Garth Trinidad Returns to Weeknights on KCRW from 8 to 10pm

Starting December 1, KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad returns to weeknights, hosting a music show from 8 to 10pm PST, the slot previously occupied by new Music Director and Host of Morning Becomes Eclectic Jason Bentley.

Garth has been on the air at KCRW since 1996 and hosted a weeknight show, formerly known as “Chocolate City.” His exploration into urban rhythms and soul created a new home for a demographic that wasn’t served anywhere else and he was the first DJ in the country to play both Macy Gray and Jill Scott.

“When I first got the news, I was ecstatic. Jason was a huge inspiration for me to become a DJ and I wouldn’t be at KCRW if it was not for him,” said KCRW DJ Garth Trinidad.

“When I opted out of being on air five nights a week, my wife and I were starting our family. As soon as I stopped, I really missed it, much to my surprise. The dynamic shifted and I missed the ability to break records because I couldn’t play them as often.”

“Here it is, almost five years later, and my kids are a little bigger, and now I have the opportunity to carry the evening torch again. I can’t wait to use this daily time slot to spread my wings as a programmer and sink my teeth into music in a way I never have,” said Trinidad.

“Garth is a confident voice, on KCRW and in the Los Angeles community, and I look forward to his return to the weeknight line up. He has tremendous untapped potential and, with a broader platform, he will have the opportunity to transcend the more specialized mode of his current show. His sincere appreciation of the history of music – where it’s been and where it’s going — will be exciting to hear,” said Bentley.

KCRW DJ Jason Eldredge will replace Garth Trinidad on Saturday nights from 6 to 9pm. On Sunday nights, Nic Harcourt will replace a taped version of “Sounds Eclectic” with his new live music show from 6 to 9pm.

GARTH ON TACOS, LOSANJEALOUS
» Garth Trinidad: Tacos, Por Favor
» Garth Trinidad Sound

A Certain Ratio, Ariel Pink’s Haunted Grafitti, Daytime Television, Grimble Grumble, Love Is All (pictured above), Magic Bullets & Medium Medium.

Nervous Gender, Nodzzz, The Nightingales, Pylon, Savage Republic, The Urinals, The Wildstares, Vivian Girls (pictured above) & Warpaint.

 
DECAMPMENT from ADULT. on Vimeo.

It’s hard to convey how amazing a movie can sound when scored live.  Kuperus and her bandmate/husband Adam Lee Miller are currently heavily influenced by the electronic sounds of seventies and eighties Italian horror, from Lucio Fulci to Dario Argento, and DECAMPMENT’s wordless plot flowed in a similarly severed vein.  From what I could make out, a coven of witches dressed like long-haired versions of the “Simply Irresistible” girls give a new girl a book with a witchy Prince-like symbol on it.  That night, she drops it on the floor, and blood comes out–maybe it’s Are You There God?  It’s Me, Margaret? 

Anyway, a lot of horrific stuff with knives and fires and tree-chopping ensues, including a refreshingly Kenneth Anger-esque scene where the witches spend a lot of time replacing their high heeled shoes with galoshes and tying on rubber aprons.  It sounds like I’m making fun, but I’m not–as a huge cinema geek, I appreciate Kuperus’s attention to detail, and the way the film creates tension by showing something ominous, then making us wait through long shots of beautiful sterility until the violent payoff. 

But more importantly, we got to see a visceral live performance without all the bullshit trappings of a rock show: no encore, no pauses to tune, no headbands or water bottles or running to the edge of the stage to grab some kid’s hand.  DECAMPMENT was a duo of talented big kids playing music, lovingly crafted, to captivating moving photographs that they had put together themselves for our enjoyment.  Not since Public Image Limited played the Ritz in ‘81 have I seen such a show involving a screen–and even then, I was only five years old, and only saw the show in my imagination.

The longtime KCRW DJ will leave his current evening time slot to host Morning Becomes Eclectic starting in December.

KCRW announces the appointment of Jason Bentley as Music Director and host of Morning Becomes Eclectic, effective December 1. Bentley will leave his current evening time slot to take over KCRW’s signature music program from 9am to noon PST, Monday through Friday.

“This is a wonderful KCRW story. Jason began as a phone volunteer in the front office when he was still in high school. He grew up on KCRW because his parents were listeners. When he returned from college he reconnected with the station and debuted on the air here 16 years ago,” said KCRW General Manager Ruth Seymour. “He has a passion for the music and a deep connection to the local music scene. Moreover KCRW is in his DNA.”

