If you're looking for something genre-crossing and with lots and lots of hair, say hello to Benji Hughes, the irreverent croon-master who conjures visions of ZZ Top and Rapunzle while singing deceptively simple songs dressed in old school flair.
Citing influences as diverse as "beer, girls, the river, storms, space," Benji Hughes is part-heathen, part-comedian, part-transcendental poet, and all heart. He romances the stone as effortlessly as he kicks out the party jams. The end result is music that's oddly moving, funny and timeless.
Check out his latest video, a mere two days old in its Youtube life, feat. Benji rescuing our very own Kim Talon (of Eagle and Talon) from the clutches of evil. For anyone who misses the halcyon days of Mr. Hughes' packed Fold residency shows during his time in Silverlake (he now lives in his hometown of Charlotte, NC), I hope "Girl in the Tower" will give you the fix you so desperately need. Send $5 in well-concealed cash if you find yourself debating whether to laugh or not...
Hi Ho - Didn't ya know? The tale of Henry Clay and the lying weatherman
'Tis that time of year again, boys and girls. 'Tis the skating time.
As is it's yearly tradition, Spaceland plays host every Thursday of the final winter month to a season-long program (Dec. 6 through Jan. 8) featuring an elite selection of local musical guests doing - you guessed it - things on ice. These little ice skate soirees take place amidst Pershing Square and typically go from about 8 p.m. until nearly 11 p.m.... UNLESS IT RAINS.
The weather man claimed only a twenty-percent chance of rain in the downtown area. When I arrived and it was pouring at 8 p.m., it became glaringly clear that the weather man had been drinking Grandma's cough syrup when he cast his story, and despite my many elaborate months of cunningly tracking this band for my own advantage - so was everyone else.
Golden Moment: All hail Jennifer Tefft. Rain/unused ice skate/frozen phalanges aside, you are a goddess. You make this little skater's heart go pitter patter in any weather condition.
Something made me want to hate this band before I'd heard a single song--maybe it's the name, or the seriously over-produced website I found when I googled them--but the music these guys make just won't let that happen. The Silent Years is a 6 piece band from Detroit with a freaking kazoo, a chihuahua, and a couple songs about being naked and dead. How fucked up is that? Singer Josh Epstein has this voice that I swear I've heard from 20 other bands, but I can't figure out which ones, so for some reason, he ends up sounding pretty unique. I'll be honest--the songs are not particularly outstanding, the lyrics are a little hokey (hokey enough to make me say 'hokey'), and I still don't get the little cartoon animals they put all over everything--but for some reason I feel strangely compelled to listen to this song over and over and over again until it blends into every other sound and becomes indistinguishable on its own. Which I feel is a good thing. Is that weird?
Les Savy Fav @ El Rey: RODEO AND SANTA SUIT, hear me roar...
"We're already not getting any presents..."
From 2004 album Inches, Les Savy Fav performed "Rodeo" in costume at the El Rey last Saturday, Dec. 16.
* Dude. Tim Harrington is so putting rocks in my stocking...
Is it safe to say that they disturbed/elated the hell out of everybody?
In a purely amazing and potentially offensive way does Les Savy Fav perform and sweat. In psychoanalysis, we liked to call this "C-R-O-S-S-I-N-G B-O-U-N-D-A-R-I-E-S." Yes, I can say this because the first time I ever saw the Brooklyn trio I was 17 years old and was professionally man-handled by Tim Harrington at The Glasshouse. It was the happiest day of my life.
And by the way... wonder if this guy ever made it to the show. He sounds like my high school chem teacher.
The streets were alive with the sound of music (oh yes, I went there) last Saturday night with yet another Los Angeles holiday sweater party, this time at snappy new addition venue Crash Mansion. Visit snappy new addition venue Crash Mansion here.
A few Pity Party complaints (which also somehow managed to infiltrate the band's Myspace) came from an alleged sound guy not knowing what he was doing. I was googling background info on them and perhaps because I'd included "holiday" as part of the search, I stumbled upon this. Don't go there. It was weird.
Eskimo-mo-hunter, as I am starting to call them unbeknowest to them or to their management, of course rocked these blue and white socks off. They make me go shoegaze-crazy. Unfortunately, bassist Jenni Tarma was wearing neither a sweater nor socks, but boots and a dress in lieu of the magic.
