Photo by Sung. Full gallery here.

We all wonder, damn why can’t certain artists ever make another album like THAT ONE. Black Star never released a follow-up album to Mos Def & Talib Kweli are Black Star. Or maybe I should say, they haven’t yet. And maybe they don’t even need to.

That album is 13 years old, and Black Star are no longer technically Mos Def and Talib Kweli. Mos Def now goes by Yasiin Bey. Not a lot of albums can touch the soulful samples, potent lyrics, and underground sound of that first album. And the two MCs have ventured off into all kinds of other solo work since the 1998 album (Yasiin surfaced as Brother Sam on this season’s “Dexter”?)

They opened their set at Club Nokia on Thursday, Dec. 15, with a new song called “You Already Knew,” but the crowd went craziest over the tunes from that golden underground hip-hop record from 13 years ago. The second song they played was “Astronomy” off their original album, with its refrain “You know who else is a black star? (Who?) Me.”

»continue reading Review: Black Star @ Club Nokia, December 15, 2011

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

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

It may have been Carmageddon this weekend, but The Do LaB dubbed their dubstep event at the El Rey on Saturday, July 16: KRADDYgeddon.

Bass heavy and with a blinding kaleidoscope of stage lights, electronic music producer Kraddy stood high above the crowd, flanked by two electro-glowing towers, raising his arms with every peak of sound like a hype conductor. His lone live one-man orchestra, drummer Drew Marcogliese, banged away on a clear drumkit in front of Kraddy’s perch.

Carmageddon was basically an over-hyped dud in terms of traffic tie-ups, but former Glitch Mobber Kraddy drew out all the EDC runoff and dubsteppers either by car or bike or bus (foot? Nah, nobody walks in LA). The promoters were sweet enough to offer half-price tickets to anyone riding their bike to the event.

»continue reading Photos & Notes: Kraddy @ El Rey Theatre, July 16, 2011

Lightning in a Bottle struck again! Another wicked, whimsical weekend of beats, no-baths, and beyond is in the books for the Do LaB. Vibes (and most of the crowd) were high.

The 4-day festival sold out by Sunday, with a capacity crowd of 12,500 people – 11,000 of those camped on site at Oak Canyon Ranch, in Silverado, CA. LIB has been growing steadily since its debut in 2000, with so many people coming back year after year, it feels like a family reunion. The camping was a mini city of tents and RVs, divided into “patches” named after fruits and vegetables. (Our little settlement in the vast village was called Radish Patch, right off “Stay Outta The Lake Lane”.)

By day, the fest was like underground, anti-mainstream summer camp. Hula hooping workshops, yoga, juggling, acrobatics, dancing, chanting, crafting, and eco lectures were scheduled throughout the days. Micheline Berry, Venice-based yoga teacher, led a class in the Yoga Sanctuary called “Rock the Shakti” with DJ Drez and saxophone and flute players amongst the yogis. Energy was high and the sun was shining.

By night, the love fest shifted its focus to dancing and music and community. Walking around in the dark from stage to stage and through the camps was like navigating a forest of LED lights and people dressed up like spirit animals and feathered peaceful warrior princesses.

Friday’s DJ and live music lineup was capped by a crazed aerial circus performance by LIB veterans, the Lucent Dossier Experience. Kraddy (formerly of the Glitch Mob) shined in Saturday night’s lineup on the main Lightning stage, DJing womping glitchy dirty beats accompanied by a live drummer. Fire bursts around the stage surged at peak moments. Later, Pretty Lights took the stage, but in very un-Memorial Day un-So-Cal fashion, it started to drizzle and a couple power outages interrupted the set. Sunday’s lineup featured DJ sets from Eskmo, Bonobo, and others, culminating with Thievery Corporation playing a groovier dance set spotted with reggae and dub.

Rain or shine, day or night, the beats did not stop bumping at all the stages – Woogie, Bamboo, and Lightning – until it was time to pack it all up and disappear in a cloud of dust and gratitude on Monday afternoon. Once again, hats off to the Do LaB for leaving us all tired and inspired. Now that’s how you throw a festival.

