Category: NEWS

Holding Our Breath: The Misfits Riot Fest Reunion

Rob Shepyer May 13, 2016

It’s been 33 years since Glenn Danzig and Jerry Only shared a stage as The Misfits and now in a reunion that no one saw coming, the original horror punks will headline Riot Fest’s Denver and Chicago festivals this September. When I say no one saw this coming, I’m not trying to be cliché. “Will there ever be a Misfits reunion?” was standard line of questioning in any Danzig or Jerry Only interview and it was always answered with a very sure no. The Misfits have been the center of countless legal dramas between Danzig and Only, Jerry even accused Danzig of spreading satanic values, while Danzig announced he was retired from touring. Yet in the year that Lemmy, Bowie, and Prince have left us and Axl and Slash have been able to set aside their differences, it appears that anything is possible. Since their last show on October 29th 1983, Jerry Only has led the Misfits through various lineup changes that included Michael Graves, Marky Ramone, and Dez Cadena of Black Flag, until finally Only assumed the position of the band’s singer in their current incarnation. Meanwhile, Glenn kept innovating in both punk and metal with Samhain in the

The NSA Announces May 18th Sanders Fundraiser at Regent Theater

Danny Baraz April 21, 2016

New Sound Alliance and Janky Smooth are proud to announce A Fundraiser for Bernie Sanders on May 18th at The Regent Theater. The show will take place just a couple weeks prior to the California primary on June 7th. This is the first event by the newly launched political action group, The New Sound Alliance. The NSA seeks to unite the music community in organizing bands, labels, promoters, managers and publicists to organize our voices in an effort to engage young voters and activists. The fundraiser for Senator Sanders will feature The Garden, Kim and the Created, Death Hymn Number 9, The Birth Defects and all star punk rock legends, Punk Rock Karaoke that features members of Circle Jerks/Bad Religion, The Dickies and Adolescents as YOUR backing band while you sing punk rock classics on the stage of The Regent Theater in Downtown L.A. There is also a super special secret guest that we can’t announce until the beginning of May! All profits will be donated to the Sanders campaign. Purchase Tickets Here It is sure to be a fun and meaningful night as we raise money for Bernie Sanders in his quest for a political revolution just weeks before the

Save Frank Zappa’s Vault Before It’s Too Late

Brent Smith April 6, 2016

Attn: Zappa freaks, art geeks, fanatical preservationists, and anyone else with their soul still intact. For the first time ever, Frank Zappa’s vault is open to the public. The gigantic, subterranean archive that sits underneath Zappa’s house in the Hollywood Hills is stacked with an endless supply of concert footage, original artwork, travel journals, home movies, lost interviews, private recordings, unreleased B-sides, and probably the documents linking the Panama Papers to major U.S. officials. Okay, that last one I made up, but seriously, this is kind of a big moment. After all, this is the man who bridged the gap between rock ‘n’ roll and politics, and was the kind of walking, talking, spitting art that could turn a bicycle into an instrument. What this means is that we have new Frank Zappa content that can be digitized and experienced by all of us on multiple platforms. The catch is that most of the media in the vault is already eroding away as the dust collects and time wears on. Not only does maintaining an archive require a lot of money and work, but revamping one even more so. In an effort to simultaneously restore Zappa’s archives and produce a

Janky Smooth And The NSA Show on Dash Radio-Music, News, Revolution

Danny Baraz March 28, 2016

Are you tired of all the noise and propaganda in the Main Stream Media and on the News? Everyday, the 6 companies that own almost all of the media you consume attempt to make it more difficult to identify “the truth” about what is happening in both foreign and domestic events. Janky Smooth and The New Sound Alliance is a new radio show on the Los Anarchy Radio Station of Dash Radio that attempts to cut through all the bullshit to deliver to you honest reporting on both the news you see everyday and the news that is hidden from public consumption. Janky Smooth and The NSA delivers a weekly recap of world events as we try to unite musicians and artists to engage in a new level of activism. To rekindle the artistic spirit to re engage people in the social and political process. We also feature special, in studio guests, world premiere music and in studio performances. You can check out past shows as they go up on our Soundcloud the day after airing on Dash Radio. Join Danny B, Murder Bunny, Taylor Wong (party boy) and the entire Janky Smooth team as we report on the world

