February 2012
6 posts
Crystal Method Discuss the Soul of Detroit and...
Crystal Method made their name in the first wave of American raves in the 1990’s, but for the ReGeneration Music Project, the L.A. duo was encouraged explore sounds from back in the day. They teamed up with Martha Reeves from the seminal Motown group Martha and the Vandellas to create a track about the city where she lives: Detroit. With a quick deadline, just a few days, they had to work...
Crystal Method Discuss the Soul of Detroit and...
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Crystal Method made their name in the first wave of American raves in the 1990’s, but for the ReGeneration Music Project, the L.A. duo was encouraged explore sounds from back in the day. They teamed up with Martha Reeves from the seminal Motown group Martha and the Vandellas to create a track about the city where she lives: Detroit. With a quick deadline, just a few days, they had to work...
Falafelpocalypse! Veggie All-Stars of Elf Pick Up...
A city as great as L.A. needs some falafel worth a damn! Or so says the food dudes of Hot Knives, who have set out to perfect some hot falafel balls to make your brain explode. Now after working on their concoctions for the last month, they’re ready to hit the streets with their manifesto:
New York’s got it. So does Berlin, Paris and Amsterdam. You can buy freshly fried herb-balls...
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Bleeding Knees Club Fall Down a 'Simpsons' K-Hole
The snotty brat-rock of Bleeding Knees club gets sucked into a Simpsons K-Hole for their new video directed by John Vermilyea, one of the animators who made those always awesome “Treehouse of Horrors” episodes. Watch the Aussies ride broomsticks, play with a monster drummer and go postal on some evil trees. It’s like Evil Dead 2 + stoner bros, which, of course, is totally...
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Echo Park Jazz and Non Projects Present 826LA...
Join us for the eighth edition of Echo Park Jazz’s benefit series for 826LA, we team up with L.A. label Non Projects to present a special label showcase February 23 at Lot 1 Cafe. This is for sure one of our best shows yet. We feature Asura, the project of cellist Ryan York, who creates delicate grooves for spacestation cocktail parties. York is formally trained as a jazz musician, but...
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Sexy Zoo Party, Kenny Loggins, Zombie Apocalypse,...
Tired of yawning and playing solitaire? Here’s some rad business going down this weekend!
February 10
FILM: Citizen Kane & The Magnificent Amberson’s double feature [Egyptian]
THEATER: Groundling’s Zombie Apocalypse series [Groundlings Theater]
THEATER/KIDS: Sound of Music [The Historic Plummer Auditorium]
MUSIC: Kenny Loggins! [Alex Theater]
CONVENTION: Gem Faire: No Holograms...
January 2012
5 posts
17 tags
Soviet Posters, 67 Ellens, Hot Rods and Pedal...
Friday, January 27
MUSIC: Petrovic Blasting Company at the Echo
Sorta gypsy jazz meets Russian vodka hall brew music. What’s a vodka hall? Shhh. Don’t ask.
More info: “In 1989, in the encroaching mountains of Serbia or Tennessee, an idea occurred between two brothers; or rather, a quixotic dream: to build a bridge from Turkey to Europe. This bridge would be lined with tapestries and...
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Judy Chicago Blows Up a Football Field, Luis...
Friday January 20
Tribute band battle: Abbey Road vs The DyManic Duo
It’s the question of the ages. The Beatles vs. the Stones. But at Brixton South Bay’s cover bandstravaganza, you can have it all. Cover bands Abbey Road (the Beatles) and DyManic Duo (the Stones) play a back to back set, making everyone happy.
Luis Buñuel Retrospective at the Aero
Surrealist Spanish filmmaker Luis Buñuel may be...
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Sage Vaughn, Scandi Films, Gypsy Jazz, French...
Bored as hell? Here’s some LA fun stuff comin up this weekend!
Friday, January 13
*Awesome LA street-turned-fine artist Sage Vaughn has his first solo exhibit of the year at Known Gallery. He’s made his reputation painting gangsta birds. It’s way cooler than it sounds, trust me.
More info: Known Gallery is excited to start off this year with “Last Year”, a show of new works by Sage...
