I like to imagine I’m inside an ‘80s movie. That I’m Footloose. At a prom. Or one of those Less Than Zero parties with the TVs all over the house. Watching Phoebe Cates get out of the pool in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. And Molly Ringwald takes out one of her earrings and puts it in Judd Nelson’s hand.

That’s the feeling of Cut Copy, except it’s 2009. Happy, high energy, synth-pop, post-hipster, new new wave, whatever you want to call it – the Australian threesome brought their flavor of dance and pop beats to a sold out crowd on Wednesday, March 11, at Club Nokia in downtown LA. The throw-back, flash-forward music had the crowd moving tirelessly, and no fire marshal could tell them no…

…which was exactly what happened the night before. The Wednesday show was the second of two sold out LA shows, both originally scheduled for the Henry Fonda Theater. On March 10, their show was cut short by the LA Fire Department due to being over capacity.

»continue reading Cut Copy, March 11, 2009 @ Club Nokia

A few days prior to activating the crucial “download” buttons on his website, Aquarium Drunkard‘s Justin Gage offered yours truly a sneak preview of the project he’d been finalizing: a collection of Los Angeles artists paying tribute to Paul McCartney’s 1971 album Ram, song by song, titled Ram On LA. In his words:

As records tend to do, a revisited appreciation of Paul McCartney’s 1971 solo album, RAM, had begun to see a resurgence of sorts within a number of local Eastside artists, coming up in conversations and on the turntables of various house parties.

The theme was found. Over the course of the second half of 2008 eleven Angeleno artists individually went in to various studios, rehearsal spaces and apartments to record their take on what is my favorite, and arguably, McCartney’s best solo work…. the end result is RAM On L.A.

»continue reading “Ram Fever 2009″ Simultaneously Strikes Benevolent Sensibility Cells Of East, West Coasts

Continuing the Vietnamese theme for Under $10: I checked out a little place tucked in the South Bay called Pho Hana. Right when I walked in, I could tell I was in for a treat –I was hit with an aggressively beefy fragrance, laced with a trace of cilantro and anise…

As is typical, the menu is mostly variations on pho with beef broth –you make your selection/combination of rare steak, flank, brisket, tendon, tripe, and meat balls. At Pho Hana, they even have a choice of “fat crispy”, which is just delightful.

The pho is served piping hot. The noodles are chewy and aren’t clumped together – a good sign. My friend ordered a extra side of rare beef and I watched her swirl each piece into the broth, the edges of the beef curling up as they cooked up against the sliced onions and chile paste…it was almost too much to take. I think I grunted. Slurping ensued.

»continue reading Under $10: Pho Hana (South Bay)

Following the footsteps of Christian so and so, the publisher of “What Stuff People Like”, now available in print, you decide to partake in a bit of #71 action: “Being the only white person in the room”. In the morning, from say Silver Lake, or Echo Park, City of Alhambra is only a quick 20 minute jaunt. If you’re on your fixie, I’d suggest shelling out the big bucks at La Mill. But given the opportunity, the little ladies of Banh Mi My Tho throw down a better breakfast than Mr. Adrian Vasquez (who recently became a father to a baby daughter, and of course, is the pastry chef behind LA Mill’s gourmet eats).

the clusterF that is BMMT

»continue reading A superior $3 breakfast sandwich: Banh Mi My Tho, Alhambra

Latest additions to the 2009 line-up:

The Chemical Brothers (DJing)
Etienne De Crecy
The Orb
Devendra Banhart
Murder City Devils

Here we give you a chance to vote on what artists you personally would like to see added to the 2009 bill.*
 

*Outcome will most likely not influence the actual final Coachella line-up.

PICK OF THE WEEK & TICKET GIVEAWAY

Tindersticks
w/ Spain
Fri Mar 13
Henry Fonda Theater
Info
[ENTER TO WIN]
 

CUT COPY
and MATT & KIM
Tues Mar 10
Wed Mar 11
Henry Fonda
[ENTER TUES] | [ENTER WED]

Jail Weddings
w/ Charlie & the Valentine Killers
Wed Mar 11
Knitting Factory
Info
[Contest closed.]
 

