As 2014 wraps up, Off-Ramp looks back at some of its best music coverage: all female tributes to Iron Maiden, Venice Beach's most beloved busker, Henry Rollins and more.
Since you asked, Off-Ramp's theme music is by Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm
We get questions from listeners just about every week and by far the most common one we get is: what’s your theme song?
It’s called “Thinking Black,” an instrumental by Ike Turner and the Kings of Rhythm:
Video: Thinking Black - Ike Turner
It’s the opening track to Ike’s 1969 album "A Black Man’s Soul" and was produced by Ike and his wife at the time, Tina Turner. The couple wouldn’t split up for another 7 years. The divorce wasn't finalized until 1978.
This song is a pretty distinct departure from "River Deep — Mountain High."
A couple years ago we got an email from a member of the San Francisco funk band Monophonics. They’d recorded their own version:
Monophonics - "Thinking Black"
Do you know anyone else who’s recorded a version of our theme song? Let us know in the comments!
We go inside the living, breathing Disney Hall organ as it turns 10
I raised some eyebrows when I asked the L.A. Phil's Joanne Pearce Martin to play "Happy Birthday" on the Disney Hall organ. But she did so with gusto, as you can hear if you'll click the Listen Now button on the left.
And why not?! The orchestra is marking the tenth birthday of its signature pipe organ this month, with those huge wooden pipes that look like a box of french fries.
The organ is a work of art and a musical instrument, but it's also a huge machine, one you can walk around the inside of, and from the inside — way up above the Disney Hall stage, above the organist's perch — you can see the pipes and fully appreciate the way they work together.
That's where I talked with Manuel Rosales who built the organ (with German company Glatter-Gotz Orgelbau), and who demonstrated it with help from organ conservator Philip Smith, who played the organ from a console way down on stage.
Interview Highlights:
The organ is a living, breathing object?
It's complicated and each pipe is like its own musical instrument. And each pipe ages in its own way. Yet it has to be commingled with over 6,000 other pipes. So the way they sound today isn't the way they sounded 10 years ago. We can't say it's like fine wine that gets better with age; the molecules in the pipes soften and the tone mellows. But they don't lose their shimmer or their power.
Do other instruments have the organ's personality points?
A piano does, but it's very subtle. A harpsichord does. Harpsichords are the enfant terrible of the keyboard world. They change overnight — they can change in an hour. Organs are not quite that temperamental. But unlike an instrument that you can pick up and walk away with ... this has to all be done here. So we come to the organ on its terms, and we have to make the decisions of how we take care of it.
Do other concert halls have purpose-built organs like Disney Hall?
Some go back to the 1920s or so when those concert halls were first built. Some got rid of their organs or didn't maintain them and they just walled them up, like the Cleveland Orchestra. There are new concert halls — the one in Dallas has a beautiful organ, the one in Philadelphia; down in Orange County there's an instrument in the Segerstrom Hall.
So it's become popular again to have organs. And people like coming to concert halls because there are fewer restrictions on the kinds of music that you can play.
He built it; is he proud as the organ turns 10?
I'm real lucky to be here. That's the main thing. Many organ builders get to build organs in nice halls or nice churches, but they're a thousand or three thousand miles away. I'm 15 minutes away. So this is like my other living room.
The L.A. Phil has several upcoming concerts to celebrate the organ's tenth anniversary, including:
- Stephen Hartke’s and Saint-Saens’ “Organ” symphonies. (Nov. 20 at 8 p.m., Nov. 21 at 8 p.m., and Nov. 22 at 2 p.m.)
- “Happy Birthday ‘Hurricane Mama’: Pulling Out All The Stops” (Nov. 23 at 7:30 p.m.)
- The Holiday Organ Spectacular (Dec. 19 at 8 p.m.)
- Holiday Sing-Along (Dec. 20 at 11:30am and 2 p.m.)
- A continuing Organ Recital series in 2015 featuring Anthony Newman (January 11th) and Olivier Latry (April 19th)
And check out the extra audio: My first piece on the Disney Hall organ, when it was a "newborn" in 2004.
