Category: SHOWS

Finally, A Ska Review: Less Than Jake At The Teragram

Rob Shepyer October 14, 2017

We here at Janky Smooth cover every genre of rock and hip hop but sometimes, certain styles of music slip between the cracks and don’t get their due. This year I’ve seen everything from “New German Death Art” to “Brass House” to “Trap Jazz” to “Metal Gaze”, so I felt like a huge piece of music would be missing if I didn’t go to a ska show. Less Than Jake might be a little more pop punk fusion than just straight ska, but still, I got my fix of horns, fedoras, checkers, and skanking. Pop punk gets a lot of hate from raw punk fanatics but as a former frat boy, I see the charm in pop punk. I might’ve hated those bands in high school when Pantera and Slayer was all I listened to but now, give me a beer and some friends, and I’ll happily indulge in nostalgia. Not to mention, all the pop punk musicians and fans that I know can out-drink and out-fight most of the “real” punk fans and musicians I know. Pop punk kids are usually blue collar, down home, cool mother fuckers. related content: Jawbreaker At Riot Fest: The Moment I Stopped Hating Pop

The Battle of The Bays: Obituary & Exodus Clash At Teragram Ballroom

Rob Shepyer October 12, 2017

Thrash is the father of every form of extreme metal on the heavy metal family tree. If it wasn’t for Slayer there would be no death metal or black metal. There have always been bands that have teetered on the border of death and thrash metal, german thrash bands like Kreator and Sodom brought death metal vocals and heaviness into thrash, while bands like Obituary brought thrash metal accessibility and groove into death metal. Perhaps that was always the secret to Obituary’s longevity, of all the original Florida death metal bands, beginning with Chuck Shuldiner’s Death then continued with Morbid Angel and Deicide, Obituary is the only band of the bunch still reigning. What separated Obituary’s music from these other bands is that they took a more accessible, groove and rhythm approach to death metal, it wasn’t a total noise fest of blast beats and guttural vocals. The band was always more seeped in their southern rock roots than the rest. Almost like how Weedeater is to stoner metal. related content: Weedeater And The Obsessed At The Regent: Blaze It Up, Fool The Florida death metal sound was born out of Tampa Bay in the Morrisound Recording studio but then

Andrew WK Preaches The Party Philosophy At The Regent Theater

Rob Shepyer October 10, 2017

How can anyone not like Andrew WK? No matter what kind of music you’re into, if you go to his show, you will be moved to move, dance, shout, jump, and of course, party. That’s what AWK is a master of, getting everyone in a room on his side no matter who they are, why they’re there, or where they come from. If you’re not a fan, just give Andrew 5 minutes of your time and I’m sure you’ll see the light. related content: Front 242 And Severed Heads Bring Classic Industrial To The Regent Theater Like most people my age, I discovered Andrew WK from his collaboration with the Jackass crew, where the single “We Want Fun” was debuted with the original Jackass movie all the way back in 2002. Fifteen years later, the lasting power and stamina of Andrew WK’s chops and career are truly uncanny. His nose has been bleeding for twenty years and still, he shows no signs of aging or slowing down. How can he do this you might ask? Mind over matter and music of mind, that is the answer. He practices the “party philosophy” in order to reach “party consciousness”. Andrew WK takes

Chelsea Wolfe: She-God of Luciferian Witches And Other Soul Harvesters At The Regent

Rob Shepyer October 1, 2017

Chelsea Wolfe dresses in black. The color simply knows how to fall correctly upon her body. She feels comfortable in black and black feels comfortable on her. With her pale skin and thousand mile cold-detached stare, I don’t ever think I’ve seen a closer resemblance to a mythical siren grace a stage. And I certainly never figured sirens could play a mean doom guitar. Chelsea’s latest album, Hiss Spun is a beautifully grueling venture into the darkness of down tuned metal guitar and noisy wall of sound electronics to make what is best described as doom blues, as opposed to doom metal. I’ve never heard doom sound as rhythmical or groovy as I did beholding Chelsea and her band at the Regent. Her drums and guitars can thrash at intense speeds and make you dance while never departing out of the doom realm. It requires some kind of forbidden alchemy and golden arithmetic to achieve that balance. I see a lot of artists trying to create a similar image to hers, trying to introduce a certain level of “evil” into a mainstream bluesy sound. I don’t think anyone pulls it off quite as well though, the others seem like caricatures,

