Tag: featured
Take This: Win Two Weekend Passes to Desert Daze 2017
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 29, 2017
Janky Smooth is proud to announce our Desert Daze 2017 ticket giveaway for the 3rd year in a row. Have you already gotten tickets for our favorite annual festival in one of the most magickal and mysterious places in the world? Desert Daze returns to the Institute of Mentalphysics for it’s second year stationed in this location. Almost a year since the last DD, it rules supreme as the most meaningful interactive live music experience for all Janks that attended in 2016. related content: Desert Daze 2016- Quantifying the Physics of a Good Time The latest additions to the festival such as Iggy Pop, Ty Segall, Sleep performing the Holy Mountain album in it’s entirety and more have elevated the 2017 lineup to the 2016 roster of performers. One can only assume that the sense that you were at a party in the massive living room of your favorite friend that possesses immaculate taste will only be enhanced by the comfort the folks at Moonblock and Spaceland Presents now have with the Institute designed by Frank Lloyd
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Echo Park Rising (Five Pointed) Stars: Twin Temple
Brent Smith
August 28, 2017
The vast miasma of artists at Echo Park Rising 2017 was an elating reminder of the fact that we’re drowning in a sea of stellar underground rock n’ roll. In today’s L.A. scene, it’s not easy to stand out, though many manage. Luciferian doo-woppers, Twin Temple, is one such act. In the twilight air of Saturday evening, just days before a historic solar eclipse, the human and spirit worlds brushed each other in a mesmerizing set. Veiled frontwoman Alexandra James and her axman husband Zachary James—swords in hand—wasted no time initiating a proper Satanic baptism to cleanse the soul of humanity. Invoking our old friend, Lucifer: In Nomine Dei Nostri Satanas Luciferi Excelsi On this alter, we consecrate the chalice representing Lilith’s womb And containing the blood of Satan -Swords- To banish hypocrisy and direct the fire of our unholy will In the name of Lucifer, ruler of Earth, I command the forces of darkness to bestow their infernal power upon us. I bid you rise. Will you all give the sign of the horns. O hear thy name. Repeat after me: Hail Satan! Hail Satan! Hail Satan! The seven-piece bluesy murder ballad band then bursted into
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Echo Park Rising 2017: Long Lines Couldn’t Slow Fresh Faces In All Places
Aria Silva-Espinosa
August 27, 2017
The 2017 Echo Park Rising lineup generated quite a bit of buzz this year, as it was absolutely stacked with old favorites, over a dozen unmissable acts and a number of up-and-coming artists. EPR veterans Gold Star, The Paranoyds, and Meatbodies graced this year’s lineup along with a significant number of newcomers. Coming Soon: Echo Park Rising Five Pointed Stars Twin Temple … related content: Echo Park Rising 2015: Rising and Rising and Rising… Enjoying immense popularity in the last few years, it’s nice to see events like this take off and be embraced by the community. However, lineups like these are a source of frustration for me since I have yet to conquer my overwhelming fear of missing out. Despite my best efforts to be in multiple locations at once, I feel like I’ve slighted a number of talented and deserving artists on the bill solely based on my inability to run quickly, my fear of jaywalking on Sunset Boulevard and my fractured internal clock. That being said, I purposely blocked the entire third weekend in August off on my calendar in order to enjoy the festival to the fullest possible extent. I hoped to see some old friends
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Before ANTIFA, There Was Crust: Doom Celebrates Dirty 30 At The Regent
Rob Shepyer
August 26, 2017
Anarchism and Anti-Fascism seem to have found a new seat, front and far-left-of-center, in the public forum. That seat is occupied by the political movement that has adopted those principals in the fight against Donald Trump known as ANTIFA. Their highly publicized clashes with the far-right might be what’s making news these days but if you know their ideology, one has to see its parallels with Crust Punk. The value system professed by many of ANTIFA’s members are rooted in the deconstruction of the “male dominator system” that is the basis of civilization as we know it. Monogamy, capitalism, binary gender, racial hierarchy, monotheism (especially in the Christ variety), and more, traditions most baby anarchists are born into, are all part of the “male dominator system”. Breaking away from the values you are born into is often a violent experience and what’s left of you after the fact, might just be a person damaged enough to become a crust punk. If you accept your crusthood, the proper thing to do is drop out (of life), never shower, and hop on the next train going nowhere. So what’s the difference between ANTIFA and crust punk culture? On the surface, it’s really
