Tag: featured
Keith Morris Speaks Freely On Lawsuits, Politics & Punk Rock
Danny Baraz
April 25, 2017
Not a lot needs to be said about Keith Morris and his contributions, not only to punk rock music but to the entire culture of “art” itself. I could easily get too wordy in this intro, to this transcript, of a bucket list interview with Morris for the temporarily defunct Janky Smooth and the NSA radio show from this time last year, but why? Everything I could say is in the archives of this interview and in his biography, My Damage I imagine there aren’t too many icons in the world who have remained as authentic and right sized as Keith and the fact that he gave a smaller publication like Janky Smooth one of his first, post lawsuit gag order interviews just speaks volumes about what this man values as an artist. Authenticity can not be feigned in art as easily as it can be in life and it’s rare to talk to someone in any capacity and get the vibe that what you see is what you get- especially when they’re talking about themselves. Most Recent on topic: Redd Kross, OFF! & Melvins Commemorate Teen Babes From Monsanto This interview took place in April of 2016 as one of
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Coachella to The Smell: Are Downtown Boys The Voice We’ve Been Waiting For?
Rob Shepyer
April 25, 2017
My love for punk saxophone brought me to downtown Los Angeles on April 18th to see the mighty Downtown Boys pack The Smell. I had heard about the band from the same Rolling Stone article so many seem to have read that claimed this band was something special in a sudden sea of punk and having experienced their show, I find myself agreeing. Coming from the East Coast, Downtown Boys are a rarity to catch on this side of the country but as fate would have it, Coachella brought them out to punk-up that bland-ass lineup and pop the brand-new Sonora tent’s cherry. Downtown Boys are a political punk band of twenty somethings that embody all the good and bad things about the millennial generation. Hailing from Providence Rhode Island, the band started out of the collaboration between Victoria Ruiz and Joey La Neve DeFrancesco from What Cheer? Brigade. Downtown Boys signify something far greater than the new face of punk- I see their political beliefs becoming the core ideology of the “new left”, making the Smell the perfect venue to host the band. Downtown Boys’ LP is named Full Communism, as if Slavoj Zizek himself had a writing credit.
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A Psych & Synth History w/ Silver Apples For The New Acid Test in SF
Janky Smooth Central Command
April 23, 2017
For all the hate and bad press that San Francisco gets about the infiltration of tech-bro-douchebags ruining its wacky culture and alternative nightlife, its still the only city in the world that can throw a “psychedelic freak-out party” as authentic and trippy as The Acid Test SF’s most recent party featuring the experimental electronic pioneer Simeon Coxe of Silver Apples at The Rickshaw Stop. The Acid Test SF has been organizing these crazy, consciousness-expanding parties around the city since 2015. Of course, its namesake is inspired by Ken Kesey and the Merry Prankser’s famous Acid Test parties in Haight-Ashbury during the summer of love era. The organizers book 1960s, LSD-inspired artists such as San Jose’s garage rock outfit Chocolate Watchband and the LA-born acid rock band Strawberry Alarm Clock. This particular event was at Rickshaw Stop, a quirky venue in the lower Haight with a cozy atmosphere marked by huge red velvet curtains and vintage rickshaws. As soon as I entered the venue, I felt like I’d time-travelled back to a time when the city was still overwhelmed by long-haired hippies with flowers in their hair. The groovy looking crowd had dressed the part so well that I couldn’t tell if
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Fear and Loathing With King Gizzard and Pond at The Hard Rock
Lindsay Krause
April 21, 2017
There’s not much about Las Vegas that ever really appealed to me. Even one with a deep appreciation for the book/film Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas has to remember that Hunter S. Thompson himself acknowledged the city’s role in the abrupt shift during the spread of the 1960’s San Franciscan counterculture. In his famous “wave speech”, he recalled Sin City as “that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back.” However, when the Hard Rock Las Vegas announced an Australian trifecta of King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, POND, and ORB at their poolside stage, I determined the possible waves from an epic whirlpool/moshpit/portal would be more than enough to lure me from Austin out to the desert. Sandwiched between first time Coachella sets for both King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard and POND, the Las Vegas double headliner event comes at a time when both acts are beginning to creep onto a wider world stage. Formed in 2010, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard reportedly chose their name “as a joke”, however, the work ethic of the 7-piece is anything but that. Since their inception, the Melbourne natives have released 9 full lengths, with reported intentions on
