Category: FEATURES

Three Nights of Bjork CORNUCOPIA at the Shrine

Rob Shepyer January 12, 2022

It’s been years since the last time I saw Bjork perform in Los Angeles. I’ll never forget it, it was FYF fest 2017, the most stacked lineup this city has seen in years, with Frank Ocean’s last LA performance headlining one night, Nine Inch Nails closing out the fest, but Bjork and Missy Elliot reigning supreme on the opening Friday night festivities. Simply hearing “Joga” live was a life altering musical experience. Bjork’s vocals cut right through to people’s hearts so after two years of living in a covid hellscape, I have no doubt she will make every audience of her upcoming three night stint at the Shrine Auditorium cry their eyes out. related content: FYF Fest 2017 Steals Coachella’s Throne As So-Cal’s Premiere Festival These three Shrine performances won’t simply be Bjork shows, these are CORNUCOPIA shows, some of the avant-garde and inspiring live music you could ever experience, especially if you’re a creative yourself. Fantasy becomes a force for change with visuals co-directed by Bjork and Argentine genius, Lucrecia Marartel and co-creative directed by James Merry. You’ll see images of foreign worlds straight out of the queen’s mind. The visuals are so animated and vibrant they feel like

Top 10 ALBUMS of 2021 as Rated by Contributors

Rob Shepyer December 21, 2021

Across every known genre in the musicverse, 2021 saw incredible releases from artists new and old proving that pressure really does create diamonds. The pandemic certainly put a strain on every performer’s bottom line but the real bottom line behind every dollar is the artistic inspiration that drives people’s ears to your art. We saw game changing albums in 2021, from Turnstile’s Glow On which may just be the first “dreamcore” album, to Dry Cleaning’s New Long Leg which reinvigorated British post punk with cool feminine ennui. Plenty of Jankysmooth favorites came out with new albums like Viagra Boys’ Welfare Jazz, Shannon and the Clams’ Year of the Spider, Surfbort’s Keep on Truckin’, Angel Du$t’s Yak, and so many more. We discovered new favorites along the way too, like Pixel Grip’s Arena, Magdalena Bay’s Mercurial World, Squid’s Bright Green Field, and so many more. Icons were created in 2021, like Japanese Breakfast after their album Jubilee, Idles after Crawler, and King Woman after Celestial Blues. The list goes on and on, so to make things more concise, our contributors rated their top ten favorite albums of the year. Check it out. Publisher, Danny Baraz Turnstile – Glow On Black Midi –

Music Video Premiere: The Manx – Before She Was A Moth

Janky Smooth Central Command November 2, 2021

As we all collectively wash away the rubbery layers of grease makeup, corn syrup infused fake blood, and half digested liquor soaked gummy worms we have a brief moment to prepare ourselves for the reality of the coming weeks. True horror rapidly approaches – not in the form of a drugstore Dracula or an obnoxiously ironic pop culture reference – but as a siren’s call perfectly crafted for our capitalist hellscape. The malignant abomination that is Mariah Carey’s All I Want for Christmas Is You will soon be here to soil the crisp fall air and drain away whatever sliver of hope we’ve regained as we’ve begun crawling from the depths of our COVID depression bunkers. Thankfully for you, dear readers/freaks/devotees, Janky Central Command is here with the last line of defense against the smoothing of our brains: we’re talking about a new video premiere from our boys in The Manx! Handcrafted by the artist Monstark, this one is an equally beautiful and grotesque delight and a reminder that refreshing mind melters will always pop up and surprise you when you least expect it. A little note about the video from Sweatband Records: The puppet world of Before She Was a

The Road to Psycho Las Vegas 2021 Part 2

Rob Shepyer August 13, 2021

This is how we hold the line. With the country’s social climate at a fever-pitch and the festival we love less than a week away, we are making the choice not to retreat into the shadows and live our lives in fear. If we all just stayed home and didn’t fight to live the way we believe we deserve to, there is no way we’d ever return to how things were. The world will never totally be the same, but we’re not letting concerts go the same way movie theaters did. Fuck that. Psycho lives forever. related content: The Road to Psycho Las Vegas With every international act having to postpone their performances to 2022, the festival has become a domestic affair. We are doing nothing short of chasing the American Dream just like Raul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fueled by metal instead of hardcore psychedelics, what is left of the dream is more perverted and strange than anything the good doctor could’ve imagined. The festival itself is the drug, Vegas is the drug, this fucking pandemic is the drug, let it tweak your senses just a bit and make you lose inhibition just enough to make

Music Video Premiere: Cancer Christ’s “Do You Wanna Go To Heaven?”