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Prettiest Eyes & Egrets On Ergot: The L.A. Sound Explodes Out Of Harvard & Stone
Aria Silva-Espinosa
August 17, 2017
Everything you need to know about rock based music coming out of Los Angeles can be summed up by the sounds that were coming out of Harvard and Stone one week ago, today. It’s not that L.A. has a very specific sound since the scenes surrounding the city range from hardcore to psychedelic rock but both Prettiest Eyes and Egrets on Ergo are bands that most high volume consumers of music seeing bands at places like the The Echo and The Hi Hat are inspired by on a regular basis.. Thursday night’s antics at Harvard & Stone began late in the evening with Los Angeles-based post-punk foursome Egrets on Ergot. As the band begins their set, vocalist Adam Brooks delivers a poetic monologue from atop the bass drum with his back to the audience. The recitation is followed immediately by Adam absolutely shredding on the saxophone. The use of saxophone sets Egrets on Ergot apart from other experimental post-punk groups by incorporating an experimental element often associated with jazz music in an entirely new way into the otherwise erratic and desperately disordered sound produced by the band. Generally, I wouldn’t enjoy the sound of a saxophone but somehow, Adam has
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Summertime In The LBC: Love Letter To A City That Doesn’t Always Love Back
Jonathan Reyes
August 11, 2017
Finding out the Summertime in the LBC festival was not actually in the Queen Mary had me feeling like they literally missed the boat on this one. Why couldn’t they figure out a way to have it on the actual boat? That’s only the tip of the iceberg that almost sank this festival. Almost. But instead, the performances were worthy of the type that were on the deck of the Titanic, just before it went down. This review is gonna be all ocean references… I’m naugty by nature. Festivals are tricky. There’s got to be dumb shit to preoccupy your time with in between sets. Like a tooth jewelry vender or the Swisher Sweet booth meant to let you know how deeply this fest embraced the Long Beach vibe, or over priced food and drinks. Summertime In The LBC had all this but lacked a couple of things that could’ve made the festival smoother and whole- a consistent DJ between artist’s sets, for one thing. But in a way, it honored the spirit of our city, because the cleaner and more gentrified they make Long Beach, it’s still the place where I once saw a man get out of his
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Negative Approach Steamroll Echoplex w/ Nails, Bloodclot, Final Conflict
Rob Shepyer
August 8, 2017
The mighty, punishing, blue-collar punk heroes of Detroit, Negative Approach, are one of my favorite bands of all time and their seminal album, Tied Down, is on my top ten albums of all-time list. They’re a band I’d do just about anything for, any act of band worship and fandom. I brought my shine-box to the show, just in case they wanted their boots spiffy. Any chance I get to see Negative Approach live, I do. So certainly, a powerhouse Echoplex lineup featuring Negative Approach, Final Conflict, hardcore super group Bloodclot, and headliners, Nails, had me buzzing just thinking about what kind of violence I’d endure and witness. related content: Sound And Fury Hardcore Festival Comes Of Age All Across Los Angeles The moment I walked in, I zipped straight to the merch table and saw the holy grail of T-shirts, a lime-green Tied Down shirt, the same color scheme as the album. I gleefully threw my twenty dollars at Negative Approach’s drummer, Chris “Opie” Moore who was slinging the merch. This was one of those rare concert consumer moments that made me more elated to buy this shirt than to listen to some of the bands playing. Atwater Village
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Ministry Make Bid To Be Official ANTIFA House Band At San Diego Show
Danny Baraz
August 6, 2017
It was FYF weekend in Los Angeles- a weekend in the summer in which Los Angeles is the center of the summer music festival world. Not to mention the swarming packs of virgins in San Diego for Comicon. So why then am I at the San Diego House of Blues, of all places, on the Friday of the first night of the festival in which one of my favorite musicians on the small list of all time greats that I have yet to see is performing? Well, Bjork IS a genius but seeing the Ho99o9 boys open for Ministry in one of my most cherished cities was just too good and intimate to pass up. So I hit up Eaddy, aka YetiBones a couple of weeks beforehand to see what was up and found out that it would also be his birthday on Friday, July 21st. It was so on. related content: FYF 2017 Steals Coachella’s Throne As So-Cal’s Premiere Festival related content: Ministry Make Ears Bleed at Punk Rock Bowling Club Show There were multiple story lines at play this evening. Aside from one of my well documented, favorite new bands playing with one of my favorite all time
