We Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them! Probably not. But we’re going to try. Last Friday we blindly chose a band off of Last.FM’s “Hype List”. We will now judge (from 1 to 10) how good a band is based soley on their name and photo. Tomorrow, we’ll actually listen to their music to see how wrong/right we were.
(Joining us is L.A.-via-Milwaukee’s Adam Lovinus )
The Band We Are Blindly Judging Today:
Mercedes Sosa
Alright, now we will look at a few pictures of the band….
(after seeing photos) Brian: Wow. I’m humbled. Not only is M.S. not a band, but an older lady who, apparently has been around forever based on the photos I looked at. It also appears she is playing one of those stand-up tambourine/drums. She may actually be an authentic latina folk singer! Good for her. My rating bumps up one to 8, because I respect my elders… and Spanish. Rating: 8 (7+1).
(after seeing photos) Lille: Well, she’s an old lady. And she could be mind-blowing like Manu Chao, or she could be boring, like most ethnic folk music that plays in my grandma’s Lincoln. Or, she could ACTUALLY be my grandma. Rating: ? (?+ possible genetic relationship).
(after seeing photos) Adam: Good heavens! She looks like Antony Hegarty. The uglier an artist is, the more authentic he/she/it seems to me. Typically. So this suggests she’s authentic-core <enter strain of Latin music here>. Good for plus-two. Rating: 7 (5+2).
On Wednesday, we will actually listen to her music, and update our opinions of mystery artist, Mercedes Sosa.
I’ve been listening to Wax Tailor all day today trying to figure out what his music sounds like, exactly. The French hip-hop & trip-hop producer/DJ Wax Tailor (aka Jean-Christophe Le Saoût) makes music with a touch of everything — jazz, hip/trip-hop, soul, even bebop. It’s like RJD2/Massive Attack meets Moloko/Dido/Portishead — all downtempo, smooth grooves. Adam says his music has a hint of Chess Records’ old-school sheen to it. Whatever it is, it’s pretty hooky, and worth checking out tomorrow at the Troubadour.
Wax Tailor is promoting his third album “IN THE MOOD FOR LIFE.” Here’s the audio album trailer so you can preview all the tracks from one MP3. Here’s a free download of the first single off the album “Say Yes (feat ASM)”. Watch out for a review of the show, too.
So, obviously, I missed the show and wasn’t able to get tickets, even though I had five people simultaneously working Ticketweb at that time. Here’s the next best thing: NEW SONGS!!!
Get tickets if you can here. They’re on sale in an hour. The show is today, Friday, Oct 02, 8 p.m. at the Echoplex (below the Echo).
Here’s a message from my buddy Thom:
”
Hey what are you doing tomorrow night?
ok now with a link that works hopefully
so yes that band thats doesnt really have a name that im working with at the moment??????
have decided to do a warm-up show on Friday Oct 2nd around 9pm at… the Echoplex in Los Angeles
Its not that big, it’ll be total chaos and its kind of a rehearsal but .. if you are near by..
below is a link to get tickets.
hope you get lucky with it.
so ain’t no point hanging around if u dont im afraid
Last night, I went to see Dusty Rhodes and the River Band at one of the Knitting Factory’s last shows (it closes this month, RIP). It was so on, it was like a bright flourescent bulb was lit up on stage in place of a band. Here’s an easy equation to make sense of the ecstatic spasticness of the Dusty Rhodes and the River Band: Journey + Poison + Meatloaf + Gaslight Anthem + Arcade Fire.
There were maybe 30 people in the room, but the band performed as if it were performing for 30,000. I loved how they were all really skilled musicians and so much fun to watch. Catch them at the Eagle Rock Music Festival ; it’s totally free and open to everybody. The fest runs along Colorado Blvd. at Eagle Rock Blvd. from 4 PM to 11 PM on Sat., Oct. 3
EAGLE ROCK MUSIC FESTIVAL 2009
SAT., OCT. 3
ON COLORADO BLVD. BETWEEN EAGLE ROCK BLVD. AND ARGUS
WITH
THE EMERGING STAGE w/ L.A. RECORD DJ set and KXLU LIVE STREAM
1) I’ve never seen No Doubt live, even though it was my favorite band from 1995-2002 If … I had seen a lot of No Doubt shows in my youth, I would probably not have been as blown away by Gwen Stefani and company. The venue wasn’t gigantic; it housed thousands, but it wasn’t an arena. But we were seven rows away, and I could see her sweat glistening off her abs, the fake lashes, the hulking skulking way she danced around the stage. Although she opened the set with a bum microphone (they had to switch mics THREE TIMES during “Spiderwebs,” we didn’t hear anything until the chorus! WTF?) I was transported to my 15-year-old self again, waiting for No Doubt videos to come on MTV.
2) I watch a lot of shows — maybe two or three a week. If… I didn’t watch so many concerts as a music journalist, I would probably not have had a good point of comparison for No Doubt. As it was, I was totally blown away by the production value of No Doubt’s set. The visuals were created with After-Effects. The lighting was impeccable. The sound was full. The whole band looked great — everyone was in black and white outfits, Gwen Stefani had three costume changes. Everyone PERFORMED.