Nathan Pino plays classical music on the Venice Beach Boardwalk
Every day from 9 a.m. until sunset, Nathan Pino can be found at his piano playing classical pieces by Gershwin, Rachmaninoff, and Chopin on Venice Beach Boardwalk. Pino talked with Off Ramp’s Mukta Mohan about the bands performed with, why he plays on the boardwalk, and shares some of his own compositions.
Pino, the child of Italian immigrants, grew up in San Francisco and started playing piano at seven years old. “I was playing pipe organ in the church, and my mother wanted me to play the piano," he says. "Because she thought the organ was too funeral sounding."
Before playing on the boardwalk, Pino was a professional musician. He played keys for psychedelic rock band Iron Butterfly on their Canadian tour, and was a session musician. However, that felt too much like a job for him. Pino says he prefers to have creative freedom. "I try to play things that are unusual. I don’t want to be a ballroom piano player, or somebody that’s just doing it for a job," he said.
When a teenage Pino saw Venice's boardwalk peformers, he vowed to come back if he ever fell into financial straits. Now you'll find him playing his wooden piano in front of The Sidewalk Café every day with a cat named Baby Girl at his side.
Things have change since he first arrived. He says the environment has become oppressive and that he has received several tickets for playing the piano after dark. “It seems like they’re trying to save the financial situation of Los Angeles by giving all these tickets out in Venice.”
When asked about being successful, Pino replied with, “Success is an elusive thing. As far as financially, no I don’t think I’m successful. As far as being the pianist that I want to be, yeah, I’m always happy when I’m playing - as long as there’s fire in the furnace!”
Pino says as long as he’s happy, he'll continue to play on the boardwalk. “Some people come every year. They want me to know that they come just to hear me play. That’s very flattering, especially when they’re musicians themselves," said Pino. "As long as it remains that way, I’ll still do it.”
Matt Sharp on the Rental's first album in 15 years: Return to Alphaville
In 1994, Matt Sharp was in his mid 20s playing bass in an Los Angles band called Weezer. They’d just recorded their major label debut, and once released the album would quickly become one of the biggest rock records of the 90s:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LHQqqM5sr7g
Sharp stuck with the band for just one more album before he left to focus on his own project—the Rentals. The Rentals 1995 debut—return of the Rentals—is a sunny power pop album that featured a lot of vintage analog keyboards:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wi-H6ohY37k
The Rentals have put out a steady, solid stream of work since then, and on August 26, their newest album—Lost in Alphaville—comes out on Polyvinyl. The new record also features contributions from members of the Black Keys, Lucius, and Ozma.
"Thought of Sound" is a track from the new album:
https://soundcloud.com/polyvinyl-records/the-rentals-thought-of-sound/s-tHmwo
Off-Ramp Producer Kevin Ferguson talked with Sharp in his home in Los Angeles.
The Rentals are also playing live on September 5 at the Fonda Theatre in Hollywood, and in Pomona on September 7.
'You don't understand marching band!' South Hills High School goes for the glory
On a gloomy Saturday morning, Mike Wooten directs his 125-member band and color guard at the South Hills High School football field in Covina, and it isn't going smoothly. "It sounds like forty of you just stopped playing right there!" he yells. "You can't expose a weakness this late like that." This is the last practice before the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association Championships.
They're practicing their eight minute field show -- basically their halftime show. Each show has a concept, and this year, the South Hills High School Marching Band based its performance on Space Shuttle Endeavour. You hear keyboards, space sound effects, and sound bites of Endeavour astronauts while the band marches in the shapes of stars, planets, and rockets. Last year, the band won the gold medal in their division and this year rank second. Wooten's been the South Hills' band director for 14 years. He says a lot of people don't understand marching band and think they're out there "rehearsing all these hours to go to the football game."
Wooten and his students start practice in August. Come September, they rehearse an hour before class in the morning and once a week at night. Gerald Aguilar, a snare player in band, says he "stays up till 11:30, and then maybe wakes up a little earlier to finish the rest of [his] homework." On those days, he gets about 5 hours of sleep.
Brandon King, a member of color guard, says he was hesitant to join the program because he didn't want to put in the work. But in his sophomore year, he decided to audition and fell in love with it. "When I go to perform, when I see the lights and the roar of the crowd ... I just know that this is where I belong."