The Bird and The Bee
w/ Haim, The Damn Sons & [Post-foetus]
Tricot Showroom (843 S. Los Angeles)
Sat Mar 14
Info
[Contest closed.]
 

TUESDAY
Akron/Family @ Steve Allen Theater
Cut Copy w/ Matt & Kim @ Henry Fonda
Efterklang w/ Peter Broderick @ Spaceland
Oh No Not Stereo @ Viper Room
Sleepy Sun w/ Larkin Grimm & Foreign Born @ The Echo
The Pretenders @ The Wiltern

»continue reading Losanjealous Concert Picks: Mar. 9 – 15

Full gallery and brief notes after the jump…

»continue reading First Fridays at the Natural History Museum, March 6, 2009: BLK JKS, Fool’s Gold, dublab, Thomas The T. Rex and Assorted Mammal Specimens

In this day and age one may, in fact, enjoy a frosty pint of Boont Amber Ale and an individual hand-tossed cheese pizza for the total sum of six dollars and fifty cents (US$6.50). The place where this may occor be none other than 1739 Public House in Los Feliz, boasting free cheese pizza per drinking party (3-7pm Monday-Friday, 4-7pm Sat-Sun), 40 taps of quality beer (including international trappists as well as regional stateside favorites such as Shiner Bock) and a frightening slew of bottled ales. (Quibble: Points subtracted for charging $6 minimum per glass across the board, including – gasp – PBR.) Warning! Ye aulde Publicke House has not been open long and gets extraordinarily packed after 6pm; shift that craving forward and begin drinking considerably earlier if possible. Finally, do be sure to tip, as that peculiar practice is customary with the locals and publicke houses this side of the pond. God save the Queen. Here’s a photo of that pizza (and my Amoeba bag)!

1739 Public House
1739 N Vermont, Los Feliz
323.663.1739
website

Official Site | MySpace

From a post titled “I still like clouds taste metallic” on Win’s scrapbook @ arcadefire.com:

Wow,
I can’t believe I am actually writing to defend my bands (sic) “real” personality. I wish I could not respond to something like this, but the reality is is (sic) that people will be asking me questions about it for the next 5 years. I also fear that people will base their opinion of our band on the media quotes of a guy who doesn’t even know us.

The only time we have ever shared a stage with the Flaming Lips was our last show on the Funeral tour at a festival in Las Vegas (over 3 years ago)…we arrived the morning of the show from Brazil, slept all day and awoke into some kind of surreal Vegas jet-lag dream in which we were playing after the Flaming Lips…how strange…I was really excited to meet Wayne. Clouds Taste Metallic was a huge record for me, and growing up in the weirdness of Houston, I always imagined Oklahoma City to be in the same universe. I was really nervous to meet him and I felt a little weird that we were playing after them. We traded a little hello, but he was a hard guy to get a read on. Steven Drodz (sic) was super nice, and I felt good after talking to him…

»continue reading Win Butler: “I am not sure Wayne (Coyne) is the best judge”

Probably the most entertaining thing I’ve read today (and definitely a pick-me-up from that cat-shoved-in-a-bong story):

So, last week, our buddy and colleague Andy Greene is on the phone with the Coyne, when they started talking about some of the movers and shakers in the music world. They talked about Brian Eno, and Radiohead, and then got on the subject of Arcade Fire, which set Coyne off. (Just to clarify, Coyne is not comparing Eno to the Arcade Fire — Eno was just a talking point.)

“I’m a fan of them on one level, but on another level I get really tired of their pompousness,” says Coyne. “We’ve played some shows with them and they really treat people like shit. Whenever I’ve been around them, I’ve found that they not only treated their crew like shit, they treated the audience like shit. They treated everybody in their vicinity like shit. I thought, ‘Who do they think they are?’ I don’t know why people put up with it. I wouldn’t put up with it. I don’t care if it’s Arcade Fire or Brian Eno. If either of them walked into a room and treated people like shit I’d be like, ‘Fuck you, get outta here.’

»continue reading Wayne Coyne: “Who does Arcade Fire think they are?”

Review follows below.

»continue reading Philip Glass, Book of Longing, Garrison Theater, Claremont, March 1, 2009