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Every summer a little company by the name of Little Radio decides to host a series of shows every Sunday called Summer Camp throughout the summer. Along with good bands (for the most part) there’s a big blow up Slip ‘n Slide, badminten, a moon bounce, food, a pool, ping pong, and general drunken merriment.
June 21rst (the second one this summer, and one of the few on a Saturday) No Age and a few other bands such as The Deadly Syndrome and The Explorers Club battled the heat and put on some performances for us to enjoy. Below are some of the general shenanigans that took place.
Blah Blah free shows Mondays at Spaceland, The Echo, and Silverlake Lounge. You all know this, old news, but the good news is most the bands that play these residencies are good. Mondays for the month of June at The Echo is housing a band called Rumspringa (picture above, and playing some other night at The Echo).
The Music:
![3131JYXJNEL._SS500_[1].jpg](http://www.indieschmarm.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/3131JYXJNEL._SS500_[1].jpg)
New Order: (the best of) New Order
New Order is one of those bands for me that has great songs for compilation cds. Yo La Tengo is another one of those bands. When bands like these release a best of album, then that’s pretty much all you can ask for. I still have yet to dive into the full New Order experience, but thus far this is my favorite as a whole from them. If you haven’t fully delved, this would be a good start, and if you have, then you most likely own this record and are silently judging me right now.
Hey everybody, see Mack Slevin from Flashing Red Lights play a new acoustic song at Westside Sessions here. He’s also playing a solo show June 5th at 11pm for free at Hyperion Tavern. Hyperion Tavern you ask? No one knows, but little do you realize that this works out to your advantage. Aside from a free show and good songs, it’s always an adventure seeing a show at a place you haven’t been to yet. So now you’ll have an adventure to look forward to June 5th at 11pm for free at Hyperion Tavern.
End Scene,
Dan Tana
PS, My Bloody Valentine will be opening.
You may have noticed this band called Casxio rocking the funk and dance parties around town recently. As mentioned in other posts, they smartly have been tackling the Silverlake/Echo Park scene and haven’t looked back since they started. Friday, the 23rd of May, Casxio came to the Echo Plex and as usual created a nice atmosphere of greatness. The sound the last two times this band has played there has been great and it seems the Echo Plex, along with many good bands who play there, suites them nicely. So drop your elitist snooty I’m better than music LA attitude and come dance with these fine young gentleman and lady at a club near you.
Cursive have recently been preparing to enter the studio to record the follow up to 2006’s Happy Hollow. In the mean time, they have been a bit busy giving the fans a few chances to check out some new material both live, on the road, and recorded before the record comes out.
Cursive recently recorded sessions at Daytrotter and WOXY which can be heard here and here. On Monday the 19th of May, they also recorded a live session for Sound Opinions in Omaha. The show will be available as a podcast within the next couple weeks, so keep an eye out because we all know art is hard…boom.
Come on Sufjan do a cheer! Yay! No? Well, alright then. We’ll just pretend you aren’t staring off into the distance like we don’t exist. Asthmatic Kitty is probably best known for the music of (and co-founder) Sufjan Stevens, who better get cracking on his 50 albums in his lifetime project he set for himself some years back. We only have two states since 2003, and in that a b-side record for one of them.
I have been hearing the name “The Morning Benders” around town recently, and it wasn’t until Thursday May 8th at their CD release show that I was able to really soak them in. As mentioned in our review of their sophomore release Talking Through Tin Cans, they not too long ago played with The Weather Underground and Airborne Toxic Event for their January residency. Since then they have been making good strides, including aquiring an upcoming tour with The Kooks.
The Music:
Paul Simon - Graceland
I wanted to do a whole post dedicated to this, and I will most likely some day, but I want to say now that this is seriously one of the best records within the last 30 years. I’ve had it for a bit and enjoyed it, but it wasn’t until a friend recently had really sworn by it and couldn’t stop listening to it that I really gave it a shot further than I ever had. It’s very close to becoming a perfect record for me, which there aren’t many of, and it is my favorite solo work Paul Simon has done to date. The album has the 80s sound, slap bass, and as you all know, a sort of an African theme about it (though only a few songs really embrace that), but I’d expect nothing less. I look forward to more time with Graceland and I still find secrets hidden within with each listen. So do yourselves a favor and delve in headfirst and don’t look back (if you haven’t done so already).
From the blog on the Spring Fresh myspace:
“For the month of April, Kevin Drew will be known by his hip-hop name Spring Fresh.
Word.”