“I’m immensely grateful for the opportunity and humbled by the task, which is to open a new chapter for the station. It’s a reinvention of myself to match the gold standards set by previous music directors. It’s no longer the hypnotic pulse of the city at night – it’s the ever-evolving optimism of weekday mornings,” said Bentley.

“My show has always reflected the continual evolution of music and emerging artists. And while I built my foundation as a champion of dance and electronic music, this is a great opportunity for me to grow, a challenge I will take very seriously. “

“The other side to this position, no less important than MBE, is to work closely with the incredibly talented group of DJs we have at KCRW to inspire the best from these bright minds and celebrate the diversity of our music department. Together we will build on KCRW’s stellar reputation in Los Angeles and around the world.”

Bentley is widely respected, not just as a KCRW DJ but as a Music Supervisor for film (“The Matrix” soundtracks), a music executive (co-founder of the Quango Music Group and an A&R exec at Madonna’s Maverick imprint) and as a music producer and remixer in his own right.

Jason has nurtured a thriving music scene in Los Angeles over the years, Producing events at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art, Skirball Cultural Center, and The Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and consults for the LA Philharmonic on special events at the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall. He was the headlining DJ at Uptown Underground, a hugely successful public art installation that drew more than 8,000 people to the Music Center in Downtown LA and the Orange County Performing Arts Center.

Jason has served for two consecutive terms on the Board of Governors of the National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, and is involved in awards committees every year leading up to the Grammy’s. Earlier this year, Jason became the first ever DJ for the Governor’s Ball, the celebration following the Academy Awards, and more recently, he headlined the official election night party for President elect Barack Obama in Los Angeles at the Hyatt Century Plaza to a capacity crowd.

Current Music Director Nic Harcourt will step down at the end of the month to pursue several independent projects and will continue as a KCRW DJ, hosting a 3-hour show on Sunday nights from 6-9 pm PST.

Further programming updates will be released in the next few weeks.

PREVIOUSLY IN MUSIC DIRECTORS
» New Music Director Wanted: KCRW’s Harcourt Steps Down Following 10-Year Run

OF MONTREAL
w/ Health
Saturday 11/22
The Palladium
Info | [ENTER TO WIN]
Contest closed.

THE SOUNDS
Thursday 11/20
The Palladium
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EL GUINCHO
Thursday 11/20
The Echo
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Contest closed.

KAIJU BIG BATTEL
Thursday 11/20
Mayan Theater
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Show canceled.

MEDESKI MARTIN & WOOD
Friday 11/21
El Rey Theater
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Contest closed.

LUCINDA WILLIAMS
Friday 11/21
The Wiltern
Info | [ENTER TO WIN]
Contest closed.

HEADS UP
 

NO AGE & TITUS ANDRONICUS
Troubadour
Tuesday 12/2
Free tickets via ShockHound

TUESDAY
Jon McLaughlin @ El Rey
Matisyahu @ Club Nokia
Rachael Yamagata with Meiko, Thao Nguyen, Kate Havnevik, Lenka, and Emily Wells @ Henry Fonda (Hotel Cafe Tour)
Vivian Girls, Love Is All, Abe Vigoda & Nodzzz @ The Smell

THURSDAY
El Guincho @ The Echo
KAIJU BIG BATTEL w/ Busdriver & Rocktapussy @ Mayan Theatre
The Sounds @ The Palladium
West Indian Girl @ Spaceland

FRIDAY
Aretha Franklin @ House of Blues
Kraak & Smaak @ Henry Fonda
Little Dragon w/ Jason Bentley @ The Roxy
Lucinda Williams w/ Buick 6 @ The Wiltern
Medeski, Martin, & Wood @ El Rey
Sandra Bernhard @ Orpheum Theatre
Sarah Silverman (”Jesus Is Magic” - early show)
Sarah Silverman (”Jesus Is Magic” - late show)

SATURDAY
Aretha Franklin @ House of Blues
Of Montreal @ The Palladium

SUNDAY
Yeasayer @ Troubadour

General ticket onsale is TODAY at 10am. Buy them here. Good luck.

» Stevie Wonder @ New Orleans Jazzfest
» Tangentially related article re: Stevie Wonder albums @ the Melrose Trading Post

WHY IT IS NOTEWORTHY
Stinkaz (can I get informal here?) is themed as a truck stop, and it “soft opened” (hold - how does a bar “soft open” again? Further, isn’t liquor by definition “hard” ? .. ) last Thursday. Stinkahs has mounted skunk asses on the walls. The asses spray mist on your head while you drink. Stinkezs also has a CB apparatus and a terribly loud truck horn (warning). Apparently Stinkuz also has Stinkers Ale (or similar) but they were out when we visited last Monday. Stinkers is brought to you by the man behind Bigfoot Lodge, Little Cave and Saints and Sinners. You know…theme bars. Stinkers has also been Thrillisted, Eaten and Metromixed in the last week or two so I will be brief.

