Slash gets literary, hits Guitar Center tonight
Contrary to stereotype, Guns N' Roses guitar hero Slash doesn’t exactly hang out at Guitar Center. Yet tonight, the iconic Angeleno will be at the Northridge music store (we hear Duff McKagan will also show) as a favor to his longtime friend Marc Canter, who recently released a book focusing on Guns N' Roses’ first 50 shows in Los Angeles, long before they became household names the world over.
"Reckless Road" is an unrivaled chronicle of the band's earliest incarnation, including photographs, oral histories from the people who knew the band best early on (including a few strippers), photographs from early gigs at venues such as the Troubadour and Madame Wong’s, ticket stubs from those gigs and even transcriptions of between-song banter from Axl Rose.
"Reckless Road" sizzles with the same energy and scrappy spirit that helped Guns N' Roses land a deal with Geffen Records, and the rest, as they say, is history. After the jump, we talk with Slash about his longtime friend's new book, his thoughts on his own 2007 book, a little localized Guns nostalgia and his thoughts on the blogger who was recently arrested after posting unreleased tracks from "Chinese Democracy" online earlier this year.
Go see Lykke Li at some point in L.A. tonight
For those of you not still hung over from Sunset Junction or awaiting the latest twist in Spencer and Heidi's living arrangements on "The Hills," the voice behind one of my favorite singles of the year is playing two shows in L.A. tonight. Lykke Li, a pixieish twentysomething Swede making the rounds for her debut album, "Youth Novels," is a perfect approximation of everything I'm listening to now: dusty '60s girl-group pop, cut-and-paste electronica and outsider minimal R&B. It's perfectly realized on her single "Little Bit," where jittery steel drum samples and a tinny acoustic guitar prick away at her endearingly dejected falsetto. The song's aggressively soft-lit video is turning into something of a YouTube smash, and if you can't catch her crazy-sold-out show at Hotel Cafe tonight, she's playing for free down the block at Amoeba Records at 6:30 p.m. I'd say it's a safe Monday night respite from Audrina Partridge and Lo Bosworth's death stares, but who really knows these days.
-- August Brown
Skipping Sunset Junction? Other weekend options abound...
For those of you who are hoping to avoid the crowds (or the $20 cover) on Sunset Boulevard this weekend, there are several other interesting live music options around town.
Weezer guitarist Brian Bell debuts his new side band, The Relationship, at Molly Malone's on Fairfax Avenue on Saturday night for a measly $7.
Ima Robot (pictured, above) is at the Greek tonight with Cafe Tacuba.
Saturday night, Snoop Dogg proteges Western Union are performing at Mood in Hollywood. Promoters hint that Snoop himself may "likely jump on and perform with them." More info on this gig after the jump....
Masaya Nakahara, Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy at Echo tonight
Royal/T, the new Culver City cafe-gallery-performance space, is having an opening party tonight for "All of this is melting away," a show from the collection of Susan Hancock that's chock-full of artists such as Jeff Koons, Takashi Murakami, Hans-Peter Feldmann and Wynne Greenwood. But the best part, at least for the more musically inclined viewers, might be the after-party performance at the Echo with Masaya Nakahara (who is deejaying the opening party) and artists Mike Kelley and Paul McCarthy.
Paolo Nutini tries on 'new shoes' in Santa Monica
Attention Santa Monica-based music supervisors and employees of MTV who still listen to music: Scottish singer Paolo Nutini is playing a free show during your lunch break tomorrow -- you might want to go check him out.
Oh yes, it's also open to the public with no RSVP necessary. The "New Shoes" singer, who plays the Hollywood Bowl tonight with Etta James and Solomon Burke, begins a special set inside Puma's concept store (it was all but inevitable the singer was going to sell out to some footwear company, I suppose) on the Third Street Promenade (at 1350 3rd St.) at 12:30 p.m. Thursday.
-- Charlie Amter
Photo by Colin Lane courtesy of Atlantic Records
Nico Muhly's many 'Tongues'
The first vocal lines of the young composer Nico Muhly’s new album, “Mothertongue,” are seemingly arbitrary lists of numbers and addresses. Sung by ethereal mezzo-soprano Abigail Fischer over aching strings and a distorted sub-bass synthesizer, the arrangement feels like a Stockhausen gag; a misdirection that subverts your expectations about how the work might move you. For Muhly, however, there’s poetry in all that data.
