Results tagged “punk”

The second program in REDCAT’s sixth annual New Original Works Festival is brimming with things rarely seen before. This week (only), two interdisciplinary artist collaborations inhabit the basement of Disney Hall and, as the theater’s executive director, Mark Murphy says, “I can’t wait to see the results!” Innovative media artist Carole Kim collaborates with award winning choreographer/dancer Oguri, percussionist/composer Alex Cline and

                     

Friday night at the El Rey Theatre, the guitarist for Tilly and the Wall, Derek Pressnall, opened for the Black Lips with his new band, Flowers Forever. The only adornment on-stage was a tangled mass of lights that glowed like a giant light-up hairball that served as a visual embodiment of the Flowers Forever sound: bright, messy, pretty ugly, but intriguing nonetheless. Each song jumped around from melody to melody with no smooth transitions. Drums ricocheted from delicate to pounding, guitars from fuzzy to jangling, and the bass and keyboards seemed to fill in wherever necessary. The unpredictable tone of the lyrics went from sweetly lighthearted ("Beach Bum") to mopey ("Jealous Motherfucker") and finally to politically pissed off in "Golden Shackles." The overall sonic effect of this lack of cohesion was extremely off putting, because the moment you decided you finally liked what the band was playing, they immediately started playing something else. Forever Flowers have potential, though, and could improve enormously if they dedicated themselves to one idea per song, not five. With a little focus and some strict editing, they could make some seriously interesting pop.

       

The dress code for a punk show has not changed in about thirty years. It is also a very simple one to follow: when in doubt, wear black. Black pants, black shirt, black shoes, black hair, black eyeliner, and a black tongue ring and you're good to go. With the exception of a Dropkick Murphys show in which case green is the new black. The Hollywood Palladium was lit up in green lights which reflected off the Murphy fans' Celtics jerseys fans with a sort of ominous glow. Almost everyone in the place was wearing Boston regalia, be it Celtics jerseys, Red Sox caps, Patriots jackets, and the occasional Bruins jersey. And why not? This was after all the Dropkick Murphys All Roads Lead to Boston tour.

       

"Dude, are those earplugs?! What kind of pussy are you?" mocked Fat Mike of NOFX from atop the stage at the Henry Fonda Theater last Thursday. "Holy shit and they're orange!" an observation that probably made the unfortunate soul in the front row blush to the roots of his mohawk. This weekend was NOFX's triumphant 25 plus year reunion gigs. What was once a fringe band on the Los Angeles punk scene have emerged as legends of their time. Mostly because they've lasted for so long, a theme that was rehashed frequently over the course of the night. "Is there anyone here under 21? Because you can get the fuck out! Leave! You don't belong here! Punk rock is not for kids" Mike grinned. "I am 42 years old and I am the youngest dude on this stage. I've done the math and there is a combined 650 years of punk rock on this stage right now."

If you faithfully watched the first season of "True Blood" on HBO this Fall, then you'll remember Fangtasia, the vampire bar set in Shreveport, Louisiana. The true setting of the bar isn't too far off from reality, in alternative theme at least. It's actually Alex's Bar in Long Beach which is one of the top venues for punk music in the Los Angeles area. LAist has visited them a number of times for shows and is happy to see the great venue used for a great show (also a candy-crack easy-to-read addicting book series by Charlaine Harris).

Richard Meltzer, reviewing the Germs’ G.I. album for the LA Times in 1979, declared the band heirs apparent to the Doors. So perhaps there’s poetic justice in the way the two bands’ late-period careers mirror each other almost exactly; their lives have both been reenacted in Hollywood movies, and they’ve both returned to the concert stage with a celebrity ringer in place of a defining, iconic, dead lead vocalist. And importantly enough, they’re both continuously idolized by a new crop of 16 year olds searching for an edgy, articulate, safely deceased role model every year. Consider them essential rites of passage for hippie and punker kids respectively, from the same town, their reigns just six years apart.

       

Submitted & Authored by Michael Zampelli

       

Authored, Photographed and Submitted by Michael Zampelli

       

Now in its fourth year, Punk Rock Social is a monthly event at Alex's Bar in Long Beach. This past weekend, they held the CD release for the Cute Lepers.

       

There were nearly as many people on stage as in the crowd at the Echo last night to witness the phenomenon that was a 35-minute set from Dark Meat, the 17-piece psychedelic rock collective from Athens, Georgia.

If you live in Los Angeles or know anything about punk rock circa 1977 then you know about X. If you don't, Perry Farrell will tell you in the clip on the right. Farrell introduced X last month at SXSW, headliners of Spin's day party at Stubb's BBQ. The place was only two-thirds full after a mass exodus of sweater vests following a short set by Vampire Weekend. But all four original members of X -- now touring in celebration of their 31-year anniversary -- proved once and for all that punk's not dead (or at least that rock and roll is alive and kicking).

                    

As promised, the second day of photos from last weekend's Bamboozle Left punk festival. See the pictures from Saturday here.

                    

The Bamboozle Left Festival at Irvine's Verizon Wireless Amphitheater was a punk rock madhouse this weekend. Photos from Sunday coming soon. All photos by David Greenwald/LAist

LA power punks The Dollyrots will play a homecoming show at Safari Sam's in Hollywood on Saturday, March 22. The trio has been on the road since January with Suffrajett and the "Love & Conquer Tour" in support of their latest album, 'Because I'm Awesome'. We had lead singer/bassist Kelly call in from the road to chat with LAist.

