Tag: featured
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
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LCD Soundsystem Skirt City of Los Angeles In Return to West Coast
Danny Baraz
April 13, 2016
Even before LCD Soundsystem took the stage at the Fox Theater in Pomona, walking into the venue and seeing the stage set up caused goose bumps up and down my arm. A dozen music stations with various traditional and futuristic musical instruments littered the stage in clumps of components and wires. I didn’t get press access to this highly sought after event. Instead, my friend Jeremy scored a ticket by camping out at Permanent Records through Saturday morning and graciously offered it to me. I accepted. As with most events in a theater venue like this, to get on the floor in the “pit” area for the show you have to show up early and get a floor “wristband”. We arrived in Pomona at about 5:45 pm. LCD Soundsystem wouldn’t start their set until 10:04 pm. We were herded through various lines and holding areas near the venue until the doors opened at 8pm. At one point we were closed in to gates in a snaking line that filled up the area like some sort of hipster Auschwitz. But when the gates opened and we began filing into the Fox, it became very real that I was about to see
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Inter-Review With Charles Moothart on Eve of CFM Release
Brent Smith
April 8, 2016
CFM – Still Life of Citrus and Slime: An Interview with Charles Moothart “He who makes a beast of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man.” -Samuel L. Johnson That famed opening axiom is no less true with CFM’s Still Life of Citrus and Slime, in which Charles Moothart goes full wolfman to transmit a bubbly, thick, and no doubt, arresting solo debut. For Moothart—the proper Lennon to Ty Segall’s McCartney—his new LP (In The Red Records) is an analog sigil for some gnarly soul searching. For the rest of us lucky bastards, it’s an incendiary trip of sour neon rock ‘n’ roll that, without it, immediately leaves your record collection wanting. It was more of a vision quest than an attempt to make a rock album. “There was no timetable to worry about,” he told me over the phone. “It was nice to go into a room and shut the door and forget about time and just let it happen as it needed to happen.” Moothart took a piecemeal approach, channeling sounds strung together spontaneously as he jumped from one instrument to the next; any scheming be damned. Though the album was composed as more extemporaneous
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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
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The Lumineers Folk Off At Red Bull Sound Space
Justin Cornwall
April 5, 2016
You probably know The Lumineers from their folk-rock singles “Hey Ho” or “Stubborn Love”, but what you probably don’t know is that in a live setting they put on an full on absolute barn burner of a performance. They put Mumford & Sons in the shadows, the trio accompanied by supporting backline members ensnare you with genuine storytelling and joyously rolling melodies. Folk rock has never been so prominent in mainstream culture and The Lumineers propel themselves into Top 40 lists effortlessly. We caught The Lumineers at the Red Bull Sound Space at The World Famous KROQ for a Monday afternoon encounter. They’re currently pushing their new album “Cleopatra” (due April 9th, 2016), which is a proper follow up to their self titled 2012 record. Almost exactly 4 years later, the Denver based group are ready to shine again. The brand new songs we heard from this upcoming record, “Ophelia” and “Cleopatra“, dove much deeper than their initial singles – more intricate stories told through honest lyrics and building upon instrumentation they know works. Wesley Schultz, Jeremiah Fraites and Neyla Pekarek – the base trio – explained their infinite gratitude to their initial tracks which broke them, and how happy they are to
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New Album Review: Wild Wing- The Glory Forever
Brent Smith
April 4, 2016
Wild Wing has undergone a peculiar mutation in the last three years. Their first self-titled EP spilled into their second, Another Victory for the Forces of Darkness, both heavy on the combative wit and long instrumental rambling. Songs like “O, Cuntry!” and “Wild Wing Nightmare” are tapped into an unruly swamp sound not felt since the days of Creedence (less finger-pointing protest songs; more working class bar brawl songs). I’m straining to name another hillbilly punk act, but I honestly can’t think of one. Wild Wing pulls off a surfer redneck jive like no one else; cheeky like The Butthole Surfers but not as abstract. If L.A. were to ever have a backwoods sound, now is the time. The band’s first LP The Glory Forever (its cover depicting a native chief stabbing a white soldier in the heart atop bodies of his slain people) is the declaration of a new, weird California sound—the kind that opts out of both Coachella and Stagecoach for a thrash alleyway hoedown on a radioactive beach. If the Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia sold their souls via reality TV contracts and uprooted to Hollywood, Wild Wing is who would play their barn-burning welcoming
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New Album Review: Black Mountain- IV
Danny Baraz
April 1, 2016
Black Mountain and their body of work could be the soundtrack to both an acid party and a mass suicide for some death cult. There is majick in their music. Track listings are components to epic incantations. Songs weave together to solve some kind of ancient mystery and their forthcoming release of “IV” is the latest transmission of some alien language that has been attempting to communicate with intelligence on our planet for a decade. Fat guitar tones and throwback analog synthesizers communicate to listeners in a familiar language about the future of their lives on this planet. All hyperbole aside, Black Mountain’s “IV” album released today (April 1st) on the JAGJAGUWAR label is a rock and roll masterpiece that summons a classic sound as it simultaneously scales new peaks. Wait, was that more hyperbole? It’s just difficult to downplay that this album contains, by far, the best riffs of the year, definitely of the decade and maybe the best riffs of this young century. The first single and song one off of IV, “Mothers of the Sun” eclipses 8 minutes of playtime and encapsulates the entire album perfectly. It flips from a sparsity of notes to masterful riffery with ease as it