Huge, colorful photo gallery of the weekend below.

»continue reading 2011 Lightning in a Bottle Festival, May 27-30–Notes & Photos

Following up a stellar showing at Coachella, The Do Lab crew is back with its next inspired event, Lightning in a Bottle.

Lightning in a Bottle is a 3-day festival this Memorial Day weekend, May 27-29, in Silverado, CA, featuring music, art, performance, dance, yoga, workshops, camping, and something called the “Lucent Temple of Consciousness”.

“Lightning in a Bottle is the next generation of music festivals,” says Jesse Fleming, a founder of the Do Lab.

Headliners Thievery Corporation, Bonobo, Pretty Lights, and the Lucent Dossier Experience, are gonna cap off some amazing days of dancing, beats, DJs, community, art, fire, and open minds. Festivalgoers are invited to camp on site (this year there’s even more camping space) and enjoy nature’s surroundings at the Oak Canyon Ranch venue, nestled in the Santa Ana Mountains by a reservoir.

Grab your tents, bring the beats, and, as the LIB website says, “A new adventure begins.”

Check out Lightning In Your Ear 2011, a name-your-own-price digital album compilation of artists performing at the festival here. Proceeds benefit CriticalBeats.org.

Earlier this year at Coachella in the VIP bathroom, as I wiped sweat and desert dirt off my face, I saw an immaculately made-up woman with flawless hair pinned under a posh hat, perfect red lipstick, and a clean, white ruffled dress. AND HEELS. Who could pull that off in 100-degree, dusty, sweaty music festival conditions?

Of course: the impeccable Dita Von Teese.

At the Roxy Theatre this Wednesday night, Ms. Von Teese was as flawless and flirtatious as ever. It was her last show of a 3-day, 2-show-a-night burlesque showcase entitled “Strip Strip Hooray!” Dita oozed the old Hollywood, pin-up girl style and glam, and gave the Roxy equal doses of foxy and sexy.

She started off the night marching up and down her catwalk to and from a Swarovski crystal-encrusted carousel horsie, which she then seductively danced around on. She smiled at the audience as she waved giant, pink feather fans in front of herself, removing layers of crystal-sparkly clothing until she was down to just crystal pasties and thong. The woman puts vajazzling to shame. Meow.

»continue reading Dita Von Teese’s “Strip Strip Hooray!” Burlesque at the Roxy Theater, December 15, 2010

A shirt for sale at the merch booth read in huge letters: “SLAY FUCKING BELLS.”

And that’s what Sleigh Bells did at the El Rey on October 20–for about 30 minutes. :(

Guitarist Derek Miller and singer Alexis Krauss took the stage with force, performing in front of iconic Marshall stacks, surrounded by smoke and strobe lights. They started out hard with a Slayer intro crushing into their first single “Tell ‘em,” off their debut album, Treats.

Sleigh Bells’ music is hard and crunchy, with a marching band pulse and Miller’s heavy guitar riffs providing the backdrop for Krauss’s shouting vocals. The attitude is schoolyard bitch not to be messed with, and Krauss is the head “Heather” ruling the school.

From “Infinity Guitars”: “Dumb whores, best friends / Infinity guitars, go ‘head.” Yup, that about summed up high school.

With Sleigh Bells, we can add another group to the list of new buzz bands with a guy and girl-with-bangs duo (see Crystal Castles, Phantogram, She & Him) and a cool genre name… I think Sleigh Bells are best described as post-cheerleader noise pop shred beat.

»continue reading Sleigh Bells at The El Rey Theater, October 20, 2010

I saw something for the first time at The Sword concert, at the El Rey on Friday, October 1: three fans putting all their fists side by side with pinkies up on just the end fists, joining together to make one giant devil’s horn to pump in the air. So instead of \m/, it looked like this \mmmmmm/.

Really, a 6-fist-wide devil’s horn is still not big enough to honor the retro-metal Austin band, The Sword.