End Scene,
Dan Tana
There comes a time in every man’s life where he realizes that he should save up a couple hundred dollars and fly to New York for All Tomorrow’s Parties (Friday 19th September to Sunday 21st September inclusive at Kutshers Country Club in Monticello, NY), or get his company to send him, as does Indie Schmarm…except that whole part where that’s not true. This year, New York’s ATP line-up has proven to turn some heads with such acts as Built to Spill, Low, Mogwai, Thurston Moore, and a great up and coming band called My Bloody Valentine. I hear great things about these guys and everyone is buzzing about their first live show at this year’s ATP.
Weezer has really impacted the music world by delivering some of the most powerful and inspirational albums in the 90s. Either of those records are almost always on top 100 lists, and on top of that, they invented a sound and look that to this day is emulated among many kids and musicians. They then made Green Album, which was pretty good, though many felt let down by it. The rest we all know and needs no further discussion, as I’m sure you all have done already a few times over lattes. That brings us to the present, which brings us to the up and coming Red Album.
We don’t usually just do track reviews on The Schmarm, but I felt the need to talk about “Tessellate” by Tokyo Police Club this fine day. So this will be more of a discussion than a review. I heard this song a week ago or so and since I’ve come to enjoy this little number. I’m not one for the catchy novelty bands that come and go, and/or the “animal nouns” of the word, or bands with the name “Black” in it, but the new single “Tessellate” has something to it. It still has the catchy dance hand clap CMJ buzz band qualities to it, but it’s also well delivered. I’ve always said that it’s all in the delivery. You can get away with pretty much anything as long as you deliver it well. As far as I’m concerned that’s how bands like Sonic Youth and Pavement made their career. Their unconventional ways were done with so much flair that you had no choice but to love it. Thurston Moore even said once in an interview he did with Pitchfork regarding Daydream Nation: “We’d been listening to the mastertapes, and it’s ridiculous how crude the mastertapes are; specifically myself. Did I really accept that for myself? It sounds like I’m wearing a boxing glove on one of my hands.”
Valentino has grown to be one of those friends’ bands whom I go see because they are just good. They also happen to be the kind of group that is always in on some joke or smiling about something. Over the last few months front man Aaron Leigh and the original sibling crew, Sarah Rayne and Zach Leigh, have recruited Mack Slevin on guitar (Flashing Red Lights, Ghost Kings, Darci Cash, Hungry Birds), Mike Hendry on bass (Flashing Red Lights, Ghost Kings), and Jeff Baird on drums (Darci Cash) into the family. Not too shabby if I do say so myself.
I have been anticipating the new Wolf Parade record for months and months now. Unless Spencer throws in a new Sunset Rubdown record in 2008, Wolf Parade’s next record will most likely be my record of the year. Earlier in the month, Pitchfork announced the next Wolf Parade LP, titled Kissing The Beehive (due out June 17th). They then proceeded to rip into it and clearly expressed their dislike for it. Aside from Pitchfork hardly ever liking a release following one of their “Best New Music” picks, there’s the other “we are better than thou” elitist intern rants that come into play more than half the time as well.
It amazes me how many phases of music there were in one decade. We had the tail end of glam rock, grunge, lezbo rock, ska, techno, swing, pop punk/emo punk, rap rock, and we even managed to squeeze in the macarena. How did it all get squeezed into one decade? It’s a mystery we’ll never solve, but I’m just glad I was there. I still think it’s funny how indie rock just didn’t exist when I was in high school and how much fashion has changed in the last ten years. I’m that old proud guy who wishes he could swear his era was the best, and it was in some ways. It got pretty ridiculous, and the crap that we listened to for the most part was pretty bad, but in that full circle kind of way. Only ten years later and indie rock exists, and it feels musicians are trying to make good music again, and the variety of music is wider as a whole. I wish we had the music scene we have now for my youth, but alas, I’ll have to settle with, “We took this trip to Garden Grove, it smelled like Lou Dog inside the van, oh yeah.”
I decided not to count records that I got into after the 90s by bands like Neutral Milk Hotel or Sonic Youth. I was not very with it for the 90s, but I was there blasting KROQ, donned in wife beater, dangling cigarettes from the lips. These have no bearing as far as what one would read in some other schmarm magazine, where one would find either Wowee Zowee or Ok Computer as number one. That being said, below are the records that I just liked at the time in the 90s. All this really does is make me feel old and I am honestly ashamed of some of these. Stop judging me. Don’t look at me!
