Category: SHOWS

Take This: Win Two Tickets to Connan Mockasin at the Lodge Room

Janky Smooth Central Command May 30, 2019

Connan Mockasin is one of Los Angeles’ most favorite musical mystics. Coming all the way from New Zealand, he is one of many dandys from down under making music that challenges the norm. He’s already sold out two shows with another on the way at the Lodge Room and so, it’s a fucking pleasure to be giving away two tickets to one of them. BE THERE OR BE SQUARE. YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR: ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO CONNAN MOCKASIN JUNE 6TH AT THE FONDA THEATRE 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, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK Connan Mockasin Ticket Giveaway Post WINNER WILL BE SELECTED ON JUNE 3RD AT 11AM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION

Street Sass: The Flytraps at Harvelle’s

Janky Smooth Central Command May 23, 2019

Despite the number of years they’ve been around in the L.A. club world, the Flytraps is still a band name that more people in the scene have heard than have actually seen play live. Fortunately for the scene, that’s a situation that is rapidly changing. Seemingly making up for lost time, the last twelve months have seen an onslaught of indie releases by the Flytraps including their latest Burger Records cassette release Bitches in Boots, the debut of which was celebrated at Harvelle’s Long Beach cocktail bar. related content: Crusty Anthems And Salty Sing-Alongs: The Distillers Return To Orange County It seems difficult to fathom now that bassist Kristin Cooper wasn’t always the main singer and front woman of the Flytraps but since the days since guitarist Marz Riesterer left the group (aptly replaced by stylish rhythm guitarist Chloe Z. Young), Kristin has developed a compelling aura of confidence and punk rock sangfroid that seems to draw their fans in. Whether she’s wildly mosh cheer leading the opening punk acts Skullcrack, Pink Mist and new Long Beach band The Tangents or strutting it up on stage with the Flytraps, Kristin Cooper is a one woman punk rock bacchanal. As she towered

Iron Eagle: Blaze Bayley at the Whisky

Dillon Vaughn May 21, 2019

On an earlier evening in May, the Whisky-a-Go-Go buzzed with some of the most fiercely devoted fans I’ve ever seen at the venue. What appeared to be a modest following was actually a concentrated group of true die-hards ecstatic to catch a gig by the legendary vocalist, Blaze Bayley. Conversations overheard before the band took the stage all seemed to point toward a drunken consensus – the crowd was determined to take Blaze to the Rainbow after the gig and get completely wasted with him. Stories were told about past drives out of state and flights out of the country to witness his performances and spoken languages hinted how far many of those in attendance traveled for that very night (after all, these are Iron Maiden fans – a group that truly appreciates the value of a performance, and catching a set in a small club by the former singer of the group is no small event.) Eager chants of “BLAZE” grew to a venue wide roar the moment the man of the evening peered down at the crowd from atop the balcony and signaled the show was finally going to begin. related content: Satan’s First Born: Possessed At The Whisky

Take This: Win Two Tickets to Citizen & Knuckle Puck at the Fonda

Janky Smooth Central Command May 21, 2019

Two of the best emo bands of this generation have combined forces into one stellar tour. Knuckle Puck and Citizen are coming to the Fonda to make you mosh, cry, and kiss, and we’ve got two tickets to give away to the show. BE THERE OR BE SQUARE. YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR: ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO KNUCKLE PUCK & CITIZEN MAY 31ST AT THE FONDA THEATRE Step 1- Join Our Newsletter (look for pop up everytime you arrive at jankysmooth.com) Step 2 – Tag a Friend in the comment section of our INSTAGRAM, TWITTER, or FACEBOOK Knuckle Puck/Citizen Ticket Giveaway Post WINNER WILL BE SELECTED ON MAY 27TH AT 11AM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION

