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Isaac Rother & The Phantoms- 5 Hits from Hell

Isaac Rother & The Phantoms Are Back With 5 Hits From Hell…

DM Collins May 23, 2017

Isaac Rother & the Phantoms and their soul-laden stew of R&B horror rock and off-the-charts live show bring a seminal but sometimes forgotten era of rock from the 50s and early 60s back to life. But Isaac and his Phantoms also evoke a time just a few decades past, at the cusp of our Modern Garage Era of Rocken’ at Large (or ”MONGEReL” for short), when bands such as the Mummies, the Trashwomen, the Gories, the Bomboras, and the Makers (just to name a few) rooted through not only the record collections of their rock forefathers, but also the backs of their closets, churning out live shows as loaded with sequins and monster masks as they were with broken drumsticks and blown out Fender amps. Unlike many of their successors, these bands also weren’t afraid of adding a little roll to their rock, or exploring those sections of rock’s lemon that still needed lemonade squeezed from them, be it surf music, garage, bubblegum, or glam. Like a breath of fresh tomb air, Mr. Rother and his army of the undead have “dug up” this full-immersion concept anew for the current generation of garage, soul, and just plain rock

The Orwells And L.A.’s Rocker Red Carpet At Regent Tour Stop

Paige Vreede April 10, 2017

Mario Cuomo, frontman for The Orwells does not give a fuck what song you want to hear – he just wants to play good music and good music is exactly what him and his compatriots delivered last Thursday at The Regent alongside No Parents and The Walters. Despite all three bands delivering a slightly different sound, the one thing they all shared in common was their rousing ability to cut loose and cavort on the rising star friendly stage at The Regent. One thing we love is the red carpet that is rolled out for every rock and roller by this global community in independent music- which is particularly defined for and fighting the stigma of phoniness in Los Angeles with every hospitable act and selfless key bump. Arriving to the venue at 9:30pm, I was greeted by angsty teens pushing and shoving while howling the words “You got snaked” under the elegant arches of The Regent. With most of their songs coming in as a two minute blow to the face, I could have easily missed No Parents entire set seeing as they opened the show at the early hour of 9pm- at least I didn’t miss it all. related

Take This: Two Tickets To See The Orwells at The Observatory

Janky Smooth Central Command March 20, 2017

The Orwells are coming to the Observatory in Orange County this Friday, March 24th. The Orwells are one of the most badass young live bands in rock n roll right now. Every element in authenticity is present in their live set. Air tight band and sloppy, blacked out dispositions that mouth whore around the venue on any given night. When their sophomore album, Disgraceland dropped in 2013, it solidified them the “real deal”- appealing to legions of discerning indie hipsters and vapid mainstream mass appealers alike. Now they are touring in support of their 3rd album, Terrible Human Beings. I’ve seen The Orwells play a handful of shows and two of the best were at The Observatory. Most recently was this time last year at Burger Records week long celebration of their partnership with the venue. The video embedded into this post should tell you everything you need to know about the set they played on the last night of a 7 day marathon celebration at the venue: “Mario Cuomo unleashed upon adoring fans of The Orwells a yeoman’s performance of drunken, sloppy but precise and sexual rock and roll frontmannery. The Orwells were fantastic. I hadn’t seen them since just

Chicano Batman minus the tuxedos at SXSW by Taylor Wong

Janky Smooth Top 25 Bands & Artists To Watch in 2017

Janky Smooth Central Command January 18, 2017

We take a fanboy/girl approach to music journalism in that most of us will gush over the artists we love and speak with a jaded cynicism about everyone else. That isn’t what this list of Top 25 Bands & Artists to Check Out in 2017 is about, though. (see disclaimer below) Luckily, there are more bands and little pockets of diverse music, art collectives and scenes all throughout the city right now than there ever has been. That’s not the weird part. The weird part is that, love ’em or hate them; SO MANY of these bands, DJ’s, sound designers and MC’s are in it for authentic and genuine artistic motives. Once, for all intents and purposes the music industry died, all the head shot, MI, blow dried Ken and Barbies that occupied a significant percentage of the “forever chasing the corporate art dollar” population in Los Angeles re-evaluated their lives, they scattered into television, movies and production and then… … the kids in the garages and practice spaces began their rule. Without the old worldwide distribution network and formulaic spreadsheets in place, the amount of time it takes for good bands to go from touring the west coast to touring

Redd Kross, OFF! & Melvins Commemorate Teen Babes From Monsanto

Danny Baraz January 9, 2017

Even though I’ve been averaging 3 or 4 shows a week, every week of every month since November of 2014, I still get jacked up on performances more often than not. I might not always be AS excited before I get to the venue from one night to the next but the Redd Kross anniversary party for Teen Babes From Monsanto along with a Steve “livin the dream” McDonald showcase with all his current active bands, including Melvins AND OFF! was impossible to not get wrapped up in. Unless you’re a kook. related content: OFF! Transform The Echo From Peaceful Indie Venue to House of Raw Aggression The truth is that Janky photographer, Jessica Moncrief hit me up to see if I could write about, so she could shoot, OFF! and Melvins at The Observatory. I didn’t find out until I was half way down to Santa Ana that Redd Kross was ALSO playing. I started to make the McDonald connection but still didn’t understand what was happening down there until I got inside the venue and the Melvins were already halfway through their set. The bummed out feeling at missing a major chunk of the Melvins didn’t last too long when I understood

