Paige Vreede
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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Desert Daze 2016: Quantifying the Physics Of A Good Time
Paige Vreede
October 19, 2016
It has been a common sentiment amongst those that I’ve questioned about their time at Desert Daze 2016, that it was the most meaningful festival experience they’ve ever had. Same question. Same answer. Young, old, audiophiles, casual music fans, frequent festival attendees and those that loathe the format. Almost every person I spoke to this weekend gave me a variation of the same answer to my question- “Desert Daze 2016 is the best festival I’ve ever been to. And no, I can’t quite explain what it is or what makes me feel that way.” But given that I’m a writer and my actual purpose here is to attempt to take a photograph of this festival with my words, I will make an attempt to do so. My fear is that attempting to quantify the sentiments could steal some of it’s magic, almost like the Native American belief that if someone takes a photograph of you, it steals a piece of your soul. How would you describe the onset of love or a faith in G-d or religious ideology- It just is. And if you’re saying to yourself that is a bit over the top or hyperbolic, you’re right.. To describe the how or the why,
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Janky Smooth Sessions: Cosmonauts Interview By The Lake
Paige Vreede
October 5, 2016
It’s 4pm on a sunny Saturday afternoon and I’m running amuck at Echo Park Lake trying to track down Cosmonauts, Derek Cowart and Alex Ahmadi after all of our phones died at the exact same time. I saw the boys at a gig the night before so I figured if they were anywhere nearly as hung over as I was, I could probably find them lounging in the shadiest part of the park. Past zooming Pokémon goers on skateboards, beyond the tempting smell of corn on the grill, towards a playground full of screaming children, I spotted two dudes in space-age, senior citizen style sunglasses amongst a group of a dozen 20-something year olds enjoying a picnic. We eventually find a quiet spot of our own to sit down and enjoy a couple of beers and homemade brownies, (no, unfortunately they were not the “special” kind) and discuss weird fan experiences, their recent album release of A-OK! and why having accordions for legs is better than having a ten inch belly-button. Their fourth full-length album A-OK! was released in August, via Burger Records, and it is everything the Cosmonauts have always promised their fans. Its shoe-gaze, its psychedelic, its
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Video Premiere: Sloppy Jane- Aunt Rosie’s Garden
Paige Vreede
August 15, 2016
If you’ve ever seen L.A. based, “vomit-inducing,” Sloppy Jane live, you’d know they’re not afraid of pushing boundaries. Their performances come replete with nudity, green spit/vom, and unapologetic dance moves. If you have yet to see them on stage, you can catch them in all their fucked up glory with the premiere for music video of “Aunt Rosie’s Garden” off their 2015 Sure-Tuff album, exclusively here on Janky Smooth. What better way to start the weekend than watching someone uncomfortably touch themselves while feeling completely and utterly disturbed by it? The Blair Witch styled video is tainted with creepy subliminal messages and puts you in a state of discomfort you haven’t felt since *salad fingers. Hayley Dahl and Sara Cath awkwardly dance and push one another adorned in a red fur coat and a shirt that reads “Hayley Dahl is a mean mean whore” I’m not entirely sure about Dahl’s family history, but this Aunt Rosie character seems like a total dickhead to the tune of, “taking a stroll through Aunt Rosie’s garden you are hungry or starving she’ll feed you her thorns” While it may look like someone could have seriously been murdered in the making of this video, thankfully Dahl walked
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Dirty Penni Fest: A Rock and Roll Romper Room For Young and Old
Paige Vreede
July 27, 2016
Los Angeles is a mecca for DIY events, especially in the Summer and this past Saturday Penniback Records and Dirty Laundry TV teamed up to put on hybrid “Dirty Penni Fest”, at you guessed it, The a Echo and The Echoplex. Teenagers would get nine hours of freedom and independence with headlining acts such as Cherry Glazerr, No Parents, and Guantanamo Baywatch. But it wasn’t just the youths who were permitted to have a good time… Mike Watt and the Missing Men were also on the bill. Whaaaaaat?! When I was first asked to cover it, I honestly approached my editor with great hesitancy in agreeing to spend an entire day drenched in 18-year-old sweat. Most of the aversion I have with these type of events is a bi-product of me getting older, music festivals increasing popularity and my progressively shortened temper to be around nihilistic teens. Alas, I agreed to it anyhow, and holy shit I am glad I did. Though there were some incredible bands that kicked off the shenanigans at noon, I knew if I had arrived early, by the time the headlining acts were to go on I would be too exhausted to care or too drunk