Speaking of socks, Sarah Negahdari killed. Let me rephrase: she flat out thrashed.The Happy Hollows vocalist has gotten so much press this year that she has helped solidify herself as a solid Los Angeles rising hero and her band as a one of the most talked about this year. Homegirl scored herself a spot in the L.A. Times' "Image" section a few months back, as a tribute to her threads.
Go white socks, go.
The gig went something like each band scheduled to perform two 15 minute sets each. Nothing to do with that 15 minutes of fame idiom. No. Nothing. Holiday (we don't say 'Christmas' anymore because this is not PC) sweater was encouraged. Read: if you didn't wear your red and green (or blue and white, whatever your fancy) - you were not part of the in-ness that is the in-crowd at any such holiday fiesta.
This leads me to...
... the best part of the night. Dem sweet 'lil sweaters and swashbucklers... Try saying that one five times fast.
Rock on boys, rock on.
(Thanks thanks to Darren Kim, who's photos were much better than mine. Insert exceptionally defeated face here.)
(Team Orphan thanks you for attending, now go and have yourselves a happy new year!)
Oh, I was going to blog about the free Moving Units/Scissors For Lefty(wassup Eenie Meanie) show at the Echoplex last Thursday, and how everyone was underaged and the line to get in was curling down passed Echo Park, and how I keep seeing kids carrying boxes of wine - like it's this new fad I somehow missed out on in my youth, but then I found this.
*Much more interesting and representative of everything nice and on strings.
Thank you so much to everyone who came out to the loft Friday night. To my knowledge no one got towed. Special thanks to friends and musical guests, and to the magical personal who cooked dinner for us hundred some people. Top notch my dears, good form.
(Colorforms remixes "Do You Hear What I Hear?" live)
(Correatown drops in for a nightcap. Catch her as the voice of the female lead in Judd Apatow's new movie "Walk Hard")
Speaking of music and stuff, I talked this Myspace promoter into befriending me and sending me a free copy of Moving Units' latest album "Hexes For Exes" - it's still sitting in shrink wrap on my desk. He was very good about postage and mailing, however, I must say. Very prompt that one. >> I wonder if an album review is in order? Does anyone want one?
I am startled because: ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: A) My mother still has my phone number;
B) she even knows how to use the internet (who taught her that?);
and
C) that Liza has, I suddenly realized, started to look more and more like Michael Douglas by the day. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: Oh yeah. And Ike Turner is dead.
If you were lucky enough to be at The Echo last year to see Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti, then you were not only lucky enough to see The Haunted Graffiti made up of members of Swans, Bubonic Plague, and Friends in the Mountains, but also to bear witness to the majesty that is Beach House. Personally, I've been anxiously awaiting a follow up to their 2006 self-titled release, and it looks like the waiting will stop in 2008. The duo's second album is called Devotion and will be released in February 2008 on Carpark Records. Here's a sneak peek:
NEW PORTISHEAD SONGS: 3 Tracks/1 Video from ATP 2007
So we weren't lying before, guys. Portishead really does have new stuff, and I'm totally stoked that I'm still on the URB mailing list, otherwise I wouldn't be able to throw it at you guys. That's right--see, my internet is down, like I've mentioned 20 times before, but for some reason I decided to check my email at the internet cafe (this post is costing me like 5 bucks) and found this GEM in my inbox.
To click or not to click? Well, here's the rundown on what you'll find there:
3 live Portishead tracks from All Tomorrow's Parties last weekend 1 live video and some wholly unuseful comments following each.
My Hard Drive Ate My Music Collection #3: Why I Love The 90's
Has anyone ever heard that song, 'I Hate the 90's'? Probably on Rodney on the ROQ, or on the soundtrack for The Mayor of the Sunset Strip. I couldn't find it anywhere to let you listen to it here, but thats ok cause it sucks anyway. It was by this very short lived "musical project" thrown together by Rodney Bingenheimer called Rodney and the Tube Tops, which included none other than Mr. Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth, and Hole's Eric Erlandson. If your record collection includes one of those 7"s it's probably amassed the value of a small oil field, but truth is--it fucking sucks. I'm serious. I mean, I hated the 90's when it was the 90's, too, but that song is worse than about 40 songs that I can come up with right now. So here are my 90's picks, which are probably yours too.
