Category: NEWS

Take This:Two VIP Tix to Burger Boogaloo w/ Iggy Pop, Buzzcocks

Janky Smooth Central Command April 1, 2017

Being the pre-eminent garage rock festival requires that someone transform the lo-fi sound worshipped by it’s lovers into a minimal visual aesthetic, at least by today’s music festival standards. A modern minimalism that doesn’t lose that fact that the ruffles and confetti of a senior prom or the tiki torches and teen taboo of a backyard party were over the top, once upon a time. After 7 years, Burger Boogaloo and it’s home in Mosswood Park have achieved that “just right” aesthetic that hits all the right notes in the lineup and it looks like it will do so again on July 1st and 2nd, 2017 in Oakland, California. What Burger Boogaloo does so well is that it achieves a familiarity and comfort without being too redundant. With John Waters becoming a welcome permanent fixture as master of ceremonies, two consecutive years of The Mummies were just what we needed. Omitting them from this year’s lineup was just as necessary as booking them twice and adding the likes of Iggy Pop, Buzzcocks and X achieved an exponentially wider net of legacy being cast without losing that trashiness that a couple bigger name acts could bring when patrons wearing indian head dresses

New Song Premier: Raj and the 100’s- ‘No Suicide’- Heartbreaking Beauty

Aria Silva-Espinosa March 21, 2017

We don’t really know much about who Raj Sabhlok is or where he came from but when we were sent the opportunity to premiere the first song in a series of 100, most of which were recorded in a recording studio owned by John Vanderslice. When we heard “No Suicide”, we were in. If you’re a fan of The Growlers, Kevin Morby and Devendra Banhart, you should love Raj and the 100’s. Let us know what you think! We all process loss differently; self-imposed isolation, submitting to one’s vices or even complete disassociation are not uncommon coping methods particularly in the early stages of grieving. Raj Sabhlok instead sought solace through the creation of Raj and the 100’s, a project which came about following the sudden passing of his parents. He traded the comfort of his home for and RV and spent two years traveling the United States, reflecting, exploring internally and exploring the vast wilderness along the way. For the duration of the his musical pilgrimage, Raj composed an impressive collection of about 300 songs. Eventually his journey landed him at Tiny Telephone, the San Francisco-based analog recording studios owned by songwriter/producer John Vanderslice. Vanderslice has recorded with a

Take This: Two Tickets To See The Orwells at The Observatory

Janky Smooth Central Command March 20, 2017

The Orwells are coming to the Observatory in Orange County this Friday, March 24th. The Orwells are one of the most badass young live bands in rock n roll right now. Every element in authenticity is present in their live set. Air tight band and sloppy, blacked out dispositions that mouth whore around the venue on any given night. When their sophomore album, Disgraceland dropped in 2013, it solidified them the “real deal”- appealing to legions of discerning indie hipsters and vapid mainstream mass appealers alike. Now they are touring in support of their 3rd album, Terrible Human Beings. I’ve seen The Orwells play a handful of shows and two of the best were at The Observatory. Most recently was this time last year at Burger Records week long celebration of their partnership with the venue. The video embedded into this post should tell you everything you need to know about the set they played on the last night of a 7 day marathon celebration at the venue: “Mario Cuomo unleashed upon adoring fans of The Orwells a yeoman’s performance of drunken, sloppy but precise and sexual rock and roll frontmannery. The Orwells were fantastic. I hadn’t seen them since just

Take This: Two Tickets To See Kate Tempest at The Constellation Room

Janky Smooth Central Command March 18, 2017

If you’re ANYTHING like we are, you are thirsty for an artist or musician to say something tangible and inspiring and infuriating on the state of our world. Like they used to. To say the things that so many of us are thinking . The things that so many others say to forget because we can’t change them anyway, when the truth is that if we all descended on the halls of power like a human tidal wave, we could wash away the corruption and indifference to human suffering with the weapon in our wallets. Almost overnight. We think Kate Tempest could very well be that artist and she’s coming to Southern California this week on her first U.S. tour in support of last year’s album, Let Them Eat Chaos. Not only that but she’s being supported by extraordinary beat producer, Boom Bip. Janky Smooth is giving away 2 TICKETS TO SEE KATE TEMPEST AT THE CONSTELLATION ROOM INSIDE THE OBSERVATORY IN SANTA ANA on Wednesday, March 22nd. To win tickets simply follow Janky Smooth on Facebook, IG and/or Twitter and share this post on any or all of those sites. That’s it. Winner will be selected on Tuesday March