This is my props to the ladies for some random videos I like. The last video counts due to Elvis’s jacket. My last ”Video For The Vault” post was for best representation of ”Mesculine Sword” videos. I know you’re at home and/or work and have just hit a good wave of You Tube videos, well here are some more.
Feist - My Moon My Man
Maybe one day someone will explain Mesculin Sword in full. The basic idea of it though is insanity and sanity in actual form. It’s in a building (a hotel or resort) and every year switches location. Upon entering Mesculin Sword, you will be greeted by a beautiful receptionist and the room will be pure white. From there you can visit different rooms, such as the Misconception Room, Confusion Room, and the Cocaine Room. You can stay there if you like, but you wont know you’re there because time and you don’t exist there. That’s the super short summary of it, and like I said, one of these days we’ll get around to fully explaining it.
These videos (including one of my all-time favorites, Aphex Twin’s “Windowlicker”) are all great and represent a little bit of Mesculin Sword…because after all, sleep does look like it.
Animal Collective - Peacebone:
I could do an intro on Casxio…how they are quickly getting noticed in the LA area…how they bring a dance party everywhere they go…how Lucas has more soul than JT…how I want to sleep with all the males in the band…or how this band gets better everytime I see them…but Lucas covered it all and then some in my little question and answer part I usually do for the “Get To Know” section. I decided to keep his answers worded exactly as was sent to me…well pretty much. Some protection is needed when someone says Edison was a President because they’re wasted naked and lonely in an apartment attempting to respond to an interview at 4:00am.
The Item:
Sirius Radio
All the cool kids are doing it. Do you want to be left out? So what if it costs hundreds to buy and set up, do you really want to miss out on 90’s rock music 24/7? I thought not. Plus all the cool blogs like Brooklyn Vegan and Aquarium Drunkard sometimes get to have little spots on the indie station Left of Center and play “hip” upcoming or already “arrived” bands such as My Morning Horses Band of Rogue Wave. The only draw back to this is some of the stations, like Left of Center, cycle whatever is popular over and over and hardly give you a good variety throughout the day. That’s ok though because by the 10th time you hear Black Lips you can really realize how they are the worst band in the last 10 years and have successfully tattooed their name on CMJ and Pitchfork’s boners. Their “look at us reinvent what’s been done a thousand times before” falls way short, and with songs like “O’ Katrina” they just shove their dicks hard in asses of failer with attempts to represent some sort of late 70’s punk rock. One of the options for Sirius Radio is it can come portable and record up to an hour’s worth of songs, and thus one has the option to be able to skip around and avoid bands like Black Kids…I mean Lips.
The Parson Red Heads this The Parson Red Heads that, yadda yadda yadda…Monday residency at Spaceland all January…no big deal…KCRW and Indie 103.1 performances within two days of each other a few weeks back…no big deal…some of the nicest people playing some of the best music in LA…absolutely a big deal. For the unfortunate who haven’t seen these young Oregon and what not folk play, you will have a chance tonight for their last residency show at Spaceland. The last three Mondays have brought some great bands along with some great times. Some of the highlights over the course of the month included Flashing Red Lights, Francisco The Man!, Mezzanine Owls, Taylor Goldsmith, and Everest. Tonight we go out with a bang with The Idaho Falls, Papercranes, and The Monolators. There will be a dance contest during the Red Heads set, so bring your work out gear.
PS, Don’t leave the milk at home.
Warning warning stop and listen when red lights flash. This band is one that I believe everyone needs to hear so put your head up the liberty bell and give it a smack because these set of rockers will crack you skull with their rock. Yes, I did just use that analogy. This songwriter and singer for this band, Mack Slevin, writes for 2 other bands, Darci Cash and The Ghost Kings as well. He probably writes a couple songs a week, and is probably writing a song as I type this…which is actually no exaggeration. I’d say he is up there lyrically with Conor and other greats. Though to fully understand Mack’s songs lyrically you might need to get a knife for the onion you’ll have to peel. But that makes it all the more fun to dig in and get the hidden goods. The parts are well thought out and often crafted in a way that isn’t just your typical verse chorus too.
David Bazan has been one of my favorite artists over the last few years, and has been making solid records for years. He started back in the early 90’s playing drums in a band called The Guilty, later changed to Coolidge, and from there has had quite the career. Aside from Pedro the Lion, he also has played drums and sang back-up vocals for Seldom and has also played with Starflyer 59 and released the drum and synth project Headphones, including other solo material.