Outlaws of Goth: VR SEX “Human Traffic Jam” Record Release at Echoplex

Rob Shepyer May 20, 2019

The common misconception of goths is that they’re sad, poetic, and wear black. And though the second two descriptors might be dead on, there’s nothing sad about a band of outlaws, ransacking stages and breaking the post punk mold with undisputed attitude and badass style. Great things come in threes and VR SEX sure are great. Riding black horses, these three gents carry the Dais records flag for yet another incredible record, “Human Traffic Jam”, the release of which we celebrated at the Echoplex with a performance no one in attendance is ever going to forget. This was the last show I saw at Echoplex before the venue was sold to Live Nation, so one could make the case that where these ghostriders go, death follows. related content: Drab Majesty Return To Los Angeles After Taking Europe By Storm Opening the show was fellow Dais record-mate and one-woman noise conjurer, Pod Blotz who created digitized thunder that shook the Echoplex and made every heart in the audience beat faster and more anxiously. The mind wanders strange places as Pod Blotz displaces the air molecules around you with sonic stabs. Incorporating a long, winding metal sheet to make sounds machines simply

As Real as Punk Gets: Bouncing Souls and the Bronx at the Fonda

Rob Shepyer May 17, 2019

I have trouble thinking of a band that makes pop punk music as lasting and classic as the Bouncing Souls. Their three decades of real and romantic pop punk music, created by with the same four original members, has impacted multiple genres of punk from emo, to hardcore, to pop punk. The Bouncing Souls were always on the outskirts of the 90’s mall punk tsunami but all this time, they’ve kept a lasting, steady, and diehard following that has more devotion than the biggest bands could ever wish for. related content: Jawbreaker At Riot Fest: The Moment I Stopped Hating Pop Punk Hailing from New Brunswick, New Jersey, heritage has everything to do with the realness and low key vibe of the Bouncing Souls. Their lyrics always hit home to anyone who lives for good times with friends and hopeless romance. You can tell this band’s parents listened to Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. It’s almost like if Billy Joel had a punk band. These maladies could get the drunks in any down and out piano dive bar to sing all the words. To celebrate their 30 years of making punk hearts float, Bouncing Souls took their Crucial Moments

This Stage Belongs to Amanda Palmer: There Will Be No Intermission at the Theatre at the Ace Hotel

Rob Shepyer May 15, 2019

What’s the longest set you’ve seen an artist perform? Once I saw the Cure play three hours. I hear the Dead used to keep going until they were just too high. Amanda Palmer took her There Will Be No Intermission tour to the Ace Hotel and kept that stage all to herself for four and a half hours. To have that kind of endurance or even enough to share, you have to consider the stage a second home of sorts, you also have to be well versed in more than music, in Amanda’s case she is a poet, storyteller, woman, mother, feminist, survivor, mime, and warrior, and we got every one of those during this show. related content: Gothic Interiors: Cold Cave At The Ace Hotel The sort of people that came out in droves and filled the legendary Theatre at the Ace Hotel for this performance were misfits of every stripe, color, gender, and age. The stories she regaled this diverse group of diehards ranged from various parts of her life that knit together a quilt of so many moments of her life threaded tightly together by the themes of womanhood and personhood. With four and a half hours to

Space Roses: Ionnalee at the Fonda

Rob Shepyer May 15, 2019

Ionnalee is an international mystery, the scale of which parallels the mystery of the very cosmos in which she sings about and is clearly in sync with. It’s rare that pop music fans in America embrace a Swedish import as tightly and devoutly as they have with Jonna Lee but after seeing this futurist angel made of flesh and chrome perform live, the real mystery is how she isn’t on the top of the charts with monuments of her erected of the moon. related content: Adult. Interview: Warriors For Weird Formerly performing under the moniker, Iamamiwhoami, Ionnalee’s synth pop is polished, sweeping, danceable, vogue-able, and communicates both in sound and lyric, ideas and feelings that make you realize your insignificance existing between space and time but also your transcendence above space and time as as a soul and stars made into flesh. Ionnalee shines with star power through her skin. She takes control of every stage, dancing without pause for over an hour with moves and artistry only she can execute. She only creates the visual component of her set, projections of space, black and white Richard Avedon-esque dramatic realist imagery, science fiction, all in starkly contrast shadows and highlights.