The subject matter of The Sword’s music ranges from fantasy–-wizards, warlocks, stories of yore–to a new turn towards sci-fi. The band’s influences range from the holy metal lineage of Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden, to the visionary worlds of books like Dune and The Teachings of Don Juan by Carlos Castaneda. And their sound is heavy, loud, guitar rock thunder.

Their newest release Warp Riders stands as a cohesive story about a space dude named Ereth on his space journey, on which “he encounters strange warriors, mysterious witches, ancient androids, and a crew of space pirates with a vessel that will alter the course of history… a vessel known as, The Sword.” (That was from the “Lore” section of The Sword’s website.)

Review continues with photo gallery below.

»continue reading The Sword at The El Rey, October 1, 2010

Industrial rockers Filter jumpstarted the Sunset Strip Music Festival weekend with serious charge and electricity, rocking The Roxy hard on Thursday, August 26.

Not much rock has been deserving of the title “Hard Rock” lately. Hell, even the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas has Britney Spears’ tour costume up. Nope, no rhinestones and pop at The Roxy on Thursday, just screaming, thundering rock, dressed head to toe in black – from Richard Patrick’s sweaty, short black hair down to his all black chucks.

They kicked off their set with “The Take” from Anthems from the Damned, followed by “The Inevitable Relapse,” the first single from their new album, The Trouble with Angels. Frontman Richard Patrick was feeding off the sheer energy of the show, impassioned, almost possessed. His signature crouching down and screaming, and spitting and throwing water, riled the overheated crowd on anthems like “Welcome to the Fold” and “American Cliche.” Truly, an awesome frontman.

Review continues below.

»continue reading Filter at The Roxy, August 26, 2010

Stick an exaggeratedly tall feather in your fedora hat and call it The Do LaB Valentine’s. On Saturday, February 13, the LA-based Do LaB crew transformed the Shrine Expo Hall into their own shrine to love, music, and art for the 5th annual Lucent L’amour. Calling itself “a visionary love fest,” Lucent L’amour promised to be “the transformation of one night into a spontaneous combustion of love and mayhem.”

Hey, the Burning Man crowd has to do something to fill the 357 days of the year that they aren’t spending on the Playa.

Inspired installation art is The Do LaB’s signature, and as usual they crossed all their t’s and dotted all their i’s. A big temple in the center of the floor glittered with golden, ornate detail. In the back of the main dance floor, a huge glowing tree climbed to the ceiling, with seating around its roots. It was Home Tree standing in the middle of a forest of décor and costuming that felt like a nod to everyone’s favorite fetish right now–Avatar.

And the crowd at Lucent L’amour was more than eye candy–they were eye triple-chocolate-truffle-cake-with-sprinkles. Navigating the fest were people in goddess headdresses, long fur coats, guy-liner, bunny ears, animal heads, feathers. Twisted mimes stilt-walked next to teddy-bear-headed pixies in lacy bloomers.

The second floor balcony level offered the Go Big lounge for those who shelled out for a VIP-style pass. The lounge had dance floor views, fresh fruit and yogurt pretzels, a separate bar, and velvet beds and seating–which were used for snuggle piles and intimate hugs as early as 10 p.m.

Full photo gallery below.

»continue reading Lucent L’amour, February 13, 2010, Shrine Expo Hall

There really aren’t enough opportunities to go out in your bathrobe and get hammered on White Russians.

Enter Lebowskifest 2009. A two-day celebration of “The Big Lebowski” — a movie about the ultimate slacker hero and his bowling buddies on a mission to recover a stolen rug and the Lebowski namesake’s trophy wife. (For a more fitting summary of the movie, watch “The Big Lebowski – The F*cking Short Version” on youtube, here.)

»continue reading Lebowski Fest, Wiltern, May 7, 2009

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

Why is it that we want to punch that koala wearing glasses in the face? Is it so cute that it makes us violent?

Matt and Kim are that cute. Watching Matt and Kim perform at the Troubadour on Wednesday, February 4, was like watching skittles — a girl skittle in a cut up “Brooklyn” tanktop named Kim Schifino on the drums and a boy skittle in a striped t-shirt named Matt Johnson on keyboards and vocals.
»continue reading Matt and Kim, Live at the Troubadour, February 4