Front 242 And Severed Heads Bring Classic Industrial To The Regent Theater

Rob Shepyer September 29, 2017

Cold Waves and Das Bunker joined forces to create one hell of a concert bill for a Wednesday night. Belgian innovators of EBM, Front 242 and Australian industrial icons, Severed Heads shared a stage for this incredible evening of dark, electronic music. Both groups are legends in the world of industrial but their performing styles couldn’t be any more different. related content: Psychic TV Experiment With Auditory Alchemy At The Echoplex The Regent was filled with goth kids, Skinny Puppy shirts abound. I eavesdropped on a few conversations and they were all talking about careers in game development. Das Bunker DJs were spinning some tracks as we waited for the opening act which I parked right in front of the stage for. The first thing I noticed about the stage set-up was the red roses strewn all over the electronic decks. I imagined with a name like Romy, they’d be an act with some kind of romance or romeo reference but came to learn she was no male heartthrob or heartbreaker. She was in fact an extraordinarily talented artist and might just be a female Trent Reznor in utero. Utilizing synths and drum machines, Romy makes incredibly catchy, hard-hitting and dark,

Psychic TV Experiment With Auditory Alchemy At The Echoplex

Rob Shepyer September 27, 2017

After Rebellion is Over‘s atrocious Regent performance for the Dais Records 10 year anniversary show, I felt that Genesis P-Orridge needed to redeem herself in my eyes. Up until that show, I had regarded her as a soothsayer, a psychic siren of sorts, a mystic… but that show, was fatally pretentious. So many classic artists still touring in their golden years seem like a shadow of their former selves. They don’t move as much on stage. The singer can’t hit the same notes. And fans never remember the band at their best, they remember the band how they left the building, either riding into the sunset or falling flat on their face. That said, I’d wait to see Psychic TV before making my verdict. related content: Dais’ Records 10 Year Anniversary Party: The Dark Fruits Of Persistence I became a fan of Psychic TV after I saw them headline night 1 of Berserktown 2016 by playing their debut album “Force The Hand Of Chance” in its entirety. They were marvelous. It’s hard not to stun an audience when you get to perform songs as beautiful as those. Songs like “Just Drifting” and “Stolen Kisses“. Psychic TV is not just a

Jawbreaker At Riot Fest: The Moment I Stopped Hating Pop Punk

Danny Baraz September 21, 2017

Sometimes, a live music moment catches you off guard and hits you so hard that you are overcome with the feels- a band or a song that summons a moment in time, a relationship, a victory or a defeat- you are instantly transported to that time and place with a chord, or a riff or a melody. As a reliable concert crier, I typically have a pretty good idea when that moment is coming. Before the show starts, before I get to the venue and even before tickets go on sale, as soon as a show is announced, I know. But The Misfits as the marquee headliners of Riot Fest 2016 and up to this past Sunday when Jawbreaker were the belles of the ball known as Riot Fest 2017, it redefined the criteria for the eligibility of what makes those moments and what don’t and redefined how I reconciled my musical identity- yeah, Jawbreaker were that good. related content: The Misfits At Riot Fest Chicago 2016: Bats In The Press Tent I was 14 In 1990 when Jawbreaker’s first album, Unfun was released. It was the same year the *greatest speed metal album of all time was unleashed and

Perturbator, Author & Punisher: Using Devices To Debase Regent Theater

Rob Shepyer September 19, 2017

Electronic music allows a single artist to take on all the working parts of a band because those parts become synthesized in their machines. The electronic revolution has opened up new opportunities and avenues for artists who might not have ever been interested in picking up a guitar- and that’s no slight against EDM artists (up until this night I was under the impression that EDM was the Pop style of electronic music, at large). The point of music isn’t just to wow you and me with virtuosic and technical playing- it’s to express ones soul and if electronics help an artist do that more purely and directly then it’s a good thing. In this sense, Jim Morrison was right when he predicted the future of music would consist largely of one person and an arsenal of components. So if in Morrison’s mind’s eye he had an image of what that future would actually LOOK like, I doubt it would’ve differed too much from what I saw at The Regent Theater when Perturbator, Author & Punisher and Whiteqube were booked to showcase a different kind of electronic music than what you might imagine when you see the letters E D