Dane Sundseth
The Parson Red Heads every Monday night in January at Spaceland
Our favorite Los Angeles band has the Monday night residency at our favorite Los Angeles venue Spaceland for all of January. There’s three more chances to catch them and if the first week was any indication, Monday night is going to be THE night of each week this month.
Denver Dalley is a man with many a finger in many a project. He’s one of those musicians who also continues to add to his catalog of accomplishments without slowing down. Some of the musical accomplishments already include, Statistics, Desaparecidos, Intramural, City Light, and he fit time to record an album with Leta Lucy from The Twilight Singers, among others.
I first heard Statistics years ago and loved it right away. It was the kind of music that never left my CD player for weeks and weeks. Then the greatest rock band of all time came across my lap, Desaparecidos. Read Music/Speak Spanish by Desaparecidos, from beginning to end, just doesn’t dip or stop rocking and the lyrics on are as good easily as any work Conor has done in Bright Eyes. Recently I actually gave it a perfect rating. It is a perfect record for me. Intramural is a great idea for a project, which is Denver writing the music for songs and wrangling a bunch of singers such as Judah Nagler of The Velvet Teen, John Roderick of the Long Winters, Tricia Kanne of Minipop, Matt Friction of Pink Spiders and many more to contribute to them. I am excited to really delve into that and for future material released by Intramural.
We did it! We have made it to the end of 2007, which proved to be a way better year for music. Pretty much the only thing 2006 delivered was Ys, The Avalanche and Shut Up I Am Dreaming. This year we got a plethora of new great records, and those of us who are aren’t googly crying babies, actually had a top 10 worth mentioning without struggling to get there.
We decided instead of arguing about what was the best as a whole without all killing each other, we’ve decided to all just list our favorite records of 2007 separately. Some are the same and some aren’t and either way you get to hear an opinion on each and why it’s there and all that fun.
Indie Schmarm’s top records of 2007 (Sorry, no Panda Bear. We aren’t puppets):
And now, Strong Bad gives us the story of Christmas:
End Scene,
Dan Tana
The Music:
Mae - Destination: Beautiful
I decided to not be elitist and hip, and pick a record to spite my friend Mike, and because it’s just good. I was there, you don’t know! Mae is actually one of the best live bands that I’ve ever seen. Yes that’s right, ever. Of course they can’t win over Sigur Ros, Radiohead, Ugly Casanova, Sufjan Stevens and Joanna Newsom, but who can? Perhaps reviving some of the dead maybe. Mae though really shocked me when I first saw them at the Roxy years ago and was blown away by how good they were. Admittedly there are a few lyrical dips in Destination Beautiful, but who cares? We’re all having a good time. It is also very unfortunate that they have since slowly formed into what is known in the industry as “dog crap”, but I will always enjoy Destination Beautiful and so should you.
I enjoy being pleasantly surprised by bands. After thousands of shows and seeing thousands of local bands in LA, it really all starts to sound the same. Being the complete schmarm and snob that I am, it takes kind of a lot to impress me off a first impression. I do recognize good music when I see it though and I’m not one of those LA elitist club goers who A) Just want to be seen at a venue/club or B) Have no soul. The later is usually found in LA. The Weather Underground however will be sure to penetrate any veneer anyone puts on. They have catchy songs and the singer Harley moves around so much on stage that even in your heated cocktail conversation about Ron Paul, you’ll take notice. On the 29th of November they caught my and others attention yet again. You can get an idea by the fact that my shitty camera can’t keep up with the movements of Harley. They simply just rock.
The Movie:
Juno (Fox Searchlight Pictures)
Thanks to the awards season and my wonderful roommate being a member of SAG, she has been receiving “screeners” in the mail lately and a good chunk of them have yet to be released on DVD and a few have yet to even make it to the theaters. One of these is the new movie Juno from director Jason Reitman and writer Diablo Cody that had me a little more than excited to watch.
I remember talking to the singer of Casxio, Lucas Guerin, a few years ago telling him to start a band because his solo stuff was really good. He kept saying he was trying, and was looking for people, but to no avail. Then one day out of nowhere it seems, it happened. He pulled Zach Schrock (Drums), Eric Saez (Guitar), and Andrea Choe (Keys) out of the magic band member hat and had a band. With this full band, Lucas could realize his funk dreams and bring more soul to music than any white man ever has…yes even more than Justin Timberlake. Casxio then smartly started to play in the Silverlake area…which is the only thing resembling a scene in Los Angeles, and not too long after booked a Monday residency at the Silverlake Lounge.
