Tag: featured
Between Enemy Lines- Hunter S. Thompson & The 2016 Election
Brent Smith
October 26, 2016
What’s this thing you call me It’s scratching just beneath the surface It’s that thing that makes up everyone Every snowflake is unique until it melts And there’s no stopping the sun Mudhoney, “What’s This Thing?” I don’t make a habit of writing politics (writing music leaves you hanging around with plenty of degenerates as is), but this election has made political junkies out of the most apathetic. Unfortunately, the coverage of this election is a Kardashian type of reality that ignores almost all of the real story lines as you help to hijack your own family jewels. Slimy Octopus Rich Kid vs. Dr. Jekyll & Mrs. Duchess of Wall Street. It’s quite the quandary, and the internet has never been so hot-blooded and claustrophobic—like the Vegas strip on New Year’s Eve, it’s no place for any functioning human being. After being mentally and spiritually drained by all the endless word vomit online (in articles like this one), I reached for an old Hunter S. Thompson hardback on my bookshelf, titled Hey Rube, a published collection of his ESPN column he held from 2000 up to his death-by-suicide in 2005. In it—like Nostradamus armed to the teeth and
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Janky Fest w/ The Dwarves & 15 Bands Celebrating 2 Years of Jankiness
Danny Baraz
October 25, 2016
It ain’t easy standing out in the sea of L.A. music blogs all looking for ad dollars, access and an invite to the after party. Janky Smooth doesn’t post ads on our website and we’re still not sure what the end game is here but what we do know is that it’s been a hell of a ride so far. As a thank you to Los Angeles for bringing us into it’s cold embrace, we bring you Janky Fest, November 19th in Outer Space from 3pm- Midnight. To attend Janky Fest with the Dwarves, The Birth Defects, Death Hymn Number 9, Sloppy Jane, Wild Wing and so many other bands, just RSVP by joining our newsletter at www.newsoundalliance.com and we’ll get back to you on instructions for making your $10 donation to fund Janky Fest. Special thanks to Pabst Blue Ribbon for donating all the $2 Tall Boys. RSVP now before we make an announcement on our super secret special guest band that we can’t publicize due to contractual obligations. For the past 2 years, Janky Smooth has attempted to give our readers an honest take on the independent music scene that is exploding, both in Los Angeles and all
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Patti Smith at The Teragram: The Influence of a Cultural Icon
Vanessa Burgundy
October 25, 2016
As I entered the Teragram Ballroom last Thursday night, I thought to myself, “how do I review the performance of a prophetic artist like Patti Smith?” There is little pressure in attempting to capture the essence of buzz-worthy bands releasing their first material but when using your words to capture the abstract and literal influence of an American cultural icon, it’s important to “get it right”. Wish me luck. I walked in as she was halfway through Arthur Rimabaud’s “Drunken Boat”, an author whose works she has directly ingested and spit out into her own countercultural treatise. I squeezed to the front, the crowd silent and mesmerized; Hot and inspired, turned on with poetic verses of despair. “…I have wept too much! Dawns are heartbreaking. Every moon is atrocious; every sun is bitter.” (Rimbaud) There is power in the words but life when she speaks them. She built the energy and the swarm of desperate faces exhaled in applause. The band started and opened with “Dancing Barefoot”. Patti was serving Joey Ramone realness in a striped t-shirt and black jacket, reminding us that poetry and punk are indeed euphonic duo. She somehow keeps the mood light amidst heavy material and
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Death Valley Girls in a Desert Daze Disneyland- Janky Smooth Sessions
Danny Baraz
October 25, 2016
Death Valley Girls front woman, Bonnie Bloomgarden aka Bonz Doomgarden is no stranger to the unexplained mysteries of what lay just beyond the logic of the material world. Death Valley Girls axe man, Larry Schemel stands guard at the gates of sanity to guide his friend and artistic collaborator through the challenges of channeling other dimensions and both friendly and diabolical deities that look to walk through the doorway of this domain. Does that sound hyperbolic? Have you met Bonnie? Larry and Bonnie joined Janky Smooth Sessions and Danny Baraz at Desert Daze 2016 to discuss the magick of the festival and the significance of ending their nationwide tour supporting their impressive sophmore LP, Glow in the Dark at what so many that attended the fest agree is one of the most significant festival experiences of their lives. Alien abductions, fan sing alongs, corporatism, Desert Daze founder, Phil Pirrone vs Disneyland founder Walt Disney and attempting to quantify the magick that surrounded Desert Daze under the blood red, hunters super moon that enveloped the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree California. Read more about Death Valley Girls: Buzz Bait: Bonnie of Death Valley Girls on Music, Magic and Metaphysics Death
