Tag: HEALTH

HEALTH at the Grammy Museum- photo by Taylor Wong

HEALTH at The Grammy Museum- Making It In The New Music Industry

Danny Baraz October 18, 2024

So here I am for the first time at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles to see HEALTH perform a half set in a small 200 person theater with seats, and to live premier their latest song collaboration- “Ashamed” featuring Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES. Prior to the performance was a less awkward than I imagined Q and A with Nic Harcourt and the band that focused heavily on the creation of the 2023 full length release of Rat Wars. Singer/Songwriter and HEALTH guitarist, Jake Dusik was much more chatty than I expected for someone with such a catalog of sad bastard, isolationist song credits. Dusik spoke in great detail about that despair, which peaked during the pandemic lock down. The birth of his child during this bleak time and the death of society conceived their most critically acclaimed HEALTH album, to date. HEALTH co-founder and ambassador John Famiglietti, always bringing levity to the band described a completely different lock down experience that didn’t always shelter in place and was echoed by HEALTH drummer BJ Miller. HEALTH were asked their thoughts on who was the quintessential Los Angeles band and the answer given was The Doors. I found that to

HEALTH at the Music Box by Becky DiGiglio

HEALTH/Author & Punisher at The Music Box: Let The Ceremony Begin

Danny Baraz April 20, 2023

Last time I saw HEALTH in San Diego was opening for Crystal Castles in May 2011 at the now defunct Fluxx Nightclub. Last Saturday it was HEALTH who were headlining The Music Box in San Diego as the last stop on their Dark Territory tour, and the only thing that HASN’T changed in the nearly 12 years since that show is that HEALTH completely shredded the stage. related: HEALTH at The Echo- First L.A. Show in 3 Years Delivers There were multiple story lines unraveling in through the evening and indeed, the complex and cryptic folds of the universe itself. Returning back from ceremony in Mexico on the day of the show, HEALTH was also the band me and my partner saw on our first date the night I touched her for the first time at 1720 a year ago. I love you Jules (fuck face). All that along with promoter Modern.Wav calling out the San Diego goths to convene in their own ceremony and indulge their kinks with an epic lineup that also featured Author & Punisher and openers Matte Blvck and Straight Razor, whom I woefully missed. Luckily, photographer Becky DiGigglio did not. We walked in during

Hardcore Disco: HEALTH at 1720

Danny Ryan April 13, 2022

Words by: Danny Ryan Photos by: Manuel Arredondo Health’s record release show at 1720 Warehouse was an excellent demonstration of their ability to incorporate the widest-array of contrasting sounds and emotions into their artistic vision. Their dedication to breaking ground in the incorporation of these genres was on full display, from the diversity of the crowd to the band’s ambitious blend of industrial, noise, goth, synth, metal, hardcore punk and shoegaze influences blasting throughout the venue. With their new album “Disco4: Pt. 2” comprising of different guest features on every track, Health proves that their signature style can collaborate with any artist without straying away from sounding like themselves. This show was an ideal celebration for the release of this new album. Even with most of the set being comprised of their solo works, Health is presenting their fusion of these genres in a powerful manner. Health always distinctively sounds like Health, no matter which artists they are featuring or taking influence from. From an outsider’s perspective, it would have been very difficult to discern which genre of music they would be seeing that night. Mesh tops and leather outfits evoking industrial style could be seen throughout the venue, as

Take This: Win Two Tickets to HEALTH at 1720

Janky Smooth Central Command April 4, 2022

Jankysmooth will always stan for HEALTH. This band has always represented a side of LA’s underground nightlife with an electronic soundtrack that gives a taste of the soft and hard life in this city. The band is only know maturing into an industrial force to be reckoned with, joining the ranks of the genre’s heavyweights by collaborating with NIN, JPEGMAFIA, Youth Code, Ghostemane and more. We are stoked to be giving away two tickets to this 1720 banger on Wednesday. YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE or ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO HEALTH APRIL 6TH AT 1720 Step 1- Join Our Newsletter (look for pop up every time you arrive at jankysmooth.com) Step 2 – Tag a Friend in the comment section of our INSTAGRAM or FACEBOOK HEALTH Ticket Giveaway Post WINNER WILL BE SELECTED ON APRIL 5TH AT 1PM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION

Creatures of the Night: Substance LA 2021

Rob Shepyer December 15, 2021

Substance has always been Los Angeles’ premiere post-punk festival. Celebrating all things goth and clad in black, the scene wouldn’t be quite the same without it. No festival embodies the true spirit of “LA” more than Substance. There’s something urban and dreamy about the whole episode. You get such a range of feels, some bands appeal to your heart then others purely to the body. Spanning all night, the fest goes late into the evening to make you feel like the real nightcrawler that LA is supposed to make you feel like. I came to see Nitzer Ebb but my greatest takeaways were the smaller bands who’s performances left a mark. Here are my five favorites from each day. Day 1 Pixel Grip Chicago-based industrial dance music is a beast of its own breed. Pixel Grip began the festival for my gang and might’ve left the biggest impression of any band for the entire three nights. They commanded their audience with so much attitude, mystique and power, they could’ve headlined the day purely based on the merits of their charismatic performing. Listening to them on records, many of the songs expanded my idea of what an industrial band ought to

The Road to Psycho Las Vegas 2021 Part 2

Rob Shepyer August 13, 2021

This is how we hold the line. With the country’s social climate at a fever-pitch and the festival we love less than a week away, we are making the choice not to retreat into the shadows and live our lives in fear. If we all just stayed home and didn’t fight to live the way we believe we deserve to, there is no way we’d ever return to how things were. The world will never totally be the same, but we’re not letting concerts go the same way movie theaters did. Fuck that. Psycho lives forever. related content: The Road to Psycho Las Vegas With every international act having to postpone their performances to 2022, the festival has become a domestic affair. We are doing nothing short of chasing the American Dream just like Raul Duke in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, fueled by metal instead of hardcore psychedelics, what is left of the dream is more perverted and strange than anything the good doctor could’ve imagined. The festival itself is the drug, Vegas is the drug, this fucking pandemic is the drug, let it tweak your senses just a bit and make you lose inhibition just enough to make

Take This: Win Two Tickets to HEALTH & Youth Code at Teragram

Janky Smooth Central Command April 30, 2019

Two of our favorite bands, HEALTH and Youth Code are descending upon the Teragram Ballroom to destroy the speakers and blow your eardrums out of your dancing bodies. And we’re giving away a pair of tickets to the show! YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR. ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO HEALTH MAY 11TH AT THE TERAGRAM Step 1- Join Our Newsletter (look for pop up every time you arrive at jankysmooth.com) Step 2- Tag a Friend in the comment section of our Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook HEALTH Posts WINNER WILL BE WILL BE SELECTED ON MONDAY MAY 6TH AT 11AM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION

Is This Dungeons and Dragons? No, Cloak and Dagger, Actually

Jonathan Reyes November 20, 2018

You go to a goth fest expecting 90’s Blade as a theme, but the black light shone the crowd for what they were. The weekend crowd from Halloween Horror Nights. The music was right, the expanded line up serviced all shades of goth. The venue was straight out of Miss Murder. Alas the crowd was 6 feet under aside from a few spurts of life during Boy Harsher and Health. related content: The Sound Of Sex: Boy Harsher Seduces The Echoplex I have a theory that the venue makes the show more so than the crowd, possibly even the band. Cloak and Dagger moving the show from the State to the Los Angeles Theatre was a mistake. I think they should have applied their strict code to the venue. Damn the crowd and damn the theatre. I wanted darkness, I wanted to feel like it was a privilege and not a purchase, smaller room, a darker room, a strict dress code. related content: Cloak And Dagger Fest: The Heart Of Los Angeles Bled From Dusk Till Dawn Beside wanting more ruffled Victorian shirts and latex the music and entertainment outstanding. The Jarson family known as Body of Light brought everyone