Things happen, then they don’t. Birds come, then they go. White Magic came, then they went. White Magic came to The Echo Saturday, November 24th…late at night. I will say right off the bat, that The Echo was pretty packed, and was packed the entire time for their set even though they didn’t finish apparently until 1:30am (I went home half way through because I’m old). Ill be honest, it’s hard to say what I thought about what I saw of their set. The amount of time it took for them to arrive, set up and play, was just too long. They started to put their gear on stage at 11pm, and by the time they actually started playing it was 12:30am. They weren’t even having technical difficulties it seemed…the bassist didn’t have a tuner, so he had to tune several times with the keyboardist/singer, Mira Billotte, who’s keyboard was being weird and transposing itself differently (total guess), then they meandered, then went into a worm hole, then came back, then didn’t? I was annoyed and tired by the time they went on and felt a bit biased as a result, but people were into it and they seemed to have some avid fans.
When one thinks of Thanksgiving, one usually thinks of turkey, stuffing, gravy, and the works, but when you have some of The Parson Red Heads over for Thanksgiving, it’ll usually end up being something like a breakfast, a tofu scramble with pumpkin pie and other desserts, toped off with mimosas. As you all may or may not have noticed, I’ve been mentioning The Parson Red Heads a lot recently on Indie Schmarm. I honestly believe they are the next ones to get some serious attention from the “Silverlake scene” and actually already are. In the last year or two, Cold War Kids and Silversun Pickups came out of the “scene”, and the Red Heads are right on their tales. They’ve played shows with Cold War Kids and other bands such as Cursive, Maria Taylor, The Autumn Defense, The Mother Hips, and in August played The Sunset Junction.
Not too long after touring wrapped up for Broken Social Scene’s last album (the ridiculously beautiful mindfuck that is their self-titled record) reports came in that hinted at a hiatus. Hiatus. That word scared the ever-loving crap out of me. I stopped bathing. I started having conversations with myself in Hopelandic. I nearly shaved my entire body with a dry razor and dug a tunnel to the center of the earth. ‘Cause a hiatus is never a hiatus, it just means “don’t be surprised when we cash in for a reunion tour in 15 years.” Hiatuses are band cancer.
Happy Thanksgiving everybody! I don’t have anything to say except that, and to keep and eye out for a belated Thanksgiving treat sometime in the next week. In the mean time, is there anything cooler than an 80’s Billy Joel? I think not.
End Scene,
Dan Tana
Friday, November 16th, I caught Six Organs of Admittance at Amoeba. I don’t know much about Six Organs of Admittance other than it’s all one man Ben Chasney and whomever he gets to play on his records. He also plays guitar for Comets On Fire and has worked with a bunch of groups including, The Fucking Champs, Current 93, Magik Markers, Badgerlore, among others.
(A fan picking up some She Wants Revenge records)
Hardly does a show come around that brings so much anger and grief in someone it makes them want to tie their dicks to a railing and jump. She Wants Revenge accomplishes this just being them and further accomplished this with their show at the Henry Fonda Saturday the 10th of November. They first of all get to tour in a really big tour bus, and if that’s not insult to injury, people are paying money to support this band. I hope their shows elsewhere have little to no people attending because they are an embarrassment to music and not one person should pay even one cent to further their cause. No person who’s actually into music listens to She Wants Revenge. It’s all scarf toting, leather jacket heroin addicts who need each other for their popularity contest. By the way, the winner wins a crack of rock or a rock of crack and a blow job from this guy.
I was browsing around looking for something else on the Tube as one does, and I ran across these videos of a huge marching band (Pride of Arizona) doing Radiohead songs, fully orchestrated with line formations and flag waving. Whoever put this together and did this with their marching band deserves a Grammy. The amount of work and time to do this is mind blowing. Then they go and do not just one song, but 6 songs (well close to half of each). I might be way behind the times on finding this, and if so, let me still have my glory and excitement.
The first time I saw The Monolators was at the Silverlake Lounge. I was there because The Ghost Kings were gracing us with some rock that night, and The Monolators were playing after them. I was told they were great and to stick around, so I did and was then graced with rock from The Monolators. Since that show I’ve seen them a few times, including their record release show which I wrote about here. I then saw them on Halloween, and although they went on close to 1:00am, the lights were coming on because the bowling ally they were playing at didn’t know they were last, half the band had different members, they still gave 100% and sounded great.
