Tag: featured
Enter Freedom’s Goblin- Has Ty Segall Finally Jumped the Shark?
Danny Baraz
February 8, 2018
In 2017, Ty Segall dropped his 9th solo album which was the second album in his catalog to be self titled and a continuation of what I first felt when absorbing Emotional Mugger- PTFS- Post Ty Fatigue Syndrome- I mean, it seemed like a second self titled album might have hinted that the man himself was tiring. His winning song writing formula began to feel formulaic. There seemed to be a concerted effort on Emotional Mugger to redefine himself- and I stress the word effort! The baby mask, the multiple anecdotal accounts of those who would bear witness told tales of Segall licking his finger like a lollipop and sticking it down people’s throats… but more than that… the music, the songs on Emotional Mugger just didn’t grab me like every fucking album he had put out prior. I thought to myself, “that’s ok that this one album didn’t grab me because all 8 albums prior to this grabbed me by the dick!” Besides, I knew there would be a new album to follow in no longer than 12 months that would once again touch my genitals. Enter album 9- Ty Segall. Ty Segall songs played live with whichever configuration
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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
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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
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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,
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The Janky Smooth Top 10 Shows of 2017 Rated by Contributors
Janky Smooth Central Command
January 19, 2018
Above any album or single releases, CONCERTS had to be the best thing about music in 2017. It wasn’t necessarily the dissidence in the air but rather the acts that chose to play in Los Angeles, that made the year so good. Bands like James Chance and The Contortions made their fateful returns to our city after over twenty years of hiding on the East Coast. Audioslave reunited for the first time in ages and tragically ended up simultaneously playing their final show at the Teragram Ballroom. Every band in the Big 4 of Thrash was on tour in 2017. Lets also not forget that Iggy fucking Pop played four festivals and during every set he raged like it was 1987. The concerts were great and somehow the festivals only got better, FYF expanded this year to three days and got Frank Ocean to serenade us like only he can; Desert Daze had King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and Sleep absolutely kill it; and Sound and Fury raged with Trapped Under Ice and Turnstile headlining. I think 2018 will have an impossible time trying to beat 2017 but who knows, Yanni’s on tour. Janky Smooth has listed our best
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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
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The Janky Smooth Top 10 SONGS of 2017 Rated by Contributors
Janky Smooth Central Command
January 15, 2018
Low expectations for politics in 2017 made for high expectations in music and though this year saw revolution and protest turned into memes with albums like Eminen’s Revival, if you look closely, almost every genre had standout artists and a raising of the bar. Even hip hop, which was was dominated by trap artists like Post Malone hitting number 1 on Billboard, had more lyrical artists like Big K.R.I.T., Brockhampton, and Tyler, The Creator come out with career defining work. Metal saw old school bands like Obituary come out with incredible songs while newer ones like Power Trip, released their first true thrash anthem. Punk saw a similar phenomenon happen with Cocksparrer’s new joint and then Career Suicide’s. Even though Trump is our president and the Dodgers lost the World Series in game 7, music in Los Angeles, California in the year 2017 was exceptional, better than 2016. In 2017, the world of music realized it can weaponize quality just because it’s so damn good rather than try to convince us that musical weapons must be quality. This is not about albums or politics though, this is about SONGS. Five minutes of sound that capture the year, two minutes if you’re
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Janky Smooth Top 10 ALBUMS of 2017 Rated By Contributors
Janky Smooth Central Command
January 12, 2018
Year end album reviews remind us at Janky Smooth why we’re so lucky to be covering the underground music scene in Los Angeles. Maybe, if there was no underground and all you could listen to was the chart toppers, then you wouldn’t even think there was anything special about 2017. What we have on our hands is actually a phenomenal year of music. King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard released five albums in 2017… FIVE. King Krule transformed his career with The OOZ. And the direction of entire genres became more clear with releases by future heavyweights, like High-Functioning Flesh to industrial or Ho99o9 to hardcore punk… or is it the hard trap songs by the 999 we should be focusing on? Lets also not forget that Lil B, the Based God, finally blessed us with his much anticipated Black Ken. You can see music veering into more electronic and experimental directions both in the mainstream and underground spheres. Still though, the bands that use traditional instrumentation and vocals only seem to stay truer to their roots. Janky Smooth attempted to whittle down the best of 2017 down to ten albums and here are our expert opinions: TOP 10 ALBUMS OF
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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
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Krautrock Nite With Malcolm Mooney of Can At Echoplex: To Outer Space And Down To Earth
Rob Shepyer
December 15, 2017
On the tapestry of world genres, that hangs in heaven’s music hall, one square is not quite like the others. Krautrock, is an enigma and maverick genre, it was when it was created in Germany and it’s still a mystery till this day. After the war and iron curtain, German artists felt stifled and trapped and wanted to reinvent their reality. I’m sure many musicians living in East Berlin stared up at the sky and decided to make music inspired by the cosmos itself. Krautrock is futuristic and retro at the same time, in other words, it is timeless. Can was a band without hierarchy that brought together jazz, rock, and contemporary classical music together. The music was so new and unique it was almost a political statement. Can was one of Krautrock’s most essential bands, one of the singers of which, Malcolm Mooney, played a rare performance at the Echoplex for Part Time Punks’ annual Krautrock Nite and even though I had just been barraged by a hardcore music festival for two days, I couldn’t miss this show. related content: For The Children 2017 At The Echoplex: Hardcore Is The Gift That Keeps On Giving Opening for Malcolm Mooney was Savage
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For The Children 2017 at The Echoplex: Hardcore is The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Rob Shepyer
December 15, 2017
The holidays are supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year, when you can be among friends and family and give and receive gifts as a sign caring and sharing and loving one another. That’s what it’s supposed to be but for far too many, this is not the case. Who knows just how many thousands of people will be dying on the streets like dogs this christmas. Who knows how many alcoholic fathers will beat their wives in front of their kids. Or how many children will go without any presents at all. Our hopeless situation aside, what if I told you that through thousands of tiny deeds we can save Christmas for a few of those children? That something miraculous could happen, like a bunch of young men and women, strangers, getting together to donate hundreds of toys just because it’s the right thing to do… and because of hardcore. Pure beat down hardcore. Slamming, stage-diving, sing-alonging like your fucking life depended on it hardcore. Christmas saving hardcore. For The Children is an annual hardcore festival spanning two days, now hosted by the Echoplex. The festival was created by Xibalba singer Nate Rebolledo, who was inspired
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Freak Style Booking and KXLU Throw Mexico Earthquake Relief Show At Top Space 2.0
Aria Silva-Espinosa
December 8, 2017
Consistently delivering stacked lineups and solid venues, Freak Style Booking in cooperating with KXLU, organized a benefit show with all proceeds going to earthquake relief efforts in Mexico. At a minimum donation of $7 at the door, the show generated over $1000 for Topo Brigada de Rescate. According to the organization’s website, they are a volunteer organization founded with the purpose of responding to disasters created in response to the 1985 earthquake that registered an 8.1 on the Richter scale. The immense damage pictured next to the ‘Historia’ article bears striking resemblance to recently circulating photos of the damage in Mexico after a 7.1 magnitude hit just northeast of San Juan Roboso in the state of Puebla, Mexico in September of this year. The quake claimed over 200 lives and caused immense destruction and chaos yet went largely unreported by mainstream U.S. media which caused concerned citizens to put pressure on Trump to offer aid. He eventually did but the aid can’t come soon enough for the people of Mexico who have been affected by this natural disaster. Doing our part, we went to check out the show at Top Space 2.0, located in the bowels of South Central. A
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