“If you ask someone to name all the phone numbers you can off the top of your head, it’s going to be pretty interesting,” Muhly said. “When I asked the singer to name all of the phone numbers she knew, it was fascinating. It was her dad’s office from 20 years ago, or a friend’s number in Florence. You can tease narrative out of anything. You know how on Wikipedia there are these lists of things like ‘List of Horrible Ethnic Slurs’ or ‘List of Famous Canadian Homosexuals’? That’s such a poignant way to organize the world.”
LCD Soundsystem's vintage disco party
Contrary to what themed frat parties across America would have you believe, the disco world in the '70s was actually a defiant, experimental scene celebrating racial and sexual minority cultures with righteous jubilance. LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy is embarking on a DJ tour to help correct the socio-historical record while grinding today's club kids into the ground. Special Disco Version is the pet project tour from Murphy and LCD drummer Pat Mahoney, where they'll crack open the same crates of obscure remixes and lost 12-inches that yielded their awesome disco-heavy "Fabriclive" mix.
The tour comes to the Roosevelt Hotel on Sunday, but if, like so many of us at the Board, you're banned from the Tropicana Bar for past indiscretions (or just can't get in, as is often the case), there's a warehouse show Saturday at 647 Lamar St. in downtown L.A. Tickets are at blackdisco.net, and leave the paste-on sideburns and chest hair at home, thanks.
-- August Brown
Photo of Mahoney and Murphy by Ruvan Wijesooriya
Sean Nelson of Harvey Danger: There's life after a one-hit wonder
When I met Sean Nelson in his now-hometown of Seattle in 2001, the L.A. native had already peaked as a pop star.
His band, Harvey Danger, had one big hit perched atop the Modern Rock charts 10 years ago -- “Flagpole Sitta,” a lovely burst of poison sunshine that perfectly captured alt-rock’s transition from grunge-era heaviness to Death Cab-style cheerful neuroticism. (You remember it: “I’m not sick, but I’m not well,” Sean sang, his choir-boy tenor cracking on the high note. If you've forgotten, this YouTube video should jar your memory.)
“10 years ago (pretty much exactly), we had the number one song on KROQ, and sold out the Troubadour, The Roxy and The Viper Room during the summer. Next week we'll play in front of 60 people. And we're happy,” Sean wrote in a recent e-mail announcing Saturday’s acoustic Harvey Danger show at Largo.
Scars on Broadway catch the 9:25 at Union Station
If you don't listen to KROQ (and we know many of you don't), you might not know about tonight's KROQ-sponsored Scars on Broadway show at Union Station downtown. Scars principals Daron Malakian and John Dolmayan (from System of a Down) will surely scare the bejesus out of late arriving or departing commuters caught unawares this evening via performing such loud and politically charged tracks as "They Say" inside the historic building's impossibly ornate lobby beginning at 9:25 p.m.
U-N-I will host party at Holy Grail sneaker shop tonight; performance Saturday at the Roxy
If you're a fan of the oft-referenced golden era of rap or you just want to see what's up with L.A.'s fertile rap scene, check out Inglewood's U-N-I tonight and Saturday. The young duo, above, is part of a buzz-gathering collective of West Coast emcees, with music less reminiscent of the Game or Ice Cube and more like Dilated Peoples and the Pharcyde in their casual subject matter and jazz-infused style. They were set to open for EPMD tonight at Crash Mansion but some last-minute legal snafus, according to one insider, led to the cancellation of tonight's entire show (for the second time).
Read more U-N-I will host party at Holy Grail sneaker shop tonight; performance Saturday at the Roxy
(Not) Forgetting Peter Salett
For those who walked out of theaters this spring wondering which came first, “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” or the puppet musical that closes the film, the truth is now revealed.
“The whole thing was, [Jason] Segel actually had a Dracula musical and he put it into his script,” says Peter Salett, who worked with Segel and British comedian Russell Brand on songs and music production for the movie, and the musical within.
Salett’s no stranger to comedy -- he also wrote songs for David Wain’s sketch-driven “The Ten” -- but he’s hardly a joker off-screen. He’ll be at M Bar on Thursday night to celebrate the release of his fourth solo album, “In the Ocean of the Stars,” his latest collection of serious-minded country-folk. It’s an attitude that can’t help but carry over to his funnier material.