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Watch Primus Perform Jerry Was a Race Car Driver at Desert Daze 2016
Danny Baraz
October 24, 2016
Primus. Love em or hate em, if you are over 30 years old then you already know. If you are under 30 then you probably associate Primus with South Park or Wynona’s Big Brown Beaver. On Saturday night at Desert Daze 2016, Les, Tim and Larry convened on a stage, in a patch of dirt, on a piece of land called the Institute of Mentalphysics in Joshua Tree for the first time in 8 months. Word on the street was that they hadn’t even rehearsed or played together in that entire time and if you aren’t very familiar with Primus and their arrangements, that might not be that remarkable. But if you understand what Les Claypool does on a bass guitar, then you’ll know that Larry LaLonde might’ve been the only guitarist that could’ve possibly been the lead guitar in a band like Primus. But not rehearsing those songs before a music festival that is representative of a young scene seems like an ill advised decision that Primus more than rose to the occasion of. Given that most of my friends and associates in this music scene are somewhere in the early 20’s, there were many who were on the fence
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Why We’re Still Trippin on Desert Trip
Lina Lecaro
October 23, 2016
Now that the dust has settled, and we’ve had a little time to reflect and recover from the epic assemblage of music called Desert Trip, the memories keep flooding into our consciousness. (“Epic” gets overused when it comes to music, but this event was the very definition of the word.) It’s super dramatic, but the weekend in Indio’s impact and meaning has sort of been absorbed into our being the last several days. When you love music on an obsessive level like we do, every experience becomes a part of who you are, and a show featuring the bands you grew up worshiping isn’t something you simply move on from. Anyone who went to Desert Trip has to feel like it affirmed something deep inside of their being, and if they don’t, we have to question if they even have a soul. We’ve detested the nickname “Oldchella,” from the get go for a number of reasons, mostly because it felt disrespectful to the artists and timelessness of what they’ve created. Bob Dylan, Neil Young, The Beatles, Pink Floyd, The Who and the Rolling Stones’ music is not simply, “grandpa rock,” or even “classic rock,” it is the definitive essence of
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Desert Daze 2016: Quantifying the Physics Of A Good Time
Paige Vreede
October 19, 2016
It has been a common sentiment amongst those that I’ve questioned about their time at Desert Daze 2016, that it was the most meaningful festival experience they’ve ever had. Same question. Same answer. Young, old, audiophiles, casual music fans, frequent festival attendees and those that loathe the format. Almost every person I spoke to this weekend gave me a variation of the same answer to my question- “Desert Daze 2016 is the best festival I’ve ever been to. And no, I can’t quite explain what it is or what makes me feel that way.” But given that I’m a writer and my actual purpose here is to attempt to take a photograph of this festival with my words, I will make an attempt to do so. My fear is that attempting to quantify the sentiments could steal some of it’s magic, almost like the Native American belief that if someone takes a photograph of you, it steals a piece of your soul. How would you describe the onset of love or a faith in G-d or religious ideology- It just is. And if you’re saying to yourself that is a bit over the top or hyperbolic, you’re right.. To describe the how or the why,
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2 Nights of The Julie Ruin at The Roxy: All Girls To… The Back Bar
Vanessa Burgundy
October 18, 2016
The mood was light and the crowd was heavy on Friday night for the first of the two sold-out the Julie Ruin shows at the Roxy. Gender-bending, NYC comedian Murray Hill intro’d the band with his silly, old-school showbiz banter (as he has for Le Tigre, the Gossip, and the Beastie Boys…) and the band bounced out onto the stage. Kathleen Hanna was a showgrrrl after my own heart, dressed fully in sequins. Another sign that this band is more about fun, as their latest jolting dance-pop release Hit Reset will prove, albeit emotionally heavy. related content: The Julie Ruin at The Troubadour- Vagina’s and Surprises My 14 year old me can’t mask my disappointment about the lack of angst and anger that translates into raw power on stage- that the show was missing on Friday night. During the first song, the band got off on a false start and in between starting again, a man in the back yelled “Take it off!!!”. I looked at my girlfriend and we both were wondering where we were for a second. I mean, the Julie Ruin even have a song titled “Mr. So and So” about an asshole dude that loves girl bands. We