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Yankee Smooth: A Day in the U.K. With The Blank Tapes
Paige Vreede
May 26, 2016
It’s been quite a journey being in London. There are 8,539,000 people living here, yet it is one of the loneliest cities I have ever been to. Upon discovering that The Blank Tapes were coming to town, I was exuberant with joy knowing I would finally get the chance to see some familiar faces. It was a Tuesday evening and they were playing at a venue, The Shacklewell Arms, which is conveniently just down the street from where I currently reside. I couldn’t count the minutes fast enough for when I’d be able to see them. Their show started at 9:45pm and at approximately 9:00pm, I heard American accents emerging from my kitchen. A tall, shaggy blonde haired dude walked up to me and got half way through an introduction before he realized, he in fact, definitely knew me. Oh Mr. Matt Adams was just living up to his stoner persona. Ironically, my housemate was invited to fill in on the drums mid-way through the blank tapes tour, and they had made already made arrangements for the band to stay at ours. It was a pleasant surprise seeing Adams walk through the door of my place and it only furthered my excitement in seeing them perform. Once entering the venue, I was
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Lolipop Your Heart Out Festival Was Like Sex and Pizza
Paige Vreede
February 10, 2016
Ever have sex with someone and after about ten minutes in you realize both parties are only continuing the sexual activity purely based on the hope that the other person might find slight enjoyment out of it? Realistically, you both want to just high five and call it a good attempt but you go through the motions in hopes that one of you MIGHT climax? Yeah, that’s sort of how Lolipop Your Heart Out went at The Teragram Ballroom. I’m still unsure as to whether the energy and outcome was so low due to the 5pm start time- primetime to still be recovering from Friday nights hangover. Or perhaps it was because the entrance price was $26, which can be a lot for a starving artist who’s living in a city that is gentrifying and going up in rental price at an absurdly rapid rate. Maybe it could’ve even been because the One Oh freakin’ One was closed on a Saturday afternoon (I call shenanigans!). Whatever the reason for the small crowd, it was mildly disappointing to see such a small turn out for what should’ve been an epic evening brought to you by Lolipop Records. Janky Smooth did a series
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Confessions of a Miami Horror Convert From The El Rey
Paige Vreede
December 8, 2015
It was a Wednesday evening and after a day of uni, interviewing a band, and transcribing that interview, the last thing I wanted to do was go to an overly positive, hyperactive pop show. Exhaustion and trepidation aside, I decided to head to the El Rey Theater to see Melbourne-based four piece, Miami Horror play alongside Slow Hands and Queen Magic. With the promise of Red Bull + vodkas compliments of Taylor Wong, and the knowledge that Australians like to have a good time, I figured what was the worst that could happen? Answer: I could walk into an (almost) empty venue and lose all motivation for wanting to be there. The beautiful El Rey theater had minimal stragglers roaming about and a few individuals even occupied the idea of sitting on the dance floor. In all fairness, we did show up before the first act went on, and very seldom do opening acts get the love they deserve, but still, the vast emptiness of the room set the precedent for what I thought was going to be an extremely dull evening. Queen Magic (also Melbourne based), who strikingly reminded me of Freddy Mercury (it may have just been the
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Buzz Bait: An Interview with The Gooch Palms
Paige Vreede
December 5, 2015
