Tag: featured
Metallica At The Fonda: Best Thrash Band of All Time or CIA Asset?
Danny Baraz
December 29, 2016
I got the text from Taylor Wong about a week prior. A text that would’ve gone without a shred of excitement or so much as a double take for as long as text messaging technology has existed. “Metallica is playing the Fonda Theater next Thursday.” But after the past few months of one new Metallica track after another being released on YouTube and jogging my consciousness and the very building blocks of my life’s history as a musician and song writer, I quickly started realizing that “Hardwired” was not a one off anomaly or lighthearted but isolated indulgence by the band that wrote “Fight Fire with Fire”, “The Thing That Should Not Be” and “The Four Horsemen.” Is the reemergence of Metallica just a part of the normal, cyclical nature of pop music or is it something more? Could it be that Metallica are covert CIA agents, penetrating the thoughts and emotions of fans to deliver into and infiltrate the sub-consciousness of fans as some type of clandestine alarm clock, coupled with fake news outlets like YourNewsWire and CNN to create a cloud of confusion and disinformation? The U.S. and U.K. both have a history of using the CIA and
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Day For Night Fest: Futurists Of Audio & Visual Converge In Houston
Lindsay Krause
December 26, 2016
Shadowy figures traverse dimly lit concrete walkways, gliding past “High Voltage” warning signs that adorn massive steel boxes hanging from the ceiling. A chain link-fence houses what appears to be some sort of parasitic mass of hair, the fibers hovering above curious crowds of observers like a space creature. A neo-futuristic looking couple decked out in silver metallic platforms, all black skintight clothing and bondage style leather harnesses hold hands as they navigate the industrial landscape and make their way toward the Blue stage. Had I taken the red pill and woken up in the goth haunt Club Hel from the film The Matrix? It certainly felt that way, but I was in fact partying inside Houston’s premier winter music and arts festival, Day for Night. Taking residence in a vacant post office building in the heart of downtown the second edition of the gathering boasted an exclusive Bjork digital exhibit, a highly-anticipated headlining appearance from Aphex Twin (his first set in the U.S. since Coachella 2008), 3 outdoor stages and a multitude of thought provoking light installations. The event is the product of the minds that organize Houston’s Free Press Summer Fest, yet Day for Night offers an experience that
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The Adolescents & The Dickies: Peckerwoods Gone Wild in Orange County
Jessica Moncrief
December 18, 2016
An All-Star Punk line up at The Observatory In Santa Ana included OG Punks The Adolescents, The Dickies, The Alley Cats, and The Crowd. A damn near perfect embodiment of late 70’s and early 80’s SoCal Punk Rock and a throwback to a territorial and cultural dynamic from not that long ago. related content: The Adicts, Reverend Horton Heat, Smut Peddlers at The Observatory Alley Cats were the openers and I was totally looking forward to their set but thanks to a horrible crash involving a big rig that had traffic backed up for 3 hours, I made it into the building right as they were ending their last song. Such a bummer but nothing compared to the carnage we passed on the way there. Alley Cats originally featured husband-and-wife team Randy Stodola (guitar and vocals) and Dianne Chai (bass and vocals), along with drummer John McCarthy, however the current line-up only includes one original member, frontman Randy Stodola. related content: Punk Rock Bowling 2015 and What Is Punk, Poser? Huntington Beach natives, The Crowd, are arguably one of the first and best bands of their genre and they’re well known for their brand of OC surf punk developed in
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The Faint Get Freaky w/ Janky Smooth Sessions Interview
Janky Smooth Central Command
December 15, 2016
In our latest installment of Janky Smooth Sessions, Lauren McKnight successfully stalked The Faint from Orange County to Salt Lake City after their chance encounter outside a porta-potty at Beach Goth V. With this interview taking place just days before Halloween, Lauren had a plan to carve pumpkins with Dapose and Todd Fink of The Faint. It became evident that bringing knives to an interview probably wouldn’t get the band as relaxed as one would want to get them to spill their guts- so to speak… The interview DID get spooky when the boys from The Faint confirmed that their old studio had an overflow of dead bodies stacked in it at one point and when Lauren lost consciousness and started making sandwiches in a comatose state after a strobe light sent her into an uncontrolled seizure. We swear. The fact that this was supposed to be a Halloween special and we’re releasing it mid-December shouldn’t surprise you. Janky is the first word of this publications name- the last word in accessible culture. related content: Beach Goth 2015- The Party of the Year Words: Danny B Videographer: Steven Stone Video Editor: Pedro Torres
