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Janky Smooth Sessions: Beers, Buds & GnarBurgers w/ White Fang, No Parents
Danny Baraz
October 14, 2016
White Fang, No Parents and the Birth Defects have embarked on a tour for one of the first lineups of L.A. based bands that has made sense to me in quite a long time. We’ve seen No Parents play with Mystic Braves, we’ve seen The Birth Defects play with Fuzz and while I like all of those bands, having them play together is like having Donald Trump and Martin Luther King follow each other in speaking engagement. My fellow Janksters, Paige, Travis and I went to kick it with the bands at GnarBurger as they made their pre tour preparations that included beef, beer and buds as they got ready to hit a nationwide tour in a caravan of sin and friendship. That brings us to the latest installment of Janky Smooth Sessions with White Fang, No Parents, The Birth Defects and friends hanging at GnarBurger before they shoved off on their Escape From L.A. tour. Sunday 16 October 2016 White Fang The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL, US BUY TICKETS TRACK EVENT I’M GOING Monday 17 October 2016 White Fangwith No Parents The Majestic Café, Detroit, MI, US BUY TICKETS TRACK EVENT I’M GOING Tuesday 18 October 2016 White Fangwith No Parents The Basement, Columbus, OH,
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Janky Smooth Sessions: Cosmonauts Interview By The Lake
Paige Vreede
October 5, 2016
It’s 4pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I’m running amuck at Echo Park Lake trying to track down Cosmonauts, Derek Cowart and Alex Ahmadi after all of our phones died at the exact same time. I saw the boys at a gig the night before so I figured if they were anywhere nearly as hung over as I was, I could probably find them lounging in the shadiest part of the park. Past zooming Pokémon goers on skateboards, beyond the tempting smell of corn on the grill, towards a playground full of screaming children, I spotted two dudes in space-age, senior citizen style sunglasses amongst a group of a dozen 20-something year olds enjoying a picnic. We eventually find a quiet spot of our own to sit down and enjoy a couple of beers and homemade brownies, (no, unfortunately they were not the “special” kind) and discuss weird fan experiences, their recent album release of A-OK! and why having accordions for legs is better than having a ten inch belly-button. Their fourth full-length album A-OK! was released in August, via Burger Records, and it is everything the Cosmonauts have always promised their fans. Its shoe-gaze, its psychedelic, its
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Low End Theory: 10 Years of Music At The Airliner Bar In L.A.
Danny Baraz
September 30, 2016
Driving up the 110 freeway past Dodger Stadium, my friend Liz turns the music down for a minute and asks, “Exactly where is Lincoln Heights?” It seemed odd to me that she didn’t know but I guess not everyone in LA. has partied at The Poor Kids Mansion for their legendary back yard punk rock/thrash metal parties. Most L.A. folks haven’t driven up Broadway on a Wednesday night to hit up the Low End Theory at it’s home at The Airliner bar and that’s how I like it. Lame free Lincoln Heights is in a part of Los Angeles that has only just begun to feel the effects of gentrification even as I begin to realize that 10 years from now, Lincoln Heights might be virtually unrecognizable. Like the face of a little old lady in Beverly Hills, you can always tell on the first glance that this ain’t the original coat of paint. In the last 10 years, Low End Theory not only restored the former glory of the beatmakers and b-boys in L.A., but it saved the starving children around the world from the lack of nutritional value in EDM. related: Low End Theory Festival Wobbles the Shrine Auditorium
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How Riot Fest Chicago 2016 Survived The Misfits Subpar Performance
Danny Baraz
September 28, 2016
I’ve been to A LOT of music festivals this year and last. Truth is, I’m getting kind of burned on them. I almost always end up having a great time but the enthusiasm I used to feel the weeks building up to them is almost gone. I wasn’t planning on attending Riot Fest again this year but once it was announced that The Misfits would be reuniting at the festival along with Dave Mother fucking Lombardo on drums, I knew I COULDN’T miss it. The Misfits are my favorite band of all time and if this festival set affects me anything like Doyle joining the Danzig Legacy Tour a few years back, then I was sure to find the perfect combination of tears of joy and the blood of strangers soaking my clothes. I died a little on the inside seeing some of the footy of The Misfits from the Denver stop of Riot Fest 2016. Not entirely because I missed their first show back but that was definitely a factor. I’m not sure if knowing what to expect from the stage props, the set list and the performance was a good or a bad thing. This year’s Riot Fest