It was an ordinary Wednesday night at the Cambridge hotel in Newcastle, Australia when vivacious musician Leroy McQueen first met mega babe, Kat Friend. Four years after meeting, the power couple decided they wanted to make music together. What started with just a bucket, a tambourine, and a guitar soon evolved into The Gooch Palms- multiple Australian tours, two American tours (with slots at places such at SxSW) and a forthcoming tape with Burger Records. The small-town duo blew up quickly and their infectious tunes certainly deserve to be well known. If you haven’t had the chance to catch them on their tour, do not fret, you can still catch one of their action packed shows (which usually results in nudity) TONIGHT, Dec 5th at The Echo for The Gooch Palms Burger tape release, alongside The Memories and The High Curbs. The Gooch Palms play their buoyant tunes with great enthusiasm and they are definitely a band not to miss. I had the pleasure of sitting at Echo Park Lake with them and a pack of Coopers and Tim Tams (if you haven’t experienced the pleasures of these Australian delicacies then I feel bad for you, son) to discuss their US tour, their upcoming
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FIDLAR Put Razor Blades In My Candy At The Regent
Paige Vreede
November 5, 2015
If you didn’t celebrate your Halloween at The Regent Theater, you pretty much fucked up. Big time. FIDLAR, Dune Rats, and Mind Meld satisfied our ears and exorcised our afflictions with their garage-punk and party sound. It being the last show of their US tour, one could expect nothing less than chaos. Upon entering the venue dressed as a ghost, it was to my surprise that nobody else was dressed up. I figured “fuck it dog life’s a risk” and rocked that shit anyway. Halloween décor adorned the walls and the vibe of the room was that of a wild house party. The sold out audience mostly consisted of crowd-surfing and head-banging youths who were drenched in sweat and beer. To begin the evening, psychedelic surf rockers, and LA natives, Mind Meld took the stage. Due to some Uber complications, I was unable to see them and was highly disappointed as they are most definitely up-and-coming in LA’s music scene. There is no doubt that they will be headlining their own shows soon, and I look forward to seeing the talented quartet then. Hailing from Brisbane, Australia, quintessential stoner dudes, Dune Rats took the stage next. As someone who used to
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The People, Bands and Fashion of Beach Goth 4
Paige Vreede
October 30, 2015
With an incredibly diverse lineup including Juicy J, Mac Demarco, The Adicts, Grimes, and Parliament Funkadelic, it is no surprise that the crowd Beach Goth 4 attracted was nothing but a circus of ghouls, goblins and fashion. In this environment anything goes. During FIDLAR’s set on day two, the heterogeneity of this eclectic crowd was seemingly apparent. Mia Wallace’s and Wednesday Adams encircled a pit in which every character imaginable was welcome to. Two grown men in sunhats and summer dresses shamelessly cavorted about tossing trash cans at one another. A gal adorned in full raver gear stomped around the pits edge, right next to a 20-something year old in 90’s attire who was helping a painfully obvious drunk brosef who had fallen down amongst the madness. As the name suggests, beach kids and angsty goths were both welcomed. Walking amongst the Beach Goth 4 crowd was like being on a drug trip in some far away land that doesn’t actually exist. One could easily spot Hunter S. Thompson exchanging words with a petite girl sporting a penis costume on her head, and the quintessential good-looking woman dressed as “a mouse duh” could be caught hanging with that one weird
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Passion Of The Weiss 10 Year Anniversary at The Echo
Paige Vreede
September 13, 2015
The Echo was transformed on Sunday when prolific music writer, Jeff Weiss, held a ten-year anniversary party for his blog, Passion Of The Weiss. The event was far different from the indie shows that are typically hosted at The Echo. From 4pm to 2am, rappers from all over the country came almost as quickly as they went off The Echo stage, spitting lines over fat beats. The lineup included both already established and up-and-coming artists, as well as three “secret guests”. Gone were the beards and tattoos normally associated with The Echo and in came the overuse of cologne and the term “pimp.” I am not a hip hop head but I have big respect for Jeff Weiss. I walked into The Echo and felt like I walked into a scene out of 8-Mile. People were swaying and head bobbing slowly to the beats that were pumping through the sound system. The atmosphere was intimate and full of energy. Jeff Weiss, who is editor of Passion Of The Weiss, a columnist for Pitchfork and LA Weekly, and co-host of hip-hop podcast Shots Fired, organized a lineup full of stupendous talent. Dr. Millionaire, Red Ferguson, Kweku Collins, Jordan Raf, The Outfit
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