Warped Tour producer and founder Kevin Lyman put attendance for Friday’s opening date at 16,000.
That’s fewer than the 20,000 that packed the grounds last year (for a bill a bit heavier on veteran, big-name punk bands) but more than the 14,000 from two years ago. Lyman reasons that having the tour start a week earlier, along with the general economic doldrums, kept attendance down.
If you walked briskly Friday afternoon in the 102-degree heat (and dodged the kids with squirt guns), you departed the northern main stage at the Pomona Fairplex just as Gym Class Heroes were finishing their catchy but kitschy low-brow anthem “Clothes Off!” and arrived at the southern main stage in time to hear Against Me! break into its strident anthem “Stop!”
Nothing against Story of the Year, but the excitement generated by the St. Louis quintet — and several like it every year on the Warped Tour — makes me think it doesn’t pay for artists to stay true to much of anything in the way of influences or roots. The commercial formula seems to be: Throw all kinds of stylistic variations against the wall; produce it so it sounds really, really big; and perform it as if the world’s angst were on your shoulders.
Welcome to the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, where peace (but precious few other things you can’t get in a mall) is in fashion.
It’s the first of 46 dates on the annual punk rock traveling show, and, about 10 minutes through the gate, you wished maybe you would’ve waited until Sunday’s date at Seaside Park in Ventura, where cooler breezes are likely to prevail.
On “Black Covers,” one of the sylvan gems on L.A. quintet Everest’s debut album, “Ghost Notes,” frontman Russell Pollard sings, “Sometimes you’ve gotta step out of line to be seen.” Ain’t it the truth.
Despite having earned accolades from both Leonard Cohen and the blogosphere tastemakers, New York group Ravens & Chimes are still hunting for their Big Apple break. “I naively assumed the record would speak for itself,” says frontman and songwriter Asher Lack (pictured in front). Indeed, “Reichenbach Falls” (the sextet’s 2007 debut) has garnered comparisons to the Arcade Fire with its blend of bombast and impassioned lyricism. Cohen’s approval came after hearing a Ravens & Chimes cover of his “So Long, Marianne.” The reclusive singer-songwriter — one of Lack’s idols — “e-mailed us about it and said your record is really good,” he says.
But pats on the back don’t sell records: “Reichenbach Falls” has only scanned 2,000 copies — hardly Vampire Weekend numbers. “We quit our day jobs and got new day jobs and quit our new day jobs,” Lack says. The band fits work in between a hectic tour schedule that’s seen them play over 60 dates this year. Several members live in Brooklyn, a hype tornado where the local scene can be a fickle mistress. “There’s a little bit of the too-cool-for-school attitude,” Lack says. “The neon pants to the big beards, it’s a costume.” Still, with an album under their belts and a national tour underway, the band can’t help but be confident.
“I was super anxious about the future,” Lack says. “Now I feel like I’ve got a handle on the process.”
||| Live: Ravens & Chimes will join Afternoons‘ free residency at Spaceland on Monday along with Neil Young-approved local quintet Everest.
||| Listen: “January”
||| Also: L.A. duo the Submarines — their sophomore album “Honeysuckle Weeks” just released — play the Echo on Friday (along with Castledoor)… Easygoing L.A. indie-popper Devon Williams celebrates the release of “Carefree” at Amoeba on Tuesday.
–David Greenwald
Photo by Elizabeth Perrin
No, this post is not redundant — for the second time in three days, Beck trotted his new band onstage at the Echo on Wednesday night for a surprise show. With three new band members joining him and keyboardist Brian Lebarton, Beck obviously wants to work some things out before the release of his new album, the Danger Mouse-produced “Modern Guilt,” and the summer tour supporting it.
Wednesday’s musical calisthenics spanned 12 songs and 43 minutes. The players seemed more comfortable and spirited, and if the energy seemed a notch lower than Monday’s set, it was only due to the fact that the room was only about one-third full, word about the show not having leaked as it did earlier in the week.
Nobody on Wednesday’s regular bill seemed to mind that Beck crashed the party. It was the EP release show for singer-songwriter Daniel Ahearn’s “Pray for Me by Name.” Once he got started, Ahearn (a familiar face in the venue since he pays some of his bills by tending bar at the Echo) thanked the man who preceded him onstage … with a wink.
“Good local artist,” Ahearn said. “I think he’s going places.”
– Photo, post by Kevin Bronson
JUST IN: A few moments ago, Beck fan club members were alerted that he’s performing at the Echoplex tomorrow. Tickets go on sale at 5 p.m. today at ticketweb.com. The password is CHEMTRAILS; two-ticket limit. Looks like Beck can’t stop showing off those sunglasses in the Eastside clubs.
Beck’s invitation-only show Monday night at the Echo not only stoked the buzz for the upcoming release of his 10th album, “Modern Guilt,” but it also was a toe-wetting experience for a largely new batch of side players — who will have their work cut out for them if they’re along for the ride on a world tour that begins later this month (and, down the road, includes a Sept. 20 stop at the Hollywood Bowl).
