensemble that appeared to be on a direct path right into my heart. Heavily instrumental, the Austin, Texas band came together around 2008 when they were high school students in the school orchestra. Alternately described as orchestral indie or classical jazz or baroque chamber, their music touches on all those bases and more. Samples of the music on line convinced me to buy a ticket and go.

Show Review: WIRE at Echoplex (11/17/13)

by Seamus Simpson

So Sunday night, Nov 17, I took a chance to go see one of all-time favorite bands WIRE at the Echoplex in what I expected to be a fantastic show, but now I kind of wished I missed it. I started my day as any usual Sunday which is say finding interesting way to make un-known and undiscovered cocktails. This turned out to be fairly entertaining for me even though I made no new discoveries and instead started filming a buddy cop film with my cat Aleister Meowley. As it turns out he is not very good at taking directions because, well, he is a cat. Still these are thing I do to past the time between all the rock and roll in my life.

After meeting with my good friend and having a nip or two at his place we trampled down to the Echoplex just in time to see the end of Chasity Belt which from what I vaguely remember were an all-female band. In fact to honest I think that’s all I remember about them. I didn’t seem to get the impression they were bad, but it’s hard to get a bead on a band that you catch approximately 2-3 minutes of on your way out to the patio to grab a smoke. I will say given the chance I would check them out again.

So with a couple of beers and a few shots I wandered up to the stage to see WIRE hopefully blow my minds. I had seen them play here a few years back when they were touring for their Object 47 as was blown away by how tight and great they sounded. I had high expectations for this show, and maybe that is the problem. I might have expected too much. The band came out and kicked it off with an old classic in "Marooned" and I was feeling good about where we were going. Colin sounded strong on the vocals, Graham was solid and always and Robert was hitting all the strides on drum and even looked spry for his age to still be playing that solid and that fast. Touring Matthew Simms was a problem for me though. He never seemed into the songs or his laying and had an almost laconic feeling about him that he would rather be anywhere else than on that stage. Which was a shame because took me out of the show. I will admit I haven’t heard the new release Change Becomes Us so there times when I got a little lost.

I really enjoyed the material the played off their excellent last release Red Barked Tree like "Please Take" and "Clay", but overall there seemed to be a drive missing in the form of a black hole that was the guitar coming from of side of the stage. Maybe he was having a bad night. Maybe they were having a bad night, but part of me wishes I just would have left off with that last show I saw and kept that memory rather than have it sullied by this lack luster experience. That said I would go see them again because they are the gods of art rock and a huge influence on my life. Next time it is.

Show Review: Hanni El Khatib with Bass Drum of Death, Tijuana Panthers at the El Rey (10/25/13)

By Kathryn Pinto

Hanni El Khatib has been kicking around LA for a couple of years now and even as he’s graduated to touring and playing larger better sounding rooms I hadn’t yet seen him play live. Spurred on by the excitement writing about him for our RFSL ticket giveaway I had to get myself to his show at the El Rey Friday night. I missed local favorites Tijuana Panthers, but saw a frenetic set from Bass Drum of Death out of Oxford, Mississippi, a town known for John Grisham, William Faulkner, a campus desegregation enforced by federal marshals, but also Fat Possum Records (Youth Lagoon, Yuck). Bass Drum of Death  proved to be loud and heavy and sweaty with engaging melodic lines that were catchy in spite of themselves. The three piece played loud, hard rock to a whole mess of stoked kids in the mosh pit. El Rey security had to post their biggest guard on stage to stop the stage divers. In short, an excellent set from some guys you should definitely check out. 

Hanni El Khatib has a studied raggedness to him. His press bio will tell you that he arrived in Los Angeles a skate boarder with a junker of a guitar, but if that myth is not apocryphal, it describes a time in the so distant past that it is no longer sheds much light. El Khatib owns the stage and he looks good doing it. A couple songs into his set when signs of show glow began to appear I made the note “Oh yes, I would definitely take a sweaty hug from this guy.” A couple of girls looking like finalists in a Bethany Cosentino look-alike contest took it a step further, passing small crumpled papers to the man, that one imagines were scrawled with cell phone digits.

