Category: FEATURES

L.A. Hustle at SXSW 2016: Bands, Labels, Promoters & Publications

Danny Baraz March 23, 2016

Artists, agents, publicists and partiers come from far and wide to take part in one of the largest music and networking events in the world. Fans attending SXSW in Austin ,Texas view it as a diverse display of music in which they can recreationally party and enjoy bands they love and bands they discover throughout the week long musical portion of the conference. The aforementioned groups of art producers and opportunists view the conference much differently than the fans or even the way they themselves typically view playing a regular show or festival. With a somewhat intimate knowledge of the bands in Southern California and their proxies, it was fascinating to watch it all unfold in front of me. From Burger Records to Lolipop Records, iHeartcomix to Desert Daze, the Los Angeles and greater Southern California area musicians and business’ were very well represented at SXSW 2016. Janky Smooth was proud to see the members of our scene thriving in such a competitive environment and of course, to make our own stamp on the events surrounding the conference in our very first SXSW experience as a publication. On the band side, there were L.A. bands like one of our low

Millennials- Is The World Right About You?

Danny Baraz March 4, 2016

Entitled, lazy, over sensitive, under ambitious- These are just a few of the adjectives used to brand the generation labeled Millennials. Anytime you see a segment on TV or read something online or in print about Millennials, these are the themes used to attribute to this emerging generation that is coming of age at such a crucial time for this planet. What do you think? Are they right about you? I, for one have had your back from the beginning. Your generation is facing unprecedented challenges in the opportunities available to you and your friends. Unless mommy and daddy are well off, you can no longer get a higher education without graduating in a mountain of debt. Once you graduate, the opportunities available to you are mediocre, at best. Forget college- you can no longer work a labor job and make it to the middle class. Believe it or not, that used to be possible. You could work a job or two for $1o an hour and buy a house within a few years. They won’t even raise the minimum wage as they have everytime inflation dictated that they do so. We are in a completely fucked situation right now

Buzz Bait: Bonnie of Death Valley Girls On Music, Magic and Metaphysics

Brent Smith February 16, 2016

High noon. Under the stark, blue February sky I encounter Bonnie Bloomgarden standing at the entrance of the Red Lion Tavern in Echo Park. The singer/guitarist of the doom rock outfit Death Valley Girls greets me in green sparkly eye makeup with a big smile and gifts in the form of a limited edition 7” and a live singles cassette wrapped in caution tape. I rejoice and accept like it’s the Holy Communion. After slipping into the dark of the ancient Germanic pub, we head to the upstairs bar. Death Valley Girls have popped up on the indie map like a baffling string of UFO sightings, ever since their Street Venom debut. Some may remember Bloomgarden’s exploits in the NY band The Witnesses, or maybe her cameo in King Tuff’s third album Black Moon Spell. Though perhaps nothing was as enthralling as DVG’s performance last October at the Natural History Museum’s mummy exhibit, which served more as a necromantic rock séance to communicate in peace with the Egyptian dead. The new Death Valley Girls LP Glow in the Dark is due June 10th via Burger Records, just in time for Burger Boogaloo. It’s unlike anything we’ve heard from them before. Though the

Small Talk With JS Aurelius of Destruction Unit

Danny Baraz December 17, 2015

JS Aurelius, highly experimental guitarist of Destruction Unit has brought a rageful and introspective creativity to the psychedelic hardcore punk outfit, Destruction Unit. Since the addition of himself and Nick Nappa to the Destruction Unit, unit, the band has blossomed into their highly unique sound like a parasitic plant. I was able to find out more about the Destruction Unit creative process and what motivates Aurelius in our next installment of Small Talk. Danny Baraz: In September, you played your record release party for Negative Feedback Resistor at the Teragram in Los Angeles. The Critical Resistance organization was present to help spread the word about their movement which seeks to dismantle the “prison industrial complex”. It made me very happy to see a contemporary band taking part in political activism. Rock bands have always pushed the political conversation forward to new generations of fans/kids. Why do you think that such a few amount of up and coming and established bands are interested in getting political and why is it important to you and Destruction Unit? JS Aurelius: I think being political is unappealing because politics as a whole are so unappealing. It’s all so far beyond broken that even

Buzz Bait: An Interview with The Gooch Palms

Paige Vreede December 5, 2015

It was an ordinary Wednesday night at the Cambridge hotel in Newcastle, Australia when vivacious musician Leroy McQueen first met mega babe, Kat Friend. Four years after meeting, the power couple decided they wanted to make music together. What started with just a bucket, a tambourine, and a guitar soon evolved into The Gooch Palms- multiple Australian tours, two American tours (with slots at places such at SxSW) and a forthcoming tape with Burger Records. The small-town duo blew up quickly and their infectious tunes certainly deserve to be well known. If you haven’t had the chance to catch them on their tour, do not fret, you can still catch one of their action packed shows (which usually results in nudity) TONIGHT, Dec 5th at The Echo for The Gooch Palms Burger tape release, alongside The Memories and The High Curbs. The Gooch Palms play their buoyant tunes with great enthusiasm and they are definitely a band not to miss. I had the pleasure of sitting at Echo Park Lake with them and a pack of Coopers and Tim Tams (if you haven’t experienced the pleasures of these Australian delicacies then I feel bad for you, son) to discuss their US tour, their upcoming