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Beer and Loathing at the Rolling Stone Restaurant...
For LA Weekly Arts, I wrote a short piece about the Rolling Stone Restaurant in the Hollywood and Highland Center. That’s right, just around the corner from a Hard Rock Cafe and those guys who dress like Transformers on the street. While this is a restaurant review, I really look at how the branding of Rolling Stone has changed in a media climate where magazines no longer have the cultural...
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Rose Pruning, Mariachi Punks, Black Dahlia Tours,...
Who says there’s nothing to do in LA. Here’s some Tewksbury-approved business going down for the next 72 hours:
January 6th
*The FIRST First Friday at the Natural History Museum, featuring Mariachi El Bronx, and a lecture by super skeptic (no really he works at Skeptic Magazine) Michael Shermer. Bronx are punks-turned-Mariachis, and are local heroes. They’re not ironic either, they’re...
November 2011
2 posts
New Music Tuesday: Adanowsky, Can’s ‘Tago Mago,’... →
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July 2011
1 post
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Thurs, July 28th: Echo Park Jazz 826LA Benefit...
Echo Park Jazz invites you to a very special benefit show for 826 LA in beautiful downtown Echo Park on Thursday, July 28th.
Join us at Lot 1 Cafe for a unique collaboration by visionary, genre-smashing quartet Slumgum and the rhythmically vibrant Brian Walsh Trio, helmed by incendiary clarinetist, Brian Walsh. The two avant-awesome acts will perform their own sets, then join together for a...
May 2011
1 post
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Back on KPCC's Madeleine Brand show at 9:50am... →
I’ll post the audio a little later today!
April 2011
1 post
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LA Times Reviews Austin Peralta Trio at Lot 1!
My first night of Echo Park Jazz was a success! Read all about Austin Peralta’s fantastic perfomance in this piece by LA Times scribe, Chris Barton:
It was easy to feel a measure of anticipation going into Thursday night’s show with jazz phenom Austin Peralta in Echo Park. An intriguing recent addition to the groove-centric local label Brainfeeder, Peralta’s latest album...
March 2011
2 posts
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Echo Park Jazz: Brainfeeder's Austin Peralta ft....
This Thursday, I’m putting on my first Jazz night here in Echo Park at Lot 1 Cafe.
For this intimate show, I pulled together some of my favorites of L.A.’s young jazz scene including virtuoso pianist Austin Peralta (and son of original Z-boy and documentarian Stacy Peralta), who brings firebrand bassist, and Flying Lotus collaborator Thundercat. This is a rare small venue show...
Im on @TMBShow at 950 am reviewing Devotchka, Earth, & Radiohead Listen @kpcc 893 fm or http://www.scpr.org/listen_live/ #music @twatterlord
February 2011
2 posts
Local natives on @kcrw right now LIVE w/ a string section! WATCH: http://ow.ly/3ZfSi #KCRW
11 tags
Conor Oberst Interview at Hollywood Reporter +...
I recently chatted with Conor Oberst about the following topics: the death of the album, Messiah complexes, Rastafarianism, Ethiopian Emperors, Time travel, Vinyl resurgence, and President Obama. Oh yeah and we talked about Bright Eyes new album too.
Read it here:
We talked on the phone for like 45 minutes about a wide range of topics. As you can imagine, he’s really well spoken. Here...
January 2011
8 posts
10 tags
20 Band Names From the State of the Union Address
Here is my daily post for LAWeekly’s West Coast Sound:
I know what you’re thinking. When you were watching President Barack Obama deliver the State of the Union address last night, there was only one thing on your mind as he explained his plans for getting America back on track: Band names. That’s right, in the course of Barry O.’s hour-long speech, he dropped plenty of...
did he moonwalk out? #sotu
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Top Ten Musician Restaurant Franchises (In Honor...
Here’s my daily post at LAWeekly’s West Coast Sound:
Former (is it former?) Public Enemy hypeman and current human cartoon Flavor Flav is opening a fried chicken restaurant in a tiny Iowa town with a population of 26,000. The very notion of Flav’s golden grill chomping into some crispy eats thereby generating billions of fried chicken shards that rain down upon his oversized...