Three things stand out from the show: El Khatib’s blues meets Eddie Van Halen guitar, how good, how singularly funktacular the bass man was, and the art direction--art directedness--of the whole enterprise. Spitballing influences: garage rock, skateboarding, punk rock, 1960’s R & B, Wall of Sound, cholo rockabilly. The sound is rough, but it swings. He is where calaveras meet The Misfits. He played “Dead Wrong” from Will the Guns Come Out (2011), its handclaps and wawa vocals straight out of a Phil Spector arrangement. The band takes their aesthetic to the edge of falling apart, but never goes that far. It’s the sonic equivalent of dark jeans and roper boots, that never get grease or paint on them and never get abraded and abused the way they do when you wear them as work clothes. El Khatib is a stylist—he made career on cover song for a commercial. This band knows what sounds good, too. It’s a sound the keeps its the rough edges without ever going off the rails. El Khatib evokes punk or rockabilly or Mussel Shoals, but it’s his own amalgamation of those sounds. It hits a mark near Black Keys and the White Stripes, but also Los Angeles’ Red Cortez who seem to have unknowingly passed him a much funkier baton. On “Human Fly,” a Cramps cover, he remained true to the bass line and the minimal arrangement of the original, but gives the vocals and guitar his own sexy swagger. 

The show was the last of the tour, a homecoming show and a Friday night—a just got paid, gonna get dressed up and go out kind of a night. For some of the audience a show is just a show, but El Khatib played this set for the fans who gave up two weeks of coffee to buy a ticket. The man knows how to put on a show, to build anticipation and suspense from song to song. Playing “Pay No Mind," he used his vocals as a percussive instrument. It plays like a playground chant, a Double Dutch jump rope song, a “Hollaback Girl.” It’s a sing along, dance along Friday night song. The show was compelling--the music, the energy and the crowd--people bouncing, dancing and crowdsurfing. El Khatib played an encore that finished right up to the El Rey's sound curfew, leaving everyone in the audience wanting more.

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Show Review: Okkervil River at The Wiltern (10/20/13)

text and photos by Brad Roberts

Every time I see Okkervil River I feel I've gotten to know Will Sheff a little better. The intensity and depth of his lyrics reveal so much about himself it makes his live concerts seem an act of bold daring by an artist unafraid of the fallout such revelations could incur. Only a few performers I've ever seen get away with this successfully. The show on Sunday night, October 19, was just such an occasion. The new album, The Silver Gymnasium, is the most blatantly autobiographical of all his releases, dealing specifically with his childhood in New Hampshire, and it made this performance cathartic for both the performer and the audience

Sitting in a nearly empty Wiltern Theatre (I wanted to get into the pit so I got there before the door opened at 7) I was surprised there was nobody there yet. But then my thoughts on who should be popular and who actually is popular are almost never in sync. As a fan of Okkervil River for a while now, I'm always amazed all over again at just how compelling a band they are, and yet almost nobody I know follows them. It seems incredible.

Show Review: Two views of The National - The Greek (Aug. 10) and Hollywood Forever Cemetery (Aug, 11, 2013)

by Brad Roberts

photos by Amanda Glover (unless otherwise noted)

What a great opportunity to contrast two distinct concert experiences with the same band. Over the last eight years I've really enjoyed every opportunity I've had to see the same band two nights in a row. It reveals more about the individual personalities of the band members, seeing the way their performances vary from one night to the next and how they interact with the other musicians and how their interact with the audience as well. I've had that chance with Arcade Fire, The New Pornographers, Fleet Foxes, even The Veils, and it's always payed off with new insights into the band. To see how they strive with their professionalism to makes each performance seem fresh and individual.

Now, with The National (above photo by Amanda Glover), it was accentuate by the fact that I think their newest album, Trouble Will Find Me, may be their very finest effort. This story actually begins a couple of months ago. After the relative disappointment of High Violet (though I've had friends seem aghast at that notion), I was not prepared to be so overwhelmed with the new album. Each song delivers mightily on the promise of their opening notes, building layer upon layer of densely textured guitars, brass, drums, piano and vocal harmonies, dominated by the grumpy, deadpan baritone of Matt Berninger singing stinging lyrics of often brutal honesty.

I got a ticket for their show at The Greek as soon as they went on sale and when the Hollywood Forever show was announced a little while later, I decided I had to go to that too. I was still vibrating from the Grizzly Bear show at Hollywood Forever Cemetery on Friday night as I climbed the hill to The Greek on Saturday, August 10, for The National. I knew that Daughter was also opening for them at The Cemetery on Sunday, so as I settled into my seat they were playing their final song. I soon realized I was going to be an outside observer at a show going on at a great distance from where I was sitting. This can be the nature of The Greek, but it only steeled my resolve to get to tomorrow night's concert early enough to get right up to the stage.

