March 31st, 2009
So, we had two options. Either listen to them on KCRW or go to the Echo and watch them live on Friday. I chose to go to Echo and listen, and of course, I am talking about The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. And boy I am so glad that I did. Seriously, how different could it be being at The Echo on a Friday night listening to a danish pop and funk sensation I wondered to myself as I waited outside to get in? Then I had my answer as soon as I walked in and there was a definite sense of anticipation for this band to go on.
With a lead singer that looks like she walked out of a closet owned by Grace Slick and Janis Joplin but with an elegance all her own, The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, led by the incredible and playful Mette Lindberg and the keys of Lars Iversen took the stage and set beautiful melodies, blown to a soft brass section behind them and started to ease into the set with a psychedelic flashing light concoction and lime green lights illuminating the echo stage all to a semi-nude drummer. Hmm, only a few seconds into the set, and I was already hooked to sounds of The Asteroids Galaxy Tour.
Sometimes the best thing about music is our inability, or simply not wanting to label it . Let’s just say that this 60′s flavored singer blazes a danish funk pop combination of stellar sounds, that you simply label The Asteroids Galaxy Tour, and dam it, you leave it at that. The Music is fun, unique, and truly stands on its own.
There was a packed crowd at The Echo this night to see The Asteroids Galaxy Tour for their first ever show in Los Angeles. And it wont be the last if this performance was any indication. Personally, I really like how these euros came to LA with a big fucking smile on their faces, and gave us lucky folk an incredible night of live music and killed their set.
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Asteroids, Asteroids Galaxy Tour, Galaxy, Hollywood, Indie, Indie Music, LA Music Events, LA Music Scene, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Blog, Music Network, Music Reviews, Shows, Silverlake, Spaceland, The Echo, Tour, Troubadour, Weekly Los Angeles, Weekly Music, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
March 23rd, 2009
DAM! We have some amazing shows to pick from this week. Since we run a sick calendar these are only some of our picks. But for evertyhing else, click here.
Monday: 3/23
American Gil & The Major Dudes, 9PM @ Perhspace, Echo Park
Angela Correa, 9PM @ Room 5, Los Angeles
Steel Panther, 9PM @ Key Club, Hollywood
Tuesday: 3/24
Sugar & Gold, 9PM, @ Silverlake Lounge, Silverlake
Western States Motel, 9M, @Home, Silverlake
Wednesday: 3/25
Drinking Liberally, 9PM @ Trips, Santa Monica
23 Rainy Days, 9PM @ MotionLA, Los Angeles
The Fresh & The Onlys, 10 PM @ Silverlake Lounge, Silverlake
MotherMother, 9PM @ Troubadour, Hollywood
Thursday: 3/26
The Mae Shi, 10PM @ The Smell, Echo Park
Yellow Red Sparks, 10PM @ Hotel Café, Hollywood
Branford Marsalis, 8PM @ Catalina’s, Hollywood
Kenan Bell, 10PM @ The Echo, Echo Park
Carina Round, 9PM @ Largo, Los Angeles
Friday: 3/27
Zee Avi, 9PM @ Hotel Café, Hollywood
J.J. Cale, 9PM @ McCabes, Santa Monica
Gliss, 9PM @ Spaceland, Silverlake
Saturday: 3/28
Drop Dead Gorgeous, 9PM @ The El Rey, Los Angeles
Suicidal Tendencies, 9PM @ Hollywood Palladium, Hollywood
Cobalt Cranes, 10PM @ L’Keg Gallery, Echo Park
Sunday: 3/29
DJ Quik, 9PM @ The Key Club, Hollywood
East Conference Champs, 9PM @ The Scene Bar, Glendale
Tags: Buzz Music, Echo, Eventful, Hollywood, Hotel Cafe, LA Buzz, LA Music, LA Music Picks, LA Music Shows, LA Weekly, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, los angeles events, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Calendar, Music Network, News, Silverlake, Spaceland, Troubadour, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
March 17th, 2009
Tonight’s show left me wondering if I’m going to one day brag about seeing it. “I was at her first ever U.S. concert,” I might say. “Really!?!” someone will reply with envy in their eyes. It’s not that Zee Avi is going to be the biggest act in the world, or sell 100 million records. It’s that I was in the presence of talent, the kind that people are born with, like some kind of cosmic gift.