No one was in a dirty shirt, no one was looking to the ground while playing guitar. Tony Kanal jumped four feet into the air while playing bass, and still connected with the audience. I had forgotten what it was like to watch a really good, produced show — watching someone with money to spend on lights, clothes and sound makes for a really entertaining experience. I love watching a show that’s light years away from what a recorded album feels like, and the difference between a regular concert and a show like Monday’s No Doubt show is like the difference between going to Disneyland and going on rides at a county fair.
3) I have no qualms about going to reunion shows of bands I love. If … I were a purist, I would avoid reunion tours because of the bands’ motivation. Whether or not a band is performing because they need money, even to an audience that they rejected years ago, is irrelevant. I can accept nostalgia acts because I grew up abroad and didn’t have a chance to see any of these great bands before I lived in the States. So whenever I hear that a band that was super important to me — the Police, the Pixies, Smoking Popes — is touring again, I jump at the chance to see them. “Tragic Kingdom” was my 1995 soundtrack. When I started dating my first real boyfriend, we broke up and got back together constantly — so much so that he appropriated “Ex-Girlfriend” and called it my song. In 2002, my father, my sister, my brother and I went on a road trip around North Luzon; we listened to No Doubt’s “Rock Steady” and Bob Marley’s “Legend”constantly because it was our only musical middle ground. After my father passed away, I stopped listening to “Rock Steady,” because it would always make me sad.
So is No Doubt relevant in my life RIGHT NOW? Maybe not. But does it mean I love them any less? Not at all.
4. I love watching shows in big cities. If… I weren’t in a great big metropolitan area, I wouldn’t have seen Shirley Manson, Garbage’s lead singer, sing “Stand and Deliver” with No Doubt. In LA they can pull out various celebrities at concerts, giving it that extra ooomph. When Shirley Manson came out (braless, natch), the hairs on both my arms stood up and my friends and I couldn’t stop screaming. Oh. My. God.
I walked out of the Gibson Amphitheatre (formerly Universal) exhilarated, with my ears ringing and a pulled calf muscle from jumping around so much. We had boss seats (thanks Annette!) I can’t remember the last show I enjoyed this much. Well, maybe Phish — but only because it was surprisingly fun. But that’s another blog entry.
I’m still in Squaw Valley, post-Wanderlust, and already I’m prepping to watch No Doubt at the Universal Amphitheater tomorrow. They’re doing six hometown dates (two in LA, four in Irvine). I’m driving 10 hours to see the band I loved the most, 1995-2002. And I. Can’t. Wait.
Basically all this means is that I won’t be posting any Wanderlust — or Amanda Palmer singing ukelele in her underwear photos — until Tuesday. C’est tout.
As a little intro, we thought it’d be cool for the three of us to talk about what song we feel best fits our little towns. Read Brian’s here and Araceli’s here.
Because I have lived mostly in Southern California, and just recently in Los Angeles, most of my songs of ‘home’ are about California. Joni Mitchell’s “California” has always been my favorite, and Phantom Planet’s “California” reminds me of the period in my life when I was new to Orange County, and “The OC” was new to Fox.
But this is a blog entry about Los Angeles. Sometimes all you see is a sprawling gray wasteland of freeways, traffic crawling at 5 miles an hour. Sometimes your vision is blocked by a hot black vinyl miniskirts topped by a hot pink wigs biking around Hollywood. Other times there are gigantic houses in the hills of Pasadena, and others there’s nothing but the sound of the surf crashing onto Santa Monica, or Venice. There’s Little Tokyo, Olvera St., Chinatown and the Hollywood Bowl. The Getty, the LACMA, the hidden art galleries of Silverlake, the studios and theaters in Culver City. There’s so much to LA that it’s a constant stimulant; you either love it or hate it, but there is no indifference; it’s undeniable.
Maybe that’s why the three songs I love most about LA are about despair, disgust and destruction. It’s a paradox, just like the city. Oh, and ironically, two out of three of these songwriters are from Seattle — they write about Los Angeles because they’re jealous of the constant, sunny blue skies!!! Bad Religion is from Orange County though, and Greg teaches at UCLA, so that’s cool.
p.s. Whenever Death Cab plays “Why’d You Want to Live Here” in LA, the crowd always goes wild, like it’s a love song Ben Gibbard is singing to them (I saw this happen at the Greek and at the Wiltern). See? Everyone else here gets it too.
Lilledeshan: we should have our photos beside our posts. that way brian can hook readers like araceli into raising our profile
Araceli: no way. oh you wanna be like perez?
Lilledeshan: perez hilton, musical tastemaker
Araceli: i dont want people to know what i look like…my biggest fear is being a recognizable celeb
Brian: ha. you’re fist [sic] problem is BEING a celeb
Lilledeshan: why are you guys still at work? i’m going to do my city post
after i give away this free lou barlow song
Araceli: brian, you think i cant be a celeb?
Brian: oh, you can. But you can worry about being recognized later
Araceli: damn this biy [sic] is out of contorl [sic]. look i cant even spell! thats how angry i am. haha…whateves… lille is the one that wants to be famous
Lilledeshan: ya. i keep getting pre-empted. right before i get REALLY big. some stupid shit happens
We Can Tell How Good A Band Is Without Listening to Them!