The Janky New Year Top 10 SONGS of 2016 Rated by Contributors

Janky Smooth Central Command January 5, 2017

We don’t care what people say about you, 2016; Janky Smooth loves you. Sure, you skull fucked the country with a culturally divisive presidential election that scrambled our brains, pitted us against each other and made propaganda the norm. Yes, we were able to normalize the images of police gunning down unarmed civilians in the street and forced us to redefine the word “justified”. Granted, almost half of our country believes that global warming is either a hoax or overstated as the polar ice caps and ancient sea shelf melts and breaks off into the ocean at a rate more rapid than anyone could’ve dreamed or climate scientists had calculated. Sure, you took a massive amount of musicians, actors, artists, leaders and athletes that basically everyone on the planet loves the most. But you know what? At least you gave us some of the best independent hip hop, metal, electronic, punk and straight forward rock songs than any of your younger brother and sister centuries have sounded in quite some time. So we forgive you but now, We The People of Janky Smooth have to make some decisions on our favorites from the best songs of 2016. We’re up for

Midnight Mass 2: Dystopian Themed Xmas Fest in an LBC Warehouse

Aria Silva-Espinosa December 14, 2016

Downtown Long Beach hosted the second edition of Midnight Mass at The Packard, a creative space venue featuring large crystal chandeliers and an outdoor patio space decorated with vibrant murals. The venue’s generous space and even all-gender indoor restrooms set the vibe for the very best of what a DIY music festival can and should be. A 12-hour festival is a lot to put together, but Astro Lizard Records and Freakstyle Booking worked tirelessly to put together a solid lineup with a bit of something for everyone in attendance. As with generally any type of performance, the set times ran a little behind schedule but nobody seemed to mind. The weather was accommodating and a crowd gathered early in the day to watch Nectarines on the outdoor stage a little after 2:00pm. Intense but lighthearted power-punk group Clit Kat, fronted by the ever-charming Mag, took the outdoor stage and revved up our engines for the day with songs about sucking, fucking and having fantasies involving Steve Buscemi. Onlookers passing by on the street even stopped to watch Mag tear it up on stage, with heavy percussion and lyrics that make people delightfully uncomfortable. Clit Kat and some of it’s members,

Snapshot of a New Music Industry: White Fang, No Parents & The Birth Defects

Danny Baraz November 18, 2016

Catching a band you love play live as they emerge from the fear and loathing of a 2 month tour insures that you will witness them at the height of their powers. Ever since the Janky team helped White Fang, No Parents and The Birth Defects send themselves off on the road in a 3 vehicle caravan of knuckleheads and thrashers, I’ve had my eye on this date to check in with the guys about how the tour went- partly because I had visions of all these guys trying to outdo each other with bad personal decisions and partly because I knew they would be as tight as the Clinton’s and Trump’s at Thanksgiving dinner. I find the dynamic of the independent DIY music scene to be fascinating. The way a wave of buzz washes over the internet and indie record stores for a band like White Fang but then gets swept away in the mountain of music being produced and released on a weekly basis, is a snapshot of how young people consume new music. Funkle said it himself in our pre- tour interview, “I want to see if we even still have a national following.” In this new

Cosmonauts Interview with Paige Vreede of Janky Smooth

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

Death Valley Girls at The Echo Record Release Party

Death Valley Girls Glow In The Dark At The Echo Record Release Party

Danny Baraz July 6, 2016

There is something different emerging from the Los Angeles music scene. It’s not nice. Or sweet. Or candy-bar-bubble gum. Or a drunken teenage blackout filled with mild regret. And I like it. Death Valley Girls aren’t like your typical Burger Records band. You can’t simply attach the punk, psychedelic or garage rock label to them and be done with it. They aren’t your standard, soft balled psych rockers seeking some type of enlightenment through their experiments with hallucinogens. They are what happens when the acid turns and the faces around you become deranged and unfriendly; surrounded by deeply troubled individuals slipping further and further away from society with each hit of blotter. Death Valley Girls’ second album, “Glow in the Dark” summons the seventies more than it summons the summer of love. When America was in the midst of an identity crisis, amidst events such as the Nixon resignation, Patty Hearst and Jonestown. And even though the Manson murders occurred in 1969, the events surrounding the high profile slayings in the Hollywood Hills reverberated across the forthcoming decade and dispelled the image of hippies as harmless, peace loving druggies. Trust no one. But singer/songwriter Bonnie Bloomgarden insists that, “you can