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Desert Daze Finalize 2017 Lineup: Iggy Pop, Ty Segall, Sleep, & More
Janky Smooth Central Command
August 1, 2017
You could have seen Iggy Pop this year at Punk Rock Bowling or Burger Boogaloo or FYF Fest but nothing will compare to the Street Walking Cheetah taking the stage amidst the dry, hot sheen of the California high desert at Desert Daze 2017. And he’s joined in this latest lineup addition by some other great artists too, Garage Rock’s golden boy Ty Segall and Trap Jazz bad boys Badbadnotgood, are now listed on this stellar new lineup poster. And check out the art on that thing, Desert Daze seems to be harkening back the Native American cultures that may have roamed those deserts hundreds of years ago. Makes sense seeing how Iggy Pop is all our spirit animal. Oh, did I mention that Sleep will be playing Holy Mountain in it’s entirety? Yeah. Related Content: Desert Daze 2016: Quantifying The Physics Of A Good Time related content: Ascending The Holy Mountain- Sleep at The Fonda Theater Ty Segall is already scheduled to perform with his incredible side project called GØGGS and we don’t begrudge him his double dip in the least. related content: GØGGS Is Damn Good Gravy On The Ty Segall Catalog Tickets for Desert Daze 2017 can
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FYF Fest 2017 Steals Coachella’s Throne As So-Cal’s Premiere Festival
Dave Unbuckled
August 1, 2017
My bones are still rattling and recovering from Capn’ Jazz’s sold out set at The Echo Thursay night. So much so that I limp across the edges of Exposition Park, and marvel at the crowd as I walk into my first FYF fest. The festival has grown dramatically since it’s early days as a showcase for DIY and up and coming local punk acts in 2004. It’s so comfortably warm walking through the LA coliseum on the outskirts circling the festival that I skip my normal routine of stealing water bottles and go straight to the pit. Related Content: FYF Presents: The Glorious Return of Cap’n Jazz At The Echo In an impromptu pow wow we map out our weekend and get ready to go watch Badbadnotgood- a band I’ve been following since their second album BBNG2 began getting the well-deserved buzz it received nearly five years ago. The band has carved a niche identity as mainstays in these large festivals. The crowd sways through their set, flexing their youthful energy that will be gone by day’s end but for now the band invites special guest Denzel Curry onto the stage and finishes the set with people pogoing to Trap Jazz
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FYF Presents: The Marked Men & Royal Headache Tearing Regent To Shreds
Rob Shepyer
July 31, 2017
The Marked Men are a band of Texan punks from the early 2000’s that FYF managed to lasso into a show at the Regent Theater. To some, the news of this show was of the same magnitude as Jawbreaker‘s upcoming reunion for Riot Fest. The Marked Men’s sound is traditional power punk with an unrelenting 3-chord assault reminiscent of bands like The Spits. It’s the perfect soundtrack to youthful debauchery and even though the ages of the crowd were mixed from teenagers to geezers, the energy of everyone in the audience was young and crazy when the Marked Men took the stage. It trips me out to think that the 00’s were so long ago that bands from that era are considered icons and veterans now. Perhaps I’m getting too old for this shit. related content: The Spits at Union- Trash and Glamor United in Los Angeles Flat Worms were the first band to open up this can of worms. They were a speedy and fun power punk trio but as their set progressed their performance started feeling droll- not because of the small early turnout, but because the vocals lacked dynamism and they didn’t move with as much spirit
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Van Nuys Police Poop On DIY Valley Punk Rock Pity Party
Janky Smooth Central Command
July 28, 2017
The show planned for Saturday, April 29th, was supposed to be a banger. All the teens and young adults of the valley were prepping their tightly laced shoes and punk blazers for the boiling mosh pits that were bound to take place considering acts from bands like Sad Park, Clit Kat, Beach Bums, and Pity Party. related content: Sloppy Jane at The Smell- When Being A Mean Whore Became A Compliment For whatever reason, there aren’t many good DIY shows happening in the valley. If you really want to be in with the LA underground punk music scene, you’ll be taking the red line to downtown LA every weekend. But this show was supposed to be the exception. Van Nuys? I’m there. Lucifurnace? Count me in. That’s what we were all saying on Friday during lunch. We even picked up a bunch of stuff from Goodwill to bump our self-esteem for the event that would rival any prom. But to our great disappointment, it was shut down. It wasn’t a traditional DIY show. The flyer on Instagram announced that it was to begin at 3pm and end at 10pm. Typically, shows start at 7:30 or 8 and go until midnight.
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