New Song Premiere: Lord Loud- “The Hand” from Passé Paranoia

Janky Smooth Central Command March 17, 2017

This premiere of “The Hand” is the first the world will hear from the Passé Paranoia LP from L.A. based, heavy psych rock outfit Lord Loud. Passé Paranoia is due out April 18th on King Volume Records in the U.S. and Kozmic Artifactz in Europe. Until then, check out this gem, “The Hand”. &amp;amp;amp;lt;a href=”http://lordloudmusic.bandcamp.com/album/pass-paranoia”&amp;amp;amp;gt;Passé Paranoia by Lord Loud&amp;amp;amp;lt;/a&amp;amp;amp;gt; When Janky Smooth spoke to front axe man, Chris Allison about the history of this band and the album, he told us, “Michael (drums) and I repurposed a sweaty garage in Van Nuys and built a studio for ourselves to self record this LP using supplies previous tenants left like- 48 shipping blankets and whatever mics we could borrow from friends and strangers alike.” Lord Loud Songs are sure to kill your neighbor’s lawn when played at high volumes. In the line of great American pairings like: – apple pie and baseball – sex and drugs – Beavis and Butthead Could Lord Loud be the next, great American duo of rock? This hardworking, heavy psych 2-piece bring sound the size of a 70’s 4 piece garage band but have only 4 hands total to pull that off. That fits nicely with the limited

Mind Meld Monday’s At The Echo: Residencies Continue Bringing Highest Value

Danny Baraz February 13, 2017

Last Monday, fans and friends of the music scene in L.A. packed The Echo for week 1 of the Mind Meld month long residency at L.A.’s garage band beta testing ground. Part of what makes the Monday night residencies at The Echo so impressive are the bands that support the resident from week to week and often times, the residents themselves are pretty damn good too. On week 1 of their residency, Mind Meld invited Babylon, Psychic Jiu-Jitsu and the reason I dragged myself from the westside to Echo Park on a Monday night, Frankie and the Witch Fingers. Even though my attendance at the Echo on Monday night’s has been spotty at best over the past few months, there are usually some pretty damn good reasons to cruise by on any given Monday at The Echo- and almost all of them are written on the lineup. Outside of the alcohol free eco system of The Smell, is there a better value for music fans than the Monday night residencies at The Echo? I don’t often make it a habit to gush over a residency or a particular venue’s booking practices but with all the different ways music snobs, including

Your Senses Will Collide at Upcoming Day For Night Festival, Houston

Lindsay Krause December 7, 2016

“…We can be certain that the military, the B corporate world, the government and so on are going to use tech and I feel it is important that the artist helps define it and mold it. Because who else is going to put humanity and soul into it?” – Bjork via Creative Review related content: Headliners Rule at Outside Lands 2016 We are entering the end times for the traditional music festival model, and Houston’s Day for Night is leading the evolution toward curated immersive digital experiences. Festival titans like Coachella and Bonnaroo rose to infamy over the years by building bigger stages, pulling bigger headliners, and being taken over by big money; sticking with the traditional format which events throughout the world have replicated since the original Woodstock. However, the modern cultural connoisseur is looking to have their perceptions cleansed not only through sound, but through the merging of art, light and technology. Welcome to the future of festivals. related content: 2016 is the Year Coachella Jumped the Shark related content: Coachella: No History in Your Hate Leading this year’s lineup of electronic provocateurs, Day for Night will feature a 5-room digital experience and DJ set by experimental pop

DAPL Protesters at Standing Rock by Berry Ward

DAPL Protests at Standing Rock: A Unified & Disciplined Act of Love

Berry Ward November 28, 2016

Cannonball ND– I arrived in the heart of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Standing Rock protest epicenter expecting to run straight into a chaotic battle between Native Americans and riot police somewhere in the middle of the road. All I had seen were the videos that had made it into social media feeds of protestors being shot with rubber bullets, maced, and beaten down with clubs but that is all I knew of the situation. I thought it was an ongoing, everyday unrest. No militarized vehicles ever appeared though, other than the occasional sheriff’s deputy passing by, I saw little law enforcement. What did appear as I crossed over a big winding hill, was a vast expanse of tents and tepees down in a flat area where the Missouri River flowed through. These structures covered both shores of the river. The next 11 days would not be what I expected at all. As the corporate media begins it’s task to discredit the protestors as drug addicted partiers that are hardly focused on the pipeline at all, it is the job of all eyewitnesses to give their accounts so that the complicit corporate news media does not achieve it’s goal of destroying public