Sand in my Sax: Back to the Beach Festival

Dave Unbuckled May 13, 2019

I voluntarily didn’t arrive to Saturday’s show until minutes before Reel Big Fish took the stage at around 4:00, which gave me plenty of time around town to observe the legions of bat wielding ANTI-FA members, as well as the brigades of MAGA hat wearing Trump supporters, that had gathered at the Huntington Beach Pier. I still haven’t found out if this was some coincidence or planned meet up or perhaps if some Ska against Racism club just showed up early with bandanas and baseball bats to walk around town, before going to skank to their favorite band. Regardless, the crowd inside seemed arguably worse, and considerably goofier than I had anticipated, but I suppose this should be expected when three of the four festival headliners (Aquabats, Reel Big Fish and Goldfinger) were nineties-era ska bands who’s music was more prevalent in between Nickelodeon and Disney Channel shows than they were on Punk Comps. related content: Offspring In The Air: Sabroso Taco & Music Fest I shamefully grew up listening to Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish and Blink 182. They were my gateway drugs into the underground as I entered adolescence, and YES there was a time in the mid-nineties, outside of

Doom in Paradise: Psycho Smokeout at Catch One

Dillon Vaughn May 11, 2019

Nearly two years ago Psycho Entertainment began teasing the return of Psycho California – the fest that ran its initial three years proving itself and building its reputation in Orange County before being taken away from us by Sin City. Despite the slight name change, the fresh presentation of the inaugural Psycho Smokeout lived up to the reputation of its predecessor with a streamlined experience and highly curated lineup of Psycho alumni and first timers alike. related content: Catch One Hell Of A Night With Integrity And Pageninetynine Presented By Psycho Entertainment With a lineup filled with Janky favorites it’s hard to decide where to begin. The stacked scheduling fueled a rush through the maze-like floorplan of Union granting access to rooms and passageways I’d never even known existed. Each twist and turn through black painted halls seemed to bring me to another section of the club where something insane was happening: three separate rooms with live music (one of which included pole dancers), a smaller room with burlesque shows, live glass blowing outside, walls of merch, and a corner devoted to Painkiller Kim DJing next to an (unfortunately out of order) Icee machine. (Apparently the Icee guy never arrived

Real Horror Show: Hat Trickers and Lower Class Brats at the Bootleg Theater

Rob Shepyer May 10, 2019

Welcome my brothers, to a gathering of Clockwork soldiers, the likes of which you’ve never seen. Among us were Adicts, Brats, and Trickers, all in for a smattering of the good ol’ ultra violence. Manic Relapse gave the West Coast a first taste of the moloko plus but it was only a few days later that Los Angeles got their fix, oh yes we did, my brothers. related content: Manic Japan: Death Side At The Regent Hat Trickers and Lower Class Brats sharing a stage at the Bootleg Theater is what droog dreams are made of. Even Monkee from the Adicts was in attendance for this horror show. Hat Trickers, all the way from Japan, are the East’s premiere Clockwork Orange inspired horror punk band. Their songs are reckless, violent, and anthemic and could lead a young man on the streets of futurist London to commit all sorts of atrocities in the name of youth, ennui, and chasing happiness. Of all the band’s that play with that movie’s aesthetics, I’d expect Hat Trickers would be Alex’s favorite. All lineup long, true punk brethren let their lights shine with some of the most visceral and in your face punk rock you

Manic Japan: Death Side at the Regent

Rob Shepyer May 9, 2019

The last great punk festival on America’s West Coast, Manic Relapse was in season and so, the bands that were booked to play this year’s wild, raucous Oakland rager made the rounds along the coast and wound up in Los Angeles. In the case of the festival’s headliner, Japanese hardcore punk legends, Death Side, were set to play the Regent theater for their very first Los Angeles appearance. I’ve seen almost every kind of festival under the sun but have yet to attend the madness of Manic Relapse. From what I can tell though, it’s perhaps the most special, eye-opening weekend any punk can attend. It probably changes everything you think is possible at a music festival, whether it’s anarchy in a skate park, rare bands from exotic countries performing, or completely unhinged crowds at the Oakland Metro or backyards, there’s nothing else like Manic Relapse. related content: Beast From The East: Sand At Toxic Toast Theatre Combining forces with Manic Relapse, the likes of Spaceland, 84, and Suburban Fight joined together to bring us this amazing lineup beginning with Los Angeles’ own, Hate Preachers. This pack of West Coast wolves delivers a serrated and grimy variety of punk in