Janky Smooth Central Command July 16, 2021

With the planet finally on the verge of complete collapse and the world’s leaders with nowhere to run, prepare for the skies to crack open and for your head to cave in to let in the Lord’s love. Cancer Christ is here to save us all and spread the gospel to every lost soul. Saint Anthony and his gang of born-again-Christian snake-people will slither through the hearts and minds of society to cleanse the flock of all satanic impurity. The streets will be paved with fire as the glory of God is bestowed upon us. What once was lost is now found with the arrival of Cancer Christ. Bare your flesh and blood for a front row seat to the apocalypse as Saint Anthony gives the sermon of all sermons upon the world’s stage. A new era of cleanliness and godliness awaits you and your family. No unholy spirit shall be safe as the cities are flooded by a brand new fleet of heavenly warriors. It’s time to raise the flags of the new and destroy those of the old. A new world is here to bless the devout. Join us as we rewrite history to honor thy holy name.

A Smooth Guide to Lodge Room Shows in 2021

Rob Shepyer June 23, 2021

When the pandemic began, Janky Smooth was in the middle of Lodge Room month, a month dedicated to one of the best booked, most intimate, perfectly located, perfectly lit and unique venues in Los Angeles. Now that someone hit the play button and took the world off pause, we’re gonna keep featuring the Lodge Room and its shows because we curate only the best content. I wanted to lay out the Lodge Room’s slate of shows in a calendar of sorts for the rest of the year, many of these shows are musts for our list and should be for yours. John Carroll Kirby – June 25th John Carroll Kirby‘s jazz is progressive, rhythmic and transports you to many musical landscapes, all of which are chill and revelatory. You can zone out and tap in at the same time with the help of these tunes. John has collaborated with some of my favorite artists such as Frank Ocean, Bat for Lashes, Harry Styles and more. You can buy tickets here Vegan Bowie Cocktail Party – July 9th From the same people that brought you Vegan Ceremony nights at the Lodge Room, events that combine dining and music are perhaps the

The Road to Psycho Las Vegas

Rob Shepyer June 12, 2021

Later this month, I’ll attend my first indoor concert since March 2020. People will not be wearing masks or social distancing. I’ll have dipped my toes into the cultural soup I’ve swam in the majority of my adult life, relearning all the in’s-and-out’s of concert going. Stage-dives and mosh pits have been relegated to my long term memory banks awaiting to be unearthed. Although most metalheads will be breaking their concert fasts soon (if they haven’t already), Psycho Las Vegas is the spiritual grand re-opening of the metal scene in the wild American west. As the first large festival to take place since the beginning of the pandemic, Psycho is a test much like the ones Hunter S. Thompson indulged in with Ken Kesey’s Merry Pranksters. Our senses may have been perverted, inverted, dulled and destroyed by lengthy quarantines but our imaginations are in better shape than ever and if I can imagine Psycho Las Vegas being the most insane heavy metal summit of my life, then I can will it into being. related content: A High And Beautiful Wave: Psycho Las Vegas 2019 Before the world shut down, Psycho’s 2020 lineup was one of the most anticipated slates of

Music Video Premiere and Interview: Human Fluid Rot’s “The Bimbo With An M-134”

Janky Smooth Central Command March 2, 2021

“The brainchild of Robbie Brantley (one of Miami Florida’s most prominent noise scene-freaks), HUMAN FLUID ROT is utter violence through sound. His harsh noise live sets are micro catastrophes of explosive disgust and kinetic chaos. Oftentimes lasting only a few short minutes, what you won’t get in length/duration at a HUMAN FLUID ROT show, you definitely receive in ultra condensed overstimulation of the senses. Sonically just about every frequency is represented and all at once. Stabbing and poking the inside of your brain with brutal beauty and disregard. Visually/physically, you’ll witness or participate as part of the violent mob that is invited to choke, kick and beat the man as he conducts his tangled mess of a noise board. Cathartic to say the least… Check out the exclusive music video premiere for The Bimbo With An M-134 (directed by vidiumhq) below and read on to learn more. Robbie has been terrorizing noise fests and the general public for the better part of the last two decades. He’s released countless cassette tapes and cd-r releases but “A SUDDEN INFLUX” marks his first proper vinyl release to date. The album is a disgusting journey into the fucked up puddle of viscera that is HUMAN FLUID ROT. The trance you’ll fall during your listening assault is imminent. A chaotic head cheese of shredded electronic innards and unfriendly bile. A Sudden Influx [In Serendipity] is available for

