Famed rock 'n' roll photographer Bob Gruen, known for some of the most iconic shots in rock history, is in town this week for the opening of his first-ever solo show at the Los Angeles Morrison Hotel Gallery. We talked to the native New Yorker on Thursday a bit about his photographs of the New York Dolls (many of which were shot in L.A. during the Dolls' first trip to California), about 10 of which will be on display at the exhibition (opening Saturday at 6 p.m. and running until Nov. 11). Gruen, 62, will attend the event to sign copies of his fantastic, just-released book, "New York Dolls: Photographs by Bob Gruen," from 6 to 10 p.m. Saturday. Our brief chat with the photographer follows after the jump...
"The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson" ran No Age's performance of "Eraser" Thursday night, instead of the scheduled Oct. 27 running -- perhaps, just maybe, to capitalize on all the chatter? Seriously, before this No Age thing, when was the last time you thought about Craig Ferguson? Wait, so you've actually thought about Craig Ferguson before? All teasing aside, he decently diffuses the situation with a quintessentially late-night host monologue, replete with self-deprecation, "I'm so wacky" facial expressions and props to the band he's clearly never heard. As far as No Age goes, well, it wasn't their finest hour but Randy Randall stripping off his flannel at the last minute and storming off the stage should go down as one of 2008's more punk, if compromised, moments.
Kids' music -- what is it? For better or worse (and I often can't decide), this generation of parents is redefining the term. No longer is it enough to sit in a circle with your babe on your lap and clap along as a bandana-wearing folkie sings "Little Boxes" -- and sometimes I think that's a shame. There's a lot to be said for going at the speed of children, not to mention sharing songs that comprise a children's music tradition going back a century or so.
But today's hipster parents like to rock. Kids like to rock, too, as long as the mix is not too loud, and the songs have choruses that hook their little ears, and the artists onstage engage with them. The best of the new bunch of kids' musicians -- like Farmer Jason, the Sippy Cups and that great old new folkie Dan Zanes -- play music that's complex enough for adults to enjoy, while still inviting to developing minds. (Writing about animals and holidays helps a lot -- the Sippy Cups, for example, have a song on their new EP called "The Day After Halloween.")
It's hard to strike this balance between sophistication and warmth; that's why so much neo-kids' music ends up working better for the parents than the tots. But Kidrockers, an interesting series born in New York and now coming to Echo Park, seems partly designed to give bands instruction on how to play to the junior seats.
Our friends at Culture Monster turned us on to this cool event...
If Thelonious Monk had stuck around for a metaphorical third set,
he'd be 91 this month. Monk walked onto the scene at 19, settling
behind the piano with the house band at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse in the early '40s and started fiddling with jazz's molecular structure, altering it forever.
Monk's compositions (and his approach to them) --angular, intricate
and shot through with humor --were marked by twists of whimsy and
dissonance. Those distinct, abstract soundings became an intrinsic part
of the jazz idiom making Monk -- along with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie
Parker -- one of bebop's key architects.
Honoring his influence
(and part of a countdown to Monk's 100th birthday), a free three-hour
marathon of his music (and the music and musicians he influenced) --
"Monk at 91: Fazioli Piano Marathon" -- will take place in downtown
L.A. on Friday, Oct. 17, from noon to 3 p.m. Participants scheduled: Geri Allen, Jean-Michel Pilc, Bill Cunliffe and Alan Broadbent. The event is a collaboration between Brookfield Properties and the city of Los Angeles Department of Cultural Affairs.
That's "Monk at 91: Fazioli Piano Marathon," Oct. 17, at Ernst & Young Plaza at 7+Fig , 735 Figueroa St., upper plaza. For more info: (213) 955-7150.
-- Lynell George
Photo: Thelonious Monk at Minton's Playhouse, New York City, 1949. Credit: Herman Leonard
I was at the majority of the Mars Volta's set at the generally bummed-out Detour fest this year, so I missed the live debut of the local electro/DJ duo Guns N Bombs on an opposite stage. That said, upon catching wind of this video, I have decided that "Butt Naked Lazers" will be my new general expression of positive emotion, i.e. "These oregano-dusted home fries are butt naked lazers, you guys."
Early Wednesday morning, Randy Randall of local fuzz-punkers No Age sent out an e-mail to a wide group of journalists, friends and fans stating that on Oct. 2 he had been asked to take off his pro-Obama T-shirt for a taped performance for “The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson,” slated to run Oct. 27.
With only a few minutes before the scheduled taping, “the talent booker told me I couldn’t wear my Obama T-shirt,” Randall said, speaking from No Age’s practice space. “She took one look at it and called the suits in New York, who said it was against the equal time rule. I asked her, what if I didn’t take it off? She said then that they couldn't tape us.”
Randall and fellow No Ager Dean Spunt quickly hashed out the tough situation. “We’re an underground band without a lot of publicity -- there was still an opportunity to take advantage of. We'd be able to say something versus nothing.”