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Midnight Mass 2: Dystopian Themed Xmas Fest in an LBC Warehouse
Aria Silva-Espinosa
December 14, 2016
Downtown Long Beach hosted the second edition of Midnight Mass at The Packard, a creative space venue featuring large crystal chandeliers and an outdoor patio space decorated with vibrant murals. The venue’s generous space and even all-gender indoor restrooms set the vibe for the very best of what a DIY music festival can and should be. A 12-hour festival is a lot to put together, but Astro Lizard Records and Freakstyle Booking worked tirelessly to put together a solid lineup with a bit of something for everyone in attendance. As with generally any type of performance, the set times ran a little behind schedule but nobody seemed to mind. The weather was accommodating and a crowd gathered early in the day to watch Nectarines on the outdoor stage a little after 2:00pm. Intense but lighthearted power-punk group Clit Kat, fronted by the ever-charming Mag, took the outdoor stage and revved up our engines for the day with songs about sucking, fucking and having fantasies involving Steve Buscemi. Onlookers passing by on the street even stopped to watch Mag tear it up on stage, with heavy percussion and lyrics that make people delightfully uncomfortable. Clit Kat and some of it’s members,
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The Spits at Union: Trash and Glamour United in Los Angeles
Rob Shepyer
December 13, 2016
Cha Cha chicks and Footsies freaks, Full Time Punx and Part Time Punx, vinyl archeologists, wax wizards- Blundertown has sounded the clarion call and presented to you, on stages made of broken glass and cigarette butts, The Spits at Union Nightclub. This is the first show at Union I’m reviewing, so I’m going to take the opportunity to bathe you in my admiration for that special place. Is it in Crenshaw? Is it in K-town? Do you know it as Union or do you know it as Jewel’s? Do you party on the top, the bottom, or on the smoker’s patio? At any given show, all these places are poppin’ off- lit af. The top floor which hosted our event on this chilly Thursday night is huge, has two bars, plenty of space to chill, flirt, fuck, or just head bang and slam dance your punk puke out of your eyes. It can host a huge “credible” band but opts out of that for the real shit to service the cool kid contingent- and there’s plenty of places to sit… what a fucking concept! The first band to appease the gathering hordes was Dirty and His Fists with a dress
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L7 Slay Troubadour For First Time Ever In Quest For Unfinished Business
Vanessa Burgundy
December 10, 2016
Los Angeles was soaking wet. Drenched and dripping. A cold quiet Sunday…but not at the world renowned Troubadour in West Hollywood. L7 was making history, gracing the stage for the first time in their 31 (!) year career. I almost didn’t make it out, fresh off a raucous and sleepless trip to NYC, but this was the first of two final shows for L7 after a continuous 2 years of touring leading up to the premiere of their documentary “L7: Pretend We’re Dead”. I threw on all black and headed west. I walked into the Troub right as Suzi (Gardner) told the sold-out crowd to tip their waitresses, as she used to be one there. I love L.A. They were only into their 3rd song and the place was already a sweat monstrosity, replete with mini circle pit for a few of the (many) old school heads that came out that night. Donita had her flying V strapped on, Jen (“Precious” Finch) struggled with her tech to get her Misfits bass working and they had a false start the 4th or 5th song in. It was then that I realized they were also wearing all black…they had just returned from
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Peter Murphy’s Flawless “Stripped Down” Set at The Observatory
Jessica Moncrief
December 8, 2016
Our adventure started at The Observatory in Santa Ana—no way could there be any better way to begin our shenanigans than with a “Stripped Down” set by the Bauhaus godfather of goth himself, Peter Murphy. When your Darkside homegirls come to town to catch an icon like Murphy, you prepare yourself for a slightly degenerate, mostly legal, goth girls night out on the town. After waiting for what seemed a lifetime, Peter Murphy made his way to the stage dressed completely in white with glowing, stark white hair to match. None of us have ever quite seem him like this and as if his appearance and voice weren’t enough, he commanded all eyes to the stage during a diva moment when he poured his bottle of water on some dudes head whilst sharply reprimanding him for “talking and drinking beer” during his set. Sorry Peter, if people wouldn’t have been drinking and listening to a DJ spin dance music for an hour and a half while waiting for you, they may have been less drunk and more likely to shoe gaze through your whole set. It’s always fun to see him lose it, though. It made us giggle remembering the
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Your Senses Will Collide at Upcoming Day For Night Festival, Houston