WHAT I AM WATCHING WHILE I AM WRITING THIS
The Replacements on HBOHD featuring Keanu Reeves, Pat Summerall and Gene Holy Jesus Would You Look At That Juicy Mustache Hackman. Exactly how in the Christ do movies like this get made!? More pressing, why am I all of 70 minutes deep?

WHAT STINKERS GETS RIGHT ABOUT TRUCK STOPS
Hair metal songs and shiny metal walls.

WHAT STINKERS GETS WRONG ABOUT TRUCK STOPS
Missing: Adjacent coffee shop, hookers in the parking lot, mysterious day-old chimichangas under heat lamps, automotive supplies, dirty magazines, acrid coffee, confederate flags, random lids splattered with old soft drink syrup, grime, showers, pork rinds, condoms, a vast array of mini-thins and an overall filthy, charged vibe that something violent or pornographic will happen at any moment. At Stinkers, you just feel that some hipster is about to get really drunk and leave. Still, the point is that it’s a bar, so they’ve pretty much got things where they should be.

HISTORY OF THE LOCATION
This space, near the corner of Sunset and Silver Lake, previously housed Johnny’s Bar, which had no hard liquor license so you had to buy beer, wine, or cocktails made from Soju. I visited Johnny’s once, looked around and said, “Decent place, why is nobody here?” and then forgot the moment ever existed.

Prior to Johnny’s Bar, this joint was called __________ . That is to say, it had the requisite cocktail sign. It was dumpy, the jukebox was incredibly loud (think Norteño), and there were many dirty jackets and cowboy hats. In this regard, the nameless bar actually captured the vibe of a truck stop way better than Stinkers ever will, because Stinkers is polished and you just know that 80% of its clients have never seen B.J. and the Bear. Back to topic: I stumbled into the nameless bar one evening sometime around 2000, following a gig at Silverlake Lounge. An old man in a crumpled cowboy hat bought me a Corona. He did not win my affections, probably because I am straight, but we had a nice chat just the same. And then I forgot the moment ever existed.

VERDICT
All things considered, it is good to have another hard liquor provider in this area. The hipster-choked Lounge can lighten up here and hopefully take itself less seriously. And if you really need that authentic creepy truck stop vibe, just wander over to Tom’s Burgers Beef San Drive-Thru or LA Chinese Food for a breather; both are easily accessible and will deliver in filthy spades.

POSTSCRIPT
Keanu just won the game and they’re playing the Wallflowers’ cover of “Heroes”. Hackman just dodged the Gatorade! SOMETIMES, THINGS WORK OUT IN THE END. Remember that this weekend.

How To Create A 110′ Tall Tree Out Of Multiple Trees And Make It Look Perfectly Fake: The Grove Christmas Tree Primer

1. Put up gigantic phallic tree trunk, sans branches
2. Add PVC sprinkler piping
3. “Screw” branches into place, tying or affixing to other branches where need be
4. Not too many, and not too irregular! Make it perfectly, abnormally conical
5. Leave room for ample Nordstrom packages at base
6. It looks perfectly abnormally conical, but still too much like a real tree
7. Spraypaint that motherfucker an abnormally uniform forest green
8. Add ornaments, lights and you are done! The tree shall tower over the Hasidic core of Los Angeles like no other before it, with the exception of the one that was constructed and stood in this verysame spot last year, and the one the year before that, and so forth, beginning in 2002 Anno Domini.

This primer (How To Create A 110′ Tall Tree Out Of Multiple Trees And Make It Look Perfectly Fake: The Grove Christmas Tree Primer) is also available as a downloadable PDF. Download the PDF here

Yes folks, The Grove will light its ridiculously huge, bizarrely-fake-looking-yet-actual-tree-parts-inclusive Christmas tree on Sunday, November 23, so plan accordingly. Join us now in a rousing singalong of “Mistletoe and Holly, Grove Style” just like we did last year!

We hinted at it a couple of weeks ago and maybe you caught news of the NYC show a couple of days ago.

Today, finally, we can reveal the full details on your free Los Angeles No Age & Titus Andronicus show celebrating the launch of ShockHound.