“#Music Writers Are Just Young #Food Writers” @TheAtlanticWire’s take on my #foodforthinkers piece @GOOD http://t.co/lzsuJDZ #mm #whatuthink
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Food for Thinkers: And You Will Know Us By The...
When music writers grow up, they become food writers. Or so says my long time friend and colleague Evan George from the veggie and beer blog, Hot Knives. Evan and I both began our journalism work at the long defunct L.A. Alternative, an alt-weekly (remember that term?) where he was an editor and I was a writer. We covered “fringe L.A.” which meant going to shows, delving into creative projects,...
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Coachella, Cats, Dre, Miley Cyrus, and More Bloggy...
Whoa, folks. It’s been a while since I’ve rapped at ya. Here are some of my newest posts over at L.A. Weekly’s music blog, West Coast sound! Enjoy!
Top 10 Unmissable Bands Inexplicably Hidden on the Coachella 2011 Poster
Pussy Galore!: Top 10 Cat-Themed Music Videos of All Time (Featuring Best Coast’s Newest)
Is Dr. Dre’s ‘Final’ Album Coming Out on...
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Top 10 Songs For the Apocalypse (Bird Death?...
Today at LA Weekly’s music blog, I wrote about the top ten apocalypse songs:
Floods in Australia, dead crustaceans washing up on shore, birds falling from the sky, AND Snooki’s written a book? It’s true, folks. The apocalypse is upon us. But instead of locking yourself in your room and waiting idly for the Stay Puft Marshmellow man to step on your face, you may as well go out...
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Top Ten LA Musician Mansions For Sale (Sorry...
Today at LAWeekly, I put together a little piece on rock star homes. Check it out.
Jack Black, the less round member of Tenacious D and star of the upcoming Gulliver’s Travels just dropped a measly $5,965,000 for Red Hot Chili Pepper (and Big Lebowski nihilis) Flea’s Los Feliz area house. Whether Flea just wanted to scale down to just his Malibu residence, which was once up for...
December 2010
4 posts
15 tags
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Top 10 Crazy and Ridiculous Music Photos of 2010
For my daily post at LA Weekly today, I reflected on the craziest, most insane photos that popped up in the music world this year. There were some questionable fashion choices and some even more questionable ethical decisions too.
Check em out here:
10. Regis Philbin Spanks Nicki Minaj After a recent performance by Nicki Minaj on The Regis and Kelly Show, the 1,002 year-old Regisaurus decided...
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Top 10 Most Exciting L.A. Indie Labels of 2010
Today over at LA Weekly, I wrote a bit about some of my favorite L.A. labels from his year. The reason we heard so much good music coming out of L.A. this year was because these bands and artists had great labels to back them up. These labels took a chance on their artists and believed in what they stood for. This is what it takes for music scene to thrive, and here in Los Angeles, I’m...
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Daft Punk Interview in Hollywood Reporter
I recently met up with Daft Punk to talk about the “Tron:Legacy” soundtrack.
The article was posted today at Hollywood Reporter.
We met up at the Henson Studios in Hollywood, which was once Charlie Chaplin’s studio back in the day. We had a great chat, and no, they did not have their helmets on. Guy was very quiet, he checked his iPhone to find the right words in English,...
November 2010
6 posts
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Best Coast and Wavves Release Snotty X-mas Song...
In advance of their newly announced tour, Wavves and Best Coast have collaborated on a track for a compilation for super-mega-store Target.
On “Got Something For You,” the two sunshine grunge bands drop snotty badinage between the bands’ front people/ couple Bethany Cosentino and Nathan Williams over jangling sleigh bells (not the band, unforch). Sure, somewhere someone is...
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The Real Story Behind 'The Fighter,' Swedish Films...
Three of my articles have just come out in Box Office Magazine. Pick up an issue or two!
The Real Story Behind ‘The Fighter’
‘Irish’ Micky Ward’s hard knock life served as the basis for Paramount’s Oscar contender
Totally Cool
Swedish Films Storm Hollywood
Hooray for Hollywood
Whoever said that Hollywood has no heart was simply dead wrong. They just didn’t know where...