...the only reason why Tool isn't on this list is because imeem only had 3o second previews of nearly every track, and I didn't want to harsh your mellow.
Until tomorrow, C4
Oh P.S. Here's to actually living in the 90's again, because my roommate forgot to pay our DSL bill so I don't have the internet. And my heater broke so I'm all about the candles and incense too. Kinda weird how that all happened at once--my room even smells like it did when I was 11 years old--but it's seriously getting fucking boring so please post some comments with some suggestions of shit that I should do. I forgot how to survive without the internet.
Death of A Camel Sales Man: Indie Rock mavens' hearts and lungs blacken
This hipster-life thwarting is all the rage these days. It seems everyone wants to get in our way of listening to happening musica, now even tobacco companies.
#20 pissed says: I'm in one of the bands name dropped in this fold out ad. Nobody, at any time contacted my band, label or publicist. We were never asked if we wanted to be mentioned in a cigarette ad or if we minded to have our music on The Farm website. We certainly we\are NOT compensated in anyway.
and
#3 chi says: It's one thing for the Lips and Dino Jr. to knowingly take Camel's money; it's another for a band that would never do such a thing to find itself "name-checked" (to use a word in the story) in this advertorial section. Does that imply that the group endorses the product? The argument could be made, if we buy that the section was all one big ad. I'd say that if a band was litigious, it could get some nice coin-and media attention underscoring Camel's insidiousness-by threatening to sue.
I personally don't smoke, nor do any of my bandmates. I already lost a parent to lung cancer and having my band associated in any way with Camel INFURIATES me. Camel doesn't care about indie music and neither does Rolling Stone. Both just want youth money and don't care what ethics they breech to get it.
Looks like Mista Reynolds gos a lot of esplainin ta do! This could get pretty ugly....
We shall trade in Icarus Line for a man named Jay?
Eeee gats. The Moonrats and Icarus Line (sup Aaron) were SUPPOSED to put on a show downtown last evening, but everything was cancelled.
Who knows? Could have been the rain... and that the show was going to be in a warehouse below sea level? I'm sure that didn't help. But, I don't know Dave (owner/man responsible for not joining me in holy matrimony with Joe Cardamone), personally I think that I would have toughed it out and went on with the show. Cancelling is for losers. And The White Stripes. Insert extreme sad face here.
PS: Joe, I need to get to you before KROQ does. I've been reading the interviews. Don't do it man. Don't do it...
So I visited this bloke:
Meet Jeremy Jay. Last night the Angel-town funk mobile held a record release party at your favorite alley cat the Smell.
And these were the tunes that led me to him:
Two months ago Jay traded in old drummer Janet. Last show with original drummer and Devon Williams on bass was performed at Tiny Creatures. He released single "Airwalker" shortly thereafter (Nov. 6.) and 7" "Where We Could Go" most recently on K Records.
Yea so, Black Mountain played at my house once. Seriously. I mean, I didn't live there then, and I don't live there anymore but I AM being sued by the owners for like 2500 bucks--not a good situation. Anyway, yea, it was in like 2005, and they played with my friend's bands Terrors and Big Muscles, and I went, and shit got broken, and I found the invitation (hand written by Brett Cutts himself) when I was cleaning out the basement a few months ago. I gave it to Patrick. Not that any of you should really give a shit about any of that.
What you should give a shit about: Black Mountain's new record. In The Future is scheduled to be released on January 22, 2008, and it rules. I'll admit that from what I've heard, some of the tracks are a little...how shall I put it... arrogant? Like, it's pretty shocking that they seriously think they can get away with some of this shit, but IT'S GOOD, and thats why they can do it. Is that a little unclear? Deal with it. Finally, I know some of you lucky assholes have already seen Black Mountain play some tracks from the new album, but I am not one of you. I've never been one of you. So I'm pretty stoked to see that they've already scheduled some tour dates--and with Howlin' Rain, nonetheless. Dates for the In The Future tour are as follows:
TODAY, at ATP with Portishead And February dates (w/ Howlin' Rain): 1 - The Crocodile in Seattle 2 - The Doug Fir in Portland 4 - The Independent in S.F. 5 - The Troubadour in L.A.