It’s very hard to tell how old Zee Avi is. Her petite frame would fit a teenager, but her presence and lyrics betray her as someone much more worldly and wise. As she arrived on stage, she announced, in a perfect American English accent that she was from Malaysia, and that this was, indeed, her first U.S. concert ever. And for a couple of moments I wondered, “who is this girl? Why does she speak English so well? How old is she?” But all that passed as she opened up her mouth and let her voice ring out. The setting was very simple: a good looking drummer, a quirky but funny bassist sitting in front of a slide guitar, and Zee Avi in front, sitting down with guitar in hand. The band was the candle, and her voice the flame. Even and smooth, creamy and soulful. Like crème brulee, it was the perfect dessert for our ears. Her jazzy sound was rich, something to be savored. The music was simple, acoustic guitar, acoustic bass, and some drums during most of the songs, but not all. The drummer also performed a killer whistling solo that brought admiration and applause from the audience.
Her ten-song set included two covers, Interpol’s “Slow Hands,” and Morrissey’s “First of the Gang to Die.” It was great to actually hear the lyrics of “Slow Hands,” as Zee Avi rooted out the bitterness of their meaning. Her originals were also great, filled with clever rhymes that gave weight to her concepts. Other highlights included mid-song instructions to her band, obviously borrowed from her blues and rock influences, which gave an impression of freedom and improvisation to the show.
Zee Avi closed the show with the ukulele number “Just You and Me,” one of her original songs. And then she said goodnight and sadly the show was done, much too soon for my liking. Just like the perfect dessert, I wanted a little more, but then again that’s what makes it all so good. Fortunately this is not the last we’ve heard of miss Zee Avi, she will be back later this month to play a show at Hotel Café, and I recommend everyone to check her out.
Mircea “Mirch” Vlaicu
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Avi, Hollywood, Indie, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Network, music news, Silverlake, Spaceland, The Echo, Weekly Picks, Zee, Zee Avie
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
March 16th, 2009
These are our picks for the week of 3/16. Tell your friends about us. We have made some cool changes to Loudvine.com, with our unique MP3 Player now “live” on the homepage.
Now you get to listen to bunch of bands you probably would not have found on your own and we started to insert cool MP3′s from sick bands into the Blog as well.
INDIE:
Voices Voices -3/16, 9PM @ The Echo, Echo Park
Black Tongued Bells – 3/16, 9M @ The Scene Bar, Glendale
Bo Beep – 3/16, 10PM @ Bordello, Los Angeles
And You Will Know us By The Trail of Dead – 3/17, 9PM @ Echoplex, Echo Park
Sucker for Pumps – 3/18, 9PM @ Troubadour, West Hollywood Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Echo, Eventful, Events, going los angeles, Hollywood, Indie, Knitting Factory, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, los angeles events, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Network, music news, News, review, Roxy, Shows, Silverlake, Spaceland, The Echo, Troubadour, Weekly Los Angeles, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
March 15th, 2009
When I told my friends I was going to be seeing Gram Rabbit at the Echo last night, they had some very important words of advice: Find a pair of Bunny Ears, put on your dancing shoes, and get ready to join the Cult of the Rabbit. This band doesn’t just play music, they take you to a dance party in Wonderland. Tripper, weird, and yes, wonderful, Gram Rabbit are a musical tilt-a-whirl you have to see live to really get.
Don’t see this band with any expectations of “sense” or “logic”. Gram Rabbit are space-cowboy electropop on acid. Jessica “Von Rabbit” was dressed like a 1950′s pinup cowgirl and provided sexy, Lolita-esque vocals (when she wasn’t on keyboard or guitar). Todd Rutherford was less dressed up, but what he lacked in theatricality he made up for in talent as he alternated between various instruments in addition to his deep cowboy-man vocals.