Buzz Bands: Under the Influence of Giants gets a new start in Silver Lake
Under the Influence of Giants is no longer under the influence of Island Records, which is why you'll find the L.A. quartet manning the Monday residency this month at Spaceland. With the paperwork on the band/label divorce being finalized, the foursome -- with new management and new songs -- got back to business last week, bringing its Bee Gees-on-steroids dance-rock to Silver Lake and almost filling the room.
‘Alf’ on Amy Winehouse: Yaz’s Alison Moyet passes the torch
When the book is written on England's top soul singers of all time, Alison Moyet's throaty growl will surely be in the proverbial mix. The voice of Yaz, who just dropped her seventh solo record Tuesday and performs tonight (the last of three shows at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown L.A.) with Vince Clarke as one half of the acclaimed electropop duo Yazoo, as they are known in the U.K., hasn't lost a step when it comes to hitting all the right notes with her primal-yet-sensual vocalization.
And while Moyet was the chanson-influenced R&B voice of the 1980s, we were curious what the "Situation" singer thought of England's current voice-of-the-moment: Amy Winehouse.
Historical Columbia Records photos on view
A new photographic exhibit at New York City's Morrison Hotel Gallery offers a glimpse of rare recording session images from Columbia Records' legendary studio on 30th Street. Among the artists captured on film are Billie Holiday (left), Bob Dylan and Miles Davis (see those two after the jump). Johnny Cash, Leonard Bernstein, Tony Bennett, Thelonious Monk and Ella Fitzgerald can be seen as well. And you don't need to be in New York to look at the photos.
Bhangra-DJ dance party at Music Center tomorrow night
Five years ago, Jay-Z performed on a track called "Beware of the Boys," a remix to the bhangra song "Mundian To Bach Ke," by the hugely popular Indian artist Punjabi MC. Although this type of fusion between rap/hip-hop beats and traditional Indian folk-dance music had been around at least 5 years prior to that song, and gaining steam in the dance clubs of London and NYC, it didn't really make that huge a dent elsewhere.
Buzz Bands: The Forward’s new direction
Before setting out to make their mark on the post-punk landscape, Leonard Jackson and Ian Schaeffer -- pals from their day jobs at Guitar Center -- left their marks on plenty of bottles of beer. “We were drinking buddies first, and we’d sit around and philosophize about how things should be,” Jackson says. “Once we’d created our utopian band model, we realized there was no other solution but to do it.”
Now, singer-guitarist Jackson and bassist Schaeffer, along with guitarist Greg Smith and drummer Tom DuPree III, have moved forward as the Forward. Their debut album, “Nothing But Teeth” (due Sept. 9), showcases the quartet’s quick-hitting guitars, agitated rhythms and the wry, literate songs Jackson conceived during long hours of hawking merchandise that helped other artists realize their dreams.
Buzz Bands: Hearts of Palm U.K.’s sly electro-pop
Everything about electro-pop trio Hearts of Palm U.K. seems a little coy, except the music.
The group hails from Echo Park, not England (keeping the “U.K.” appellation draped in mystery), and isn’t even a band but more a project of songwriter Erica Elektra — whose surname, of course, is merely something she adopted after almost being electrocuted while playing bass in the basement of her New York City apartment. Friends Frankie Rose and Billy Kaye (ahem .... not their real names; they’re to Elektra’s right in the photo) have come aboard to help Elektra shape the songs that emerged from “the sorts of things that come with the end of a long-term relationship,” she says.
‘The Gits’ documentary screens tonight at the Echoplex
In the summer of 1993, everything seemed to be going the Gits' way. Bypassed in the initial wave of interest in Seattle's grunge bands, the punk quartet was close to signing with a major label and had begun recording its second album. But on July 7, after leaving friends at a local bar, the Gits' singer, Mia Zapata, was raped and murdered, her body dumped on the street.
Diamond D will dig in the crates Saturday night in Chinatown
Before Kanye West became the poster boy for the emcee-producer, a small number of artists paved the way in the rap game. One such innovator was Diamond D. Originally from the Bronx, he grew up in the same housing project as Fat Joe and would later go on to form the D.I.T.C (Diggin in the Crates) crew along with Fat Joe, OC, AG, the late Big L, and Lord Finesse.
