Tag: featured
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
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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
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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
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Take This: Win 2 VIP Tickets to Burger Boogaloo W/The Jesus and Mary Chain & Amyl and the Sniffers
Janky Smooth Central Command
May 20, 2019
Celebrating its 10th year as one of the most unique and fun weekends in California, Burger Boogaloo is returning to Mosswood Park in Oakland for two nights of the best punk rock you love. From post punk to garage, Boogaloo 2019 has it all with John Waters as the eternal icing on the cake. Can you even imagine how he’ll introduce Amyl and the Sniffers? I’d make my way to Nor-Cal just to hear that. related content: Burger Boogaloo 2017: The Ballad Of John And Iggy Boogaloo 2019 has many firsts and many traditions upheld as far as the lineup is concerned. The Jesus and Mary Chain will be headlining two nights in a row and with a catalogue as extensive as theirs, I’m sure they will be career defining sets, even at this stage of their career. Any mega-fan of the classic, British post punk icons has no excuse not to attend. Some of Boogaloo’s favorites are returning to perform as well such as No Bunny and Shannon and the Clams, Boogaloo just wouldn’t have the same feel as it always does without those two acts ripping through sets and unhinging Oakland into that familiar reckless punk rock zone. related
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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
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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
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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.
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Music Video Premiere: Kali Kazoo Band’s “Take A Dive”
Janky Smooth Central Command
May 14, 2019
Sleater-Kinney, Bikini Kill, step to the side, there’s a new voice bringing the sweet sounds of alternative rock and she’s a turquoise haired animator and brilliant songwriter from El Segundo, California. Kali Kazoo band‘s latest single and music video, “Take a Dive”, give us a glimpse into the mind of Kali Kazoo. The video, directed by Ben Pluimer, uses strong splashes of vibrant color and sun-kissed imagery to bring a psychedelic element to the song and video. A forest full of ordinary people wearing cultists robes really brings out a central theme in Kali’s work: uncovering the mythological in the banal. It’s no wonder she’s been compared to existentialist and insect king, Franz Kafka in the past. I suppose this is what one should expect when cartoonists pick up guitars. Kali Kazoo band’s third album Bleed Darker & Deeper Than The Sea Of Hell, produced by Toshi Kasai (Melvins, Tool), comes out today, May 14th and can be purchased here. The band’s next Los Angeles show will be at Zebulon on July 1st.
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Take This: Win Two Tickets to Kirin J Callinan at the Lodge Room
Janky Smooth Central Command
May 14, 2019
Kirin J Callinan might seem a bit strange to those being introduced to him just now but if you’re paying close attention, you’ll know he’s gearing up for an astronomic rise with a new album that harkens back to the ballads that marked entire eras of music. “Whole of the Moon” is one of those songs and this show will feature plenty of epics off the new album and moments that we think you should witness for yourself. That’s why Janky Smooth is happy to be giving away two pairs of tickets to see Kirin J Callinan’s Lodge Room show. YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR. ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO KIRIN J CALLINAN MAY 21ST AT THE LODGE ROOM 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 Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook Kirin J Callinan Posts WINNER WILL BE WILL BE SELECTED ON FRIDAY MAY 17TH AT 11AM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION
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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
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Take This: Win Two Tickets to Deicide at 1720
Janky Smooth Central Command
May 13, 2019
Holy hell, we are giving away a pair of tickets to see one of the pillars of American Death Metal, the controversial, Deicide. Glenn Benton burned an upside-down cross in his fucking forehead, I challenge any metal band to show that much commitment, or maybe not, actually don’t, please. Still though, I’ve loved Deicide long enough to remember scaring the shit out of my middle school with their T shirts, so it’s an absolute honor to let someone else see the band tear up 1720. YOU CAN BUY TICKETS HERE OR. ENTER TO WIN 2 TICKETS TO DEICIDE MAY 15TH AT 1720 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 Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook Deicide Posts WINNER WILL BE WILL BE SELECTED ON TUESDAY MAY 14TH AT 11AM PST VIA EMAIL CONFIRMATION
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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
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