The frontman acknowledged that it was “only about the fifth time we’ve played together” as he led his charges through a 14-song, favorites-laden set occasionally punctuated by technical clatter. None of those woes mattered to the Beck faithful; the show was mainly for “family and friends,” management said, and surely many of those were keen to the 37-year-old’s new material, right? Ahem.
For the record, the four new numbers — “Modern Guilt,” Gamma Ray,” “Replica” and “Profanity PrayersPlayers” — won’t bend the ears of anybody used to Beck’s sonic adventurousness. Solid guitar rock, all, especially the set-closing “Profanity,” a pedal-to-the-metal blast seemingly made for highway driving with the windows rolled down.
Besides longtime band member Brian Lebarton on keys, Beck was joined by guitarist/backup singer Jessica Dobson, a twentysomething from Long Beach who has created some ripples herself as a singer-songwriter; bassist Bram Inscore, who has played in local outfits such as Colorforms and Electrocute and is finishing a solo album; and drummer Scott McPherson, who has played with Earlimart, Sea Wolf, several national acts and, once upon a time, Elliott Smith.
– Kevin Bronson
Photo of Beck, with Jessica Dobson, by Kevin Bronson
Despite rumors of its untimely demise, L.A. country is, in fact, still alive and well. It’s just gone underground - or rather, taken to the skies. I See Hawks in L.A. is that rare local bird, an Americana act in a city where rock rules the roost. “[We’re] sort of mavericks,” states lead singer Rob Waller (at right, with Shawn Nourse, left, Paul Lacques and Paul Marshall). “Sometimes people will say, ‘Oh, I see hawks’ and you tell your hawk stories.”
With a sound as harmonic as it is twangy, the band is a throwback to the early days of the Golden State. “Bands like the Byrds, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens are people who we definitely feel kinship with,” says Waller. And not just kinship: The Byrds’ own Chris Hillman played mandolin on I See Hawks’ aptly titled third album, “California Country,” in 2006. Their fourth and latest, the just-released “Hallowed Ground,” adds fiddles and pedal steel, the kind of orchestration all but absent from the current Nashville sound.
“Modern country music … is really formulated,” crows Waller. “Let’s have a song where the girls are geting wild and going out tonight. It’s all been vetted in a focus group. That’s the opposite of what we do.” Despite the band’s thick local roots - they’re regulars at the Echo’s weekly “Grand Ole Echo” concerts - they’ve managed to escape SoCal long enough to play two national tours, where they’ve found a small but welcoming audience.
“People in these towns, they take us to [their] barbecues, we go on hikes together,” he says. “It’s really part of their lives.”
||| Live: I See Hawks in L.A. celebrate the release of “Hallowed Ground” at the Echo on Sunday.
||| Listen: Stream several tracks from “Hallowed Ground” on MySpace
||| Also: Critical darlings No Age play an afternoon show at old stomping the Smell on Sunday… Former Modern Lovers frontman Jonathan Richman plays two sets a night at the Mint tonight through Saturday… and the Living Legends attempt to live up to their name at the Glass House on Saturday.
–David Greenwald
Photo by Katie Williams.
[Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson has the week off.]
Bands naming themselves after the songs of their musical predecessors is a time-honored tradition, from Eric’s Trip (a Sonic Youth reference) to Radiohead (Talking Heads). But L.A. duo Uh Huh Her has gone one better, naming themselves after both an obscure PJ Harvey song and her 2004 album. “I don’t think we thought it through,” admits singer Leisha Hailey. “We love PJ Harvey but we never thought we’d have a tribute band.”
They don’t: Uh Huh Her’s sleek, synth-infused sound is closer to “Adore”-era Smashing Pumpkins or Metric than it is to the moody English alt-rocker. The band’s debut album, “Common Reaction” (out Aug. 19), is an electro-pop feast characterized by layers of overlapping vocals. “We like the way our voices blend together,” says Hailey. She’s no stranger to harmonizing: Before taking a music hiatus to play Alice Pieszecki in Showtime’s “The L Word,” she strummed and sang in Lilith Fair pair the Murmurs, who had a 1994 hit with “You Suck.” “The sound is really different,” she says of the quirky Murmurs. “I was much younger [then].”
Camila Grey, former Mellowdrone bassist and the band’s resident multi-instrumentalist, is happy for the chance to stretch out. “I was always a hired gun, so I was never allowed to be as creative as I wanted to be,” she says.
Now, a few European dates under their belts and a national tour underway, the band is looking forward to making a mark on their home turf. “We’ve played one show [in L.A.], at the Knitting Factory,” says Grey. “I’d love to be a local band.”
||| Live: Uh Huh Her rocks the Roxy on Saturday.
||| Download: “Not a Love Song”
||| Also: Brother-sister act the Fiery Furnaces heat up Spaceland with a two-night stand on Friday and Saturday, while ex-Irving members Afternoons kick off the month’s Monday residency… The two-man band Rumspringa starts its Echo residency on Monday… And if that’s not enough partnership for you, lovable folk-parodists-turned-HBO-stars Flight of the Conchords play for the ladies of the world at the Orpheum Theatre on Friday and Sunday.
– David Greenwald
Photo by Lisa Eisner
[Buzz Bands blogger Kevin Bronson has the week off.]