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Janky Smooth Sessions: Beers, Buds & GnarBurgers w/ White Fang, No Parents
Danny Baraz
October 14, 2016
White Fang, No Parents and the Birth Defects have embarked on a tour for one of the first lineups of L.A. based bands that has made sense to me in quite a long time. We’ve seen No Parents play with Mystic Braves, we’ve seen The Birth Defects play with Fuzz and while I like all of those bands, having them play together is like having Donald Trump and Martin Luther King follow each other in speaking engagement. My fellow Janksters, Paige, Travis and I went to kick it with the bands at GnarBurger as they made their pre tour preparations that included beef, beer and buds as they got ready to hit a nationwide tour in a caravan of sin and friendship. That brings us to the latest installment of Janky Smooth Sessions with White Fang, No Parents, The Birth Defects and friends hanging at GnarBurger before they shoved off on their Escape From L.A. tour. Sunday 16 October 2016 White Fang The Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL, US BUY TICKETS TRACK EVENT I’M GOING Monday 17 October 2016 White Fangwith No Parents The Majestic Café, Detroit, MI, US BUY TICKETS TRACK EVENT I’M GOING Tuesday 18 October 2016 White Fangwith No Parents The Basement, Columbus, OH,
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Watch King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard LIVE on Moshcam From Sydney
Janky Smooth Central Command
October 6, 2016
As a part of the buildup to Desert Daze 2016, we wanted to share a link to King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard’s performance caught by Moshcam from last night in Sydney Australia. It’s impossible to say which one band we’re most excited to see at Desert Daze but King Gizzard is DEFINITELY one of them. Take This: 2 three day passes to Desert Daze 2016 Desert Daze 2015: Festival for 21st century Their shredding riffery and tonal tugging, ear bugging, flim flamming, joint jamming rock and roll tributing trickery is just what the doctor ordered to tease away the time between now and Desert Daze. Enjoy!
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Janky Smooth Sessions: Cosmonauts Interview By The Lake
Paige Vreede
October 5, 2016
It’s 4pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I’m running amuck at Echo Park Lake trying to track down Cosmonauts, Derek Cowart and Alex Ahmadi after all of our phones died at the exact same time. I saw the boys at a gig the night before so I figured if they were anywhere nearly as hung over as I was, I could probably find them lounging in the shadiest part of the park. Past zooming Pokémon goers on skateboards, beyond the tempting smell of corn on the grill, towards a playground full of screaming children, I spotted two dudes in space-age, senior citizen style sunglasses amongst a group of a dozen 20-something year olds enjoying a picnic. We eventually find a quiet spot of our own to sit down and enjoy a couple of beers and homemade brownies, (no, unfortunately they were not the “special” kind) and discuss weird fan experiences, their recent album release of A-OK! and why having accordions for legs is better than having a ten inch belly-button. Their fourth full-length album A-OK! was released in August, via Burger Records, and it is everything the Cosmonauts have always promised their fans. Its shoe-gaze, its psychedelic, its
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Take This: 2 Tix to Dirty Laundry TV’s Mix Tape Release Show at Hi Hat
Janky Smooth Central Command
October 4, 2016
Our friends at Dirty Laundry TV are dropping yet another tasty mix tape called “Best of L.A.”. Janky Smooth is giving away one copy of the “Only In L.A.: Best of L.A.” compilation and two tickets to the release party at The Hi Hat on Oct 8th. Playing the party are some of Janky Smooth’s favorite young bands including French Vanilla, Batwings Catwings, Patrick Tapia of Death Hymn Number 9 DJing the evening, as well as Deep Fields and Young Lovers. You can pick up a copy of the tape HERE. (see below for featured artists) Ticket and Tape Giveaway Rules: Follow us on Instagram Tag a friend in our Instagram post Share our post along with with a caption on who your favorite local L.A. band is right now. Winner will be selected on Friday Oct 7th at 10 am pacific time Dirty Laundry TV’s “Best of L.A.” Artists include: White Fang, Winter, Sunshine Mind, Worn-Tin, Adult Books, Wild Wing, French Vanilla, Deep Fields, Veronica Bianqui, Death Lens, Fernando and the Teenage Narcs, Girl Tears, White Dove, Shark Toys, Hipnotics, Girl Tears, Melted, Nectarine, Batwings Catwings, Beach Party and Young Lovers! related: Dirty Laundry TV and Penniback Records: Dirty
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