Being in a hurry really doesn't mix well with the Wilshire/Western Redline connection, especially on lack of sleep. If they did, many of us would get to work on time more often Monday morning, and I would have gotten to see Sharon Jones & Dap Kings at Amoeba without stepping on and kicking people to get out of way because I was ten minutes late.
... It never ceases to amaze me how these Amoeba shows actually start on time.
At precisely 7 p.m., the Dap Kings began to romp about on stage for a couple of lonesome bars before Jones eventually moseyed out to the roaring crowd and belted out the opening song, "How Do I Let a Good Man Down?"
During "Be Easy" Jones invited on stage with her an unidentified male fan in a sweater and tie.
The Brooklyn songstress' forty minute set also included songs "100 Days, 100 Nights," and "Nobody's Baby" and a funky soul cover of "This Land is Your Land."
Unidentified male fan in a sweater and tie on stage, if you're reading this: I think there may have been a banana in your pocket.
So if you haven't heard, the Jackson 5 have "discussed" concert dates, and are currently "in the studio." I shudder at the thought that a Jackson 5 reunion tour might be in the works. I mean, seriously, The Jackson 5 was a really cute idea when Michael was like 6 years old and had an afro. Who wouldn't swoon at the idea of a bunch of teen-aged boys, fronted by a kindergartener who sings about getting his girlfriend back? It's freaking adorable.
For the record: I will be the last person to claim that these kids weren't talented and that the Jackson 5 wasn't great, but COME ON! A reunion tour? Could they possibly do anything more embarassing? Let's examine the evidence:
MY POINT: the only way this won't go down in history as the most shockingly pathetic comeback since, like, THE DAWN OF TIME, is if they've come up with some fan-fucking-tastic new material. Hey, it could happen...
Tweak Bird: I almost touched God, and then He turned around and spit on me.
Let me explain.
A friend had tipped me off that Silverlake Lounge was free last night and that Crystal Antlers were performing. I'd just biked back from Hollywood and was slightly delirious, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. I crawled in the back and that's where I stayed for about two hours, reading crusty dated zines and sipping shitty well drinks before a stage that doesn't know a fucking thing about salvation.
For those of you five Los Angelos who happened to be in the bar with me circa 9:30 p.m. (let me jog your memory a little bit: LE TRON!) – this one's for you. Female digs performer Le Tron walked into the bar wearing a faux fur shrug and sunglasses. Yes, at night. Miss thang (who’s real name I did not catch so don't even ask) then proceeded to remove the chocolate brown coat and show her five fans in the bar (two of which included the bartender and myself) a pair of pink fairy wings hooked snugly on her back. Yes, this girl was about to bust some heavy bass ass beats with her little sister's expired Halloween costume.
Le Tron was probably the most amazing thing I've seen all year. She opened her twenty minute romp-romp with The Little Mermaid's cave-sung temper tantrum "Look At This Stuff." Oh yes, she did.
With Le Tron in all her glory I am inadvertently trying to shield you from the deafening blow at the end of this post...
Crystal Antlers went on at 10:45 and yada yada, brought down the house, as usual. These kids can do no wrong by me. Even if I really did want drummer Kevin Stuart to put his shirt back on for the children.
THIS IS THE BAD PART OF THE BLOG.
Waiting in between Le Tron's soul-searching and Crystal Antlers to set up their equipment, I read in a zine that there was this little band called Tweak Bird that had just joined the ranks of grownups and majors now producing vinyl. There was some mentioning of Volcom Stone clothing company, some other bands, I look up at the Lounge roster, oh how weird Tweak Bird is playing here tonight, I forgot my whites in the dryer, shit they're gonna need a second spin, I think I'm out of quarters...
It was one of those nights. I watched Antlers and then jetted home.
THIS MORNING I OPEN MY INBOX TO FIND ALL THIS "Oh, have you heard this new project called Tweak Bird?!" and "These Tweak guys, they're really something else." Even "Wow, this band I've been hearing about called Tweak Bird played last night at Silverlake Lounge. Didn't you say you were going?"