Janky Premiere: Dancing Tongues EP- Positions

Danny Baraz October 27, 2016

Janky Smooth is proud to premiere Positions– the first EP from Los Angeles based, post-punk outfit, Dancing Tongues. The sound is a seduction of hypnotic droning and rhythmic incantation. The battery of the band is pronounced and deliberate. The rich baritone of Alex Lavayen is romantic, like the words spoken to a lover after defending their honor through physical altercation. The composition of the musical arrangements hints that London (is) Calling while Lavayen urges not to let “Love Tear Us Apart.” The Positions EP creates a dance floor environment that is masculine but not misogynistic- catchy but not campy, with just enough edge. Songs like “Saturday” summon it’s punk forefathers while tracks like “Cause” cast a wider net of dynamics and emotion. The Positions EP contains a chemical substance similar to pheromones released into the environment by animals, affecting the behavior or physiology of others in it’s species. It invokes the laws of attraction to cause a consensual submissiveness to it’s rhythms. There are more bands being formed and putting out music at this very moment than ever before- although you would never know it if you get your music through the traditional, decaying channels used by the rotting corpse of the major labels. I have

Janky Fest w/ The Dwarves & 15 Bands Celebrating 2 Years of Jankiness

Danny Baraz October 25, 2016

It ain’t easy standing out in the sea of L.A. music blogs all looking for ad dollars, access and an invite to the after party. Janky Smooth doesn’t post ads on our website and we’re still not sure what the end game is here but what we do know is that it’s been a hell of a ride so far. As a thank you to Los Angeles for bringing us into it’s cold embrace, we bring you Janky Fest, November 19th in Outer Space from 3pm- Midnight. To attend Janky Fest with the Dwarves, The Birth Defects, Death Hymn Number 9, Sloppy Jane, Wild Wing and so many other bands, just RSVP by joining our newsletter at www.newsoundalliance.com and we’ll get back to you on instructions for making your $10 donation to fund Janky Fest. Special thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon for donating all the $2 Tall Boys. RSVP now before we make an announcement on our super secret special guest band that we can’t publicize due to contractual obligations. For the past 2 years, Janky Smooth has attempted to give our readers an honest take on the independent music scene that is exploding, both in Los Angeles and all

Watch Primus Perform Jerry Was a Race Car Driver at Desert Daze 2016

Danny Baraz October 24, 2016

Primus. Love em or hate em, if you are over 30 years old then you already know. If you are under 30 then you probably associate Primus with South Park or Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver. On Saturday night at Desert Daze 2016, Les, Tim and Larry convened on a stage, in a patch of dirt, on a piece of land called the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree for the first time in 8 months. Word on the street was that they hadn’t even rehearsed or played together in that entire time and if you aren’t very familiar with Primus and their arrangements, that might not be that remarkable. But if you understand what Les Claypool does on a bass guitar, then you’ll know that Larry LaLonde might’ve been the only guitarist that could’ve possibly been the lead guitar in a band like Primus. But not rehearsing those songs before a music festival that is representative of a young scene seems like an ill advised decision that Primus more than rose to the occasion of. Given that most of my friends and associates in this music scene are somewhere in the early 20’s, there were many who were on the fence

King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard on Moshcam

Watch King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard LIVE on Moshcam From Sydney

Janky Smooth Central Command October 6, 2016

As a part of the buildup to Desert Daze 2016, we wanted to share a link to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s performance caught by Moshcam from last night in Sydney Australia. It’s impossible to say which one band we’re most excited to see at Desert Daze but King Gizzard is DEFINITELY one of them. Take This: 2 three day passes to Desert Daze 2016 Desert Daze 2015: Festival for 21st century Their shredding riffery and tonal tugging, ear bugging, flim flamming, joint jamming rock and roll tributing trickery is just what the doctor ordered to tease away the time between now and Desert Daze. Enjoy!