Tag: featured
L.A. Hustle at SXSW 2016: Bands, Labels, Promoters & Publications
Danny Baraz
March 23, 2016
Artists, agents, publicists and partiers come from far and wide to take part in one of the largest music and networking events in the world. Fans attending SXSW in Austin ,Texas view it as a diverse display of music in which they can recreationally party and enjoy bands they love and bands they discover throughout the week long musical portion of the conference. The aforementioned groups of art producers and opportunists view the conference much differently than the fans or even the way they themselves typically view playing a regular show or festival. With a somewhat intimate knowledge of the bands in Southern California and their proxies, it was fascinating to watch it all unfold in front of me. From Burger Records to Lolipop Records, iHeartcomix to Desert Daze, the Los Angeles and greater Southern California area musicians and business’ were very well represented at SXSW 2016. Janky Smooth was proud to see the members of our scene thriving in such a competitive environment and of course, to make our own stamp on the events surrounding the conference in our very first SXSW experience as a publication. On the band side, there were L.A. bands like one of our low
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Zig Zags, The Birth Defects and Mind Meld Murder The Smell
Brent Smith
March 15, 2016
The Smell, a non-profit, volunteer-driven, all-ages back alley venue is a diamond in downtown’s gentrified rough. In the wake of some electric rainfall, it played host to a bill of heavy rock psychsters whose blown out amplifiers literally have my ears still ringing. The rare rainfall we get has the ability to dispel the sun’s enchantment, it reveals the hololand that L.A. actually is—reeling in that weird interzone between paradise and dystopia. Or, more simply, the rare rainfall we get makes us feel like Roy Batty at the end of Blade Runner—The moments in our lives are just teeears in the raaain, man! (And yes, only in L.A. can Deckard’s dingy, smoke-filled apartment actually be a Frank Lloyd Wright work of Mayan-inspired art that you can never own, or even rent). No better way to quell (or magnify?) such fleeting existential funks than by seeing Zig Zags and The Birth Defects shake the walls of this defunct coffee shop, or fitness chain, or whatever stupid shit our crypto-fascist social engineers fancy as bankable retail prospects (the legal world calls ‘em “developers”). The opening acts were on fucking point. I love when that happens. If you’ve never heard of Rearranged Face
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Rock N Roll Prom At The Smell w/ Them Howling Bones and Isaac Rother
Taylor Wong
March 11, 2016
Growing up, I never got to go to prom. It’s not like I didn’t have the opportunity. I just didn’t go. To me prom was for the jocks and cheerleaders. I was too busy getting stoned with my friends to give a shit about a stupid prom. Lucky for me Them Howling Bones threw the prom I always imagined I missed. This prom was set inside The Smell, a good venue for such an event seeing as how no booze is allowed. This added to that age old act of “flasking it” to the prom. I showed up pretty buzzed already, wearing my finest, cheapest suit. I was glad to see that the majority of people in attendance were also dressed to the theme. I took a few people’s prom photo right in front of the dumpster just to the right of the venue’s entrance. When you made your way in through the balloon tunnel, you were greeted by Sad Girl on the 1’s and 2’s playing all your favorite old school prom songs. The Smell was decked out in prom gear. From streamers to balloons, they even had a 50’s car photo booth. They served snacks and refreshments (I
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Animal Collective Drip Sound and Color On The Fonda Theater
Danny Baraz
March 11, 2016
Night 1 of the Animal Collective 2 night stand at The Fonda Theater in Hollywood revealed one thing; Animal Collective are the most talented sound designers to ever write, arrange and perform an electronic song live. There is no one out there right now that can emit such auditory bliss from the push of a key and the twist of a knob. If you strip the dripping colors and backdrops away from the spectacle of their live performance, what you have left is a group of cutting edge song writers that use cold hardware and technology to express the warmth in their souls. I arrived at The Fonda just as Ratking was taking the stage. Ratking’s MC, Wiki was already wildly swinging his arms in an attempt to conjure some enthusiasm from the opening band audience. In a less jaded city, Ratking would’ve had the crowd moving with their next level beats and downplayed but impressive stage presence. While I understand the huge difference between a hardcore Animal Collective fan and a hardcore Ratking fan, there is a musical energy that transcends genre and style and it still amazes me that people can stand still during a performance that is
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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
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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
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Millennials- Is The World Right About You?
