Tag: punk rock

The Erections at Moroccan Lounge shot by Corina Cline

Erect Tricks and Loose Rails: The Erections and Hat Trickers at Moroccan Lounge

Rob Shepyer October 5, 2023

From either end of the Pacific Ocean, Nacho Corrupted is known as a punk icon, flying the flag of East Los all the way to the far east by bringing Japan’s wildest punk bands to Los Angeles for this year’s C.Y. Fest. Catching The Erections and Hat Trickers at the Moroccan Lounge is a rare treat, so street punk faithful dug through their crates to excavate that precious punk rock imported vinyl to offer up to the bands like sacrifices to be signed for the 2nd to last C.Y. Fest side show of 2023 related: Manic Japan: Death Side At The Regent The last time Hat Trickers came to Los Angeles was for a one-off side show after Manic Relapse 2019. A whole pandemic later and that band returned to even more fanfare and excitement than the previous show. The air was buzzing with punks awaiting this set, making everyone anticipate a show that would imprint itself on your memory, for better or for worse, but unquestionably for good. It was a night jam packed with punk rock and mine began seeing local punks, The Rails, wreck the stage with blasting, unhinged guitars and true to street percussive rhythms, boots

LA Still Believes In Anarchy: The Exploited at The Regent

Danny Ryan July 7, 2023

While many foundational classic punk bands still tour regularly, the reckless soul that the genre is known for can often be missing with how much older the artists have become. Rather than the stagedives, partying, and rowdy moshpits that you’d expect at a punk show, many landmark bands unfortunately feel more like seeing a nostalgic cover band that you’d find at a local bar. While age has affected the energy of many artists, that has only made it more special when you experience the rare event of seeing an early punk band wreak the havoc that they would have in the prime of their career. The Exploited are one of the few examples of a classic punk band that’s able to bring this anarchy to modern audiences, transforming The Regent into the environment of a rowdy 1980’s club with their recent show hosted by Concrete Jungle Entertainment and Nothing Less Booking. With a perfectly crafted lineup of chaos including Conflict, Total Chaos, and Section H8, the spiritual essence of punk rock could have not been more prevalent in the venue that evening. The Exploited proved to us that punk’s not dead, you just have to know where to look for

The De-Evolution of Burger Boogaloo

Rob Shepyer July 5, 2018

Just like in my last Boogaloo review, Janky Smooth apologizes for the opinions herein and advise that anyone below the age of 18 or with an aversion to graphic language, obscenity, or humor, should not continue reading. related content: Burger Boogaloo 2017: The Ballad of John and Iggy Burger Boogaloo 2017 was so good that when we left Mosswood Park last July, we didn’t think 2018’s festival could possibly be better. After all, what band could out-punk Iggy Pop? What sort of headliner could possibly drive the festival further in its evolution? Were they going to bring David Buoy back from the dead? Total Trash productions was clever though, they knew they had to think outside the box if they wanted to make Burger Boogaloo California’s undisputed champion of festivals. So what did they do? They realized that progress doesn’t necessarily have to move forward like we’d expect. No, the answer was De-Evolution. And in the spirit of this movement backward, to the primordial swamp we once infested and called home, what was once the Gone Shrimpin’ stage in 2017, an ode to foot fetishes, was now Toxic Paradise. A mutant stage with tentacles and eyeballs sticking out of the

Crusty Anthems and Salty Sing-alongs: The Distillers Return to Orange County

Rob Shepyer May 1, 2018

I remember The Distillers as a band on the periphery of my hesher upbringing in the early 2000’s. They were on MTV back when pop-punk was still sweeping the airwaves and amassed a large following even though their music wasn’t your run-of-the-mall, American Pie movie soundtrack drek. The Distillers were dirtier, more raw, in both sound and image. Like if Hole was supped up with a hotrod engine and covered in prison tatts. And Brody Homme, then and still Brody Dalle, was a role-model for punks and normies, men and women, simply based on the merits of her talent. That was then. And close to 10 years later, seemingly everything, sans the band, has changed. MTV is long-past relevant, pop punk is almost shameful to enjoy, and nostalgia for what came out of that decade is often laughed at. And yet, after only seeing them once, I know that The Distillers are not part of that bygone decade. It became quite obvious to me and virtually everyone in attendance at this particular show, that the band and music were timeless. Distillers songs still sound fresh, with songwriting so good, that it could only come from a time before we all

