Category: SHOWS

Air + Style Day 2: Snowblind in So-Cal

Aria Silva-Espinosa March 9, 2018

Construction cranes tower over Exposition Park, obscuring the view from the festival grounds. Although Sunday means progress is stalled, the skeletal half-constructed stadium leaves the stages set up for the festival looking dwarfed in comparison. The lineup boasts a lineup similar to what I would put on a ‘Sunday Morning’-type of playlist, Gucci Mane included. Like any Sunday of a festival, it took awhile for festival-goers to start filing in. A good percentage of the earlier crowds consisted of families with school-aged children and even stroller-bound infants. This serves as a reminder that this is just as much of a family-friendly sporting event as it is a music festival. related content: Air + Style Day 1: The Church Of Dram When attending a festival, it isn’t uncommon to be forced to make the heartbreaking, relationship-ruining decisions about which sets you’re going to catch and which will have to be sacrificed due to conflicted scheduling. Not so with Air & Style; the sets are split between two stages and staggered so nobody has to miss anybody they want to see. related content: Air + Style Saved By Hard Rain Washing Away Crowds We caught part of the Cloud Nothings‘ set and being

Air + Style Day 1: The Church Of Dram

Rob Shepyer March 8, 2018

Skating and snowboarding has always been closely tied to all things rad in music, whether it be the fast pumping feel of punk rock as your wheels hit the pavement or those sleek hip hop stylings when your board glides through powder. I am neither sort of boarder but I am a music nerd and so, the sight of Dram on this year’s Air + Style lineup made the festival a must-attend event for me. In my attempt to capture an experience with every modern name in this new breed of hip hop music, Dram was the blaring piece missing from the puzzle… not anymore, though. related content: Air + Style Saved By Hard Rain Washing Away The Crowds I had a few reservations on the festival at first, not knowing exactly what I’d get into, especially waiting in line for my press pass with snooty USC kids all around me. But then, hopping through the gates and seeing what this event really was, I immediately had a change of heart. Skate park shows are a special happening and waiting for Ex-Cult to play the first trick competition really got my blood pumping for some lightening fast action. The first

Earthless Liquified My Face At The Teragram

Rob Shepyer March 7, 2018

I had heard about Earthless forever ago but because of my natural skepticism, I didn’t really feel any need to see an instrumental band that wasn’t some kind of post rock outfit. Then after I heard Bill Burr raving about how incredible Earthless were live, I got about a guzzler’s gallon of fuel put in my engine to go see the band. Fast forward to last week when Dillon told me about the show, and I finally caved and decided to dive in, head-first. And boy was I ever glad to have caved and dived in. This was my first legitimate psych rock show, I know admitting that probably decimates any shred of credibility I had left but it’s true. I was always into the more extreme side of music and then also as a contrarian, seeing everyone in LA get so wrapped up in the whole Desert Daze scene probably made me want to avoid it. I’m not gonna be shopping for bellbottoms at vintage stores anytime soon, but maybe I’ll pop into more psych shows. I dressed in a “Canadian tuxedo” just to fit in at this show and I wasn’t the only one. All that said,

Crossing They Might Be Giants Off My Bucket List At The Regent

Rob Shepyer March 5, 2018

Jessica and I had been waiting a long time for this show. Before it was even announced, we would dream about seeing this little nerd rock band that only had the most obscure hits in the mainstream. Songs like “Particle Man” or their cover of Jimmy Kennedy’s “Istanbul (Not Constantinople)” were the oddest songs to ever put a band on the map but these were the songs we grew up on. Then upon the show’s announcement, all bets were off and after few emails were sent: boom, we found ourselves at a sold out Regent Theater for an evening with They Might Be Giants. related content: Nature World Night Out At The Regent: Building Bridges Between Hardcore And Hip Hop This band’s stage presence was one of the funnest, most delightful, and hilarious that I’ve ever had the pleasure of seeing. John and John, Flansburgh and Linnell, still have an incredible chemistry on stage, almost like a Laurel and Hardy of rock. Flansburgh joked that the band was opening for themselves and his incredible stage banter only continued through the night. In response to one person’s flash photography, he stated it was okay for us to do what we needed to do: take

Nature World Night Out At The Regent: Building Bridges Between Hardcore and Hip Hop