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When We Were Young Festival’s Most Dominant Demographic: Mine
Janky Smooth Central Command
April 19, 2017
When We Were Young- We Became Experts at Sneaking In & Cutting Lines I was still hungover from Choking Victim’s secret set in Long Beach at Freebirds Salon twelve hours before, and already running forty minutes late to the festival, when I remembered that I needed to stop at Target and pick up sunscreen and vitamin C. These are the indicators I observe as I age year to year. Chalk it up to experience but the last thing I wanted was to be sun burned and hungover for day two of a very long weekend. My urgency for arrival was based solely on watching The Getup Kids play the soundtrack to my early adolescence and I was not going to let the naivety of Orange County’s ‘Surf Goth’ youth hold me up. I waited in the main entrance line for the When We Were Young festival and watched cigarette packs get emptied out onto the wooden tables, and a barrage of drug paraphernalia get confiscated and disposed of while the newly minted team of hired security guards emptied pockets. It became apparent within minutes that I was going to have to find an alternative entry if I wanted to get in
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Risking Life and Limb to Cover HORSE the band at Union Los Angeles
Taylor Wong
April 14, 2017
A lot of the bands we were listening to in high school are just now hitting their 10-20 year anniversary on their hit albums. There has been a resurgence of bands that many left for dead- but isn’t that the case for almost all popular art? This weekend was a major festival (When We Were Young) who’s entire line up consisted of people I thought were dead or working at Starbucks. The one comeback (although to be honest they may have never left) I was super stoked for was the night before this shit show of a festival, HORSE the Band at Union Night Club. Upon arriving, I instantly ran into Nathan Winneke, singer of HORSE the Band, just hanging out, drinking beers at the merch table, talking with fans and hanging out with his wife. I got the chance to chat with him for a bit before the first band. We somehow got on the topic of Fartbarf playing the show. Nathan told me that apparently, for the last 3 years people have been telling him to book Fartbarf and finally it just happened to work out. We talked about their sound and masks a bit which then took us
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Subhumans On Sunset: Young, Old, Punks, Posers Pay Homage at Los Globos
Todd Anderson
April 13, 2017
On an ordinary Monday night, I walk down East Sunset Blvd with my camera. I dip into the tattoo shop to say hello to a friend as I make my way down the street in the early evening, Los Angeles “magic hour.” There are a few teenage gutter-punk kids smattered randomly around the boulevard as I walk up to Club Los Globos to document the Subhumans gig- there’s no line… I’m early. I stake my position to the right of the stage on a small riser with a column that reaches up to the celling, which proves invaluable later, and I people watch as the crowd fills in through the opening bands. The frantic buzz, the electric anticipation, it all begins to crackle as the notable Oakland band, The Love Songs, finish their set. The club is a mix of every kind of fan imaginable- young, old, punk and the ones that the highly dogmatic call “posers”- just open minded, intellectually curious folks, is all. Even though they know not, they are open to a historic moment when their more well versed friends tell em one is coming- even if they aren’t able to sing along to songs written by
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Sleaford Mods Hit The Echoplex On Last Date Of First Ever U.S. Tour
Rob Shepyer
April 12, 2017
Part Time Punks, Sleaford Mods And Accidental Pop Music What makes a concert special and superior to the rest? It takes more than just the band playing well. Sometimes a bit of coincidence has to be involved to bring all the karmic forces together. On Sunday April 9th, a drunk veered his truck into a bunch of construction vehicles across from the line at The Echoplex. It was omen for the chaos to come. Before I get into the meat of this article and make any pretentious observations about Sleaford Mods, opening bands, punk rock or culture in general, let me begin with writing out the chant that follows the subject of this article everywhere they play. A chant that was repeated over and over by drunken middle-aged men that listen to this band on the car stereo as soon as they drop their kids off at school. Ahem… Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Sleaford Sleaford Mods! Over and over again, I heard this…. Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Sleaford Sleaford Mods! It could drive you a bit loony…. Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Sleaford Sleaford Mods! Right until it gets stuck in your fuckin’ head… Sleaford Mods! Sleaford Mods! Sleaford