Janky Smooth Sessions Interview w/ The Side Eyes

Danny Baraz July 12, 2017

When you see The Side Eyes live or just sit down and talk to them for a spell, it becomes clear pretty quickly that their genealogy and punk rock pedigree have little to do with the rate in which their star is rising- but it certainly doesn’t hurt them, either. related content: Beach Goth Blackout- Janky Smooth Sessions We caught up w/ the band after they opened for Redd Kross at The Echo in our latest Janky Smooth Sessions Interview w/ The Side Eyes. Astrid McDonald, Kevin & Chris Devine and newest addition, drummer Sam Mankinen (Melted) seem to be quite loving- a supportive band of punks in a genre built on cynicism and frustration. Punk rock being just like any other microcosm, we explore the ways in which the world has changed by noting the ways punk rock and it’s faithful approach “the scene” and subsequently, the world. related content: Steve McDonald Assembles All of His Family and Paid Gigs to Commemorate Teen Babes from Monsanto We discuss what having Charlotte Caffey as your mom, Jeff McDonald as your dad and Steve McDonald playing in Melvins, OFF! and Redd Kross as your uncle does to a kid’s sense

Punk Rock Bowling 2017: You Can’t Be What You Were…

Danny Baraz June 9, 2017

Looking out into the sea of people in the expanses that sprawl out from the upgraded festival stage at Punk Rock Bowling’s virgin location in the booming district of Downtown Las Vegas was a seismic life experience. Not just because of how fucking rad Punk Rock Bowling was this year but because all the events of the weekend set to the music of the festival served as a soundtrack to life’s highlight reel in my head. A series of events culminated into the bitter-sweetest regression of lonerism one could ever celebrate, as I stood alone, backstage, watching The Adicts play the best set I’d ever seen from them. Being 2 months out of knee surgery, that familiar human turbine engine of 7,k people dancing and swirling in front of the stage like a pack of bats taking flight at sun down or a school of fish changing direction in unison was unfamiliar from this vantage point- I’ve always preferred being IN the engine instead of being a spectator. Because when you’re in the pit, you’re dealing directly with any physical manifestation of frustration or anger that might have built up through the grind of life and you aren’t really thinking

Coachella to The Smell: Are Downtown Boys The Voice We’ve Been Waiting For?

Rob Shepyer April 25, 2017

My love for punk saxophone brought me to downtown Los Angeles on April 18th to see the mighty Downtown Boys pack The Smell. I had heard about the band from the same Rolling Stone article so many seem to have read that claimed this band was something special in a sudden sea of punk and having experienced their show, I find myself agreeing. Coming from the East Coast, Downtown Boys are a rarity to catch on this side of the country but as fate would have it, Coachella brought them out to punk-up that bland-ass lineup and pop the brand-new Sonora tent’s cherry. Downtown Boys are a political punk band of twenty somethings that embody all the good and bad things about the millennial generation. Hailing from Providence Rhode Island, the band started out of the collaboration between Victoria Ruiz and Joey La Neve DeFrancesco from What Cheer? Brigade. Downtown Boys signify something far greater than the new face of punk- I see their political beliefs becoming the core ideology of the “new left”, making the Smell the perfect venue to host the band. Downtown Boys’ LP is named Full Communism, as if Slavoj Zizek himself had a writing credit.

When We Were Young Festival’s Most Dominant Demographic: Mine

Janky Smooth Central Command April 19, 2017

When We Were Young- We Became Experts at Sneaking In & Cutting Lines I was still hungover from Choking Victim’s secret set in Long Beach at Freebirds Salon twelve hours before, and already running forty minutes late to the festival, when I remembered that I needed to stop at Target and pick up sunscreen and vitamin C. These are the indicators I observe as I age year to year. Chalk it up to experience but the last thing I wanted was to be sun burned and hungover for day two of a very long weekend. My urgency for arrival was based solely on watching The Getup Kids play the soundtrack to my early adolescence and I was not going to let the naivety of Orange County’s ‘Surf Goth’ youth hold me up. I waited in the main entrance line for the When We Were Young festival and watched cigarette packs get emptied out onto the wooden tables, and a barrage of drug paraphernalia get confiscated and disposed of while the newly minted team of hired security guards emptied pockets. It became apparent within minutes that I was going to have to find an alternative entry if I wanted to get in