Artist: Sunset Rubdown
Release: Random Spirit Lover
Label: Jagjaguwar
Rating: IX
So how does one write a proper review for their record of the year? One could sit and type and erase, type and erase and try to do it justice and at the same time try to convince the world to hear Random Spirit Lover by Sunset Rubdown and agree with you. One could apply the laws of opinion and it might become a bit easier, but not in this case because this review is fact in a lot of cases. I therefore allow myself full snooty rights, complete free reign to say what I want, and that the statements made for this review will be true for the most part and not opinion, and im ok with pissing people off as a result. What if someone said Abbey Road was “just a decent record”, they’d be wrong wouldn’t they? Opinion at a certain point becomes obsolete even though they are entitled to it.
Kevin Drew is my hero. If this were ever more true, it is after seeing him with Broken Social Scene backing him (pretty much the same thing) live at The Orpheum Tuesday the 30th of October. “Kevi” as his peers call him, keeps getting more mystical and more attractive the more I see him and hear his music. As I’ve mentioned before, my most listened to record of all time is Broken Social Scene’s self titled record, and this new release Spirit If… falls nothing short of amazing. The whole atmosphere and the way the show was put together really added to the magic of the night too. It really dawned on me further the other night seeing this show how much better a band is live when the show is loud. This show was nice and loud and the mix was amazing to boot. Whenever the horn players blared in with their respective parts, it was even louder than the rest of the music, which I was more than ok with. Kevin’s banter was really good too and he (and the rest of the band) had a sort of relaxed comfortable attitude about the whole show which made it more entertaining and made the audience comfortable. It’s pretty much the same thing as having tea and cuddling with them for a few hours. Kevin was also a touch sick, yet really pulled it all off, and I didn’t hear a missed note the whole time…well nothing more than is the usual Kevin voice crackle.
If you remember a few years back, or now quite a few years back, Radiohead, mainly Thom Yorke, was known for being pretty bad at being interviewed. You can see evidence of this on the documentary Meeting People Is Easy. It seems it’s time for another band to take their place in the land of one word answers, awkward pauses, and general annoyance. Here we have an interview done by Bryant Park with Sigur Ros on NPR earlier in the month. It seems from comments that his interviewing skills were sub-par and I quote from one comment “Who the fuck would want to answer questions like this for a living?” Jonsi near the end does little out burst about Hopelandic crushing all our little fagile hopeful dreams about elves and fairies.
If you haven’t at least heard the name The Parson Red Heads while living in LA and going out to shows, being a hipster and eating at Bright Spot (who got rid of the roaches and are now are rated an A), then something didn’t go right for you at birth. Only a few months after moving from Oregon to LA, they signed with Yukon Records and in August released their first official full length King Giraffe. Since before that release they had already played with Maria Taylor, Cursive, Mother Hips, The Autumn Defense, Earlimart, and played in the Sunset Junction just this past August, and now are currently on a 3 week tour up the West Coast. They are on the brink of explosion and it’s literally any day now before “it happens” for them. They are already getting played on raio stations and getting talked about on blogs and other music sites alike. To top all that off, they are some of the nicest people you’ll ever meet.
Here at Indie Schmarm we often will sit around and rate records on our own for hours going over what a perfect record is and what that means to us so on and so forth. Some perfect records that have been included in these conversations have been In The Aeroplane Over The Sea by Neutral Milk Hotel, Kid A by Radiohead, Highway 61 by Bob Dylan, Lifted by Bright Eyes, Velvet Underground and Nico, Broken Social Scene’s self titled, Perfect From Now On by Built to Spill, Moon and Antarctica by Modest Mouse, Ys by Joanna Newsom, Astral Weeks by Van Morrison, and you get the idea. Not too long ago I decided to make In Reverie by Saves The Day a perfect record. I still sometimes feel I might have rushed that decision, but I’m sticking to it as of now. It’s one of my favorite produced records as well as having really really solid songs. The influential factor though hasn’t been as high as other past records, so it can be debatable. The old ground zero fans of Saves The Day will tell you that nothing is hardly worth listening to after Through Being Cool and later fans will claim In Reverie is the best record they’ve made and Sound The Alarm is a dip (I am one of those later people, though I still really like Sound The Alarm). Stay What You Are seems to be a good middle ground everyone can agree on for the most part.
The Happy Hollows are one of those bands that you see when you’re at a friend’s show and they open or close the night and you don’t know who they are, but as soon as they start playing you want to stay and see the whole set. The lead singer and guitar player Sarah Negahdari is one of the spunkiest people you’ll ever meet, and it really comes through in the music. She’ll roll around on the floor, flail her head around, and even does finger tapping. She does get a break from singing sometimes and bassist Charlie Mahoney takes the mic for a song or three. They have a fast borderline punk sound similar to that of The Pixies, and Sarah sounds a tiny bit like Kim Gordon if she were excited, except Kim is scary and stares at you from the edge of your bed while you sleep at night.