Wooten knows most of these kids won't stick with music after they graduate and for the seniors, the competition is their last experience to perform in a marching band. So he teaches his students real life skills they can take away from the activity. Wooten says all 125-members "rely on each other to do a certain job, and without that person, we can't do the job anymore."
After the morning rehearsal, the band and color guard head to Warren High in Downey for the Championships. They march to the football field and wait to enter the stadium. After the band finishes their warm up, the announcer gives the cue to start.
The marching band moves quickly across the field as the color guard spins their red and yellow flags in the air. The crowd cheers and the band marches into a shape of a shooting star. It starts to rain, yet the band and color guard keep marching and playing. After a loud flourish, they walk off the field and wait in the bleachers for the results to come in.
The kids get quiet; some close their eyes and some lock arms. Justin Chow, a junior trumpet player, says he's nervous "because West Ranch -- the show before ours -- looked pretty good." Chow said West Ranch was their main rival, and could easily take the Championship title.
The band members huddle closer as they hear the announcer say "and now the winner of the Southern California School Band and Orchestra Association Championships silver medal, with a final score of 86.76 ... South Hills High School!"
Second place. The band doesn't look happy. But as they walk to the field to get their silver medals, friends and family members cheer. Wooten's eyes were a little watery. Not because they got second place, but "seeing the kids' faces after they perform and putting five months of their lives into an activity like this ... it's very emotional."
The kids leave the stadium to celebrate with their families as the season comes to an end. But Wooten and his staff start prepping for next year's Championships.
Here's a video of the South Hills High Schooll marching band at this year's SCSBOA Championships.
Female Impersonators of Male Rock Stars - an Off-Ramp Special Report
Elvis impersonators and Beatles tribute acts are just fine, if you walk into the room and close your eyes, you'll probably have a hard time telling the difference. There's plenty of them in Vegas. But here in LA, there's a different scene altogether: many female musicians here make a living performing music from some of the most famous male rock artists in history. Off-Ramp music correspondent Kevin Ferguson reports.
LANGUAGE WARNING: The name of one of the bands includes the B-word.
Near downtown LA's Skid Row, a haven for harpsichords
If the harpsichord is truly the "enfant terrible" of the music world, as Manuel Rosales told us on Off-Ramp the other day, Curtis Berak will need two double strollers for upcoming concerts featuring four of his babies on stage.
On Thursday, Dec. 11, at Zipper Hall, and Saturday, Dec 13, at Valley Performing Arts Center, Northridge, the L.A. Chamber Orchestra will start its Baroque Conversations Series with a rare performance of Bach's Concerto for Four Harpsichords. And that means four times as much work for Curtis Berak, the region's classical harpsichord go-to man.
RELATED: We go INSIDE the Disney Hall organ, celebrating its tenth birthday
Since 1976, in the basement of a a run-down building in the southern part of downtown L.A., Curtis Berak has been building and fixing harpsichords. "I was coming from San Diego as an artist. I did abstract painting and I had the idea that I needed to be in a big city to have an art career. When you're a painter, you have a lot of time to listen to music."
And that's where harpsichords come in. Berak listened to baroque music, which often features the harpsichord, and liked it. Then he learned that you can make a harpsichord at home from a kit, "and that's what got me started," he said.
RELATED: Four free/cheap holiday events far from shopping malls
As you can hear in the audio (make sure to click and listen), we sampled a number of Berak-built harpsichords — from a small Italian; to a double-manual French; to one modeled on harpsichords made by the Stradivarius of antique harpsichords, Ruckers, in the Flemish style.
As important as their sound is the look, and Berak painstakingly decorates his instruments to appear as if they were hundreds of years old, with authentic woodwork and delicate brushwork, so make sure to look through the photos above!
Henry Rollins: Punk icon talks Black Flag's early days, 'uncool' music and Ray Bradbury
Henry Rollins is an actor, writer, singer, a DJ on KCRW and one of the most interesting people in Los Angeles today. He's appeared in movies, hosted TV series, fronted Black Flag — the pioneering South Bay punk band — and he's travelled to dozens of countries.