Punk Rock Bowling 2016 Club Shows Announced

Danny Baraz March 8, 2016

Punk Rock Bowling is like no other festival on the planet. There are few major festivals that are able to instill in it’s attendees a real sense of community across the entire scope of it’s population. The level of quality and consistency that BYO Records is able to achieve year after year is impressive. No where is this more prevalent than the annual cluster of Punk Rock Bowling club shows. In a lot of ways, I’m far more interested in the lineup of Punk Rock Bowling 2016 club shows than I am in the actual festival itself. While the major story line of this year’s installment of PRB is the expansion of the festival to include an East Coast weekend of festival days and club shows in New Jersey, today’s announcement of the schedule and lineup of the Punk Rock Bowling 2016 club shows has me talking to myself. One night in particular stands out to me and might just be all the motivation I need to keep my attendance streak going. The Thursday night club show at Punk Rock Bowling 2016 is Ministry, Excel and 45 Grave are playing the motherfucking Fremont Country Club. I’m not sure what the

Burger Records and the Observatory: 5 Years of Fun in Orange County

Danny Baraz March 7, 2016

With Burger Records postponing their annual Burgerama festival, Sean and Lee have opted to honor their partnership with the Observatory in Orange County. For 5 years, Burger and The Observatory have conspired to bring the audiophiles of Orange County some of the best lineups in all of Southern California. To commemorate the milestone, Burger Records and their headquarters to showcase the bands on their label, The Observatory, have put together a show for every day this week that features some of the best talent in indie music today. This post will serve as a running update and review of shows that Janky Smooth attends. The headliners and supporting acts on the lineup aren’t just Burger bands but feature acts like Slowdive and Crystal Castles for one of their first live performances without iconic vocalist, Alice Glass. Angry Samoans headline the Wednesday, March 9th show and includes Orange County punk icon, Rikk Agnew along with Golden (shower) Boys of emerging pop punk, No Parents. The anniversary week kicks off tonight with a few bands that we’ve spent a lot of time covering over the past year; Shannon and the Clams, Death Valley Girls and The Gooch Palms and features Guantanamo Baywatch

New Song Premiere: Sunshine Mind- Synchronize

Brent Smith February 24, 2016

Are you like me in that you’re jonesing for some more jangly, shoegazey surf rock in your life? Along with the launch of the Janky Smooth Soundcloud, L.A.’s own cosmic thrashers Sunshine Mind premiere with us just that with their new single “Synchronize.” Coming off of last year’s self-titled EP (Lolipop Records), the band’s back at it with their soon-to-be-released follow up, mixed by none other than mutant pop mastermind Dante White of Dante vs. Zombies. Judging from the sounds of “Synchronize”, it’s sure to motivate your true dream of becoming a beach bum, and send you so far into your headphones you’re going to pop out on the other side pitted in a sun-glazed, overhead swell. “Don’t you worry/ You’re on your way…” Though on the surface it appears a harmless, catchy 2 min. 18 sec. pop song, you’ll soon find yourself in distorted spacetime on a psychedelic carpet ride, boogying down on the dark side of the moon. (Haven’t you heard? There’s music there now!) This ditty is jam-packed and no piece is absent. After the rad opening riff, the first things that hit me were the swift, heavy bass and crashing cymbals. Singer Henry Lopez’s drawn out, introspective crooning

Meeting Today: Protect The California Coast in Morro Bay!

Brent Smith February 10, 2016

The California Coastal Commission will hold a hearing on TODAY Wednesday, February 10th that will decide whether or not it will fire its current Executive Director Charles Lester. This matters because Lester has a pretty legit, nonpartisan track record of protecting public access and the environment from commercial development of our (extremely valuable and extremely coveted) coastal land. Since this proposal by the Commission to dismiss Lester from leadership, an outpouring of public support has been heard in his defense, including a letter from nine California congressional members. The L.A. Times article reads (emphasis is mine): Environmentalists and other supporters of the commission contend the attempted ouster has nothing to do with Lester, who they say is an effective, by-the-books administrator who makes decisions based on scientific and legal requirements rather than political considerations. They see something else: an attempt by pro-development forces to gain control over the agency and make it more accommodating to private interests. In case you’re not aware, every single real estate development firm in the world wants our coast for their godawful hotels and the more chains of same stores you see at every retail/entertainment complex from Mission Valley to Santa Rosa. We shouldn’t be

