March 28th, 2009
To ask someone if they want to go see a guy with a tongue twisting name and nothing but a tape recorder, a megaphone, a guy with a guitar and a girl with an accordion, the amount of no’s are staggering. In the mass media attempting to get in on the “indie” scene (even though they’re, like, 5 years late) the bands that are frequently mentioned when talking about Los Angeles natives are No Age, Abe Vigoda, HEALTH and the Mae Shi. They’re all Smell darlings whose fan base has been cultivated by playing at all ages venues. However, there is another group on the rise here. I call it the Killsonic Family. Killsonic, as previously reviewed by Loudvine, are a 25-piece marching band that has been getting attention from fans and media alike. An effect mostly seen in Canadian bands, there are several bands that have stemmed from Killsonic. One member has spawned his own masterpiece calling it Mooey Moobau.
Mooey Moobau is the brainchild of Killsonic trombone player and speech enthusiast Joe Tepperman. If I could describe it, I guess I would call it narrative minimalist jazz. He uses voice collages and live tape edits and seems to be the only real member of Mooey Moobau with his constantly sifting lineup of musicians aiding him. When I saw him for the first time at the Curio, he had his tape recorder and megaphone, but when I saw his at Pehrspace, he was playing bass and was partnered with a bass clarinet player. Joe’s deep, yet lively voice is a perfect marriage for his telling the parable of the “2 1-Legged Man”. At first, the audience seemed confused by what this calypso singer of sorts was even talking about. But I guess what can you expect from a guy whose song titles on the album All Murmur of Our Mother’s Waters include “Autopsy of a Pigeon”, “Love Bloody Food Sewer Food” and my favorite “McDonald’s Mouse vs. the Toilet Seat Cat”, right? But the audience grew to love Joe and were along for his journey. One blogger said that it was “David Byrne meet Picasso”. Maybe that’s a little much, but you get the idea. The heavy influence of speech, natural flow and patterns comes from Tepperman’s work as a speech pathologist and research of applied linguistics at USC. Hats off to anyone who can waltz in from Florida and turn LA music upside down and slap a big shit-eating grin on these hipster kids.
Seeing Mooey Moobau is a lot like watching the film Fantasia. Tepperman recites and narrates using heavy word play (the visuals, such as movement, in the film) and the minimalist yet chaotic music to marry the abstract content of the fables (the colors, sounds of the film). Its frenetic and spontaneous, yet beautifully detailed and and sophisticated. He usually lurks in the shadows of small, divey venues and crawls out of his wormhole frequently to play. So, yeah. You just have no reason to never see Mooey Moobau.
B. Kramer
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Buzz Bands, Eventful, going los angeles, Hypem, Indie Bands and mp3s, Indie Music, Killsonic, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, Moobau, Mooey, Mooey Moobau, Music Network, Performer Magazine, Perhrspace, The Echo, Weekly Los Angeles, Weekly Music, Weekly Picks
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March 27th, 2009
Ok folks, I’ve have a crap week. Jury duty and food poisoning in a three day span. I sort of wanted to shoot myself in the face. So I was need of some serious musical cleansing when I hightailed it to the Silverlake Lounge last night. Better than a bottle of Pepto Bismol was Restavrant. These guys served up a big helping of Southern gator rock mixed with a healthy dose of… electronica? Whaaa?
I knew something was up when I scanned the crowd. Sure there were the usual dark-rimmed glasses and skinny pants (I mean, we were in Silverlake). But there were also some really big, beer-guzzling trucker dudes there. Like, the sort of guys you wouldn’t want to share a prison cell with. It all made sense as soon as Restavrant started playing their bluesy swamp music. Singer/guitarist Troy Murrah had a gritty growl that could have been from any of my Grandmother’s old blues vinyls. In true blues fashion, he worked a bottleneck guitar, a harmonica, and had a strong tendency to say, “Thanks Y’all.”
The second guy in the band, J State, had the most (amazing) white trash drum kit EVER. I’m not even exaggerating. Sure, he had a kick drum and a snare. But for cymbals, he just had two license plates melted together. A gasoline can was thumped on, too. When he wasn’t banging the hell out of his dumpster-dived-drum set, however, he was working a synth and a drum machine. With Murrah’s Boomhauer vocals, the two made some pretty fantastic dance songs. In the song “Joe D” Murrah would chant, “I’ve got no sunglasses, I’ve got no tennis shoes” making a super fun, Hillbilly-techno romp. “Homeless Architect” was so fast I wondered if this is what they play at raves in Alabama. Damn.