Woodbury University, a private college in Burbank, recognized all that work, giving Rollins the Ray Bradbury Creativity Award this past weekend.
Off-Ramp Producer Kevin Ferguson had an opportunity to meet him at his home in Hollywood to talk about what made Rollins who he is today.
On Ray Bradbury, the Creativity Award's namesake:
"I read a bit of Ray Bradbury when I was a younger man. I don't read a lot of fiction anymore... like none. But I read quite a few of his short stories, and I was trying to remember a while ago where I found those stories. And it was either a friend of my mother's who gave it to me the book — cause that happened quite a bit. Or I probably intersected with the book via Ian MacKaye, my best friend.
"Also, in the '80s, there was some California radio station that would air Ray Bradbury short stories, either read out loud, or slightly dramatized as they do. And our old sound man would just whack those shows onto the cassettes. And we would have these epic drives.
"He was scary prolific. Just cranked it out. And won several awards, and all of that, which doesn't mean that much to me as far as awards... but the fact that he remained relevant at his craft all the way to the end... Anyone who tries anything artistically or creatively: Wouldn't you like that to be your fate? To be at some wheezing, ancient age and someone still cares about what you do? You know, I've been in the creative world, kind of singing and dancing for my dinner since I was a late teenager. And I'm 53 now. To still be able to do shows and be able to go into artistic endeavors is a big deal for me."
On growing up around the Washington, DC punk scene:
"We were very young, and so there was a lot unknowns. When you go to your first rock concerts and you're actually standing near the stage. Which is very different than going to see Aerosmith — which was cool — but it was like a mile and a half from the stage. It was all the way at the other end of the hockey arena. And it is what it is. It's all reverb and backslap. It's kind of the aural equivalent of the last inch of a bottle of coke. Lot of saliva, it's not great!
"And then you get to go up close, and put your elbows on the stage, and have Dee Dee Ramone sweat on you. That visceral relationship that you have with music when you're that close to it — that's what those days were like for me. And all of your cool pals from high school and in the neighborhood, they're all in bands! Like Ian Mackaye. I was at the first Minor Threat show and you could tell; this band is going to be the king of the town. It was obvious. They were so good."
On setting down roots in L.A.'s South Bay with Black Flag:
"Wherever we played in California, we were always in the tough part of town with a rough audience. And the audience was one thing, the people hanging out in the parking lot were another. And then the local cops were another thing altogether. So my version of California for the first five years I lived here — I was kind of stricken. It was kind of terrifying! Although I lived in Hermosa and Redondo Beach for a good bit of the time that I first moved here. That's where Black Flag came from. And that was really nice.
"For Black Flag, it was never a community. We weren't very friendly people. And between tours, we would just write songs. And have band practice — which consisted of doing the set two times a night. And we did that Monday through Friday. And so we didn't really hang out with many people."
On culture clash in their Long Beach neighborhood:
"For a while we had a practice place in Long Beach, because it was cheap. And we were kind of right in the middle of the nexus where two different gangs met. And the locals come in, but the gang guys — they just walk in because you're in their neighborhood. If you're smart, you don't go 'And you are?' You go 'Oh hey, cool, right?' Because they're armed. It was in our best interest to make friends with everybody.
"We did a big show once at the Santa Monica Civic. We rented a bus, brought it down to that neighborhood, and loaded in anyone from the neighborhood who wanted to go to the show. And that was one of the most fascinating bits of culture clash. Because, when you tell some people you're going to a show, the lipstick and outfits come out, and the hair goes up, and everyone is dressed to kill! And you basically have them with 3,500 rabid people at the Santa Monica Civic. These are people who might not have seen that, at this point, very ritualized crowd behavior.
"Some of the girls were terrified. Some of the guys were a pit bull dropped into a fighting pit or something — they went nuts! These are guys having their minds blown. Bells are going off. And you see how divided we really are in California. A lot of them were not into it."
On listening to "uncool" music again:
"I was raised by Mom. She had a lot of books and a lot of records. We'd go to the record store up to two night a week, and so, as a little kid growing up: Brahms, Beethoven, Chopin, Wagner, Barbra Streisand, Bob Dylan, Arlo Guthrie. I was a pretty eclectic little kid. And then in your teenage years, you start kind of demarcating your own territory. That was Led Zeppelin, Ted Nugent, Van Halen, Aerosmith.