Subhumans On Sunset: Young, Old, Punks, Posers Pay Homage at Los Globos

Todd Anderson April 13, 2017

On an ordinary Monday night, I walk down East Sunset Blvd with my camera. I dip into the tattoo shop to say hello to a friend as I make my way down the street in the early evening, Los Angeles “magic hour.” There are a few teenage gutter-punk kids smattered randomly around the boulevard as I walk up to Club Los Globos to document the Subhumans gig- there’s no line… I’m early. I stake my position to the right of the stage on a small riser with a column that reaches up to the celling, which proves invaluable later, and I people watch as the crowd fills in through the opening bands. The frantic buzz, the electric anticipation, it all begins to crackle as the notable Oakland band, The Love Songs, finish their set. The club is a mix of every kind of fan imaginable- young, old, punk and the ones that the highly dogmatic call “posers”- just open minded, intellectually curious folks, is all. Even though they know not, they are open to a historic moment when their more well versed friends tell em one is coming- even if they aren’t able to sing along to songs written by

Celebrating Cheetah Chrome’s Birthday with Sex, Drugs, and Rock N Roll at Alex’s Bar

Jessica Moncrief February 26, 2017

The hand-picked line-up of locals supporting Cheetah Chrome and his band at Alex’s Bar was about as solid as it gets. So, cheers to the insane minds that made Cheetah Chrome’s Birthday Bash an unforgettable evening of beauty, brutality, and bruises. related content: Opening Bands Shine as OFF! Play Alex’s Bar 16 Year Anniversary Prologue For those of us in the trenches, going out night after night to document the music scene, each show is a dice roll. We painstakingly wade through mediocrity. Furthermore, we pay for overpriced drinks and parking and suffer from lack of sleep. So what pulls us away from the comfort of our home vinyl collection? For me, I seek those nights where everything comes together. Nights when parking is a breeze, the opening band rocks, the atmosphere is 100% party, the crowd is full of beautiful people, and the beer is reasonably priced. Every show serves as part of a never-ending quest to relive that first real high. That space in time where the music entered my soul like a needle piercing a vein, transporting me to another level of consciousness. Thankfully, this ended up being one of those nights that makes this music junky’s struggle worthwhile. The

Floor of The Observatory in Orange County- Jessica Moncrief

The Adolescents & The Dickies: Peckerwoods Gone Wild in Orange County

Jessica Moncrief December 18, 2016

An All-Star Punk line up at The Observatory In Santa Ana included OG Punks The Adolescents, The Dickies, The Alley Cats, and The Crowd. A damn near perfect embodiment of late 70’s and early 80’s SoCal Punk Rock and a throwback to a territorial and cultural dynamic from not that long ago. related content: The Adicts, Reverend Horton Heat, Smut Peddlers at The Observatory Alley Cats were the openers and I was totally looking forward to their set but thanks to a horrible crash involving a big rig that had traffic backed up for 3 hours, I made it into the building right as they were ending their last song. Such a bummer but nothing compared to the carnage we passed on the way there. Alley Cats originally featured husband-and-wife team Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals) and Dianne Chai (bass and vocals), along with drummer John McCarthy, however the current line-up only includes one original member, frontman Randy Stodola. related content: Punk Rock Bowling 2015 and What Is Punk, Poser? Huntington Beach natives, The Crowd, are arguably one of the first and best bands of their genre and they’re well known for their brand of OC surf punk developed in

The Spits at Union Nightclub Los Angeles

The Spits at Union: Trash and Glamour United in Los Angeles

Rob Shepyer December 13, 2016

Cha Cha chicks and Footsies freaks, Full Time Punx and Part Time Punx, vinyl archeologists, wax wizards- Blundertown has sounded the clarion call and presented to you, on stages made of broken glass and cigarette butts, The Spits at Union Nightclub. This is the first show at Union I’m reviewing, so I’m going to take the opportunity to bathe you in my admiration for that special place. Is it in Crenshaw? Is it in K-town? Do you know it as Union or do you know it as Jewel’s? Do you party on the top, the bottom, or on the smoker’s patio? At any given show, all these places are poppin’ off- lit af. The top floor which hosted our event on this chilly Thursday night is huge, has two bars, plenty of space to chill, flirt, fuck, or just head bang and slam dance your punk puke out of your eyes. It can host a huge “credible” band but opts out of that for the real shit to service the cool kid contingent- and there’s plenty of places to sit… what a fucking concept! The first band to appease the gathering hordes was Dirty and His Fists with a dress