The last couple nights have been wrought with no sleep accompanied by extreme business. Friday included some painting of a wall or two so I was covered in paint when I get home that night and all I wanted to do was lay down on the couch and watch Gladiator. Not 30 minutes in I get a call from a friend telling me that Sunset Rubdown is playing tonight and that he’s going to go and they are leaving to go down there pretty much right then. Just that day I was thinking how excited I was for the show and was wondering when it was and hadn’t heard anything about it so it was probably next week sometime. So I hang up the phone, stare at my roommate, swear some and without showering and still covered in paint I gathered myself and headed out. ANY other band at that moment save Radiohead at the Troubadour and I probably would have just stayed in like a little girl and cuddled with my blanky. That all being said, I forgot my camera in a fit of annoyance and rushing out so there’s no photos and I didn’t write down the set list of this show either. I just wanted to talk about it and let you imagine how good Spencer looks playing music.
I have a friend who’s pretty much not a person and doesn’t hold back expressing his feelings about it and other things. He’s cynical, he’s oppenly annoyed at morons, and most importantly it’s what Indie Schmarm needs on a friday morning with no sleep. This is an old post he blogged somewhere and I took it from him because it really identifies with today’s youth and gives a smart and educational look at the values of the current generation. Just think of applying this to pretty much any song you hear that really shouldn’t be being listened to really by anyone, but with a little extra sprinkle of hate (and yes, She Wants Revenge IS the worst band of all time):
When you hear Wes Anderson’s (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) name on a movie you know exactly what you’re in for. Often dry humor, apathetic characters, dead-pan lines and pauses between lines that leave you hanging until phrases like “I heard from her yesterday” and “Why did you bring him?” are often followed up with no explanation until later in the film. Actually for show and tell to friends at dinner parties and what not, a friend of mine and I every now and then used to do improve parody Wes Anderson scenes for laughs. This isn’t to poke fun at Wes, because I love his films, but he does have a very distinct way of writing and directing that’s pretty unwavering. The Darjeeling Limited is nothing short of that with 3 brothers (Jason Schwartzman, Adrien Brody, Owen Wilson) on a train, love complications, quests, shenanigans, neurosis, and of course Bill Murray.
This edition of “Get To Know” your local/underground up and coming artists brings us Castledoor. The briefest history in the world about a band goes as follows: Two of the forming members originally came from Northern California, but grouped together in Los Angeles and started to battle the musical world. In 2006 they put out a self released EP titled Follow The Dove and are currently working on a new record to be released by next year. I could ramble on and on about the history and all that, but let’s be honest, all you care about is if you like the music anyway. So go listen.
Wednesday the 25th of September was a fun night of music. We had Summer Darling, Amateurs, Mezzanine Owls, and of course The Monolators. Oh yeah, it also happened to be a CD/EP release party for The Monolators. They decided to do something really cool and release an EP on vinyl with a bar code upon which you can use to download it online for your enjoyment in the car or on the computer…or perhaps a light jog. The self released EP is titled You Look Good On The Train and you can get it by contacting them, or better yet, a show where you can see them live at the same time. It never hurts to use one stone.
Some bands come, and some bands go. This band didn’t just do that. No. They graced us with a bit more at Spaceland, Friday September 21rst…at around 11:30pm. Now to be honest I didn’t have the urge to throw my panties on stage like other unexpecting great live bands that I’ve seen such as Annuals and (old) Mae, but I still felt a tingle regardless. The band seemed to know what they were doing and the musician ship was definitely on par. The lead guitarist/other goodies, Fred Wallace, played a unique style of crazy finger picking guitar mixed with pedals to give it an almost Mascis feel at times, while one of the vocalists, Rachel Cox, brought it down nicely at times to give them an almost Day of Lions on a country binge sort of sound. They also brought out a bit more pizzazz than on their recordings, which is always nice when seeing a live show.
For next few months we are going to be doing a few pieces for our new “Get to Know” segments on up and coming bands that we think you all should check out and/or at the very least, keep and eye out on so you can be cool and say you heard about them first. We want to focus mostly on local LA bands, but this isn’t always going to be the case as is with this first band Brothers and Sisters. Though the band is currently residing in Texas, I was fortunate enough to see them live a few times here in California. The most memorable was in Costa Mesa at the Detroit Bar where the The Parson Red Heads accompanied them for a great night of music.