Last Sunday, local electronic pop duo Electrocute (MySpace), perhaps best known for their song "Bikini Bottom" on the soundtrack, concluded their February residency at Spaceland (MySpace) in Silver Lake. The lineup included Totally Radd!! (MySpace) and Har Mar Superstar (MySpace).

The main theme of the seminal grunge documentary Hype! is how something that by its very nature was anti-commercial became commercialized.

That's heavy stuff indeed. And like it or not, those days are gone.

For those of you who don't know, Moistboyz are a politically vulgar Punk-Metal hybrid Featuring Lead Vocalist Dickie Moist (Guy Heller,) and Lead Guitarist Mickey Moist (AKA Mickey Melchiondo, AKA Dean Ween of Ween.) They've been playing and recording ittermittently since the early 90s, with increased activity during the 2000s.

Cindy Pierce and Edie Thys Morgan presents Finding the Doorbell 7pm @ Book Soup

Whether it’s free bands by the river, obscure films at the Silent Movie Theatre or music festivals featuring great non-mainstream bands, Arthur magazine has improved L.A.’s sullied corporate reputation by organizing eclectic, margin-friendly events that embody the magazine’s mission to represent “transgenerational counterculture.” Case in point: Arthur’s Sunday Evenings series at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, which continues this weekend with eccentric songwriter Michael Hurley and next Sunday evening with psych-rock band Wooden Shjips. On Feb. 13, the magazine also presents a launch of Abby Banks’ new book Punk House at Family on Fairfax. The book features photos of punk houses from across the country ⎯ a few of which are reprinted in this month’s issue of Arthur. We asked Jay Babcock, guru of Arthur magazine, a few questions about the upcoming shows. Continue on to read more about the dire state of L.A.’s all-ages scene, the mysterious absence of our rock ‘n’ roll elders, and the fall and rise of Arthur magazine.

UK punk band, The Gallows, play at the Troubadour tonight | Photo by Michael/www.attheshow.org

Prior to the Melvins' eardrum-shattering and patriotically inspiring performance at the Echoplex, Buzz Osborne was kind enough to share his thoughts on the Rock And Roll Hall of Fame, the digital revolution, and the potential for "peculiar" art in today's world.

Some photographers are just lucky. They were in the right place at the right time. They were there to ride the crest of a burgeoning scene. Not so for Ann Summa. She may have been snapping away while LA's punk rock scene took its very first breath, but the timelessness of her photography is not sheer luck. Ann Summa's photographs could stand up to the best of them even if they were pictures of random people taken at the bus stop. Her use of lights and darks is striking, and she is able to capture the intensity of people like Tomata du Plenty and the cool detachment of Dianne Chai.

Mi Ami (ex-members of Black Eyes from SF) and Bipolar Bear. Since we love classical minimalism, we thought to ask the band a few questions before tonight's show:

"The ghost of Stephen Foster" - Squirrel Nut Zippers Flogging Molly, The Bouncing Souls, Dead to Me, Punk Rock Karaoke @ The Avalon Dead Sara @ Knitting Factory Fuel @ The Grove of Anaheim Squirrel Nut Zippers @ El Rey Theatre Blues Traveler @ Galaxy Concert Theater Eilen Jewell, Rich Wyman, Evan Stone & His Translucent Ham Sandwich Band @ The Mint Pete Yorn, Matthew Sweet & Susanna Hoffs, Donavan Frankenreiter, Phantom Planet, Peter...

Like Daft Punk? Odds are if you like em, you love em. Maybe not as much as these two ladies, but we bet you wouldn't pass up a chance to chit chat with them if you had a chance. What about just chat with them? Well tomorrow might be your lucky day as the mysterious duo will be online answering questions from their fans to help spread the word about their new cd, Alive...

It started simply with a camerashy young lady who wrote the lyrics of the Daft Punk smash hit on her fingers and let them be the stars of the video (as seen after the jump). But now two other young women have taken to writing the lyrics on their bodies. And if that weren't enough they put boxes on their heads to appear to look like robots - something the dj's do themselves. The...

Sunday was the book release party for Live at the Masque: Nightmare in Punk Alley. It was fully sold out, and even those who are in with the in crowd were embarassed to be left standing outside, waiting for a friend to get them in. The party went on all afternoon, all evening, and all night. Everyone seems to have forgotten that we aren't 17 years old anymore. By the time we arrived at...

Monday Dave Isay, from StoryCorps, presents Listening Is an Act of Love 7pm @ Vroman's Johan Lehrer presents Proust Was a Neuroscientist 7pm @ Dutton's Nigella Lawson presents The Domestic Goddess 7pm Borders, Torrance Tom Brokaw presents Boom! Voices of the Sixties 7:30pm @ Temple Emanuel Tuesday Clive Barker presents Mister B. Gone 7pm @ Vroman's Gregory Rodriguez presents Mongrels, Bastards, Orphans & Vagabonds 7pm @ Central Library Susanne Daniels presents Season Finale 7pm @...