Buzz Bands: Little Ones sign to Chop Shop; album due in September
The Little Ones, who lost their U.S. record deal with EMI/Astralwerks early this year, have been signed to Chop Shop Records, the year-old imprint that was spun off Chop Shop Music, the music supervision company that has curated the soundtracks to television shows such as "The O.C.," "Grey's Anatomy," "Gossip Girl" and "Boston Public," among others. Look for the Little Ones' debut album, "Morning Tide," to finally be released in September -- more than two years after their "Sing Song" EP marked the L.A. outfit as a band to watch.
"They're growing and we're growing," singer-guitarist Ed Reyes says. "It's back to basics for us -- it's great to deal with a group of people who are enthusiastic about our music."
James Hunter makes ‘The Hard Way’ easy
On Tuesday night, James Hunter is bringing his unique variety of soul to the Troubadour. Unique, you may well question? Yes, unique.
Buzz Bands: The 88 readies its big release (with stream of the single ‘Coming Home’)
I first met The 88 more than five years ago. Picking my way through the post-show crowd outside Spaceland, keyboardist Adam Merrin was among three or four people fliering to promote their bands. Only Merrin was handing out sampler CDs with The 88's fliers.
"I used to hate passing out fliers, but the idea of handing out music made sense," Merrin says of the tack that helped build the band a strong L.A. following. "We did that a long time."
No overnight sensations, these guys. After two DIY albums and more than 40 song placements in films, television shows and commericals, the 88 signed with Island and are releasing their major-label debut in August, and kicking off the campaign with a show as part of the Sunset Strip Music Festival. When I talked to them last week, they were pretty much the same dudes I'd run into pounding the pavement outside local clubs.
||| Stream: "Coming Home"
||| Live: The 88 plays the Roxy on Saturday night.
After the jump, check out my story from today's print edition of The Guide.
--Kevin Bronson
Photo: Keith Slettedahl, left, Adam Merrin and Anthony Zimmitti of the 88 by Liz O. Baylen / Los Angeles Times
Sunset Strip Festival honors the past, but leaves it behind
In a show of civic pride that may have some locals rolling their eyes with memories of riots, parking nightmares and noise violations, the Sunset Strip Business Assn., Sunset Strip club owners and West Hollywood have collaborated to honor the clubs of the Sunset Strip and its music history with a three-day festival. The Sunset Strip Music Festival will run Thursday through Saturday and promoters are expecting up to 9,000 attendees. The festivities will include performances at the House of Blues, the Key Club, the Roxy, the Whisky A Go Go, the Viper Room and the Cat Club.
Seun Kuti plays free concert tonight at California Plaza
Nigerian singer Fela Kuti is most known for ushering Afrobeat rhythms and socially conscious messages onto the world stage. Tonight and tomorrow, his son Seun (pronounced shi-oon) embarks on his first ever tour to promote his album "Many Things," which features his father's 15-piece funk and jazz orchestra, Egypt 80.
Buzz Bands: New heights for Everest
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.
RZA gets into digital mind frame for the Fonda
Wu-Tang Clan's abbot and resident chess master, RZA, is starting to look more like a neo-soul singer instead of the ruckus-bringer from the early '90s. I guess that's what becoming a Hollywood composer and actor will do to you. The change has actually brought him a fair amount of flack from his brethren for his softened, more focused beat production on the Wu's recent "8 Diagrams" album.
But fear not, RZA loyalists: Superhero hedonist alter ego Bobby Digital is back.
Travis Barker and DJ AM concoct ‘crazy creature’
Two turntables and a full drum kit.
That’s the lean artillery deployed by the team of DJ AM and Travis Barker, who will bring their beat happening to the Roxy for a three-show residency starting Wednesday and continuing July 30 and Aug. 27.
Afrika Bambaataa on ‘the aboriginal music of the planet’
Hip-hop culture, as it was formed in the '70s in the Bronx, New York, owes a lot to Germany. The group Kraftwerk's bass-driven electro music would influence countless musical styles, but so did a group of pioneering DJs that included Afrika Bambaataa. In his 50s, the founder of the Universal Zulu Nation still tours as a DJ and member of Soulsonic Force and he's up again for possible induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Bambaataa is referred to as the godfather of hip-hop, but in a recent chat with Soundboard he says he prefers the title "Amen Ra of Universal Hiphop Culture." The Amen Ra is the headlining DJ tonight at Crash Mansion. We caught up with him as he lounged in his hotel suite downtown before a Friday performance.
-- Camilo Smith
For those who think the terms are synonymous, can you explain the difference between "hip-hop" and "rap"?