Lindsay Krause
December 7, 2016
“…We can be certain that the military, the B corporate world, the government and so on are going to use tech and I feel it is important that the artist helps define it and mold it. Because who else is going to put humanity and soul into it?” – Bjork via Creative Review related content: Headliners Rule at Outside Lands 2016 We are entering the end times for the traditional music festival model, and Houston’s Day for Night is leading the evolution toward curated immersive digital experiences. Festival titans like Coachella and Bonnaroo rose to infamy over the years by building bigger stages, pulling bigger headliners, and being taken over by big money; sticking with the traditional format which events throughout the world have replicated since the original Woodstock. However, the modern cultural connoisseur is looking to have their perceptions cleansed not only through sound, but through the merging of art, light and technology. Welcome to the future of festivals. related content: 2016 is the Year Coachella Jumped the Shark related content: Coachella: No History in Your Hate Leading this year’s lineup of electronic provocateurs, Day for Night will feature a 5-room digital experience and DJ set by experimental pop
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The Rise of Red Fang, The Hard Rock Resurgence & The Death of Nu Metal
Danny Baraz
December 4, 2016
I went to see Red Fang at The Teragram Ballroom a couple of Sunday’s ago and all I can say is… Dayum! Red Fang, along with Torche and Whores lit up the best sounding venue in town like a Xmas tree. Both by inciting attendees to engage each others arms and elbows in a way that I’ve never seen at the young but formidable Teragram Ballroom and also, dialing in the sound to a miraculous display of live audio that was unprecedented to my ear holes. Every note, fret harmonic, hi hat hit and distorted gumbo of string rakes and 1/16th notes and drum rolls building to a fever pitch- a build up of sonic rhythms synonymous with that crash, chord, combo of controlled catastrophe that defines the end of every great rock song. That thing. That thing was as clear and defined to the naked ear as the most finely produced studio album I’ve ever heard. Clearer, in fact. I mean, without making this review about the sound at The Teragram Ballroom, it not only needs to be said but it needs to be over exaggerated, so as to relay just how perfect that room sounds. And… since I
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DAPL Protests at Standing Rock: A Unified & Disciplined Act of Love
Berry Ward
November 28, 2016
Cannonball ND– I arrived in the heart of the Dakota Access Pipeline, Standing Rock protest epicenter expecting to run straight into a chaotic battle between Native Americans and riot police somewhere in the middle of the road. All I had seen were the videos that had made it into social media feeds of protestors being shot with rubber bullets, maced, and beaten down with clubs but that is all I knew of the situation. I thought it was an ongoing, everyday unrest. No militarized vehicles ever appeared though, other than the occasional sheriff’s deputy passing by, I saw little law enforcement. What did appear as I crossed over a big winding hill, was a vast expanse of tents and tepees down in a flat area where the Missouri River flowed through. These structures covered both shores of the river. The next 11 days would not be what I expected at all. As the corporate media begins it’s task to discredit the protestors as drug addicted partiers that are hardly focused on the pipeline at all, it is the job of all eyewitnesses to give their accounts so that the complicit corporate news media does not achieve it’s goal of destroying public
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Janky Fest I- A Review and Self Inflicted Wound
Janky Smooth Central Command
November 28, 2016
The first installment of Janky Fest on November 19th in Outer Space celebrating the Janky Smooth 2 Year Anniversary featured OG punks The Dwarves last week was super lame. Only a retarded music critic could throw an 18 and over event as a thank you to his all ages readership. Where does this dad rock douche bag Danny Baraz get off booking a large lineup of bands whose local fans couldn’t even attend the event, all because some anxious reactionary in a pseudo DIY venue was scared of pissed off punks in a recently Post-election, President elect, Donald Trump world? Sources tell me that’s literally the initial reason given by the venue for the switch, even though it changed to something a bit less ridiculous in the following days. Clearly, young punks of helicopter parents would breathe fire, shit on the floor and not buy enough beer and liquor because they’re pissed Trump won an election they didn’t even vote in. Zing. I don’t know Danny Baraz at all but he seems like just another privileged “straight white male” (even though Baraz doesn’t sound “white”) mansplaining and curating the injustice in the world through his pseudo intellectual political leanings, which he forces
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