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David “Minivan” Evanko & His Long Journey For Inspiration
Brent Smith
March 30, 2016
Photographers are crucial to any underground music scene. “Only a rare eye can make such intense people doing intense things on sticky floors so unforgettable, even decades later,” said Jello Biafra, speaking of those like Ed Colver and Glen E. Friedman, those who braved the violence of the pit to capture the California punk explosion, and whose images still remain embedded in the hearts and minds of diehards and true believers. People someday may be saying the same about David Evanko, aka Minivan Photography, who has snapped every band across the fuzzy spectrum (you’ve definitely caught some of his work here on Janky Smooth) with a cool intimacy that not only puts you there, but makes you feel what there was like. His work has done nothing short of elating the local scene, so much so that you sense his spry, exploratory lens extends far beyond the walls of sweaty basements and hyped music fests. Before embarking on a recent South American odyssey, he was shooting up to four shows a week, driving up to L.A. as often as he could from his east San Diego barrio—a city that’s been a big, fat music void for far too long. Eventually,
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Take This: Win 2 Tickets to Burger Boogaloo 2016 in Oakland
Danny Baraz
March 29, 2016
The Burger Boogaloo festival is the Burgerama of the North. With Burgerama V still up in the air, the cousin of Burgerama, Burger Boogaloo is signed, sealed and delivered to take place Saturday, June 25th and 26th at Mosswood Park in Oakland. Every year Burger Records take their show on the road to Oakland and every year that burger comes out well done. Film maker John Waters will once again be the Master of Ceremonies this year and Burger has added a meet and greet with American cultural icon, Ms Traci Lords. Vintage indie band, The Mummies have been booked to play the festival for the second year in a row with everyone expecting them to outdo their motorcycle entrance to last year’s performance with another surprise. Along with The Mummies, the lineup also includes Thee Oh Sees, Shannon and the Clams, The Spits, Death Valley Girls, King Khan and The Shrines, The Dwarves and Angry Samoans, to name just a few. Single day or weekend pass tickets are available now. Janky Smooth is giving away 2 tickets to one winner to this years’ Burger Boogaloo. You can enter our contest or: Purchase Tickets Here CONTEST RULES: Follow Janky Smooth on Facebook, Instagram
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Lust For Youth & Drab Majesty Bring Dark Vibes To Teragram Ballroom
Brent Smith
March 28, 2016
It was a night of dark wave synth-pop acts—musicians whose sounds and performances not only blurred the line between singer-songwriter and producer, but gave us Angelenos an electro beacon for something profound beyond the hypnotic singularity of our cellphone glow. Spearheaded by Lust For Youth, it was a also a night that properly introduced me to the noise/punk/electronica sound coming out of Copenhagen and other pockets of Scandinavia. Just as Ty Segall and cohorts here on the West Coast are constantly collaborating and intermingling themselves into one huge rock ‘n’ roll collective, so is Lust For Youth along with bands like Iceage, Lower, Vår, Puce Mary, and Hand of Dust. While Segall’s sonic quest seems to trace elements of blues, rock, proto-punk and psych, Lust For Youth’s seems one of exploration (and maybe reconciliation?) between post-punk, experimental noise, ambient, and house. The results are both sinister and sublime. The full moon was keeping me going, its light beaming like the sun in the clear, black sky as I rumbled into downtown on fumes. The doorman at the entrance gave me blue and pink bracelets and I went into the cold theater space, mostly empty with a few kids moping around
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My First SXSW: Confessions of Fanboy Posing As Music Critic
Danny Baraz
March 26, 2016
Last week was my first time attending SXSW in Austin. This allows me to offer an opinion on this massive institution that is completely untainted by past experience. Like most institutions that sprouted from an independent spirit into a behemoth of industry, SXSW has detractors that begrudge the success it has achieved. Given that this was my first time attending, I could see it for what it really is without the skewed vision of what it was. Austin, Texas is one of my favorite cities in the world. Not because it has epic landscapes or white sand beaches but for it’s artisan spirit and wonderful people. I have visited it’s streets and venues a number of times in my life but for whatever reason, I had yet to attend this event. Walking down 6th or any of the adjacent streets reveals a band, DJ or singer/songwriter embedded in every doorway, venue, café and every square foot in every direction you look. Like an infestation of joy and expression, SXSW is a complete takeover of a city that is already overflowing with music. We here at Janky Smooth are fans first and that is what motivates every show we cover, every
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Weezer Plays Intimate Show in Red Bull Soundspace at KROQ Studios
Justin Cornwall
March 25, 2016
This Tuesday afternoon was made infinitely better thanks to our friends at Red Bull and KROQ! The two household-name brands teamed up a while ago to put together the Red Bull Sound Space – a full-fledged performance venue nestled in the back of the KROQ studio, where performances are broadcasted worldwide via the internet. Bands large (usually large) and small stop through on the invitation of the station to treat industry and fans to an intimate performance. You either win your way in via KROQ, or get invited, so everyone there is in an amazing mood. This Tuesday, in line with promoting The White Album and an upcoming co-headline tour with Panic! At The Disco, Weezer blew the hinges off the tiny room with a festival worthy set. The age of the crowd ranged from 8 to greyed executive, everyone was completely thrilled to be there. Rivers, Brian, Scott and Patrick took the stage like they were casually settling in for a jam session – no banter with the crowd, comfortably timid nods to screaming fanatics in the packed crowd – and within the first heavy riffs of ‘Hash Pipe’, they slammed us all into action. Following up with full
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