Category: SHOWS

When Quaint Gets Core: Home Sick 3 at the Glass House Pomona

Rob Shepyer January 21, 2020

I remember the long drive from Los Angeles to Petaluma I took for Home Sick 1 in 2018. I wasn’t sure what to expect from a small Northern California town and wondered why it was chosen to host a hardcore/goth rock festival like Home Sick. After a stroll around town, it didn’t take long for me to figure out. The venue, the Phoenix theatre, as punk and skate friendly as it is, couldn’t have been the only reason. Petaluma is a quaint, breezy getaway, a place where harp music fills the streets and bookstores are held sacred. Something about it feels like the age of Aquarius is dawning. This is where rich old hippies settled after the horrors of a career. There was total chillness around every corner, except Home Sick’s. related content: If Ever A Band Was My Home: Ceremony’s HOME SICK Festival At The Phoenix Theater Pomona is more or less the closest thing Southern California has to a Petaluma. I got the same feeling walking through downtown to Home Sick 3 as Home Sick 1 even though they were hundreds of miles apart. There’s something so joyous about knowing that in the middle of quiet Pomona, bands

Rock and Roll Shit Show: King Khan & BBQ Show at the Teragram Ballroom

Rob Shepyer January 16, 2020

Rock and roll still reigns supreme as the wildest, most fun form of music you can make when you plug in an electric guitar. The father of so many subgenres, true rock and roll, in the vein of Chuck Berry and Little Richard, is the real punk rock. You realize this the moment King Khan and Mark Sultan start riffing away together. It’s an old sound but it’s more unchained and crazed than this younger generation knows how to tap into. A certain level of sloppiness heightens the experience, we want to see the artist let loose, even at the cost of professionalism. related content: King Khan And The Shrines Bring Fans To Their Knees At Echoplex The show was presented by Cretin Hop, LA’s resident rock and roll and garage dance night that takes place at the Short Stop every third Saturday of the month. This is the best place to dance, hear Don Bolles DJ, and meet fellow rockers. It’s the closest thing So-Cal has to a Burger Boogaloo vibe. The cretins were out in full force for the first band, Covina’s The Night Times who were a rock and roll dream come true. Every member pushed themselves to

100% Banger: George Clanton’s NYE Spectacular at the Lodge Room

Dillon Vaughn January 16, 2020

New Years Eve is both a blessing and a curse for anyone looking for a good time in the city: most people opt for overpriced cover charges to enter the same shitty bars they frequent every other night of the year while a significant group of others gather for house parties and closely knit hangs. Truly special events seem to be few and far between (what person with any sense of taste would choose to attend an electro-swing dance party and why do these things happen every year?) With 100% certainty I can say 100% Electronica assembled the most wild, intense, and sincere event to close out the decade with this show at the Lodge Room and I can’t imagine spending the night any other way. related content: Silver Lake Perris: Desert Daze 2019 Support for the evening began with Death’s Dynamic Shroud, a duo collaging all aspects of digital culture to produce a warped take on R&B, as well as the solo act VAPERROR, whose inverted spin on trap catapulted my music tastes ahead to 2050. Perfectly fitting choices for the lineup as these are two acts who’ve proven time and time again to be holding it down and

Lets go do Some Crimes!: Career Suicide at Five Star Bar

Rob Shepyer December 29, 2019

The most important ingredient in a good hardcore punk band is live energy. There has to be something special about how the band stirs up a raw, chaotic, spontaneous feeling in the venue that makes every punk one inch away from committing a crime, from vandalism to violence, whatever your fix. Only a couple bands truly and organically summon this feeling in all its purity, and one of them is certainly Toronto’s Career Suicide. I feel like if they were an American band, they would be considered canon hardcore punk. I certainly feel that way. If Black Flag, Circle Jerks, FEAR, Bad Brains, and Minor Threat were canon hardcore bands of the 80s; Career Suicide, Trash Talk, and Ceremony are today’s. Career Suicide often feels like a modern Circle Jerks. related content: For The Children 2017 At The Echoplex: Hardcore Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving Throughout the night, Eighty-Four booking treated us to some of Los Angeles’ most relentless punk bands. As far as I’m concerned, I think this is the best booking company in town, not just because of the range of bands they bring to town, all of which broaden punk horizons, but because they seem to

The Evolution of the Trust Fall: La Dispute at the Belasco

Jonathan Reyes December 22, 2019

When I saw the salt lamps being put on stage I thought I had made a mistake. Post-hardcore like At The Drive-In I was told. Latin Danzig this was not. This was hardcore with Michigan undertones. There’s a fight club aspect to the group. They look like they work in your office, the ones that guard you while you sleep, don’t fuck with them. One brought a tambourine to a hardcore show, another person in the back who’s job it is to clap into a microphone. The bass player looks like he’s going to start playing “China Cat Sunflower”. Los Angeles Latinos love La Dispute, I was like is it Sound And Fury already? I’m envious of the passion a person who vibes with hardcore can produce. There was a pit for someone playing a tambourine. The only other place that occurs is at state fairs. So how could this be, I told a handful of people I was going so I could flex a little and people who I told were like “that’s cool” and “you listen to La Dispute” related content: Boston Calling: Sound And Fury 2019 “Will I still go to heaven if I commit suicide?” Asks

Photo Recap: She Past Away at 1720

Janky Smooth Central Command December 21, 2019

Turkish darkwave duo, She Past Away returned to Los Angeles for their 2nd performance ever. Hosted by 1720, they sold out the place just like they did last time, filling the venue with the dark, sometimes somber, sometimes explosive tones of Middle-Eastern inspired electro-goth. The phenomenon of this band is a testament to the open mind and heart the underground has for music, no matter what shade of black that heart is. Opening for the band was Twin Tribes. Photos by: Abraham Preciado She Past Away Twin Tribes