Danny Baraz
March 4, 2016
Entitled, lazy, over sensitive, under ambitious- These are just a few of the adjectives used to brand the generation labeled Millennials. Anytime you see a segment on TV or read something online or in print about Millennials, these are the themes used to attribute to this emerging generation that is coming of age at such a crucial time for this planet. What do you think? Are they right about you? I, for one have had your back from the beginning. Your generation is facing unprecedented challenges in the opportunities available to you and your friends. Unless mommy and daddy are well off, you can no longer get a higher education without graduating in a mountain of debt. Once you graduate, the opportunities available to you are mediocre, at best. Forget college- you can no longer work a labor job and make it to the middle class. Believe it or not, that used to be possible. You could work a job or two for $1o an hour and buy a house within a few years. They won’t even raise the minimum wage as they have everytime inflation dictated that they do so. We are in a completely fucked situation right now
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New Album Review: 1 Week With FEELS Debut LP from Castle Face Records
Danny Baraz
March 1, 2016
Last Wednesday night I got an advanced copy of FEELS self titled LP from Castle Face Records. Last Thursday night I went to the FEELS record release party at a Downtown DIY venue called Basic Flowers. I hate the unfairness of reviewing a living, breathing work of art in one or two listens. That will not be the case here. FEELS hard work and countless shows and supporting slots on various tours in 2015 ingrained them in the rock and roll ecosystem in Los Angeles and in my head. So when I heard rumblings of a forthcoming full length, I was ready when it dropped in my lap. In rock and roll, the live show separates the bad bands from the good bands and the great bands from the rest. FEELS puts on a GREAT live show and now I can confirm that FEELS makes GREAT albums. Well, at least one so far. I have spent enough time with the new FEELS record now to know that the love is real. I’ve gotten past the butterfly stage in this relationship and gotten completely comfortable with the material and it’s depth. This album is a master blend of growing musicianship and
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The Gaslamp Killer Leaves Blood on Questlove’s Stage at The Globe
Danny Baraz
February 25, 2016
On Saturday night, music and cultural icon Questlove was slated to headline the Globe Theatre in Downtown L.A. Ticket sales were surely based on his name and legacy but when everything was said and done, opening DJ, Low End Theory resident and beat ambassador The Gaslamp Killer left a pool of his own blood on stage. Attendees were splattered with digital plasma and the image of the Killer’s wild mane flopping around his face in wild, rhythmic spasms and gesticulations was something to behold. Sound issues plagued the end of The Gaslamp Killer’s time and delayed and shortened Questlove’s set to the point of being anti climatic. Questlove was able to recover with most of the audience in tact. During GLK I just thought to myself maybe this wasn’t a dancing crowd but the dancing during Questlove’s set showed me it just wasn’t an experimental crowd. I have always been resistant to the idea of putting a DJ on a big stage with a big spotlight shining on him/her. In a perfect world, DJ’s would be in a dark corner and we would be looking at each other or closing our eyes during their set. As I looked up into
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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
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Black Sabbath And A Weeping Manboy at The Forum in L.A.
Danny Baraz
February 23, 2016
At a time when hippie kids were forming bands to sing about peace, love and flower power, Black Sabbath explored the occult, addiction and delivered the antithesis of popular culture. In the process, they gave so many marginalized outcasts of society a voice that spoke to their own disenfranchised existence. Freaks and misfits united under a common flag and scared the shit out of those who had always fit in. Can you imagine the bravery and despair required to write about the devil in a firmly Judeo-Christian world? Well before Kardashians wore Slayer t-shirts, skulls and black magic were a taboo topic amongst the proletariat. In the moments before Black Sabbath took the stage at The Forum in Los Angeles, I found myself fantasizing about being in my early 20’s in Birmingham in the late 60’s, resigned to a life in a factory for the next 40 years, going to a bar to drink my weight one pint at a time and seeing those neighborhood blokes Tony, Ozzy, Bill and Geezer playing a kind of music I had never heard before. Music NO ONE had heard before. Of course, once the music broke it REALLY broke and their seemingly nefarious
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Buzz Bait: Bonnie of Death Valley Girls On Music, Magic and Metaphysics
Brent Smith
February 16, 2016
High noon. Under the stark, blue February sky I encounter Bonnie Bloomgarden standing at the entrance of the Red Lion Tavern in Echo Park. The singer/guitarist of the doom rock outfit Death Valley Girls greets me in green sparkly eye makeup with a big smile and gifts in the form of a limited edition 7” and a live singles cassette wrapped in caution tape. I rejoice and accept like it’s the Holy Communion. After slipping into the dark of the ancient Germanic pub, we head to the upstairs bar. Death Valley Girls have popped up on the indie map like a baffling string of UFO sightings, ever since their Street Venom debut. Some may remember Bloomgarden’s exploits in the NY band The Witnesses, or maybe her cameo in King Tuff’s third album Black Moon Spell. Though perhaps nothing was as enthralling as DVG’s performance last October at the Natural History Museum’s mummy exhibit, which served more as a necromantic rock séance to communicate in peace with the Egyptian dead. The new Death Valley Girls LP Glow in the Dark is due June 10th via Burger Records, just in time for Burger Boogaloo. It’s unlike anything we’ve heard from them before. Though the
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