The full-on downpour during Stevie Wonder’s headlining slot…the morning thunderstorm that kept us waiting for hours inside a dark house in the ninth ward…the musicians you’ve never heard of that unfailingly blow your mind…the food, the ridiculous overconsumption of that food you just can’t quite replicate anywhere else…truly, the weekend was full of all of the reasons that have kept me returning to New Orleans for its annual Jazz & Heritage Festival the last thirteen years in a row. I haven’t stopped since my first taste; they must be doing something right. Rough timeline goes a little like this:
Interview and photos by Brian Romero - February 7, 2008
Hollywood is filled with rock bands who look the part but fail to deliver the goods. The Vacation is not one of them. They continue to craft primal, sleaze-tinged songs that consistently bring the audience to a writhing frenzy. Brothers Ben and Steve Tegel talk about the band’s upcoming album and shows at the Viper Room.
Ben, you gave me a CD with rough mixes of the new album late last year. Is it all done?
Steve: It’s all done on the recording side of it. We just have to figure out how we’re going to release it. We’re talking to some small labels now and if it doesn’t work out we’ll release it ourselves.
Ben: We actually have way more songs that I haven’t given to you yet. There’s at least twice as many. Maybe even more than that.
Hollywood Drink Prices By The People, For The People
We’ve been talking about doing something like this for well over a year and it is now time to get it out the door. Please bookmark this page. May it serve you when planning how much money to bring (or not to bring) the next time you hit the live music circuit. With any luck we’ll eventually be able to tell who’s doing things right, who’s doing things so-so, and who’s shafting everybody in the ass indiscriminately across the board.
The next time you go to a show you need to remember:
Where were you
What was the date
Who was playing
What drink did you order
Which bar did you order from
How much did it cost
Any other pertinent information (How was the drink? etc)
The ‘which bar’ category has been added based on the fact that within venues themselves, some bars offer drinks not available at the other bars. Example, beers are available in super big gulp sizes at the downstairs bars at Spaceland and Roxy but not at the upstairs bars. You get the idea.
Every time you see a show and order at least one drink, come back to this page and add your info to the comment section. Every week or so, we’ll update the master list with your input, sorting by venue then by date within venue. If this takes off we may eventually have a serious resource on our hands here, and we will database it. If it doesn’t take off, we’ll then know you are all (a) lazy or (b) non-boozers. Either way we win; demo data is prettymuch invaluable these days. I’ll start the chart with last night’s show and a recent foray at the Troubadour. Let’s do this, people! Price guide after the jump. »continue reading The Los Angeles Live Venue Drinking Price Guide
(a) Cafe Tropical (Either) (Silverlake pictured)
(b) King’s Road (Beverly)
(c) Groundworks (Any)
(d) Peet’s For Life, Brah (Any)
(e) Lost Souls (Downtown)
(f) Insomnia (Beverly)
(g) Urth (Any)
(h) Stella (Silverlake)
(i) Buzz (Beverly)
(j) Koffea (Ktown)
(k) Newsroom (Either)
(l) Nandarang (Ktown)
(m) Mr Coffee (Ktown)
(n) The Cow’s End (Venice Pier)
(o) The Griddle (Sunset/Fairfax)
(p) Stir Crazy (Melrose)
(q) One O’Them South Pasadena Joints (South Pasadena)
(r) Fucking Denny’s, Man
(s) Fucking Starbucks, Stop Hating
(t) Psychobabble (Los Feliz)
(u) Sabor Y Cultura (Armeniawood)
(v) Casa de Sousa (Olvera) (Downtown)
(w) The Coffee Table (Either)
(x) Cofftea (SG Valley)
(y) Casbah (Silverlake)
(z) The Pantry Goddammit (Downtown)
(aa) Whats-its-name, Studio City (Studio City)
(bb) MaGee’s Donuts, Duh! (Tranny Central)
(cc) Bob’s Donuts (farmer’s market, 3rd/fairfax)
(dd) My buddy Bjorn’s kitchen (redacted)
(ee) Silverlake Coffee Co (Where the fuck might you suppose)
(ff) Casa Blue (Highland Park)
(gg) Chango (Echo Park)
(hh) Intelligentsia (Silverlake)
(ii) That one joint on Fountain (Fountain)
(jj) The Scientology Celebrity Centre (Celeb Centre/BeHo)
(kk) UnUrban (Stallone’s Fave) (Santa Monica)
(ll) Portfolio (Long Beach)
(mm) Write-in:
(nn) Write-in #2:
(oo) Write-in #3:
This list is by no means exhaustive. Vote for no more than five. Criteria to consider: available coffees, crowd, waitstaff, clientele, comfort, wifi, couches, ambience, entertainment, readability, parking, # dogs, # writers, # bums, restrooms (free/25cents/fuckoff none here). Criteria will add weight to to your tally if provided. No login required to comment. No real name required to comment. Generally speaking you will not be humiliated or ostracized for whatever the fuck you decide to comment. Get out the vote.
I could not possibly think of a better way to cap my weekend. From an email I sent this morning:
saw scott booker checking in @ the front desk and knew I was in the right place. Hit the pool and saw a small stage. Fast forward to the gig: they changed it up a bit: they BEGAN the set with “do you realize”, said they were used to always leaving the stage after that song, left the stage at which time captain america came out, did the ear-cupping thing and made us all scream for an encore for ten seconds at which time they came back out and played another hour-and-a-half or more, finally closing with “race for the prize” …
The term “awesome” has become rather banal these days. It’s used for things such as seeing Charo in line in front of you at Whole Foods or your new jeans or that Thai restaurant on La Brea. But last night, I saw something that was truly awesome. »continue reading Van Halen Practice @ Forum, 9/16/07
One night last month, John Vanderslice was kind enough to let our Sarah and her camera follow him and his guitar wandering around on La Brea, near Pink’s. This is her result of that encounter.
Last weekend I paid a visit to Chinito in Boyle Heights. After a brief, cerveza-fueled respite from the heat in his kitchen, we embarked upon a culinary and cultural mini-tour of sorts in the neighborhood with but one destination in mind: THE BUSIEST TACO TRUCK IN TOWN™. Read all about it after the jump… »continue reading The Busiest Taco Truck in Town
You can get Thai Food anywhere in LA, but Palms Thai is the only place where you can watch Thai Elvis perform while eating your Pad See Ew Noodles. I recently sat down with Kevee Thongprecha a.k.a Thai Elvis for a Q&A after his nightly performance at Palms Thai.
Losanjealous: How long have you been singing at The Palms?
Thai Elvis: Six years. But I’ve been singing since 1957. I used to sing when I was in Bangkok.
LA: Did you do shows over there?
TE: Yes. I used to go back every ten years to do shows in August. It was always sold out. But I haven’t been back since 1991.
LA:What was the biggest audience you ever had?
You can get Thai Food anywhere in LA, but Palms Thai is the only place where you can watch Thai Elvis perform while eating your Pad See Ew Noodles. I recently sat down with Kevee Thongprecha a.k.a Thai Elvis for a Q&A after his nightly performance at Palms Thai. 