Well, rap is part of hip-hop. Hip-hop is really a whole culture, it deals with all the five elements and then the plus elements. So, if you deal with DJ, B-boys, graffiti art, emceeing and that fifth element that holds it all together, the knowledge, you're dealing with hip-hop as a culture. And then you deal with all the other, plus that deals with fashion and all that. When you say "rap," you're just dealing with only one little aspect of hip-hop.
You're called the "Godfather" of hip-hop. Do you see things coming full circle now in hip-hop music?
It's still got some more to go. When I see that coming full circle is when we become galactic humans and head to these different planets, which I know they're getting ready to take you... it's going beyond the planet Earth.
It seems like for a while hip-hop lost the use of electro beats and electro funk that you pioneered. Only recently does it seem that a lot of popular rappers and hip-hop artists have veered more toward that sound again.
Well, it never got lost. It's always been there. The people who didn't hear it, and other DJs playing it, was because their minds were so closed to one style of hip-hop music. Electro's always been there; in fact, that's one of the biggest styles of music in the world, is the electro and the techno. The biggest festival of all is the Love Parade, where you have over 3 million people coming to hear DJs playing electro.
You have the breakbeat DJs from Miami, bass and all that with Uncle Luke; and you have the music out of Rio de Janeiro... so it never went anywhere. The only people who think it disappeared is because they don't understand hip-hop as a culture. They only understand what the radio plays, so, if they tell you it's gangster, then that's all the people who listen to radio heard, while the other people were listening to all the other styles of hip-hop culture, whether it's hip-house or jungle, or drum and bass, or Ragga-hop; different styles of music but also made up of hip-hop.
Acrobatics Everyday brings musical back flips to Irvine
Nearly everything in Irvine closes at 10 p.m. Basically, if you're a student or enjoy some sort of nightlife, you're pretty much out of luck. Irvine is like a frozen tundra when it comes to some sort of music scene: Epic jam sessions cannot survive. Dance parties wither and die. Everyone listens to Jack Johnson.
But there's now a ray of light in our fair corporate metropolis. Since late January, the student-run DIY group Acrobatics Everyday has been bringing local and touring indie bands to the UC Irvine campus. But wait, doesn’t Chain Reaction in Anaheim already provide this? That’s somewhat true, except the bands that play there are all emo-pop outfits from your little sister's iPod.
AE founder Sam Farzin, a UC Irvine student and music director of KUCI-FM (88.9), felt the city needed more variety and, let’s face it, better bands: “Why not start by attempting to introduce wonderful, palatable sounds to a whole new audience that would never otherwise know they existed? My main goal is to get people in the area excited about music. Off of their computers and into classrooms, restaurants, lecture halls, conference rooms — watching music … wherever we can fit a PA.”
Also, because all the money that Acrobatics Everyday generates goes directly to the bands, there is no commercial agenda.
The ever-expanding list of bands that have played at Acrobatics Everyday include spazz-tastic Dan Deacon, heartfelt indie pop band Mount Eerie (formerly the Microphones), the stream-of-consciousness stylings of BARR and Mount Righteous, pictured above.
This Saturday, Acrobatics Everyday celebrates the beginning of summer and its six-month anniversary with the Bright Tomorrow Festival. The lineup include Devon Williams (formerly of Osker), Infinite Body, Glasser (with the BodyCity dance troupe), Rafter, Red Pony Clock, Talkdemonic, and Lloyd & Michael (formerly of Dear Nora). The fest starts at 3 p.m., costs $8 and, like every AE show, is all-ages.
“I hope people will come to an Acrobatics Everyday show," Farzin says, "and leave happy, excited about life, and looking forward to the next show.”
Perhaps Irvine doesn’t suck anymore.
-- post and photo by Vivian Lee
Future events include Bird Names and Wummin (June 25) and Thao with the Get Down Stay Down and Da Bears (Aug. 1).
For more information and the full calendar, click here.
Au Clair de la Lune: The “Take-Away” videos of Vincent Moon
"[Filmmaker Andrei] Tarkovsky... has a very good quotation in his book about the function of art being a function of communication directly between an artist, in this case, and the community. I think that's really important to the way that I work... I value very much the contact with the local people who are organizing the gig and finding out what their conditions are like and what the music in that area is like and I also value contact with the audience directly... If you're an improviser, you need to have feedback. You can't exist in a vacuum."
