Orpheum 13 October 2007 by Valerie

HEADS UP & REMINDER
Devendra Banhart & the Grogs @ The Wiltern Wed Mar 24

Devendra Banhart is currently touring with The Grogs in support of What Will We Be, his latest album (and his first for Warner) which was released late last year. His new website launched one week ago; stream the full album over there. Since he will be at the Wiltern this coming Wednesday, we threw a few questions to Devendra last week. His answers below.

You’ve spoken about it elsewhere, but in a nutshell what were and are the biggest differences about recording and touring under Warner, compared to everything you’ve done prior?

DB: I’m not sure what the difference is quite yet. Perhaps a bigger infrastructure, which I know is obvious. It’s just that all the labels I’ve worked with have given me complete control with the exception of a few unfortunate moments (“I Feel Just Like a Child” and “Heard Somebody Say” videos, I’m lookin’ at you…..and puking into the abysmal travesty that you are while you puke into my heart and eyes forever.)

So how did this label change affect the actual album. Or did it?

»continue reading Devendra Banhart Plays Wiltern This Wednesday: The Losanjealous Q&A: “I Would Trust Aziz With My Life… But Not My Sandwich”

Full gallery after the jump!
»continue reading Aziz Ansari, Live, Largo at the Coronet, February 4 (Glow in the Dark Tour Closer)

Rising pop star Aziz Ansari hits Largo this weekend (see: Pick of the Week) for his Glow In The Dark tour. We speak with him briefly in two languages today.

Aziz. You “won” the second best Los Angeles concert of 2008 on our site for a 20-minute set at the Orpheum last summer. Question. Why didn’t you win top honors? (Where did the failure occur?) Discuss.

Clearly, Radiohead had a few fans who were more adept at having robots vote for them over and over. I hope that Radiohead’s scheme to beat me left a huge carbon footprint. The fans know who really won.

Describe if you will your songwriting process.
»continue reading Ten Random Questions For Aziz Ansari

Live, in person, fresh out of the oven, here are the official tallies of our 2008 end-of-year reader polls. Discover within our readership a rampant love for Megapuss, Aziz, Aziz feat. Megapuss, Megapuss feat. Aziz, Little Joy, Thom Yorke, Stoniest slices in town (sic), Andy Walo and Fleet Foxes.

Once more for the new folks: All of our polls contained reader-submitted choices (no fooling! “Nothing” won fifth best album with 97 votes). Further, multiple votes were actively encouraged for the sake of good competition. (What a mistake.) In other words if something looks off, don’t blame us. Have fun, don’t be sore losers but do feel free to discuss your votes, and keep your eyes peeled for the individual breakdowns – to be posted soon – wherein you can see all choices, all votes, all polls. For the analyst in you, each entry is followed by the number of votes, and then the percentage of the total vote in parentheses.

Without further ado…

Best Los Angeles Concert 2008
»continue reading Losanjealous Reader Picks 2008: The Official Results

Right, then. Where were we? Christmas is over; Kwanzaa and Hannukah are in full tilt. Put down the chex mix, get that menorah lit, get that kinara lit, get yourself lit and get back to your keyboards, for you have but four days left to cast your votes in our annual world famous trendsetting unfathomably important “Best of” polls. Remember, people, if you don’t like the results of these polls, you have only yourself to blame. You’re the tastemakers here, so don’t fuck it up.

Top five concerts of 2008 at the time of this writing:

• Radiohead @ Hollywood Bowl, August 25: 303,488 votes (43%)
• Aziz Ansari @ Orpheum, May 30 (20-minute stand-up set opening for Flight of the Conchords): 254,222 votes (36%)
• Editors @ House of Blues, Anaheim: 62,134 votes (9%)
• Megapuss, Little Joy, & The Entrance Band @ The Troubadour Sept 25th: 31,060 votes (4%)
• James @ Spaceland, June 6: 19,923 votes (3%)
• HONORABLE MENTION (sixth place at press time): Andy Walo Trio Long Beach Blues Festival August 31: 16,655 votes (2%)

Looks like we have five different venues and one festival performance above. It is comforting, watching this statistically sound, analyst-approved poll back up my longstanding hypothesis that Los Angeles maintains a robust, healthy venue/venue booking diversity. Good job, venues. This next white-zin-and-bowl-of-chex-mix is on me.
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VOTE HERE, NOW, OFTEN, WITH VIGOR AND FURIOUS PASSION. VOTE WITH YOUR THIRD EYE. VOTE WITH A SEETHING HATRED. VOTE WITH AN OPEN, BROKEN HEART FOR THE WORLD. VOTE WITH AMBIVALENCE. VOTE WITH PURPOSE, DRIVE, AND SURETY. VOTE WITH OR WITHOUT CONFIDENCE. JUST FUCKING VOTE AND SOON HOPEFULLY I WILL STOP SHOUTING.

• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles Concert of 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles/LA-Adjacent Festival 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Los Angeles Slice of Pizza 2008″ here
• Vote for the “Best Album Release of 2008″ here

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CHEX MIX/ WHITE ZIN
» Reader Picks 2007: The Official Results
» Best Concert 2008: The Five-Day Recap
» Losanjealous End-of-Year Dept: Sung’s Picks, 2008

• Infamous annual poll launches Friday, midday. Aziz, The Mars Volta, Radiohead and Andy Walo become fast front-runners
• Walo takes the lead, gets chastized for yearlong residency, immediately jumps to forefront again with newly-added gig
• Aziz calls out Radiohead on his blog once, twice
• Team Megapuss springs to the forefront thanks to a double-billing with Little Joy at the Troubadour
• Aziz finds mysterious, suspect, improperly-spelled-Jonny’d hiring post in the “computer gigs” section of Craigslist Los Angeles
• The online entity or entities known simply as “robots” point to center field a la Babe Ruth, promising sure victory for Radiohead
• David Liebe Hart (pictured, right, with puppets “Chip The Black Boy” and “Doug The Dog”) springs to place within the top 11 listings

Got all that? Stick around. It’s only been five days. [ VOTE NOW ]

(SOURCE: HTTP://WWW.AZIZISBORED.COM)

LOSANJEALOUS (Losanjealous) :: Radiohead is being accused of trolling for a specialized programmer that might help the band garner numerous, instantaneous “Best Concert 2008″ votes, according to a post filed on the AZIZISBORED.COM website Wednesday morning. The programmer-trolling post in question was apparently housed on Craigslist, a popular free online want-ads provider:

Ansari, now sitting first place in the 2008 poll thanks to (Devendra side project) Megapuss, proffered no additional proof (nor comments) at press time.

[ VOTE FOR YOUR FAVORITE CONCERT NOW ]

Oh, it’s on. Aziz is calling out Thom on his blog! Last year after everything shook out, the official battle was between Daft Punk and Muse. This year? Aziz and Radiohead … or will it be Mars Volta? Or maybe even Megapuss (Devendra, Greg, Fab…and…wait for it…AZIZ) (also on the ballot)!? Finally, let us not be so quick to discount David Liebe Hart @ Hollywood Bowl, pulling a respectable 44 votes at press time.

Vote, people. Vote once now, twice after work, once during the rain-suffused commute home (only while stopped, please, unless you’re on a bus or walking) and 86 times this evening. It is your right. It is your responsibility. Go vote.

(UPDATE: Second call-out!)

PHOTO: Aziz Ansari warms up the Orpheum by SUNG

Oh, ha ha. He’s in third place at press time. If he wins top honors you have only yourself to blame (or thank). Get out the vote! You have until December 31.