How YouTube Pays Artists by East Bay Ray

East Bay Ray December 3, 2015

YouTube (owned by Google Inc.) is a remarkable platform for the sharing of videos and music by both fans and creators. Many artists have used it to start careers and achieve a form of stardom, which is great. But what’s behind the curtain? How is the “monetization” income shared with content creators, filmmakers and musicians, by the businessmen who operate YouTube? I am the guitarist, co-founder and one of the songwriters for the band Dead Kennedys. We’ve been called “one of the most popular and important American hardcore punk bands” by the Rough Guide to Rock and “the undoubted kings of U.S. punk” by the Encyclopedia of Popular Music. We are proud of our Do It Yourself independent ethic and have negotiated our own recording, song publishing and other licensing deals. As an independent artist, we attained the extraordinary achievement of Give Me Convenience or Give Me Death earning a Gold Record in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Back in the day, Dead Kennedys did a publishing deal in the U.K. with Virgin Publishing where they received 30 percent of gross songwriting income, with the DKs receiving 70 percent. Virgin also paid the band an advance which

Video Premiere: The Slippery Lips- Someone You Love

Danny Baraz November 11, 2015

Janky Smooth would like to present to you, the worldwide premiere of the “Someone You Love” music video by The Slippery Lips. It’s rare that a virtually unknown band from the mid west gets on the Janky Smooth radar but The Slippery Lips from Cincinnati are hard to miss. With their new video for Someone You Love, The Slippery Lips join the “party band” circuit. In a sea of melodic discontent, they are a wave that washes away the mundane and repetitive flood of music emanating from countless American garages. Having opened for the likes of White Reaper and Twin Peaks and also FIDLAR and Dune Rats on their latest tour, Janky Smooth are not the first to discover this mid western gem but we hope to expose our readers to the raw power of this band. Their motto is “Punch Life in the Dick”. With lead singer, Jesse Fox, The Slippery Lips have an ambassador that is deeply entrenched in the American garage rock music scene. As an editorial and concert photographer, artist and musician, she gives to the scene just as much as she takes but leaves all of it on stage, including her liver and her pride.

Small Talk with Teri Gender Bender of Le Butcherettes

Danny Baraz November 9, 2015

Teresa Suarez aka Teri Gender Bender has the potential to become a world wide, iconic figure in music and in the fight for women’s rights. If you’ve seen Le Butcherettes live, then you know that her magnetic presence is impossible to ignore. This past September, Le Butcherettes released their third, full length album, “A Raw Youth”. In her continued collaboration with Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, the Teri Gender Bender/Le Butcherettes genesis continues to evolve into a musical mission statement. Simple arrangements with complex topics fit into the punk rock modality but with what most would describe as a maturation. As more artists like Rodriguez-Lopez and the likes of Iggy Pop seem eager to collaborate with Teri Gender Bender, the respect of her peers demands the respect of the proletariat. In an attempt to help reveal more about the artists and musicians that we love, Danny Baraz had a few questions for Teri Gender Bender for the inaugural installment of Small Talk. Danny Baraz: When you collaborated with Iggy Pop on La Uva, who reached out to whom to work together? What came first, the song or the agreement to collaborate? Teri Gender Bender: Iggy, Omar and I were in his green room

The People, Bands and Fashion of Beach Goth 4

Paige Vreede October 30, 2015

With an incredibly diverse lineup including Juicy J, Mac Demarco, The Adicts, Grimes, and Parliament Funkadelic, it is no surprise that the crowd Beach Goth 4 attracted was nothing but a circus of ghouls, goblins and fashion. In this environment anything goes. During FIDLAR’s set on day two, the heterogeneity of this eclectic crowd was seemingly apparent. Mia Wallace’s and Wednesday Adams encircled a pit in which every character imaginable was welcome to. Two grown men in sunhats and summer dresses shamelessly cavorted about tossing trash cans at one another. A gal adorned in full raver gear stomped around the pits edge, right next to a 20-something year old in 90’s attire who was helping a painfully obvious drunk brosef who had fallen down amongst the madness. As the name suggests, beach kids and angsty goths were both welcomed. Walking amongst the Beach Goth 4 crowd was like being on a drug trip in some far away land that doesn’t actually exist. One could easily spot Hunter S. Thompson exchanging words with a petite girl sporting a penis costume on her head, and the quintessential good-looking woman dressed as “a mouse duh” could be caught hanging with that one weird

It’s Not Dead Fest: The State of the Union

Danny Baraz October 13, 2015

After my visit to San Manuel Amphitheater in San Bernardino yesterday and bearing witness to the 1000’s of punks kicking up huge clouds of dust In 100 degree weather at It’s Not Dead Fest, I can, without a doubt, attest to the fact that It’s NOT Dead. Not dead at all. Well, at least the part of IT that generates millions of dollars of revenue, world-wide. When people talk about “It” being “dead”, are they referring to “it’s” spirit? “It” is punk rock and I’ve written about this topic so many times now that this might be my swan song. Then again, if a 52 year old Milo Aukerman can stand in front of thousands of sweaty friends and play “I Don’t Wanna Grow Up” then I can write about “it”- again. After attending HiFi Rockfest a couple weeks back, I must admit, I WAS a bit worried about the future of hardcore punk but after the invasion and take over this weekend and thinking back to the last Punk Rock Bowling it became clear that the issue with HiFi Rockfest was 100% promotional. I hadn’t attended a Warped Tour in at least 15 years and this show reminded me