Cloak & Dagger Fest: The Heart Of Los Angeles Bled From Dusk Till Dawn

Rob Shepyer October 27, 2017

Good “dark” music should come from a damaged yet open heart because it’s those damages that make all the styles of dark music involved in Cloak And Dagger Festival beautiful to those that wear black late at night- or during the day, for that matter. Whether it was dark wave, new wave, post punk, goth/death rock, industrial, EBM, or shoegaze, every shade of black was represented on those two cold October nights. Right from the first lineup announcement, it was understood that this would be like no other festival. With three stages at the Globe and Tower theaters, an all black dress code, and local brand recognition, I was sure the siamese evenings would play out like a movie, think Eyes Wide Shut meets Gimme Shelter. The lineup hosted plenty of bands that are Janky Smooth favorites like Ho99o9, Health, Moon Duo, and Uniform. Iconic artists like KMFDM, OhGr, and The Jesus and Mary Chain were set to share the two stages with future headliners like Cold Cave, The Soft Moon, and Lust For Youth. So any goth kid, let alone this one, would be awestruck and elated at the chance to partake in the affair. Night 1: Black is the absence of

Best Coast, HEALTH, No Age, Ty & Bleached Help To Save The Smell

Danny Baraz January 20, 2017

As yet another one of 4,397th “Save the Smell” benefits is in the books and we prepare to present to you the review of all the extraordinary talent that agreed to perform at the cavernous Belasco Theater, the throwback Los Angeles venue that cost more to restore and renovate than even the $1.4 million The Smell custodian, Jim Smith is trying to raise to secure a permanent location for the iconic, All Ages L.A. clubhouse for music. We wanted to remind The Smell cynics that Smith has run the multi generational art incubator for 19 years without any apparent profit motive in sight. So as the hum of jaded hipster whispers asking rhetorical questions about where all the money is going grows louder, it’s important to remember what the Smell has given 4 generations of burgeoning, pre-ID, DIY kids whose parents felt curiously comfortable dropping off at a location that 19 years ago was surrounded by the swarming transient citizen population of the Downtown L.A. hopeless and the homeless. Some of the most iconic cult music heroes that were born within the very walls that make what the kids of today would refer to as a “safe space”… The Smell.

New Album Review: HEALTH- Death Magic

Danny Baraz August 14, 2015

Los Angeles’s own, HEALTH and their new album, Death Magic released by Loma Vista on August 7th might very well be my top record of 2015, thus far. Even with a more polished, less noise influenced battery of songs, HEALTH manage to keep that dark edge that mixes beauty with taboo concepts of the human condition and is delivered to fans in their familiar package of abstract messaging. There seems to be a formula developing in the nebulous vacuum that was once the music industry. It’s really not all that different than what existed previously. The previewing of new singles in the months leading up to an album release isn’t an original concept. There is just a greater volume of them, which has allowed fans to hear more of an album before it’s official release. That is, if there isn’t a strategy to “leak” the album. There was a very calculated build up to the release of Death Magic and a real attempt to control the message of music critics, which is a departure from the typical, laissez faire vibe of HEALTH. Death Magic successfully manages to cut the chord in the eternal association between HEALTH and Crystal Castles, not just

HEALTH at The Echo: First L.A. Show in 3 Years Delivers

Danny Baraz July 23, 2015

By Danny Baraz HEALTH is the most original sounding bands in music today. Dissonant chords fed through filters and stomp box effects. Galloping tribal rhythms so succinct and steady that you could set a watch to them. Reverberated falsetto vocals that create a layer of tenderness through the violent rhythms. Piercing sound designs that wash over the listener in a rebirth of the senses. The dichotomy of sound that Los Angeles band HEALTH creates is extraordinary. It all amounts to a New Wave, Gothic, Punk stew of noise and melancholy melody that we have been deprived of for far too long. On Wednesday, July 22nd, the HEALTH hiatus in Los Angeles ended at The Echo with the first of three sold out shows, carefully crafted to promote their new album Death Magic. There has been a steady build up since April of this year to tease new songs from the new album. The video for the song “New Coke” was premiered on YouTube in April and has racked up over 180k views in the few months that it’s been live. Not bad for an indie band. Between the imagery of Alice Glass and Pictureplane partying in the first minute to