-- musician Fred Frith in the 1990 documentary, "Step Across the Border"
In French video director Vincent Moon's world, music is an intrinsic part of the landscape, as permanent and immutable as the artists he films performing on rooftops, urban street corners, tenement hallways and abandoned churches.
"Everything is spontaneous," he said from his home in Paris last Friday. "It should be. I'm going to the reality... I'm not trained to get the shot... more of an improviser."
Today, the online video channel, crackle.com (Sony Pictures' new foray into web entertainment) begins hosting a four-"season" series of Moon's "Take-Away" videos. Over 40 were informally shot at music festivals around the country specifically for the series.
American audiences can check out his faux-documentary style in past videos for such artists as R.E.M., the National (click on the video below), Grizzly Bear, Sufjan Stevens, Tegan & Sara and Beirut.
Kaskade’s sensual (strobelite) seduction
While most people using IM applications at work trade spreadsheets (or, God forbid, emoticons), San Francisco-based DJ and producer Kaskade (born Ryan Raddon) is busy using instant messaging to create tracks like this.
“The entire collaboration was done over instant messenger,” Raddon said in an e-mail interview about his hot-right-now track, "Move for Me," co-written with Toronto-based electronic artist Deadmau5.
“There is a good synergy between our styles, which I think came through in the end.”
No kidding.
The track, currently No. 7 on Beatport’s progressive house chart, represents a perfect meshing of both electronic artists' respective styles. With signature detached and breathy vocals from one of Raddon's female vocalists (Haley Gibby), it’s unmistakably a Kaskade tune. Yet “Move for Me” also bears Deadmau5’s familiar production style and club-friendly chord progressions.
The track is actually one of two collaborations with Deadmau5 (the other is the tranced-out "I Remember") that appear on his just-released disc “Strobelite Seduction," which actually topped iTunes' dance chart in pre-release last month.
Raddon says the disc represents a watershed moment in his career.
“My music continues to evolve as I do as a person,” he said. “I really feel like I am at a spot [now] where I can be a bit selfish and experiment with new sounds and styles. I have never felt so free in creating a record; it is a great place to be at.”
In addition to his two stellar collaborations with Deadmau5, songs like “Back on You” and “One Heart” will likely cement Kaskade’s reputation as one to watch in house music circles.
And while Raddon is nowhere close to being recognized worldwide as a brand name (such as, say, Tiësto), he may be on his way.
The DJ is among house music’s hardest workers; constantly touring the world (he has dates lined up this month in New York, São Paulo, London and Ibiza, Spain, in addition to a Saturday gig at Vanguard in Hollywood) and is releasing material as often as his new label (Ultra Records) will allow him.
The Chicago-born DJ says that the Windy City especially inspired “Strobelite Seduction.”
“The strobelite is really just metaphor for the house scene that I came up in and the people that made it work when I was younger,” he said. And while Raddon is now associated with San Francisco’s dance music community (he gives a nod to the city’s funky sound on tracks like “I'll Never Dream”), he was perhaps equally inspired by Chicago’s legendary scene in the 1980s and early 1990s.
Raddon still holds a residency at Smart Bar in Chicago and continues to represent the city in his sound.
"Chicago inspired me to make music," he said.
Kaskade plays Giant at Vanguard on Saturday night in Hollywood.
-- Charlie Amter
Photo courtesy Ultra Records
‘Miles From India’ for one night in L.A.
Everything is coming up Miles Davis these days: two film projects, remixes, box sets, books galore and "Miles From India," a new release of interpretations of some Miles classics by Indian musicians aided by Miles sidemen. This Sunday, a concert -- one of only three planned nationwide -- seeks to bring that recording project to the stage here in L.A. It's the kick-off show for the Grand Performances series at the California Plaza downtown.
I talked with the man who brought "Miles From India" to life, the irrepressible Bob Belden, but first an anecdote on how I personally became involved in the music of the black magus.
Something momentous happened to me at age 15 in my prep school dorm in 1969. I was in the habit of listening to the "underground" New York area radio stations and there was one African American DJ whose very blackness was so deep, so African, so revolutionary that I used to get a kick out of his monologues, happy that he wasn't being kicked off the airwaves.
One day he played a very lengthy cut (not that unusual in the psychedelic late '60s). It was jazz, but not really. It wasn't the free jazz of John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman or Cecil Taylor. It wasn't the pervasive hard bop of Lee Morgan or Cannonball Adderley and it certainly wasn't anyone doing standards. It was more like ambient (a word not used then) funk, a bold trumpet with dueling keyboards, a nod toward Sly and James Brown in the rhythm section and a guitarist noodling on minimal, spooky modal lines.