Melancholy acoustic songs were thrown in with sonic acoustic beats. They have songs about cowboys versus aliens, the devil’s playground, and dancing the bunny hop. It was sexy, funky, and dancy. Over the course of the evening, they covered Siouxsie and the Banshees AND Black Sabbath. They sampled clips about mescaline from “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” then projected distorted pictures of OJ Simpson during a chorus that went “I say I kill.” Gram Rabbit are an intentionally trippy band (they are from Joshua Tree after all). They were all about messing with the audience’s head.
They didn’t just rely on trippy projections. Oh no. The band had their own performance artist whose sole job was to dress in ridiculous costumes and create drug-addled awesomeness. Sometimes this nameless creature would be a Space-Vixen shooting from a bubble gun or a bobble-headed geisha girl throwing bunny ears into the audience. Finally, she appeared as a supreme, baroque White Rabbit. Sporting a huge Marie-Antoinette wig and scary, porcelain bunny-masque, she infiltrated the crowd and adorned individuals with bunny ears. I made it my mission to follow her with my camera until I realized, “Oh Shit! I’m chasing the white rabbit!”
And yes, they did cover Jefferson Airplane’s White Rabbit. Their funky, electro version got the crowd so excited that I was finally convinced to join the Cult of the Rabbit. I found a pair of bunny ears and danced along. So, as the song goes: “Remember what the dormouse said, Feed your head.” Feed your head with Gram Rabbit, dance your way to Wonderland, and find a pair of bunny ears. You’ll be seduced by this sexy, crazy, surreal band too.
Rachel K-
www.loudvine.com
Tags: 29 Palms Music, 29 Plams Band, Echo, Echoplex, Gram, Gram Rabbit, Hollywood, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Network, music news, Plex, Rabbit, review, The Echo, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
March 14th, 2009
If you were to eat a tray of cupcakes covered in rainbow sprinkles and Prozac-laced vanilla frosting, you still wouldn’t be as happy and energetic as Castledoor. Last night at the Echo, this new wavey, synthy, bubble-gum pop-indie band got everyone dancing. Over the course of their 40 minute set, they were distilled clap-your-hands-then-wave-them-in-the-air-like-you-just-don’t-care. It was ultra soppy, but a really good time too.
First of all, I have to get one really important fact out of the way. Lead Singer Nate Cole was really, really hot. He had Brad Pitt good looks and mad singing skills. We was also one of the most animated indie singers I’ve seen around town (aren’t they supposed to be all ice-cool and ironic?). And I’m sure Cole has more than a few groupies. One girl in the crowd was so enthusiastic, she was practically doing interpretive dances to all of the songs. Some girls were even yelling at Cole to, “TAKE IT OFF!!!!! WOO!!!”
Groupies and good looks aside, the music was especially fun. Liska Cole and Coury Jane Combs looked like authentic Electro-Girls on dueling keyboards and synths (that is, when Liska Cole wasn’t on her twinkly xylephone). Drummer Joel Plotnik and bassist Brandon Schwartzel added gypsy-wedding-rhythms to the music. It was so fitting that the entire set was bathed in bubble-gum pink stage lights. Nate Cole sang songs about burning maps and placing pennies on train tracks. But just when I thought the ultra-saccharine sounds were verging on too commercial, Cole introduced the last song: “To all the record execs out there… Fuck you all!!!! Yeah!” Castledoor were completely sincere towards their indie fans.
If you’re looking for drone, doom, or wallow music, Castledoor isn’t it. They’re the sort of band you sing along to at the top of your lungs when you’re drunk with your friends. They songs pick you up as a guilty pleasure because they’re just so damn catchy. But hey, cupcakes are fattening and Prozac has all those weird side-effects. I’ll choose Castledoor any day.
Rachel K.
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Castledoor, Echo, free mp3, Hollywood, Indie, Knitting Factory, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, Lounge, MP3's, Music Network, Music Reviews, News, review, Silverlake, Silverlake Events, Silverlake Music, Silverlake Shows, Spaceland, The Echo, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | No Comments »
|
|
|