Here’s what you need to know:

WHO: No Age & Titus Andronicus
WHAT: Free live concert
WHEN: Tuesday, December 2, 2008, 7:00 p.m. doors
WHERE: Doug Weston’s Troubadour
WHY: Just because

In hindsight, however, the Monkees’ movie Head (the idea was that the next film’s ad could say “From the People Who Gave You Head!“) is a lot less goofy than it seemed at the time. Appearances by Dennis Hopper, Sonny Liston, Frank Zappa, and Toni Basil, shocking visual references to violence both real and cartoonish, and satires of the sappy pop cultural milieu of the time, themselves included, make this feel like a movie that’s saying something, even if nobody quite knows what that something is. And the band grooves its way through one unironically amazing rock song after another: Mike Nesmith’s balls-to-the-wall garage jam “Circle Sky,” the Goffin/King psyche opus “the Porpoise Song” (covered so well by Nobody decades later), and Davy Jones’s cover of Nilsson’s “Daddy’s Song” make this a great soundtrack as well as a surreal visual feast. Can you dig it?

You can dig it tonight at the Egyptian Theater–right across the street from where the film debuted forty years ago. Davy and Peter are going to be at this screening, plus a bunch of burned-out ex-hippies and studio execs who will doubtless wax nostalgic about free love and Donna Reed.

The feature begins at 7:30 PM . Tickets are $10 and are available online from www.fandango.com or at the Egyptian Theater box office.

6712 Hollywood Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90028
(323) 461-2020

For reasons too horrible to explicate, DF found himself stranded in Washington, DC this past Saturday eve when the Sirens faced off against the Tough Cookies for 2008 LA Derby Dolls supremacy. Herein lies the sad tale of a roller derby obsessive stuck three thousand miles from the action on the biggest night of the LADD year.

5.43pm. Northwest Washington, DC. Andrew Johnson Memorial Conference Room, Capitol Courtyard Marriott. It’s the final event of the compulsory annual conference of the National Association of Pencil Sharpener Salespersons (NAPSS), the trade association for DF’s chosen profession. The keynote speaker concludes: “Despite the economic downturn and slumping demand for our products, it is still possible to earn some money and also help others avoid pencil dullness with an enriching career in pencil sharpener sales.” A smattering of applause ensues, and the conference is at an end.

6.17pm. Martin Van Buren Memorial Auxiliary Room, Capitol Courtyard Marriott. The crowd mills about, cocktails in hand, discussing the just-concluded two-day NAPSS annual meeting. A colleague approaches me and asks, “DF, what pencils do you think work best with the X-150 sharpener?” “There’s a lot of debate about this,” I tell him, “But recent literature suggests the best answer is Dixon Ticonderoga.”

7.08pm. Corner of J Street and Connecticut Ave. DF samples some of DC’s world-class cuisine. “Do you want onions on these dogs?” the street-cart vendor asks me. “Sure,” I reply. Hey, it’s Saturday night—why not go nuts?

8.57pm. Room 651, Capitol Courtyard Marriott. The paradox of choice grips me as I am forced to choose between three equally compelling television programming options. Local division-two football (Howard versus Delaware State) and the infomercial for Malibu Pilates are both tempting, but I don’t regret opting for the titillating tropical grotesquerie of a CSI: Miami rerun from 2003.

9.38pm. “Phil O. Buster’s Lobby Bar”, Capitol Courtyard Marriott. I grab a beer and watch the final quarter of the Howard-Delaware State game (Del State’s Blue Hens are winning 43-12). The bartender asks, “You in town for the NAPSS meeting?” “Yeah,” I tell him.

11.01pm. Room 651, Capitol Courtyard Marriott. Time for sweet, sweet repose. As I drift off, it occurs to me that the LADD Championship is just starting out west. It’s going to be a slam-bang good time, but hey—what could have been better than the night I just had?

Photos and credits:

1. Titty Titty Bang Bang shows off her team’s new uniforms, which–based exclusively on photographic evidence rather than in-person observation–DF hereby declares adorable.

2. The Doll Factory looks pretty empty without DF, n’est-ce pas?

3. Axles of Evil and Mila Minute illustrate that Paul Stanley-esque eye makeup is the look of the derby season. No one told Punchy, it seems.

4. Apparently there’s a mural in the Doll Factory now. When the hell did this happen?

5. Proposition 1: Demolicious is alive. Proposition 2: Demo is Elvis. Necessary implication: Elvis is alive. Whoa. Additionally, Killo Kitty looks menacing, which is pretty much par for the course.

6. Krissy Krash savors all-American ejection.

7. V. Lee suffers the agony of defeat. Buck up, V–at least you got to go to the game.

8. Happy Cookies celebrate 2008 LADD Championship. Not pictured: DF.

Photos 1, 3-4, & 8 by Stalkerazzi; photos 2 & 5-7 by Rinkrat. All photos (C) 2008 by their respective authors. All rights reserved.