I haven't broken the news to my friends yet that I am a bonafide loser. I figured that I might as well keep them around for as long as I can. I can break the news on a world wide web level, however, because the rules to being a loser guarantees my friends don't read my shit. I missed one of the most promosing bands this year at a free show. I almost touched God, and then He turned around and spit on me.
In honor or being at the wrong place, at the wrong time - this is Tweak Bird. At the Cocaine. Last month. TWEAK BIRD!
Alright, please feel free to let me know if you're sick and tired of hearing about all this reunion shit, but I'm seriously starting to think that my token 90's bands got together one day and decided to make 2008 my favorite year since 1994. I just got word that we can add another to our (quickly expanding) little list of "Holy God Are You Kidding Me?" comeback releases.
That's right. A new release from one of my favorites, The Breeders is coming our way. The scheduled release date for The Breeders' upcoming Mountain Battles,on 4AD, is April 8th, 2008. Don't remember The Breeders? C'mon...don't make me do it...*coughcannonballcough*...
Whatever. I hate that some of you would make me stoop as low as to name what was essentially their 'one-hit-wonder'--so I'm not gonna do it.
But let me confirm these little details for you:
THE BREEDERS ARE TOURING IN 2008 THE BREEDERS ARE PLAYING AT COACHELLA IN 2008 Kim & Kelley Deal are definitely still in the band you can sneak preview a track from Mountain Battles on The Breeders' MySpace page for the next 7 days. Go fucking do it.
GOLDFRAPP joins the party with new album in February 2008
First Portishead. Then My Bloody Valentine. Then we get word that Love and Rockets is playing this month (I've since heard that they're playing for 5 minutes, what will only be one song, and a clash cover, at that. Sorry to get your panties in a bunch about it.)
Anyway, Goldfrapp joins the party with news of a new record, called Seventh Tree, to be released (on Mute) sometime in February of 2008. Other than the track list, which was FINALLY revealed, and that it's going to be very different from 2005's Supernature, everyone's being pretty tight-lipped about the whole record.
Seventh Tree Track List: 1. Clowns 2. Little Bird 3. Happiness 4. Road to Somewhere 5. Eat Yourself 6. Some People 7. A&E 8. Cologne Cerrone Houdini 9. Caravan Girl 10. Monster Love
Subscribe to the Orphan Review feed for up-to-the-minute info on the impending Goldfrapp release as well as all the others... oh and dudes be sure to let me know if you get any of these tracks before the album is released. i promise i won't tell on you!
I sold my soul to the "industry" and all i got was the stomach flu and some creepy guy's phone call
I was auctioned off at Morris Tepper and November Echo residents Restaraunt's show last evening at Charlie O’s. I’d always suspected I was an L.A. prostitute, this officially confirms my beliefs.
For his second attempt to get hip with The Joneses, L.A. Record friend and promoter Phil Hoetling and I came up with this little idea. We would auction me off for a date with whomever could facebook-tag the socks off of any other little L.A. native who thought his shit didn’t stink. We’d proposed the idea last Monday, launched the contest Tuesday, and by Friday were twiddling our thumbs because other than a few mutual friends, no one else seemed to care that I was selling myself to the industry. We had two people participating.
Ego blows are fun.
So Friday afternoon I get this call from Phil exclaiming that this guy named Adrian had won the contest, someone I didn’t know. Originally the plan was that the winner would win a kiss and a drink from Frances Farmer (pseudonyms are the new black), but this plan was also made way before I had a boyfriend, and way before I could have predicted that I’d wake up Friday morning with the gnarliest stomach flu this side of the West Nile, baby.
I called in sick at the last minute. My text message to Phil went something like this: “Woke up and thought I was going to hurl. Curling back up in bed with headphones and pepto, give candle boya kiss from yours truly. DO NOT give Adrian my number.”
And guess who called me at 8 fucking am this morning? Adrain, the contest winner, wondering where I’d been all night, he was looking for me.
If you're looking for something genre-crossing and with lots and lots of hair, say hello to Benji Hughes, the irreverent croon-master who conjures visions of ZZ Top and Rapunzle while singing deceptively simple songs dressed in old school flair.
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