Show Review: Grizzly Bear at Hollywood Forever Cemetery - August 9, 2013

 text and photos by Brad Roberts

 It was eight years ago this month that I tumbled head over heels back into rock music. It had such an immediate and enormous impact on my life that I'll never be able to forget the date of August 1st 2005. In fact it was one of those points when your life has been changed forever, but it takes a few years to really sink in. This past weekend was a fitting way to begin my celebration of this significant event. Three outdoor concerts in three days, the start of a vacation from work and the weekend before the much anticipated Echo Park Rising.

This was the first time I've been able to attend one of the outdoor concerts at the historic Hollywood Forever Cemetery and Grizzly Bear was the perfect band for that introduction. It was such a special night that I'll relate it from the beginning. It's been nearly a year since the release of their latest album, Shields, so I wasn't sure how big the clamor for tickets to this show would be, especially considering the $55. price tag. Arriving a little after the gates opened at 7 PM, I was in that zig-zagging line that snakes it's way back and forth on the lawn just outside the cemetery and as it wasn't packed, the line moved quickly.

Once inside I followed the path half way into the cemetery, following the sound of the opening band, Regal Degal, who began right on schedule. As I neared the concert site, I saw the sea of blankets that picnickers had set up, but noticed a small crowd who had forgone the chance to set up camp in order to get up close to the stage and hold onto a standing spot. That was for me. I wandered to a central position where the sound balance was at its best, about seven people deep from the stage and I was firmly planted there for the next two hour. Though once Grizzly Bear began I was anywhere but standing on a square patch of grass in the middle of Hollywood. I was out somewhere in the stratosphere.

Photo Gallery: No Age and Tijuana Panthers at the Santa Monica Pier (7/25/13)

Photos by Angela Holtzen
Text by Kathryn Pinto

Last week No Age and Tijuana Panthers played as part of the the Twilight Concerts at the Santa Monica Pier. Nothing could be farther from the dark and fragrant caverns of The Smell where No Age built their core audience than the expanse of pink sky behind the Pier at dusk. A couple of things haven't changed: the sweaty, physically wrenching show the band puts out and their devoted all ages audience. As our photographer Angela Holtzen reported, "Holy moly, the crowd was nuts. [I] was sure that barrier was gonna come down and the stage was gonna get rushed. Good times."

 

 

More photos after the jump.

The Best of 2013, So Far

By Staff

Once again the Radio Free Silver Lake staff brings you our highly subjective picks for the best of the year so far.

Kathryn Pinto, Editor in Chief

Albums
Brass Bed - The Secret Will Keep You
Brass Bed has a phenomenal live show, but I wasn’t prepared for how much I would love their new album. The guitars are angular and dissonant, they feed back and bleed out, but the melodies swing. The lyrics wonder a moody what next? It’s no surprise that these are guys in their late twenties a point where they have begun to set a course, but nothing has yet gelled in its mold. This contrast of confidence with an undercurrent of uncertainty results in a textured, thoughtful collection of tracks that rocks.

The Hectors - Her Dark Majesty
The common thread of this list is smart, moody guitar music with some pretty melodies and a few pop hooks. The title track has a gorgeous melody and resonates a deep sense of longing. There’s a 90’s northwest vibe with shades of K Records that I find very appealing Her Dark Majesty is among other things an album that showcases front woman Corrine Dinner’s voice, which is not often on given its due at live shows.

Best Of 2013 So Far (Part 2)

by Brad Roberts

Being asked to come up with a five best of the half year, is proving to be difficult. Haven't heard a lot of the newest releases by some local bands, and have been impressed with a few records from national acts, but this list may suffer from the sin of omission. However I do feel fairly confidant about my favorite album of the year so far: Trouble Will Find Me by The National. As far as a local act goes, Many Embers (above) is one of the most promising I've seen this year.

I'm the kind of person who believes in the constant evolution of music. I'm not one to dwell on the nostalgic 'trips down memory lane' pining for the 'good old days'. I've generally found it annoying to listened to all the talk about "The greatest rock and roll album ever" for most of my life. And I've always said to myself, "how can they possibly say that, how do they know what's coming next"? It's always easier to take a segment of time, like a year or six months, and select one's favorites based on a calendar.

This year, it seems like the biggest impression has been made on me by individual songs. When I get an album that has at least one song I love, I tend to listen to that song over and over until I can manage to get beyond it and find another, newer song. I often get so enthusiastic about these songs that I will usually refer to them as "The Greatest Rock and Roll Song Ever"...until the next one comes along.