Brothers and Sisters are one of those live bands that just get your attention. They aren’t theatrical and aren’t trying to be anything or anybody else, but simply grab your attention by being good musicians and playing good music. They are solid and genuinely look like they are having a lot of fun on stage, which I’ve been saying for years is one of the key factors to a great live show.
It’s early Sunday afternoon in 1967–I mean Silver Lake–I mean Echo Park–I mean…Silver Lake?
Picture, if you will, an awkward attempt to graft 50 square feet of downtown Portland into the dark heart of Los Angeles. Perched on the corner there is a quaint little version of the Stumptown Coffee Co. filtered through some essence of New Mexico and constructed with the fragrant remains of a Tacoma paper mill:
This year thus far has given us some tasty selections in the smorgasbord of music. We here at Indie Schmarm can agree that it’s surpassed 2006 already in music, and we are only half way there. 2006 however did bring us some great records, including one of the best records ever made in general, Ys by Joanna Newsom. So far we have gotten some new Ryan Adams, Of Montreal, Bright Eyes, Arcade Fire, Wilco, Joanna Newsom, Modest Mouse, Feist, Arctic Monkeys, and more.
We have yet to receive anticipated records from such artists as Kevin Drew, Sunset Rubdown, Jonathan Rice, and The Good Life. Some of us have heard a few of these already, and let it be known that everyone is in for a treat.
That being said, we would like to raise our glass to some of the records released already this year. Listed below is an ensemble of 15 records we love and recommend that have come out so far for 2007.
Arcade Fire
Neon Bible
(Merge)
There are those few in the music industry that really work for it, regardless of not being taken that seriously at times. I refer to the gentleman in Wolf Parade. Dan has been nearly as busy as Spencer in other musical endeavors, Spencer however having the edge with Swan Lake, Sunset Rubdown and the occasional Frog Eyes. It’s rare one dedicates himself to do the amount of work Spencer does, following in similar foot steps to musicians like Ben Gibbard and the entirety of the Arts and Crafts crew, and I love every bit of it.
Artist: Ryan Adams
Release: Easy Tiger
Label: Lost Highway
Ryan can hardly do wrong, even when he does horribly wrong and has his watch illuminated to show 4:20 on the cover of Easy Tiger, his 9th release since going solo from Whiskeytown and first release since 2005 (aside from his 8 albums worth of material released on his website not too long ago). He does do right though by having Steven King write his press release and getting the name for the record when he asked a girl to dinner and she said, “Easy tiger”. From what I’ve heard and read around town, this record hasn’t been very well received, but I’m going to change that by saying I think this record is great. It starts off great and ends great. You even get an extra song titled “Nobody Listens To Silence” with the UK release. How special is that? Ryan decided to also bring back a bit of the wailing vibrato voice throughout the record, which makes me feel just as warm inside as soft voice Ryan whispering sweet nothings into my ear, which he actually gives us a little of too.
Wednesday, June 20th, Dave Bazan graced us with a few songs acoustically at Spaceland. He recently got off tour with Ben Gibbard, coming through LA at UCLA’s Royce Hall, and now a few months later here he was again, but with 1/4th the crowd and 1/10th the great headliner. He opened up with “Cold Beer and Cigarettes” followed Immediately by the Headphone’s song “Hot Girls”. From there he played a cover of which I didn’t know (unlike any good schmarm who should) followed by “Shit Talker”, “I Do”, “Selling Advertistments”, another cover “L’ Amour Stories” by Deerhoof, “Fewer Broken Pieces”, “Priests and Paramedics” and closed with “Hallelujah” by Leonard Cohen. It’s acoustic and Dave Bazan, always a good time. If you haven’t seen him yet, I recommend you do the next time he rolls out with any project.
Kevin Drew is my hero. This is why (sizzle). September 18th, Kevin Drew will deliver his first solo record to us…probably adorned with porn and pot made ribbon. Since the release of Broken Social Scene’s self titled, he has been touring with his circus of band members and doing who knows what with what and who. As reported earlier, he also had been working on his solo record over the last few years, and recently it seems has completed it or is near done. The first track released is titled “Tbtf” appropriately meaning “Too Beautiful To Fuck”, and was given to us recently for our listening . I love Kevin Drew and his lyrics, but he does push the boundaries even for me sometimes. “When I was a kid, you fucked me in the ass” is about the extent I can handle, but “you’re too beautiful to fuck” might even bring it over the edge. Looking at the track titles: