Danny Baraz, Author at Jankysmooth

Danny Baraz

The Misfits at Riot Fest Chicago 2016: Bats In The Press Tent

Danny Baraz September 21, 2016

Moments before Danzig, Doyle, Jerry and Lombardo (as well as Acey Slade, ex Murderdolls axe man on 2nd guitar) took the Riot Stage at Riot Fest Chicago as The (original) Misfits, I looked up to witness a single bat flipping and fluttering around the press area of Douglas Park. In hindsight, I cannot recall seeing any bats anywhere at the park on Saturday, the day before. I cannot recall seeing any bats on Friday. And even though it’s been a year, I cannot recall seeing any bats during Riot Fest 2015. Was this bat Glenn Danzig conducting reconnaissance in his ultimate form, taking the temperature of a group of people he has shunned and resented more than any other? Or was it simply one of the many minions of the Satanic Elvis? I thought I heard the bat giggling at us but I could be wrong. I can’t be sure of anything after all the hype and hoopla leading up to what I expected to be the most momentous concert experience of my life. Those same damn expectations that made the moment fall flatter than the one thing that had to be perfect; Glenn Danzig’s vocals. related content: Janky Smooth

Ty Segall and The Smell Founder Jim Smith

The Rally To Save The Smell And The Horrid History of DIY Venues in L.A.

Danny Baraz September 15, 2016

This past Saturday night Ty Segall headlined a sold out benefit show at The Teragram Ballroom. Save the Smell was organized by the two 19 year old musical entrepreneurs of Penniback Records. Penniback represents the 3rd wave of scene kids that have had their DIY awakening at The Smell and with the help of Julian Montano and Luis Ho and so many others, it MIGHT just ensure that the legend of the humble but vital venue continue to be written. But even with the outpouring of support that recently extended an extra year for The Smell community to save itself from being demolished, the ambitious strategy to do so is to raise $1.4 million to buy a permanent home somewhere in a close proximity to it’s current iconic Main Street location. Some scoff, some scowl, some cry foul but The Smell has such few haters for a DIY venue of it’s kind. The kind that always seems to spawn legions of outsiders that feel scorned or slighted. Because those folks are so few and far between, maybe that can explain why the Smell is in the midst of an unprecedented run. If history has taught us anything it’s that DIY

FYF 2016: Everything You Never Wanted to Know And More

Danny Baraz August 31, 2016

If art imitates life then isn’t a local music or art scene the most accurate reflection of life in that city? The sound of the music and the meaning of the lyrics, the images created by the brush and the musings, whether etched in pencil or poked in on a keyboard, all are inspired by an artists’ surroundings- and the crowd that supports it represents that the artist has connected with the collective experience; something true and authentic. And if you can accept that premise then you can also accept that Sean Carlson’s once fledgling music festival, Fuck Yeah Fest, continues to represent and imitate life in Los Angeles. FYF 2016 has gone from the twinkle in the eye of a dreamer to the crown jewel of Goldenvoice in Los Angeles. Wait, what’s that you say? You hate festivals? Oh, you hate on Los Angeles too? How original. I understand you spent those 6 months living in Chatsworth and Ubering to auditions and that spending all your time around low level industry wannabes has skewed your perception of the landscape and the denizens of my city. People often project all their shortcomings, failures and low self esteem onto the city

Summer Happenings at The Broad: The Perfect Excuse To Hit The Museum

Danny Baraz August 26, 2016

Last week, I got an email from a publicist named Jonathan who invited Janky Smooth to come cover the third installment of Non Object(ive), Summer Happenings event at The Broad Museum in Downtown Los Angeles. I became pretty excited. Not because of the lineup of DJ’s and performers that were scheduled to perform such as Vampire Weekend’s, Rostam or Sparkle Division but because I have yet to experience The Broad Museum since it opened in September 2015. Yes, begin your culture shaming now. It’s not as if you need media credentials to view The Broad’s permanent collection of postwar and contemporary art but you do need to make reservations that are backed up by 2 months and also, pay extra to view the Cindy Sherman exhibit, attend the Summer Happenings show and have access to all areas of the museum. So covering some music I only had a mild interest in wasn’t a big price to pay to walk all areas of The Broad. Last month, Summer Happenings featured a reading by Richard Hell and a dark wave DJ set by Sky Ferreira so I was more than a bit interested to see the scene that was developing amongst the

