Grand Ole Party
Under Our Skin (DH Records)
>> Free track at grandolepartymusic.com
>> Full LP at iTunes

THEN
Princeton, Grand Ole Party and Vampire Weekend at the Echo on December 3, 2007 by Karen

NOW
Dum Dum Girls w/ Crocodiles @ Troubadour 10/3/11

John Doe will play Fingerprints record store tomorrow evening, free; the guest list is currently open. The store is also giving away tickets to a RHCP simulcast concert screening, which will be happening tomorrow evening at the Art Theatre, a few blocks from the store down Fourth Street. Maximize your evening and hit up both events:

Tuesday, August 30th 7:00pm (Tomorrow Night)

John Doe, the legendary frontman of LA punk heroes X, is stopping in for his fourth in-store visit and we couldn’t be happier. Seriously. Could not be happier.

While John is still active with X, as well as their country cousins The Knitters, it’s his work as a solo songwriter that continues to blow our minds.

Keeper is John Doe’s 9th solo record, from a solo career that has run from dusty country to fiery ass-kicking punk rock, John Doe’s songs are usually peopled by decent folks who find themselves on the wrong side of the coin-flip, but Keeper finds John on the sunnier side of the street, where he’s found out that songs about good things happening to decent folks, in the right hands, makes for very compelling listening. John gets a little help on this one, from friends like Patty Griffin, Don Was, Smokey Hormel, Steve Berlin, Cindy Wasserman and the wonderful Jill Sobule.

»continue reading John Doe (X) Plays Fingerprints Tomorrow Evening (8/30)

It is good form to make eye contact while toasting.

» Get Toasted Food Truck (Facebook)

CYHSY @ Troub by Sung

People of Los Angeles,
 
Due to the fact that all of our flights have been canceled, there is no possible way for us to make it to LA to play our show at the Echoplex.   We were really looking forward to coming out west and seeing all your lovely faces!  Between Sunset Junction and Irene it’s been a rough couple of days.  We’ll make it back to LA soon, we promise.  
 
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

CYHSY @ Troub by Sung

FRIDAY
That Dog @ Troubadour
Bilal @ El Rey
The Meters Experience @ The Mint
B+ and special guests @ Hyperion Tavern

SATURDAY
Art Brut @ Satellite (Sunset Junction Make-Good)
Butthole Surfers w/ 400 Blows @ Echoplex (Sunset Junction Make-Good)
Dear Hunter @ Glass House
Growlers @ Amoeba (5pm; Free; Sunset Junction Make-Good)
Growlers @ Nomad Gallery (9pm; Sunset Junction Make-Good)
Buskerfest (FREE) Long Beach 5-11pm @ First and Linden (Everest, Matt Vasquez, Jay Buchanan, much more)
dublab presents Cosmic Harp: A Tribute to Alice Coltrane @ Levitt Pavilion (FREE)

SUNDAY
Clap Your Hands Say Yeah w/ Charles Bradley; Hands @ Echoplex (Sunset Junction Make-Good)
Dam-Funk & Master Blazter, The Milky Way @ Alex’s Bar (Long Beach)
Serge Gainsbourg Tribute with Jean Claude Vannier w/ Beck, China Forbes, Sean Lennon & more @ Hollywood Bowl
That Dog @ Troubadour

MONDAY
Tapes ‘n Tapes @ Satellite

Also check the numerous listings at ECHO PARK RISING and Origami Vinyl for Saturday and Sunday fun.

Descendents, Death From Above 1979, Explosions In The Sky, Broken Social Scene, Cold War Kids, Guided By Voices, Simian Mobile Disco (Live), The Dead Milkmen, Girls, No Age, Kid Dynamite, Glass Candy, Dan Deacon, Four Tet, The Head & The Heart, Off! , Yacht, The Weakerthans, Chromatics, Cults, The Olivia Tremor Control, Smith Westerns , Strange Boys, Japandroids, Nosaj Thing, Ty Segall, Mister Heavenly, Pink Mountaintops, Avi Buffalo, Cass McCombs, Title Fight, Fools Gold, Tijuana Panthers, Touche Amore, Purity Ring, Twin Sister, Future Islands and Comedians Matt Besser, Natasha Leggero, Matt Peters, Joselyn Hughes, Marc Maron, The Sklar Brothers, Matt Braunger Ron Funches, Matt Dwyer, Steve Agee, Emo Philips, Nick Thune, Sean O’Connor, Jon Dore, Jim Hamilton & Chris Hardwick

Silverlake Conservatory of Music | silverlakeconservatory.com

Club Nokia | clubnokia.com/events

Blondie with Nico Vega, Oct 5
OMD with Washington, Oct 7
Friendly Fires with Theophilus London, Oct 15
Empire of the Sun with Mayer Hawthorne & The County, Oct 16
Yngwie Malmsteen, Oct 29

2009 by Sung

Sunset Junction 2011 Cancellation Sound-Off Wall

It finally happened after three decades – the 2011 street festival has been cancelled, and the official Sunset Junction website remains down at the time of this posting. Feel free to sound off here: favorite memories, favorite scandals, favorite ways to sneak in, favorite complaints, what you will miss or not miss. Giant sausages sizzling in the sun, that time Elliot Smith was too drunk to play, the time I stood on top of the ferris wheel console in order to see Sonic Youth. I’ll try to dig some of our better photos and write-ups out of the archive and add them to this wall as the day progresses.

Atmosphere, 8/26
Thievery Corporation w/ Fitz & the Tantrums, 9/9
Fleet Foxes w/ The Walkmen, 9/14
Elbow, 10/1
Beirut, 10/4

HEADS UP
The Meters Experience @ The Mint
Friday 8/26

THE METERS EXPERIENCE featuring Leo Nocentelli of the original Meters, Stanton Moore of Galactic and Bill Dickens of Janet Jackson. Yes! Of Janet Jackson. +2 other bands.