I called the station and asked what the track was and who the guitarist might be (one of my various identities in school was Guitar Hero; the dorm levitated from the sound of my Gibson). It was Davis' "It's About That Time" from his album "In a Silent Way," and the guitarist was John McLaughlin.
This was not the Davis I remembered from my early childhood -- the post-bop cool; the natty, slim English suits; the polished obsidian complexion. This was a funky thing, more in touch with Harlem than Carnegie Hall.
Several months later, I found myself in Greenwich Village's Village Gate in either late December 1969 or early January 1970. We were there to see Miles and what is now known as "The Lost Quintet" -- his gigging band during the recording of "Bitches Brew" but never recorded "as is": Wayne Shorter on tenor and soprano sax, Dave Holland on bass, Chick Corea on electric piano and Jack DeJohnette on drums. I seem to remember Airto Moreira sitting in on percussion.
It was loud, enveloping, confusing, exhilarating. Sheer, beautiful insanity. I left the Village Gate around midnight feeling purple.
Destroyer brings his cracked poetry to the Troubadour tonight
Peripheral New Pornographers member Dan Bejar was born and raised in Vancouver, Canada, in the latter half of the 20th century, but sometimes he'll sing a line, drop a reference or use a woman's name that sounds plucked from some other era, some exotic place far away from a North America blinking with bland neon signs and cellphone signals.
On "Trouble in Dreams," his eighth record as Destroyer, a misleadingly nihilistic moniker for what is essentially a poet's glam-rock band, Bejar sings: "Oh, I didn't go out into this world to be stung by rich man's hornets." The gimlet-eyed line makes the wild-haired Bejar seem like a character in an Oscar Wilde play, lounging in a satin jacket, petting a white Persian, fumigating a rare French tobacco.
It's an act, sort of. Speaking from a remote part of Alberta on tour, Bejar isn't nearly the foppish dandy he presents on record, but he does admire and seek out a certain honeyed version of the sublime.
"I seem to be aiming for beauty these days. I’m not saying every Destroyer song is 100% beautiful all the time, but that is the kind of lyrics and images I want, that evoke some kind of emotional resonance and impact. I try to stay away from intellectual matters."
Bejar's songs aren't devoid of the intellectual but they are first and foremost concerned with aesthetic pleasure. A previous album, "Destroyer's Rubies," is a fantastically rich opus of a record, brimming over with images such as watercolors spilling into the ocean and girls like gazelles, with tinkling pianos and sumptuous guitars and horns. For "Trouble in Dreams," he stripped it down a bit and followed the nerve-wracking process of letting the songs shape themselves with no reference point.
"With 'Rubies,' I was into this certain feel of rock bands that existed in a very specific way on very specific albums with very specific people, like a Mick Ronson production. For 'Trouble in Dreams,' it was more like starting with a blank slate. It was more like we’ve knocked these songs about in a practice space and it’s more noisy, but still, after a handful of practices, we don’t have any clear idea what this is supposed to sound like ... we kind of like playing the songs differently every time we play them. So, you don’t really know what the hell the song is supposed to be like, and it's not like it has to sound like anything. It was a different way of working."
What that might portend for tonight's show at the Troubadour is anyone's guess, but Bejar has great love for the form. "I like playing live in the same way that I like playing music in a room with people where no one’s watching ... it’s a lot different from the recording process. In some ways, it's a lot better. Playing live is kind of why you do it."
-- Margaret Wappler
Local musician Devon Williams opens; you can stream "Trouble in Dreams" here.
Photo courtesy of Merge
The L.A. return of jazz-rock guitarist Wayne Krantz
"Complacency of accepting 'givens' takes people away from the vitality of the art."
So says master jazz-rock guitarist Wayne Krantz, who could never be accused of complacency. He's returning to Los Angeles for three dates this week after a seven-year absence from performing here with his own band.
Why L.A. now?
"I was stuck in New York doing this gig [an almost-weekly appearance at the 55 Bar for more than 10 years] and I got stuck in a comfort zone. I wanted to get out more but there were a lot of logistical difficulties... The thing that facilitated it this time was that my drummer [Cliff Almond] was living in San Diego part of the time and [bassist] Tal Wilkenfeld is living out there now."