The New S.A.- The New Sound Alliance- art by Joey Feldman

The New S. A.- The New Sound Alliance Voter Registration Org

Danny Baraz February 3, 2016

Janky Smooth is proud to launch The New S.A.- The New Sound Alliance. We endorse no candidates. We are Americans. We support a more responsible version of capitalism. Our only mission is to register first time voters to insure that only candidates that represent “the People” of The United States of America receive sufficient representation in US Government. Please; Register to Vote now and JOIN THE NEW SOUND ALLIANCE. Our first event will take place in late May, 2016. We will be well past Super Tuesday, with a much clearer picture of the General Election. Full lineup, location and special guests announced soon. Join our newsletter and you will be informed of everything we are involved in and it will act as your RSVP to all our free events. Please share this post if you are interested in registering first time voters. WE stand at a crossroads. We can no longer talk about how much we care about this issue or that issue and then say “Someone else will take up the fight but right now, we have to worry about our own thang”. Time to decide where we stand in all this before The United States of America is unlivable for

LCD Soundsystem Christmas Will Break Your Heart

LCD Soundsystem Release Xmas 7″- “Christmas Will Break Your Heart”

Danny Baraz December 24, 2015

With all the back and forth about the possible LCD Soundsystem reunion that isn’t actually happening, the release of their first new song in 5 years suggests that the band might have a couple new year’s resolutions. Just over an hour ago James Murphy tweeted from the LCD Soundsystem Twitter account about a Christmas song he’s been singing in his head for the past 8 years, always forgetting to record it until another Xmas would pass. It appears that this year would not pass without the band not only recording the song but also releasing it on 7″ here via Murphy’s label, DFA Records. The song was also released today and posted to a YouTube account called LCD Xmas. This song is sure to become an anthem for sad bastards everywhere who are getting drunk alone on the most depressingly jolly day of the year. It seems to me that LCD Soundsystem have a ton of artistic expression that has been bottled up too long. The back and forth surrounding the reunion is prologue to a busy 2016. I have no doubt we will be seeing the LCD Soundsystem name in big print on a Coachella announcement, soon. To me

Homeless Holiday Charity Event by Thee Oh Sees and Panache Booking

Danny Baraz December 11, 2015

Sometimes, we help those less fortunate without expecting anything in return and sometimes, we can help the needy and create memories we will never forget. This coming Wednesday the 16th and Thursday the 17th, Panache Booking in conjunction with Thee Oh Sees are holding a Homeless Holiday Charity Event at The Teragram Ballroom. Proceeds from the Homeless Holiday Charity Event will benefit the L.A. Kitchen. L.A. Kitchen’s focus is reducing food waste and addressing unemployment and hunger, amongst other things. The event will be headlined by hardcore psych punks, Thee Oh Sees. Supporting acts include Fuzz Wand and DJ’s from Permanent Records. There is so much you can do to help this holiday season. This is just one. Janky Smooth will keep you posted on more ways to help the less fortunate.

Dinoczar New Single “Burnt Out” Off Impending Debut Album

Brent Smith December 11, 2015

If you don’t remember Dinoczar, the darkly-weird Bostonians from our review of The House of the Rising Fuzz—an anthemic east coast garage psych compilation in which their single “Cream” blew off our doors with speedfreak riffs, muddled jive, and rambling, headbanging solos—then you have another chance to pay closer attention. We’re pleased to share the news that Dinoczar’s debut LP Sick Wind is due out early next year, and that they’ve dropped its first single “Burnt Out.” This time around, it’s less in-your-face punk and more proto-stoner metal that’s been dominating the underground lately. That’s not to say Dinoczar are backing off or falling in line, not in the least. Even though the band is a lowly three-piece, the only thing minimal about them is the vocals. The holy trinity of guitar-bass-drum assaults with formidable savagery. But it also pings the sweet side of the spectrum, and slows down for moments of instrumental rumination before crashing back into its biting, awesomely unintelligible chorus. About 20 seconds before it ends, the song eerily bleeds out into some Lynchian distortion that gives an out-of-body effect—like dying—before an unseen, omnipresent listener cuts the track with the press of an analog STOP button. (Rough

Category: NEWS

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