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Glenn O’Brien is Dead & The Squares Are Back in Power: The Time to Party is Now
Brent Smith
April 12, 2017
“We are here to drink beer. We are here to kill war. We are here to laugh at the odds, and live our lives so well that Death will tremble to take us.” -Bukowski In the past year, we’ve lost a lot of artists, icons, and legends in series of celebrity death waves the likes of which America hasn’t seen since maybe the 60s. The best of us have been dropping like flies. It weighs on the psyche, some more than others. The recent passing of writer, editor, and host of the bacchanal public access show TV Party, Glenn O’Brien, hit me harder than any. This came even to my own surprise. I spent the weekend mulling it over. Maybe it’s because he wasn’t any household name, most people have never heard of him. Maybe it’s because I felt a closer bond to the understated legacy of O’Brien than say that of Bowie or Prince—figures of such demigod magnitude that they were untouchable. O’Brien was accessible. I’d catch an infrequent Instagram post or the occasional sardonic dig at Trump on Twitter. I looked up to O’Brien, and always will. For me, he’s canonized, and not in any awe, but in
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Power Trip & Destruction Unit Leave The Teragram in Ash & Rubble
Rob Shepyer
April 11, 2017
Being a music and live show junky has made me a frequent visitor to the Teragram Ballroom. Quite simply- it’s the shit. Big stage. Perfect acoustics. Good booking. Excellent bathroom and bar placement. I’ve noticed though, they don’t have many metal shows. So, it’s a shame for the venue that the one time a metal band gets booked, Power Trip rolls into town with Destruction Unit and just completely leveled the venue into rubble. Power Trip is probably one of the best young bands to carry the thrash torch after the big 4. In fact, along with Iron Reagan, Toxic Holocaust, and Havok, they’re part of the new big 4. That said, I came to see Destruction Unit. Destruction Unit was close to becoming the Berkserktown house band after tearing down the house at 2 but then being unable to play at Berserktown 3. The void Destruction Unit left for Berserktown 3 gave me that disturbed feeling in my gut, that burning desire that you get only when you miss a band you want to see because of circumstances beyond your control. You wait at the edge of your seat, for years sometimes, waiting for them to announce the next show
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The Orwells And L.A.’s Rocker Red Carpet At Regent Tour Stop
Paige Vreede
April 10, 2017
Mario Cuomo, frontman for The Orwells does not give a fuck what song you want to hear – he just wants to play good music and good music is exactly what him and his compatriots delivered last Thursday at The Regent alongside No Parents and The Walters. Despite all three bands delivering a slightly different sound, the one thing they all shared in common was their rousing ability to cut loose and cavort on the rising star friendly stage at The Regent. One thing we love is the red carpet that is rolled out for every rock and roller by this global community in independent music- which is particularly defined for and fighting the stigma of phoniness in Los Angeles with every hospitable act and selfless key bump. Arriving to the venue at 9:30pm, I was greeted by angsty teens pushing and shoving while howling the words “You got snaked” under the elegant arches of The Regent. With most of their songs coming in as a two minute blow to the face, I could have easily missed No Parents entire set seeing as they opened the show at the early hour of 9pm- at least I didn’t miss it all. related
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New Song Premiere: U.K. Heavy Psych Band SAP release “Sucker”
Janky Smooth Central Command
April 7, 2017
A band that we’ve been digging is London based, heavy psych, garage rock outfit, SAP. Our friends at Foxes Magazine shot us a link a couple months ago and this shit has been streaming ever since. Today we premiere the latest track, “Sucker” from SAP ( which stands for “Simple Ass People” ) SAP Sucker unleashes a frenetic energy of crash cymbals, fills and taunting vocals built around classic riffs and licks. The tone of their fuzz brings that vintage sound that has become quite common and even, contemporary but still manages to set itself apart from the filler of those looking to capitalize on a popular movement. Authenticity is what distinguishes a band like SAP and a song like “Sucker” from the wannabe’s that have become super fans of The Sonics and Thin Lizzy overnight, which, isn’t inherently poseur-ish but simply stretches credibility and the motives of those that write and produce music for any reason outside of an internal compulsion to rock the fuck out. related content: The Sonics, The Sloths, Death Hymn Number 9 w/ Green Slime L.A. We here at Janky Smooth will keep our third eye on Simple Ass People and their output to continuously verify that
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