Chameleons Vox At The Echoplex: Sorrow Never Sounded So Sweet

Rob Shepyer September 14, 2017

I’ve been fiending HARD for death rock ever since I read this bandcamp article exposing me to the bigger bands in the small dark punk revival scene. One of those bands I discovered was The Wraith and they were playing in support of Theatre of Hate at Part Time Punks. It was one of those rare occasions where I was just as stoked for the opening band as the headliner. Fast forward to a few weeks later, and Theatre of Hate gets stricken with visa issues, stranding the band in Europe so Chameleons Vox gets added to the bill after their show the night before sells out. Now with two British goth bands from the 80’s playing, this booking became an accidental powerhouse bill. Part Time Punks did it yet again, Michael Stock might just be the best promoter in this town for this whole, “rare vinyl come to life” thing Part Time Punks has going on. I waited for The Wraith as the fog machine’s outpour of haze consumed me and the stage. The Wraith is led by East Los Punk turned death rocker Davey Bales, who started the set by polishing off a plastic bottle of TAAKA vodka,

It’s Not Dead Fest 2: New Hope For Punks w/ Rancid, Dropkick Murphys, OFF!

Janky Smooth Central Command September 13, 2017

It had been two years since the first It’s Not Dead festival (which boasted punk rock legends such as The Descendents, Pennywise and Bad Religion) and the bar was set pretty high for its return. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get off work until 2 pm on that day but even by that morning nobody knew what the set times were going to be as the festival’s curators refused to release them until the minute doors were open at noon. A decision that I found somewhat annoying but I understood it encouraged people to arrive early to see as many bands as possible. As soon as I was able to see the schedule I was disappointed to discover that there was no way I was going to make it to the Glen Helen Amphitheater in San Bernardino in time to catch The Flatliners’ 3 pm start time. Cutting my losses, I hit the road after swinging by my house to grab my gear and change into more festival friendly clothes in hopes of arriving before The Buzzcocks took the stage later in the afternoon. related content: Punk Rock Bowling 2017: You Can’t Be What You Were

Hurricanes in Florida, Earthquakes in Mexico & Quicksand in L.A. At Teragram

Rob Shepyer September 12, 2017

The Teragram Ballroom was sold out for NYC post hardcore band Quicksand’s return to Los Angeles. Filled with old hardcore heads, I was confident the slam-dance-worthy music wouldn’t be able to draw violence out of these gen-x’ers but boy was I wrong. All it takes is one pit psycho to reintroduce danger into rock and roll and force you to put up your dukes or feel like a bitch. related content: Thee Oh Sees And The Practical Applications Of Quantum Physics It began with an album announcement, their first in 22 years. The first single off Interiors, “Illuminant“, sounds just as heavy and groovy and hardcore as anything Quicksand has ever put out and after seeing them live, you really get the sense that bands just can’t make music this good anymore. Montreal’s No Joy opened the night as the only supporting act. They’re a shoegaze three-piece with minimalist vocals, if any during songs. Their rapid drumming and twin six string attack fosters a lunatic lucidity which is different than the rest of the shoegaze flock. No Joy sounds best when they play fast unlike most gaze acts that keep it slow. That said, I wish No Joy dabbled more in the

Before ANTIFA, There Was Crust: Doom Celebrates Dirty 30 At The Regent

Rob Shepyer August 26, 2017

Anarchism and Anti-Fascism seem to have found a new seat, front and far-left-of-center, in the public forum. That seat is occupied by the political movement that has adopted those principals in the fight against Donald Trump known as ANTIFA. Their highly publicized clashes with the far-right might be what’s making news these days but if you know their ideology, one has to see its parallels with Crust Punk. The value system professed by many of ANTIFA’s members are rooted in the deconstruction of the “male dominator system” that is the basis of civilization as we know it. Monogamy, capitalism, binary gender, racial hierarchy, monotheism (especially in the Christ variety), and more, traditions most baby anarchists are born into, are all part of the “male dominator system”. Breaking away from the values you are born into is often a violent experience and what’s left of you after the fact, might just be a person damaged enough to become a crust punk. If you accept your crusthood, the proper thing to do is drop out (of life), never shower, and hop on the next train going nowhere. So what’s the difference between ANTIFA and crust punk culture? On the surface, it’s really

Category: SHOWS

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