Janky Smooth Top 10 ALBUMS of 2020 Rated By Contributors

Janky Smooth Central Command December 11, 2020

2020: the year that drove a stake in the heart of the music industry. One has to ask themselves how something so essential can be taken away from us so easily. For as long as I’ve lived, I’ve thought life without music was not worth living. Evidently, this was not true and came from a place of privilege. We’ve all had a little bit of privilege taken from us this year. Some more than others, but everyone got checked. If 2020 can teach us anything, it’s that life is worth something even in the most monstrous circumstances: being without music, without your job, your money, even your health. What is essential about music is that it helps us define ourselves as individuals. In a crisis, often times we forget who we are just trying to survive. For me, band shirts are my way of signaling my identity to the world, and if Covid or economic collapse takes everything from me, chances are I’ll still have the shirt on my back to let everyone know I listen to Slayer. Whether you’re a musician, promoter, journalist or just a fan, do not let cultural subversion or personal degradation steal your identity. We

Learning Blocks: Karim Shuquem on ‘Die Kunstkammer’

Audrey Kemp November 7, 2020

Karim Shuquem is always reaching for something: sometimes a trumpet or a microphone, other times a paintbrush or a black block. Far more often, however, he’s reaching for things less tangible. The tag Shuquem painted in alleyways as a teenager still aptly describes his chronic condition: “A-N-X.” Angst. “There’s this thing that’s been bugging me about myself,” the multimedia artist and musician admits. “When examining my motives, I wonder: ‘Why do I feel the constant need to do something?’” Doing something has taken innumerable forms over his decades-long career as an artist: graffiti; zines; music; performance art; graphic art; education; and most recently, ever-evolving sculpture. In October, Shuquem completed his most recent public art installation, Die Kunstkammer. The candle-lit tower of 100 black blocks, dark images and decontextualized objects currently provokes and spellbinds curious onlookers at Glendale’s Adams Square Mini Park. “It’s a construction of matter or whatever reality is, but at the same time, it’s physically interchangeable as they change position every showing, creating sort of a relational parallel to whatever thought processes there are behind the work,” Shuquem explains. Our readers may better know Karim Shuquem by his ghoulish, Dionysian, trumpet-playing alter ego, Loto Ball, who fronts The

Dark Art Brings Levity: Body / Negative’s Andy Schiaffino Discusses “Fragments”

Audrey Kemp October 20, 2020

In a time that seems to fray the very fabric of our social lives, Andy Schiaffino finds comfort in the hiss of a disintegrating cassette tape. Body / Negative is the transgressive solo project of the 23-year-old non-binary artist and producer, who utilizes minimal equipment, multimedia experimentation and creative camaraderie to actualize their haunting, abstract soundscapes. Drawing on their own journeys through the dark and dire, Andy delivers a primal, sensitive and serene seven-track album, Fragments, to shelter us from the storm. Audrey: Andy, thank you so much for joining me this afternoon to discuss the impending release of your solo drone project, Body / Negative’s first full-length album, Fragments, which comes out October 23rd on Track Number Records! The LP, limited to only 500 copies, looks stunning on that marble gray vinyl. Could you tell me a bit about your journey creating your most extensive work yet? Andy: Of course, thank you! It took a really long time to finish Fragments. I started it last spring, and since then, production has been very stop-and-go–losing and rediscovering motivation. I don’t like to force myself to work on music if I’m not feeling it, because I feel like that creates mush

Music Video Premiere: Cancer Christ’s “The Blood of Jesus”

Janky Smooth Central Command September 5, 2020

The list of horrors 2020 has brought upon the world may seem almost Biblical at times, it’s no wonder a power violence band as exhilarating and exorcizing as these true believers would arise. CANCER CHRIST is a brand new REPTILIAN-CHRIST-CORE band off of Los Angeles’ Sweatband Records and they’re here to premiere their debut song/music video, “The Blood of Jesus”. Brought to you by Anthony Mehlhaff (prolific photographer of the LA music scene), and his anonymous “Snake Boys”, CANCER CHRIST is here to fuck shit up and make America pay for it’s sins… Are they Christian? Are they ANTI-Christian? What’s their deal? The song will premiere on “SWEATBAND RECORDS presents… NEON CORPSE PARADE Volume One” compilation 12″ vinyl album (coming out this year). Hit the link to preorder it!