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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
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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
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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
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Mad Alchemy Drip Liquid Light Shows Live: Interview w/ Lance Gordon
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 29, 2016
The art of liquid lights is continuing to drip onto stages across the globe and is being revitalized by one of its original visionaries. The iconic displays originated during the heyday of San Francisco 60’s counterculture, and utilize various dyes and oils that are swirled between glass plates. Using an overhead projector, the liquids are then beamed onto screens behind live musicians, creating a hypnotizing multi-sensory wonderland. Unlike material relics of retro-mania, this art form offers an immersive and interactive experience that coexists with modern melted sounds and invites the audience to become a part of the canvas. One notable artist currently operating is Lance Gordon, aka Mad Alchemy. After becoming active during the original emergence of light shows, he has found new inspiration performing with acts such as King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Real Estate, Toy, Radio Moscow and Temples. The living art is inspired by stained glass windows as much as Jackson Pollock paintings, and has become a point of attraction for festivals and interesting venues. The Mad Alchemist discovered the art in the early 70’s through a former member of prominent Bay Area projecting crew The Brotherhood of Light, and went on to cut his teeth
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Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Releasing 12 Solo Albums in 6 Months. For real.
Brent Smith
August 23, 2016
With a stoic stare through horn-rimmed wayfarers, framed with a short mane of dark, wild hair, sporting a button-down against a beaten brick wall on some street, Omar Rodríquez-López invokes Bob Dylan’s iconic 1966 visage—the most elusive and most possessed of Dylan personalities. López’s output is just as inexhaustible too; no doubt inspired. Never mind his work with Mars Volta or At the Drive-In, his solo work in the last decade is enough to make the likes of Ty Segall shake in his boots (mind the age gap), and apparently he’s nowhere near finished. His latest solo effort upholds the current indie dictum: be prolific or die. In an unprecedented move to release twelve (that’s 12) albums from now until the end of the year—one every two weeks—López, in collusion with Ipecac Recordings, looks to bombard us with his pure, unadulterated schizophrenia. Three of the twelve LP’s are already out (and streaming on Spotify, you broke motherfuckers), with the release of the fourth just days away. They very much speak to his forays in acid jazz, space rock, poetic-spitting vocals, and sentimental pop soundscapes. Sworn Virgins is experimental without being hardcore. It has a postpunk sheen, darkly textured with effects,
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Video Premiere: Sloppy Jane- Aunt Rosie’s Garden
Paige Vreede
August 15, 2016
If you’ve ever seen L.A. based, “vomit-inducing,” Sloppy Jane live, you’d know they’re not afraid of pushing boundaries. Their performances come replete with nudity, green spit/vom, and unapologetic dance moves. If you have yet to see them on stage, you can catch them in all their fucked up glory with the premiere for music video of “Aunt Rosie’s Garden” off their 2015 Sure-Tuff album, exclusively here on Janky Smooth. What better way to start the weekend than watching someone uncomfortably touch themselves while feeling completely and utterly disturbed by it? The Blair Witch styled video is tainted with creepy subliminal messages and puts you in a state of discomfort you haven’t felt since *salad fingers. Hayley Dahl and Sara Cath awkwardly dance and push one another adorned in a red fur coat and a shirt that reads “Hayley Dahl is a mean mean whore” I’m not entirely sure about Dahl’s family history, but this Aunt Rosie character seems like a total dickhead to the tune of, “taking a stroll through Aunt Rosie’s garden you are hungry or starving she’ll feed you her thorns” While it may look like someone could have seriously been murdered in the making of this video, thankfully Dahl walked
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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
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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
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