Rob Shepyer March 3, 2018

Nature World Night Out is musical proof that there is more variation within the groups we separate ourselves into than between those groups. On the surface, Hardcore music and Hip Hop may seem on opposite poles of the musical spectrum but after a little bit of inspection, you realize they both have similar bounce, fashion, and both originated from the streets. Whether you’re black, brown, or white; male or female, there were artists in the Hardcore or Rap categories performing at this festival for you to project yourself onto. I remember my first Nature World Night Out, two years ago back when it was a one night event at Union Nightclub with Trash Talk and Soulja Boy co-headlining. The night was also my introduction to Antwon, Hip Hop’s ambassador to Hardcore and one of the festival organizers. Needless to say, that first NWNO was amazing and to this day, I still regret missing the second NWNO with Cam’ron… these guys booked Cam’ron to play on the same stage as Jesus Piece and No Warning for God’s sakes. related content: Trash Talk, Ratking, and Pangea: Slam Dance 101 At The Echoplex This year’s third annual installment migrated downtown to the Regent

Creep or Charmer?: Alex Cameron at The Lodge Room

Rob Shepyer February 28, 2018

The discovery of Alex Cameron‘s Forced Witness was a musical ray of hope for me last year. In a time where music is about the “vibe” or “feel“, Cameron reverted back to the basics and delivered an album that prioritized the wholeness of every song. Track after track, Forced Witness quenched my thirst for catchy, hook-laden songs and lyrics with a message and story. He employs irony, satire, bathroom humor, and dick jokes to make the most subtle yet thought provoking study of gender roles since Hall and Oats. The album’s narrative lets Cameron step into the skin of a protagonist I don’t think has been explored since the 80’s: the persona of the creep. Even the album title, Forced Witness, is more than a bit creepy if you let your imagination run wild with it. Our hero is a straight-white male that fumbles into precarious situations in the pursuit of love and though his intentions might be sincere, he comes off as strange, alienated, chauvinistic, homophobic, and a general nuisance. In short, the character was never properly socialized. Personally, I think any man worth their salt is a bit unsocialized when it comes to the opposite sex (that is to

When Words Fail To Describe A Band: Igorrr at the Echoplex

Rob Shepyer February 21, 2018

Intrigue is the best motivation to get your ass out and to a concert. Seeing a band you’ve been dying to see forever or being a super-fan and seeing your favorite band for the dozenth time are cool too, but never having listening to a band and only hearing a certain curious strain of hype around them, that’s the sweet-spot for a music blogger. Of all the bands I’ve ever seen, none have summoned up as many descriptors out of me as Igorrr and certainly “curiosity” is one of them. I first heard of the band from a podcast with Metal Blade Records owner Brian Slagel, the label notorious for introducing the world to a little band called Metallica. On that podcast, Slagel boasted that Igorrr was the newest band on his label that he was excited about and even he failed to describe the band with brevity. Hailing from France, a country that has only seen its biggest metal acts in the last two decades (Gojira and Alsace), what Igorrr does is combine almost every musical genre under the sun and pack it into an industrial-metal frame. As strange as that is to imagine (or maybe it isn’t these

The Sound of Sex: Boy Harsher Seduces The Echoplex

Rob Shepyer January 29, 2018

If you were to cross Jae Matthews, vocalist of Boy Harsher, on the sidewalk you may not have any idea you were just in the presence of an industrial dance goddess. Hailing from Savannah Georgia, her and producer August Muller, don’t necessarily fit into your idea of what a goth should look like but then when you hear their combined force, you sense that this is the music that the world’s darkwave/industrial dance/EBM should crowd around. Part Time Punks did it again, lassoing a lineup that could sell out the Echoplex two times over with Boy Harsher getting support from Din and High-Functioning Flesh. Both bands feature producer Greg Vand, yet both bands sound completely different. Din was first, with female vocals and guitars to pair with Vand’s must-dance soundscapes. The filtered vocals gave the industrial sounds a bit of a shoe-gaze or post punk flare. Although sounding totally unique, Din offers a more straight forward and obvious dance triggering sound than High-Functioning Flesh. Using samples of voices to make musical medleys and punchy beats that marry Susan Subtract’s punchy crust vocals, High-Functioning Flesh sounds like revolution music for the cyber punk era. I’ve seen them numerous times now and