"Then I saw The Clash one night. February 18, 1979 I think it was. I went back to my room and I took a lot of my records, Steve Miller, Aerosmith, all these records, and I threw them out. I said, 'These just don't matter anymore.' Which was such a stupid, young man, thing to do. Very reactionary. And I just sheepishly, when I could afford them years later, I bought them all back again. Because those are really good records."
Slake: John Albert's "Running with the Devil"
LISTENER WARNING: This interview -- Off-Ramp host John Rabe's conversation with writer John Albert about his piece in Issue 2 of Slake magazine -- includes frank and non-judgemental descriptions of drug use, teenage sex, unsupervised partying, and the groundbreaking nature of early Van Halen.
My Metallica
Metallica plays the Honda Center Thursday, December 10th at 7pm. The heavy-metal band was born in LA, but it found stardom in San Francisco. Metallica's biggest fan? KPCC's Steven Cuevas.
- Web Resources:
- The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame
- Metallica Online
Mexican Ranchera singer and pop superstar Pepe Aguilar gets his due at The Grammy Museum
UPDATE: On May 20, 2014, Pepe Aguilar gets his due at The Grammy Museum at LA Live, with a new exhibit called "Pepe Aguilar…La Leyenda Contunúa." The exhibit includes the charro suit and saddle he used as a kid when he made his Madison Square Garden debut; family photos; and letters written by his late father, Don Antonio Aguilar. And on May 21, he'll be onstage for an interview in the Museum’s Clive Davis Theater.
For a fifth of our audience, he needs no introduction, but the rest of you have been missing out.
Pepe Aguilar sings Mexican ranchera music, and has sold more than 12-million records. He was born in San Antonio, Texas, 45 years ago, but he was brought up on tour.
BELOW: Listen to Pepe Aguilar's favorite tribute songs
His father was the late Antonio Aguilar, one of the greats of ranchera music, and his mother is Flor Silvestre, a singer and actor from Mexico's golden age of cinema. Last year, he got his star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Pepe Aguilar's new album — his 24th — is a tribute to yet another of the greats, his father's rival Vicente Fernández. It debuted on iTunes at #1, and is called "Lástima Que Sean Ajenas," a joking reference to the Vicente Fernández song, "Lástima Que Seas Ajena," which translates roughly as "it's too bad she doesn't belong to me." The album's title, switching out "they" for "she," could be read as "I wish those were my songs."
"If you have grown up in the last three decades and you are a ranchera singer like me, Vicente Fernández has to be one of your idols," said Aguilar. "It's the Last of the Mohicans, that guy. It's a different story. People listen to many genres, not only one or two. For me it was important to close that era with my tribute to the last of the Mohicans."
Many children of stars who follow their parents' footsteps are tormented because they can never measure up. You can hear in that quote that Pepe Aguilar doesn't seem to have that problem. If anyone is allowed to close a door, it's him.
Aguilar says music is all he ever wanted to do, whether or not he made money from it. And if changing times means he may never experience the cultural dominance his parents enjoyed, 12-million records and a #1 debut on iTunes — coming in his 13th year as an independent artist — is nothing to sneeze at. And, in my opinion, where his father's voice had character, Aguilar's is fuller, more soaring and beautiful.
Aguilar says he strives to make music that has no boundaries, and there's no good reason more Anglos shouldn't buy his albums, even though they're sung in Spanish. The voice, the arrangements, the production values, the pure romance — they're all irresistible.
Frankly, isn't it better to not speak the language when you put a make-out album on the turntable? (Barry White's lyrics are distracting.)
Pepe Aguilar puts on a hell of a show, in charro costume, with a full band, and he has two concerts coming up. Thursday, Nov 21, at San Manuel Casino in Highland and Friday, Nov 22, at Valley View Casino Center in San Diego.
Aguilar shared his favorite tribute songs with KPCC. Listen to his Spotify playlist and tell us who else deserves a tribute album on Twitter using #PepeAguilarKPCC — or in the comments below.