Friday, August 26
At The Mint – 11:00 PM (7:00 PM doors) / 21+
$17.00 / $22.00 day of show

ENTER TO WIN TICKETS NOW
Please include your first and last name. You will be contacted if you are a winner!

Leo and Stanton bios after the jump.
»continue reading Win Tickets: The Meters Experience feat. Leo Neocontelli and Stanton More @ The Mint, This Friday, 8/26

Let’s gets it poppin’ like it’s New Year’s Eve.

Or so goes the sample from “The Game Is Not Over” by EdIT–one of Glitch Mob’s three scientists-of-sound.

Glitch Mob got it poppin’ at Club Nokia on Friday, August 19, with a loud, late-night, thumping Los Angeles homecoming show, drawing their national tour to a close. DJ sets from Photek and RJD2 opened the night.

The Glitch Mob’s sound is surging, dramatic, hip-hop flavored electronica. Usually it can be a bit tedious to watch guys fiddle around on their laptops on stage, but Glitch Mob has a stage show that is alive with lights and energy.

Continues with more photos below.

»continue reading The Glitch Mob @ Club Nokia, August 19, 2011

This week began at Losanjealous headquarters as any other. It was a bright, clear Monday morning. The Sandalwood conference room at the Marriott Residence Inn–Marina del Rey was ready for us to start work. And there, sprawled on the floor after a weekend binge apparently caused by despair occasioned by another second-place finish in a local flatulence contest, lay a passed-out DF.

–LaVerne CasaGrande, Losanjealous jefe

DF: Claire of “Dirt Bird,” I’d like to begin this interview by apologizing copiously for the fetor I exude.

Claire McKeown: …

DF: “Fetor” means “odor.”

CM: …

DF: It’s a congenital thing I’ve got, you see. When I was just a fetus, my mother ingested the needles of a deciduous Bosnian conifer, and as you can probably surmise… [seventeen-minute digression redacted--ed.] …anyway, “open sore” is really an understatement, as I think these eight-by-ten glossies I’ve brought amply illustrate–

CM: DF, are you going to ask any questions?

DF: I’m asking the questions here!!!!

CM: Yes.

DF: Yes.

[Painfully awkward silence ensues.]

CM: Perhaps you’d like to know where the name “Dirt Bird” came from.

DF: Is it a reference to flatulence, Claire of “Dirt Bird?”

CM: Ha! No. Dirt Bird comes from when I was about 19 and a dirty filthy little punk rocker. My Mom used to call me dirt bird. I wonder if she knew what it meant in slang and that she was basically calling me a prostitute?

DF: You’re a prostitute? How great! So if I–

CM: I’m not a prostitute.

DF: Can I still pay you for sex?

CM: No.

DF: Would you like to pay me for sex?

»continue reading The DF interview: Dirt Bird, part I

Forewarning: yes, this is crafty corporate concept pizza. It’s not as glaring of an oxymoron when the corporation in question is Lettuce Entertain You, aka, LEYE. In addition to operating such monstrosities as Big Bowl, and Ben Pao — ex-Chicagoans currently trying to “Escape from LA” can cringe… now — LEYE also operates Everest and L2O. Everest was just listed as the 10th most expensive restaurant in the US, and L2O received 3 whopping Michelins this year. Between Everest and L2O, LEYE claims four stars. What does this have to do with Sella Rossa? LEYE owns Stella Rossa, Stella’s Executive Chef Jeff Mahin and sous Patrick Costa are both from L2O.

While there are 2 Ex-Chicagoans helming this “pizza bar”, do not expect Chicago pie shenanigans. I despise deep dish, I hate almost everything from Gino’s East/Lou Malnati’s and Pizzeria Uno/Dos/Tres/etc. After chatting with chef Mahin, it is clear he wants the pies to transcend categories, to serve a higher purpose, if you well. If Alice Waters moved to SoCal and had to make pizza, without her favorite wood burning oven, Stella Rossa’s deck oven baked pie might be something she’d produce. SM’s pie skips the Caputo 00 but uses sea salt, filtered water, live yeast, and Santa Monica farmers market sourced ingredients, natch. The result, born from months of scientific — Chef Mahin has a math degree from Cal — dough and yeast testing, is unnervingly good.

Serious Eats did a nice blurb in July (shortly after my visit) and aptly covers the most important points of Stella Rossa. What it didn’t do, was provide insight into Chef Mahin’s philosophy. This is a corporate chef who left his post to sling pie in a far away land. His sous chef, wearing a 3 Michelin star tattoo on his left bicep, migrated to LA also to sling pie. When asked how he dealt with transition, Mahin stated plainly: cooking is cooking. »continue reading Stella Rossa, Santa Monica: Michelin Powered Pizza

I love Swedish things. Ikea furniture. Death metal. Swedish fish. The occasional Saab. Well, maybe not meatballs and Abba.

And I love Little Dragon, the electronic pop four-piece from Gothenburg, Sweden, fronted by Japanese-Swedish singer Yukimi Nagano. Evidently the LA scene loves them, too – their show at the Roxy on Monday, August 15, sold out within an hour of going on sale.

Playing with no opening act, the crowd was amped with anticipation waiting for Little Dragon to take the stage around 9:30. A quick glance of their set list from behind a keyboard stand to see what we were in store for, but I couldn’t recognize a single song title. When they started playing the first song, marked “Spegel” on the set list, the unforgettable opening tones of “Looking Glass” filled the room and the crowd started bouncing along with Little Dragon’s tempo. Thank you, Google translator.

»continue reading Little Dragon @ The Roxy, August 15, 2011