Lawrence Rengert
The Lemon Twigs At Teragram: A Tale Of Two Brothers
Lawrence Rengert
October 31, 2017
Looking for parking in Los Angeles is something you spend a lot of time doing. I was on my way to see The Lemon Twigs and glad I had left early. As I cruised the streets looking for a spot to put my car, I ended up in my teenage neighborhood. Fitting, as the band I was about to see just graduated from high school. Lucas and Maryland was a pretty rough area back in the day but now was starting to look more like Los Feliz twenty five years ago, with it’s own nightlife strip just three blocks South on Wilshire. The outstanding difference between my teenage years and the ones the Lemon Twigs have led is that my friends and I spent most of our time drinking and talking about what we wanted to do, the Lemon Twigs have simply done it. The Lemon Twigs are that band who should not be where they are at their age. The first time you hear their music you think, ‘Yeah but who’s really writing these songs? Who’s really playing them? There is no way this could be the work of a seventeen and nineteen year old,’ but it is. They
Read More
Jacco Gardner at The Echo: Psychedelic Scientist
Lawrence Rengert
July 3, 2015
I remember the first time I saw the band Sleep play in San Francisco. There they were in all their glory, long before the 2nd, 3rd or even 4th wave of psychedelic, heavy or stoner rock got a foot hold. What was amazing about them is I kept wanting to say “wow this band is just like Black Sabbath,” but then correcting myself I realized, “no this band IS Black Sabbath.” From their Green Amps made for Sleep (just like the Orange Amps made for Black Sabbath) every aspect of their music, appearance and presentation screamed Sabbath and they did not disappoint. In the exact same way, the first time someone put on the music video for ‘Clear the Air’, the first single by Jacco Gardner on Excelsior-Recordings, I was convinced it was the second coming of Pink Floyd. Not just as an influence, but as a reincarnation; conjured into existence from the UFO Club in London, 1966. In fact, Jacco Gardner looks a tiny bit like a smaller, younger and more attractive Roger Waters. From his spectacular colored light show to the Farfisa-esque harpsichord via modern day Korg synthesizer, Jacco takes you directly back to the earliest days of the
Read More
“It’s Important To Be Sincere”- Jonathan Richman at The Monday Club
Lawrence Rengert
June 23, 2015
There is something simultaneously heartbreaking and inspiring about seeing a broke legend like Jonathan Richman. I remember years ago getting a call from our friend Hollis (the drummer from Boss Hog) about a secret show. The Jon Spencer Blues Explosion would be the surprise opener for Ike Turner in Manhattan. Of course tickets were like $50 because it was at BB King’s Blues Club, but we paid it. What I remember more than the jaw dropping-ness of Ike’s guitar playing, was an overwhelming sense of sadness that Rock ‘n’ Roll’s originator had been all but forgotten. The man who recorded Rocket 88 on Chess Records in 1951, 2 years before Elvis, played that night to a pathetically small crowd for a no name label release party. And yet…he wasn’t going to let that stop his greatness. He still showed up, smiled, told jokes, played and still humbly thanked the handful of loyal fans who had each paid to see him; something tragic and at the same time noble. Seeing Jonathan Richman in the alley beside The Monday Club venue in San Luis Obispo felt like that. There was Jonathan, a few hours before show time, in a gold minivan, front
Read More
Concert for Social Justice: Can Music Still Change the World?
Lawrence Rengert
April 10, 2015
Words: Lawrence Rengert Photos: Rebecca Sapp Driving into Hollywood is strange; it still feels weird after all these years, creepy and dirty but also a part of my history, my childhood, my home. I’ve lived in New York and New Orleans, Paris and Amsterdam and nothing is as perverse and life shattering as Hollywood. It’s like driving into the worst and best part of your life all at the same time. I am permanently scarred from the years I lived there but the memories, friendships, loves and tragedies left another kind of mark; the kind that elevated my ability to rapidly adapt and survive. I am grateful that Hollywood forced me to reveal my character at such a young age (more out of desperation than any kind of nobility), but I kind of hate that I can still go back there. Some places are better left in the rearview mirror. The truth is…I was actually really looking forward to seeing Jackson Browne at The Concert for Social Justice tonight. I grew up with the Running on Empty album and he’s remained a guilty pleasure of sorts. You probably remember Jackson Browne as a sort of late 70’s American soft rock. What
Read More
Panache Spring Fling at The Echo: Jacco Gardner, Ultimate Painting, The Entrance Band and more…
Lawrence Rengert
April 2, 2015
Two nights ago I was at one of the most unglamorous dive bars in Ventura, a show organized for label mates of Jacco Gardner, The Miseries. The place was dark and smelly with dartboards and bikers, prostitutes (I may have only imagined them), a guy even took off his pants going full frontal and a bartendress showed up late, but just in time to direct security around the bar as girlfriends threw Q balls at boyfriends heads. Los Angeles garage sensations The Cigarette Bums were opening up but there was something special about that night and the willingness of the bands to play a show there, in that semi-dangerous and remote spot. There was something special about it because nothing was being handed to anyone and each band would have to work the crowd (most of whom knew nothing about these bands or the musical styles they played), fight to be heard, deal with the worst sound equipment imaginable, everything was running late and it was still an unknown if the last band of the evening would even have enough time to play. There was something tragic, yet beautiful and romantic about it, it was a great show. Today I
Read More
Did the Melvins play a free show at Permanent Records to support Buzz’s vinyl habit?
Lawrence Rengert
January 6, 2015
A free Melvins show at Permanent Records, I was in! A great mentor of mine once told me you can always tell who the best artists are because no one shows up at their gallery receptions. That art world metaphor seemed non-translatable today because 2 hours before the Melvins performance at Permanent Records, there were already 25 people outside in line. In fact, about an hour before the doors opened there was a queue down the block and into the Post Office parking lot. It looked like those who didn’t opt to “get there early” wouldn’t be getting in at all. The Melvins are that band who should have disappeared a long time ago- Disintegrated, vanished. Their amps are so damn loud they, at the very least, should have at some point been vaporized. I can’t think of a band that has played more concerts, gone through as many lineup changes, become huge, been dropped out a window, suffered the downside of drug addiction and yet, been able to keep things in perspective, move beyond it, keep making music, not broken up and still came out of it all laughing. And…if you go to a Melvins concert be prepared to
Read More
Josh Schwartz benefit at the Echoplex: L.A.’s Feel Good Moment
Lawrence Rengert
December 23, 2014
A few weeks ago I was in Highland Park and stopped by Brent Rademaker’s house. He gave me the low down on his new project, Gospel Beach but casually dropped that there was an unannounced benefit planned to aid an ailing local music legend, Josh Schwartz, who had been diagnosed with ALS. It was going to be a reunion of sorts, bands whose heyday had come and gone would perform just this one show to raise money for Josh’s out-of-the-country treatments, an experimental hope that his debilitating condition could somehow be stopped, healed, cured or reversed. Several of these bands hadn’t played in years, but the names are familiar: Beachwood Sparks, Summer Hits w/ Ariel Pink, The Tyde. Josh had some hand in the creation or promotion of each one, was a mentor or added his guitar parts. In fact, Josh had been a magnet for several people and they would speak of him at the concert as “the only meaningful person they met in LA” or “the guy who recorded my first album” or “the best guitar player in Los Angeles.” There would also be a select few newer bands playing. Mostly very young garage types from Orange County;
Read More