Thee Oh Sees Slay Teragram Ballroom Night Before Album Drops/Tour

Danny Baraz August 16, 2016

Is there anyone in independent music that has more going for them than John Dwyer and his band, Thee Oh Sees? In an industry that has been turned upside down, Dwyer and others such as Ty Segall have been successfully proving out the new business model for musical acts that aren’t corporate concoctions of sterile art, ripened just right for commercial licensing. Indy bands have proven that there is a demand for raw and innovative rock and roll, even as it disappears almost completely from the mainstream. Indy bands have proven that there is still a dream to be chased that can sustain their lives and compulsion to create with hard work and an untiring proliferation and output. On Thursday night, Thee Oh Sees threw a party at The Teragram Ballroom the night before their new album, A Weird Exits dropped and the night before they left on an extended tour of Europe that includes a backend leg in the US. While many bands might be content in taking the night off before a three month tour, whether John Dwyer wanted to brush up on some of the new tracks or he just wanted another stack of chips to add

Radiohead shot by Johann Ramos at Outside Lands 2016

The Headliners Rule at Outside Lands 2016

Danny Baraz August 12, 2016

In the year of our lord, 2016, I attended my first Outside Lands inside the crunchy granola confines of Golden Gate Park. I have been experiencing much Bay Area festival envy in the preceding years so I rectified it by attending this year’s Burger Boogaloo in Oakland and I attended my very first Outside Lands last week . Even though this year’s Outside Lands lineup didn’t blow me away, I decided that I needed a change of scenery, a change from the jaded, L.A. crowds and… of course… RADIOHEAD! No Live Nation or Goldenvoice. No 100 degree weather. No rubber necking, celebrity duck sicking or friends plus 1 on the guest listing. No Native American Head Dressing anywhere to be seen. Don’t get me wrong; I have nothing but love for my birthplace in the mecca of entertainment but sometimes familiarity brings comfort and sometimes, it breeds contempt. Aside from the persistence of seeing San Francisco Giants apparel everywhere I looked, I’ve always loved the folks I’ve met and become fast friends with in San Fran and Oakland. Just wondering if it’s coincidence that the only real jerk offs I’ve met up there happen to be rocking VaGiants gear. Someone

Ghostface Killah and Raekwon at Low End Theory Fest

Annual Low End Theory Festival Spreads L.A. Wildfire Into Shrine Auditorium

Danny Baraz July 25, 2016

A radioactive, orange, spherical fiery orb in the sky hung just below a thick, impenetrable blanket of ash and dust from the sand fires burning the Angeles National Forrest, just 30 miles outside of Los Angeles. The distant wild fire choked my lungs and burned my eyes as I navigated the streets of South L.A. to enter the Shrine Auditorium for the third annual Low End Theory Festival in 2016. But even with the safety of distance from the flames, the most important beat collective in the world gets LIT af everytime they get together to dance and blaze and spark the imagination by pushing the envelope of sound, rhythm and rhyme. Whether you are a regular at Low End Theory’s home base on Wednesday’s at The Airliner in Lincoln Heights or you attended the festival because Wu-tang MC’s Ghostface Killah and Raekwon were at the top of the bill, you were a part of a movement that is shaping the future of music. It was clear, immediately, that attendance was down from the previous year’s sold out festival but it is no commentary on any type of waning influence. Last year, Low End Theory booked widely respected and beloved cross

Death Valley Girls at The Echo Record Release Party

Death Valley Girls Glow In The Dark At The Echo Record Release Party

Danny Baraz July 6, 2016

There is something different emerging from the Los Angeles music scene. It’s not nice. Or sweet. Or candy-bar-bubble gum. Or a drunken teenage blackout filled with mild regret. And I like it. Death Valley Girls aren’t like your typical Burger Records band. You can’t simply attach the punk, psychedelic or garage rock label to them and be done with it. They aren’t your standard, soft balled psych rockers seeking some type of enlightenment through their experiments with hallucinogens. They are what happens when the acid turns and the faces around you become deranged and unfriendly; surrounded by deeply troubled individuals slipping further and further away from society with each hit of blotter. Death Valley Girls’ second album, “Glow in the Dark” summons the seventies more than it summons the summer of love. When America was in the midst of an identity crisis, amidst events such as the Nixon resignation, Patty Hearst and Jonestown. And even though the Manson murders occurred in 1969, the events surrounding the high profile slayings in the Hollywood Hills reverberated across the forthcoming decade and dispelled the image of hippies as harmless, peace loving druggies. Trust no one. But singer/songwriter Bonnie Bloomgarden insists that, “you can