The L.A. gigs should be exciting. "[Tal and Cliff] have played together exactly once before this gig," says Krantz. "I know that this combination was able to take off before. You know, if it feels right."
The new trio will have some big shoes to fill. Krantz has had explosive rhythm sections in the past, most notably the 1998-2006 trio of drummer Keith Carlock and bassist Tim Lefebvre (both now playing in Rudder). Their 2003 recording, "Your Basic Live" (only available on Krantz's website), is one of the essential small ensemble jazz-rock recordings of the last 20 years and utterly indispensable to guitarists of any stripe.
Buzz Bands: Shwayze gets things buzzin’
He’s the kid with the easy smile and the ball cap tugged crooked — the one who sticks out among his hard-partying friends because, as he likes to joke, he’s “the only black kid in Malibu.” But over the last 2 1/2 years, Shwayze learned quickly where the party stops and work begins: in the studio of producer Cisco Adler.
It was with Adler at the controls that the aspiring rapper made “Shwayze,” his debut album (due July 15 on Suretone/Geffen). “Malibu’s a small town, and I knew Cisco was a rock ’n’ roller and I knew he had helped Mickey Avalon” as producer of two of Avalon’s singles, says Shwayze, born Aaron Smith. “I only knew him as a partyer, but he is one hard-working dude. Still, we would not have guessed this two years ago.”
Shwayze’s humorous, easy-going rapping might not venture much further topically than weed and women, but combined with Adler’s sticky musical backdrops, it’s made the 22-year-old a hot commodity. The single “Buzzin’” has hit major radio; Shwayze played the lead-in set to Miley Cyrus at Saturday’s KIIS-FM blowout Wango Tango; and an MTV reality show launches in July.
Most rewarding, Shwayze says, is how the album came together. “We made the record before we were signed,” he says, noting the absence of multiple producers or scads of guests (Dave Navarro appears on one song, “Flashlight”). “We were just doing our own thing.”
Indeed, it’s the handiwork of the 29-year-old Adler — the Whitestarr frontman, son of entertainment impresario Lou Adler and unofficial captain of the Malibu party squad for which Shwayze is now the unofficial spokesman. Says Shwayze: “Cisco is one talented dude.”
||| Live: Shwayze plays Crash Mansion on Friday and is a headliner on this year’s Warped Tour (June 20 in Pomona; June 22 in Ventura).
||| Listen: To Shwayze's single "Buzzin'."
--Kevin Bronson
Photo of Shwayze and Cisco Adler courtesy of Big Hassle Media
Buzz Bands: The Morning Benders’ tuneful innocence
Rarely has a debut album sounded so fresh and endearing — without your suspecting the writer copped somebody’s songbook — as the Morning Benders’ “Talking Through Tin Cans.”
The Berkeley-based quartet metes out three-minute dollops of youthful pining as if love songs were something they just sprang on the Internet. “We’re just looking to do something that sounds authentic,” says frontman Chris Chu, an unabashed fan of classic pop who, at 21, appears years away from his first encounter with a razor. “Most of the music I look back on [fondly] has an honest emotion.”
The Benders’ formula of scratchy-but-tasteful guitars, agile melodies and wizened-not-whiny sentiment evolved as if by fate. Chu, a Santa Monica native (in fact, three of the four Benders have SoCal roots), “picked up a friend’s guitar when I was home sick from school one day and started playing,” he says.
Off he went to Cal, where he eventually found Joe Ferrell (guitars, keyboards), Julian Harmon (drums) and, now, Tim Or (who has replaced original bassist David Perales). “After I moved up to Berkeley, I just started writing songs — yeah, I had some girl troubles, but I had some good things happen too,” Chu says. “All the songs are kind of a snapshot of what was going on at the time.”
And to gauge from Chu’s enthusiasm, the album, released this week by fledgling label +1 Records, is just the start. “We love playing music, and so far everything about it is exactly how I wanted it to be,” he says. “We want to make another album already.”
||| Live: The Morning Benders play their album-release show Thursday night at the Echo (free to those who buy the album at Virgin Megastore or at the label's website). (They will also be back in L.A. on May 19, opening for the Kooks at the Wiltern.)
||| Download: "Boarded Doors."
||| Watch: The Morning Benders' new video for "Boarded Doors" is the brainchild of Daniel Stessen, creative director of the L.A. art-film-music collective People Food. Given Chu's boyish looks, it's, um, a perfect fit.