First, the band asked if they could write the names of John McCain, Ron Paul and Ralph Nader somewhere on the stage or on their clothes, but CBS reps said no -- there would still be other candidates who wouldn’t get included.
So, at the last minute, Randall took off his Obama shirt, turned it inside out and wrote “Free Health Care” with a Sharpie marker. He put it on underneath his open flannel and performed.
We don't need to tell you that the most promising career options in America right now are boxcar-hopper, petticoat tailor or shepherd of hungry one-eyed alley cats. Fortunately, the condition of being stone-broke is a perennially popular theme in music (unless you're T.I.), and regardless of your taste in genre, there is a tune to accompany cooking canned beans over a street-corner bonfire. We took to our dusty archives to find a treasury of the best tunes for such times, and in no particular order, here are 15 of the most soot-blackened, pink slip-crumpling, rail-riding songs for you to sing to yourself in the unemployment line because you pawned your iPod weeks ago.
Surely there's plenty we forgot (sorry, Jeezy, next time!), because we were too busy mournfully playing our harmonicas. Tell us below in the comments!
L.A.'s played host to a lot of great shows lately -- Beck, Nick Cave, My Bloody Valentine. Even Sky Saxon and the Seeds at Club Ding-a-ling! last week were pretty fun in an antic, "is that a tab of acid in my beer?" kind of way. (If you don't know Club Ding-a-ling, it's Hyperion Tavern's Tuesday concert series featuring the weird and the inspired in Los Angeles, and it's worth a visit.)
And now there's more good news for me and lots of Depeche Mode fans who have not been enjoying the silence from our favorite British purveyors of snap-tight electropop. The Mode has not only signed a deal with Mute/EMI that will get their next album due April 2009 to the U.S. at the same time as Europe, they are also launching a stadium tour. It'll start in Israel in May, but according to an EMI representative, the trio will make it to an L.A. stadium (Staples?) sometime in the late summer.
The rep also said, though he hasn't heard it himself yet, that the Mode's new album will sound like "old-school Depeche Mode, with a big sound... upbeat and electronic." Here's hoping this particular rumor is true.
Beyoncé may be a married lady now, but she's still all caught up in the drama of love's first glances and final door slams. It's refreshing that she's staying in character: When artists such as Mary J. Blige start making music about how happy they are with their chubby hubbies, it may be sincere, but it also serves the function of feeding the tabloids. Beyoncé and her Hova have always kept business and pleasure separate, which imparts dignity to their relationship -- and lets her be an artist first, a personality second.
Beyoncé's emotional reserve also allows for hits that still appeal to her core fan base of independent women. "Irreplaceable" was a masterpiece of that ilk, the finger-wagging summation of mercenary, "Sex and the City"-style post-feminism. That song made Beyoncé pop's Chairwoman of the Board, as worldly wise and merciless about love as Sinatra was in the wee small hours of the morning.
Her new club banger, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)," elaborates on "Irreplaceable's" theme of love as sport, if not war; sounding a lot like a Destiny's Child song, it has Beyoncé doing call-and-response with her backup singers over a rump-shaking beat provided by The-Dream and Tricky Stewart. More than most female singers, Beyoncé understands the funky art of singing rhythmically, and this is a prime example.
My Morning Body Cast? Jim James of My Morning Jacket took a tumble off the stage last night during a show in Iowa City, Iowa, and evidently landed pretty hard. That’s causing the band to postpone a few shows in Chicago that were on tap later this week, as well as benefit performances for Sen. Barack Obama tonight in Chicago and next week in Louisville, Ky.
"We were finishing up the last few bars of 'Off the Record,' and just like any other night we were all having a great time,” according to a statement the band issued today. “Jim went to get closer to the audience on his side of the stage, and as he moved forward to step onto the sub-woofer, the lights darkened, and he inadvertently stepped off the stage.
“Upon falling, he suffered traumatic injuries to his torso, and was immediately taken to the hospital,” the statement continued. “Per the doctor's orders, Jim will be off the road and recovering from his injuries for the next two to three weeks. Sadly, we must postpone the two shows in Chicago on Thursday and Friday until further notice… We take our fans and performances very seriously, and would never cancel a show unless it was absolutely necessary. Please know that we will be making every effort to return to your fine city.”
There’s no word on whether the doctor gave James the news to the tune of MMJ’s “Lay Low.”
Beyoncé may be a married lady now, but she's still all caught up in the drama of love's first glances and final door slams. It's refreshing that she's staying in character: When artists such as Mary J. Blige start making music about how happy they are with their 
My Morning Body Cast? Jim James of My Morning Jacket took a tumble off the stage last night during a show in Iowa City, Iowa, and evidently landed pretty hard. That’s causing the band to postpone a few shows in Chicago that were on tap later this week, as well as benefit performances for Sen. Barack Obama tonight in Chicago and next week in Louisville, Ky.