By the end of their set, J State’s wife beater was soaked and Murrah was off the stage playing in the audience. Their gritty eletro-blues may have been a weird combo, but it was a thoroughly kick ass one too. I don’t care what you’re doing next Wednesday night (you can TiVo Lost, goddamnit), just get out there and see some live music. You might just see a band as cool as Restavrant.
-Rachel K.
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Indie, LA Events, LA Music, LA Music Scene, LA Music Shows, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Network, music news, Restavrant, Rockville, Silverlake, Silverlake Lounge, Spaceland, The Echo, Troubadour, Weekly Music, Weekly Picks
Posted in Live Music and MP3 | 1 Comment »
March 23rd, 2009
Do you own all three seasons of Deadwood on DVD? Have you ever reenacted scenes from The Good, The Bad, and the Ugly? Can you sing the theme to Bonanza? Hell, do you even know what Bonanza is? If you answered yes to any of the above questions, then The Sadies are the band for you. This boot-stomping, knee-slapping Western band seriously rocked the Echo last night.
As soon as they came on stage, they started full force with the epic track, “Lay Down Your Arms.” This isn’t commercial wife-beaters and pickup-trucks country rock. Oh no. This is the stuff saloon brawls were made for. It’s kind of weird that four guys from Canada brought the Wild West to Los Angeles. Sean Dean worked his upright bass into a stupor while Mike Belitsky thumped his drums like there was no tomorrow. But the real show comes from the Brother’s Good (dueling vocalist/guitarists Travis and Dallas Good, in matching suit and ties no less). On “Northumberland West” the two proved they could shred their guitars and harmonize at the same time. And if you see as many concerts as I do, you’d know this is a skill that many bands do not have.
Their energy and their skill is what make The Sadies stand out. Dallas Good provided a sweet tenor-croon while Travis Good brought a scowling, mad dog growl to their songs. Stylistically, they make me want to jump on a horse and carry a six-shooter. In fact, I swear I heard someone in the crowd yell “Yee Haw!!!!!” during the set. But when it comes to their music playing, sometimes I had to just stand and watch, mesmerized by the Good Brother’s intricate string plucking.
Highlights included the sweet and somber “A Good Flying Day”, a song you’d slow dance to if people still slow danced. For one number, Travis Good even whipped out a fiddle for a badass rock-out, hoedown style. But the hands down, jaw-dropping moment of the night was their final song. The Good Brother’s stood next to each other, crisscrossed arms, and simultaneously played each other’s guitars. It. Was. Fantastic.
I’ll sum up The Sadies with on phrase: Yippie-Kay-Yay-Motherfucker!
-Rachel K.
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Buzz Music, Buzznet, Buzznet Los Angeles, Echo, going los angeles, Hypem, Indie, Indie Music, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles Music, Loudvine, Music Network, News, Plex, review, Rock, Sadies, Shows, Silverlake, Spaceland, The, The Echo, The Sadies, Troubadour, Weekly Los Angeles, Weekly Music, Weekly Picks
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March 18th, 2009
Seriously. I used to have anger management issues as a kid. But you put that aside for a moment. But I really think the band Walk, wrote “My Anger ” for me! When you listen to Walk, I am reminded of a band, especially a lead singer stretching himself, aspiring to reach something new, something exhausting, yet something so worthwhile.
The thing we are discovering about the MP3 reviews that we have loathed for so long is that it opens our community up to new, emerging sounds from all over. Let the people decide. You see, Walk, was recently a featured artist on our newsletter. I am glad they decided to send us a few of their MP3′s.
They have an EP, “Cave Man Game” out currently and have started to pop up around town. Cant’ wait to listen to them live. But until then, here you go:
We like their sound.
Play “My Anger”
My Anger
www.loudvine.com
Tags: Free MP3's Hypem, Indie, LA Music, LA Weekly, Live, Live Music, Live Music Community, Los Angeles, Loudvine, MP3's, Music Network, music news, Music Reviews, review, The Band, Walk, Walk The Band, Weekly Picks
Posted in MP3's | No Comments »
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