No Such Thing As A Bad Pinback Song At The Glass House

Rob Shepyer January 29, 2018

Pinback has always held a special place in my heart. Something about those mathy lullabies always reminds me of my college days and so, to see them at Pomona’s Glass House, in a crowd of young men and women from Cal Poly, I couldn’t help but get nostalgic. On top of that, as a big dude with a big heart, I’ve always related to singer and guitarist Rob Crow who himself relates to Quasimodo. I know it’s a bold claim but I compare Pinback to The Beatles. Simply in the sense that they too never made a bad song. Some Beatles songs are better than others, maybe “Octopus’ Garden” isn’t as iconic as “She’s So Heavy” but they’re all still deeply enjoyable. That concept fits Pinback well as I can listen to every album from beginning to end without skipping a track. Partially what makes this possible is their unique approach to music. No one knows exactly how to categorize this band. It’s progy, it’s indie, it’s folky, it’s mathy, it’s alternative, it’s minimalist but it’s also not totally and completely enough of any of those to be boxed in. They can play sonically, jazzily, heavily and softly and sometimes all

Dusk At Midnight: Converge At The Regent Theater

Rob Shepyer January 27, 2018

Converge is not just a band to me, Converge is a concept. Fresh off the heels of one of 2017’s best releases in extreme music, the band embarked on a stacked tour with metal heavyweights Cult Leader and Sumac as openers. All three bands are worthy of headlining the Regent and the length of their sets reflected that reality. Converge is known for having some of the most violent shows of any band still playing. And to me, in regards to concerts, violence might as well be synonymous with excitement and greatness. Among the others to top the list of most violent audiences were that of Trash Talk and The Dillinger Escape Plan, each of those bands has something about their sound and presence that triggers a primal instinct within the listener. Converge’s sound encapsulates many harsh realities that their fans relate to. The crunchy guitars, bombastic machine-gun drums, and Jacob Bannon’s rabid doberman vocals all brew together to sound like emotional dysfunction, that hard knock street life, nihilism, betrayal, death, decay, and devastation. related content: Trash Talk, Ratking and Pangea: Slam Dance 101 At The Echoplex What people now know as metalcore, bands like Suicide Silence or Parkway Drive,

If Ever A Band Was My Home: Ceremony’s HOME SICK Festival At The Phoenix Theater

Rob Shepyer January 18, 2018

I have been waiting for so long to write about Ceremony that referencing their performances in completely unrelated articles just became a habit of mine. If I was writing about hardcore punk moshing and stage diving then I’d compare the peaks of that violence to the bar set by Ceremony when Anthony Anzaldo strums the first notes of “Kersed” or when Jake Casorotti starts the kick drum intro to their cover of Red C’s “Pressure’s On”. If I was talking about Joy Division’s many offspring, like in my Cloak and Dagger review, I’d talk about how Ceremony’s “L Shaped Man” is the only derivative of that style worth its weight. If I was talking about what I feel is the spirit of America as expressed in music, I would say it’s when Ceremony plays “Hysteria” and you can almost transport yourself back in time when Bill Haley & His Comets performed “Rock Around The Clock”, it’s that same desperate need to let loose, still in the air after half a century. “…The only young band I’ve seen come close was Ceremony performing “Kersed” at Sound and Fury 2016, when the entire audience erupted when the opening notes of the song

Rolling Loud SoCal 2017 Doses the Youth with the Latest Opiate of the Masses

Rob Shepyer December 23, 2017

Whether you follow and enjoy hip hop or not, you cannot live in 2017 without encountering the sounds of “Trap”, hip hop’s newest anarchist misfit offspring and perhaps its most polarizing subgenre. As a punk and metalhead my whole life, a year ago, I would’ve never predicted I would go to a festival like Rolling Loud SoCal 2017 but now, as a music critic, I don’t think I’d have a credible understanding of modern music without partaking in the spiked Trap kool-aid. Trap music began in the South, the word “Trap” referring to the physical location of a drug deal. Thus, rappers that had drug dealer alter egos became known as trap rappers. The sound’s origins are debatable but what is definite is that it came out of Atlanta, Georgia with ties to the Dungeon, a bare bones recording studio in a basement that has bred artists like Outkast and Future. T.I. claims he invented Trap, others can hear a definite link beginning with Gucci Mane. Then there’s other important proto-trap artists like Soulja Boy and Lil B. But it is perhaps Migos and Future that are the most stolen from artists, with Future creating what is now known as Mumble-rap with songs