The Mummies at Burger Boogaloo by Joanna Bautista

Burger Boogaloo 2016: Bringing Rare Vinyl Back to Life For 7 Years

Danny Baraz July 1, 2016

There are many metaphors I could employ to describe what it was like to attend the annual Burger Boogaloo festival in Oakland for my first time, in the year of our Lord, 2016. It’s like going through your mom and dad’s moth-balled wardrobe from 1968 and realizing that you just hit the mother load of cyclical fashion. It was always there. It was just up to you to open that garage, suspend that disbelief that your parents were actually cool at some point in their lives and try it on to see if it fits. It seems that no matter how far technology advances or what new platforms are developed in Silicon Valley to deliver music and culture to the masses, new generations will always dust off old vinyl and make it new again. To transform themselves into a time that seems simpler than their own and to long for the good old days that they didn’t even exist in. Afterall, it is an American teenagers right of passage to be completely disenchanted with the here and now and it is the aging hipsters prerogative to revisit the haunts of their youth. All of these sentiments converge, year after year,

Memoirs of a Bernie Bro

Danny Baraz June 23, 2016

After every prolonged and pointless online battle, I knew I wasn’t handling this correctly or even, well and I promised to just let it go the next time someone posted the photo of Bernie Sanders in a Lamborghini or when the average voter proclaimed Hillary Clinton to be a progressive; not for any other reason but hanging onto my own sanity. But there I was, wasting all day the next day having the same arguments with different people (and sometimes the same people), unable to let even one opportunity pass to deliver my most money comment, (“incremental change is the new trickle down economics”). All those “likes” I experienced on my Sanders posts in December of 2015 turned into proverbial “crickets” in May of 2016. Those who condescendingly used to say they “liked Bernie but…” were starting to turn, calling him an ego maniac and claiming he was actually hurting his supporters by staying in this race. I started to soothe myself by reminding me that they just hadn’t been unplugged from the Matrix, yet and they were just suckling at the cable news teat. I wasn’t a #neverhillary but the DNC and the #voteblue demo pushed me, a life long Democrat close

New Album Review: GOGGS is Damn Good Gravy on The Ty Segall Catalog

Danny Baraz June 13, 2016

Ty Segall’s new project GØGGS doesn’t feel like a side project. GOGGS is being touted as “Ty’s new Punk Album” by many publicists and suits and probably just relayed simply that way by frontman, Chris Shaw in a non ambiguous and lyrical manner. And it’s punk. Not like Bad Brains or Black Flag punk but it’s punk rock like Fugazi and Parquet Courts; It dares you to put a label on what they do. When you attach the punk moniker to your music, authenticity is the single biggest pre requisite and that comes from the purity of your intentions with your music. GOGGS innovate in the increasingly nebulous punk rock genre by experimenting with and finding a unique and original guitar and production tone and organizing the bands thoughts into an appropriately confrontational demeanor. Charles Moothart went vintage effect pedal shopping and created something special. Sharp guitar tones with jagged, distorted edges and high mid range. It has an “early catalog Ty Segall” tonal vibe ala Melted and Twins but it’s more abrasive and percussive. It is the most prominent feature on this album and I say that in a good way. The bulbous bottom end bass guitar by committee, (Segall, Moothart,

Ministry Make Ears Bleed at Punk Rock Bowling Club Show

Danny Baraz May 27, 2016

I was on the fence about attending Punk Rock Bowling this year. It’s been 4 years in a row and when you have a wife and kids, it’s an exercise of manipulation and selfishness to leave your family every Memorial Day weekend. “Honey, but it’s work!” So as I was leaning towards a “no”, Punk Rock Bowling 2016 unveiled it’s club shows and there it was; Thursday, May 26th Ministry/Excel at the Fremont Country Club. Fuck my kids. Fuck my wife. Fuck my business and everyday life. What twisted individual thought of this lineup for a punk rock festival? A couple weeks later I found out that our friends from Death Hymn Number 9 were ALSO on the bill. “See you in a few days, kids! Daddy loves you!” In 1990, Ministry released a live album called, “In Case You Didn’t Feel Like Showing Up”. I discovered it 2 years after it was released. I was 16. To this day I consider it my favorite Ministry album and THE BEST LIVE ALBUM OF ALL TIME. On my drive out to Vegas I listened to it 2 times, all the way through. I had visions of Ministry playing this album from