Photo Recap: Baby Keem at the Roxy

Janky Smooth Central Command November 30, 2019

Not even twenty years old yet, Baby Keem is already blowing up and making waves on the Soundcloud scene. Hip Hop ain’t ready for what this Las Vegas youth has to offer. Already, he’s had videos directed by Shia LaBeouf and been featured on the Black Panther soundtrack with songwriting credits. His latest project, Die For My Bitch has already been accumulating hype and brought him to The Roxy to perform a headlining show. We sent our official hip hop photographer to the show to get the scoop. Check out the pics below! Photos by: Rodney Campos

Do Anything For Dethklok: Adult Swim Festival 2019

Janky Smooth Central Command November 28, 2019

This year’s Adult Swim Festival saw one of the network’s flagship programs take center stage as Dethklok: Metalocalypse reformed to headline the festival’s first night. This Earth-shatteringly heavy event had fans of all kinds of music come together to go ape shit like no other metal band could do. This set, along with a day stacked with hip hop giants like Vince Staples and artists redefining of cool like Tierra Whack or Leikeli47. We sent one of our best ohotographers, Rodney Campos, to document the festival and damn, did he deliver the goods. Check out the photos below. Photos by: Rodney Campos Day 1 Dethklok Flying Lotus Day 2 2Chainz Freddie Gibbs and Madlib Jamie XX Leikeli47 Rapsody Tierra Whack Vince Staples

Etherializer: Alessandro Cortini at the Lodge Room

Rob Shepyer November 27, 2019

Noise shows might just become my favorite kind of shows. You have to go sparingly to keep the experience special but when you do attend, these sonic experiments have the ability to melt your consciousness into a putty then sculpt it however the artist sees fit, using only sound as their utensils. This is what I anticipated from Alessandro Cortini‘s Lodge Room show. A set that felt somewhat ambient, somewhat harsh, with sounds that would make the room vibrate with heaviness but also make the soul hum with lushness. I received every range of feeling on this night, from both what I brought to the music and what the music delivered to me. The one quality this music exhibited that I found most compelling was its etherial nature. Goth music’s gravitation toward the angelic and heavenly is a curiosity of sorts. You’d think people dressing in black all the time would want something less affirming of the divine, but as it so happens, sorrow might grant you a closer relationship to grace. related content: Bot Pop: Jonathan Bree At The Lodge Room The night began with Olive Kimoto stirring the souls in the holy Lodge Room with animated electronics and vocals like

Tis the Season for Boston Alt-Rock: Letters to Cleo at the Hi Hat

Dave Unbuckled November 27, 2019

Letters to Cleo returned to the Hi Hat last Saturday to a well-received crowd for what’s shaping to become their annual LA appearance. In addition to a career spanning twenty song showcase, the set contained new tracks from the group’s freshly released Christmas EP, OK Christmas including “Father Christmas” by the Kinks. related content: Bot Pop: Jonathan Bree at the Lodge Room Kat Hanley and crew’s set stayed hi-energy for its entirety, sprinkled with familiar alt-rock songs from their nearly thirty-year trek. Though at one time considered one of the East Coast’s most popular female fronted bands, Letters to Cleo have since slowed down their former heavy touring schedule, and now perform in Southern California once a year, so seeing the band keep the crowd of 300 singing and dancing for the entirety of the performance was impressive to say the least. There’s also something to be said about the band performing a smaller intimate show, solely to their fan base, opposed to joining the retro festival circus that comes around this time of year. Demon Rock kicked off the evening, which also featured two songs from the group’s breakout LP, “Big Star” and “Here and Now”, in addition to

Psych & Fury: Levitation 2019

Janky Smooth Central Command November 22, 2019

Is Austin, Texas’ Levitation the best psychedelic music fest in America? The World? With four days and nights of stacked lineups that get rockers moving from venue to venue, filling the streets with all sorts of strange for indoor and outdoor shows, it’s hard to argue the contrary. We sent psych rock aficionado, Suzette Subliminal out there to capture slices of the sublime and as you can see below, every act seemingly performed sets that were as transcendant as they were transformative. The likes of Dinosaur Jr., Kurt Vile, John Cale, Tobacco, and A Place to Bury Strangers made this year’s festival one for the ages. Check out the pics below! Photos by: Grace Dunn related content: Silver Lake Perris: Desert Daze 2019 A Place To Bury Strangers Tobacco Christian Bland and the Revelators Cryogeyser Deantoni Parks Dinosaur Jr. Guerilla Toss JJUUJJUU John Cale Kurt Vile Numb.er Ringo Deathstarr The KVB

Bot Pop: Jonathan Bree at the Lodge Room

Rob Shepyer November 21, 2019

Just because your phone isn’t attached to you at the hip doesn’t make it not a part of you. Humans aren’t full-on androids quite yet but the widespread fusion of man and machine has definitely begun to take shape. So, what does art look like in the Android Age? Perhaps a bit like Jonathan Bree‘s stage show. I could talk about how Jonathan Bree and his whole band wear masks, it’s the first thing anyone notices once you catch them live but after seeing them be the first act to dazzle Desert Daze this year, I began looking for less obvious characteristics in Bree and Co.’s performance. When Bree takes a step back to let one of the women in his band sing, his microphone dangles limply by the cord from his hand as he stands, almost as if in sleep mode. Then when the song requests him to return to vocals, he reboots in what makes for a methodically choreographed and unique show. related content: Silver Lake Perris: Desert Daze 2019 Bree’s night at the Lodge Room began with two openers that shared a similar thread. A certain coolness and No Wave vibe was felt in each performance beginning

Category: SHOWS

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