Category: FEATURES

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!

Music Video Premiere: Duke Stamina’s “Gay Pac”

Janky Smooth Central Command June 26, 2020

Here at Janky HQ we’re always looking to shine a light on something a little different. With the tumultuous times we’re in today we think it’s a great chance to direct your attention to a marginalized voice making some wild-as-fuck, in-your-face, aggressively gay and kawaii as hell raps – all via the backwards wasteland we all call Florida. (I can only assume living there makes one want to clap back just as hard as the talking heads they pass on the street so it makes perfect sense.) Don’t just take my word for any of this though, feast your eyes on the single and video premiere we have for “Gay Pac” below. DUKE STAMINA’S debut album Super Horse Dads 2: TURBO: Tournament Edition [OST] will be out on Sweatband Records on September 6th, 2020. Preorders for the limited 12″ Lemonade Yellow LP can be found here. A little about Duke from Sweatband Records: Florida’s dirty little camp secret, DUKE STAMINA, is your new favorite rapper… And he’s probably already sexing up your father. Duke Stamina didn’t come out until he was 21, citing that a lot had to do with the inability to identify with the Will & Grace mold that gay men his age squeezed themselves into.

Video Premiere: ZOOLUXX’s “WEIRDOS”

Janky Smooth Central Command April 17, 2020

So r u still at home chillin? Have we arrived in a time where so called weirdos ain’t supposed to be cool in the modern day plague era anymore? Seeing a future far away from social distance and cognitive dissonance. Reminiscent of true urban instrumental playa’s playin’ funky tripped out music from a retro-cassette deck, sporting clinical hazmat suits in mid-apocalyptic plague-zone mode; floating around in a downward spiral into the bottom of the once wiley westcoast streets of party wild LA… And all this without earphones too! After quarantine, still skating through strange bio-hazardous, chemically loud, semi-viral beats that blow screeching through non synthetic (sunthetic?) programs. Aside the white walls of corporate industry warehouse branches, in the bushes admist the machine painted gmo leaves; Only not really smelling, but reminding the funky-attitudinal fear based flowers that perhaps they are just hookers for the bees. In N95’s going outside of the frosty invisible perimeters, inside such an empty city of our icy toxic surreality, towards the self reliant resemblance of the re-humanization of an anti-social weirdo population of non-organic communication; No jive talk virus-spitting venom here! Capturing the vacancy of ones outer-personal space/the empty environmental zoning/fish back in the water

Love Letter to The Lodge Room Highland Park

Rob Shepyer March 1, 2020

There’s something very special about The Lodge Room Highland Park. It’s probably the best venue, of all the places in Los Angeles where people congregate to experience live music, to meet your soul mate. When you try to put your finger on what makes a place special, it’s often hard to pinpoint the the contributing details but in the Lodge Room’s case, one only needs to spend some time there, meeting the staff, seeing the shows, and soaking in the ambiance, to be sure of who and what makes it worth writing a love letter to. Built in 1923, The Lodge Room was operated as Highland Park’s Masonic Lodge 382. In keeping the spirit of mystery, the 500 person capacity still retains trap doors, cherry wood paneling, hand painted murals and more. Inside, the building’s layout and design fit perfectly with easy-on-the-eyes, grid-like quality of Highland Park. When you go to shows as often as I do, you get to know the staff. From the people working security, to the owners, to the booking and marketing people, the warmness of the Lodge Room staff follows you into the venue for your viewing experience. The Lodge Room’s owner, Dalton Gerlach, puts

Music Video Premiere: Kira McSpice’s “Fates”

Janky Smooth Central Command February 7, 2020

Kira McSpice is an artist in rare-form. Her transcendent singing conjures up emotions and ideas both ancient and modern to simultaneously soothe and discomfort the listener. With “Fates”, a single off her latest album, Prodrome, we feel the unstable anxiety that resides at the core of her soothing, raw, and transparent nightingale tone. The lady bugs in her music video for “Fates” crawl up and down her body and face, as if almost under her skin, to make us feel like something is deeply wrong, whether we can put our finger on it or not. With the minimalist aesthetics of the Dorchester Art Project as the setting and 5,000 lady bugs put to work, the video, directed by Ruben Radlauer and filmed and edited by Kit Castagne, captures a pivotal memory from Kira’s childhood that she utilizes as a metaphor for her present. Kira would receive a box of lady bugs from her grandparents for her birthday every year as a child. She claims she learned about sex and the cycle of life from watching the lady bugs copulate and hatch eggs. This is how she began obsessing over cycles of all kinds. Her Bi-Polar disorder diagnosis has made mental health an

Music Video Premiere: Plasmic’s “100Rx”

Janky Smooth Central Command January 31, 2020

Plasmic has returned with another banger to get stuck in your head. “100Rx” is about the horror show that is the medical industry and her personal experiences with a shitty doctor. In an age where we’re told so much can be cured just by taking a pill, Plasmic challenges the status quo with a song that ironically could force an entire club onto the dance floor with a more pop and electronic evolution in the production than Plasmic’s previous recordings. This sounds like deconstructed club music and a bubblegum nightmare all wrapped in one. The song was written and produced by Plasmic (like all her work) and mixed and mastered by Ed Donelly. With a mind melting music video directing by Bobby Jauregui, Plasmic takes us on a journey of the highs and lows of prescription drug use from dependency to withdrawal with desaturated downs and overly saturated ups. The filmmaking captures such personal woes as anxiety, depression, and a disjointed self perception.

Category: FEATURES

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