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Sofia Coppola Interview In Filter Magazine
My interview with Sofia Coppola about her new film “Somewhere” is on stands now. She was really pleasant to interview. We spoke over the phone and I could hear her kids playing in the background. When the interview was winding down we spoke about her favorite montages in film:
Drew: I’m interested in the music montages in your films, I was wondering if you could give me a...
16 tags
Buy Johnny Cash's stuff, Pulp Reunites, Suzan's...
Heyo! Here are some of my latest daily posts over at LAWeekly, go eat em up!
+Johnny Cash’s Guitar, Song Books, and San Quentin Jumpsuit Up for Auction
+Pulp Reunite, Best Coast / Marnie Stern Feud Continues, Rent 2 Damn High Guy Autotuned, and More News From Across the Universe
+Grouplove Relocates to Los Angeles, Releases Free MP3
+MP3 Exclusive: Le Switch Rocks And Swaggers With...
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Last week I was on the KPCC’s Madeleine...
October 2010
9 posts
16 tags
This Week @LAWeeklyMusic: Diplo Eaten By Crocks,...
Here’s this week’s edition of my posts at LA Weekly’s music blog, West Coast Sound:
+Misfit, Lemmy, and Alice Cooper Costume Contest at Spaceland, Winners Get Melvins Tix!
Exclusive Lorn Download From Ninja Tune XX Box Set [MP3]
String Quartet in a Dark Bar? Quartetto Fantastico Pays Homage to John Lennon [Video]
Haiku News: Kanye’s Meh Mini-Movie, Jonsi Cancels In-Store...
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Latest Posts @ LA Weekly Music's West Coast Sound
Here are some of my latest daily posts at LA Weekly’s music blog, West Coast Sound.
+West Africa Meets West Coast: Vieux Farka Tour and More Malian Guitar Greats +What Bands Would You Like to See on the Simpsons? +Listen: New Dntel Tracks From Upcoming Album “After Parties” (Free MP3) +Toy Story 4: The Melvins (New Cutecore Video!) +Across the Universe: New Flying Lotus Video,...
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R.I.P. Ari Up from The Slits
Some sad news: Ari Up from The Slits has died. She was 48. To be honest, I never had the chance to soak in much of The Slits’ music until now, and it is immediately evident how influential these British punkers were. The punk swagger and philosophy ran in her family. Her stepfather is Johnny Lydon, known to the world over as Johnny Rotten.
Today the Slits most recent record label...
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Today's Interview: Sofia Coppola
A little later today, I’m interviewing Sofia Coppola about her new film “Somewhere.” The film is pretty great and, as usual, feels like a thinly veilled version of Coppola’s own life. I can’t give too much away, but I liked it. Audiences and critics at the Venice Film Festival did too. She earned the Golden Lion award, I believe she’s the first woman to do...
9 tags
Sounds of Norway: Casiokids Bring Scandinavia to...
When it comes to Nordic music, American audiences typically look to a few shining stars of the Scandinavian scene. Sweden provides Robyn, the Knife, and Lykke Li for the dancer set, while the Peter, Bjorn & John, the (international) Noise Conspiracy, and the Sounds get rowdy for the rockers. Denmark has the Raveonettes’ smoky soundtracks for get-away-cars and sunny pop of Junior Senior....
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Super Rad Fictional TV and Movie Character Band!
Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about “super group” bands. Basically whenever two or more notable musicians team up for an album, it’s a super group. Some are pretty great (Them Crooked Vultures, we’ll give you that one) but in reality, super groups are seldom as super as they seem. So we’ve given up on reality, and instead turned to fiction to assemble...
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"There is No Masterplan" - Atari Teenage Riot's...
This week I caught up with Atari Teenage Riot’s mastermind, Alec Empire about his first tour in 10 years! He truly pushed music to its limits, creating a sound that would become a genre in an of itself.
Read it at LAWeekly’s West Coast Sound.
This week I was on Madeleine Brand’s show on...
September 2010
3 posts
8 tags
