Category: Music Page 7 of 10

Music Friday: LA Mix

On May 28, 2009

This was going to be a Music Monday. But it kept getting bigger and finally turned into a full-fledged album-length mix full of LA-based bands. Consider this a love letter to LA and the fantastic music scene I’ve found here. It’s literally possible to go to a show nearly every day of the week and find bands you like. Even going much less often than that (two or three times a month), I’ve discovered many bands that keep me coming back for their shows, opening bands that I seek out everywhere they play, and seen what a great and supporting music culture exists here (if you look at the band line-ups below, you’ll find several people who are in multiple bands – nearly everyone is involved in multiple projects, creating really interesting cross-pollination). I’ve arranged them roughly from lesser known to better known (sort of an opening band – second opening band – headliner sort of thing), but that’s not completely accurate. Just a general rule of thumb.

1) Hello from Reno – It Comes and Goes
2) The Sweet Hurt – Bright Ideas
3) The Belle Brigade – 4%
4) Eulogies – Eyes on the Prize
5) Local Natives – Airplanes
6) Obi Best – Swedish Boy
7) The One AM Radio – Old Men
8) Army Navy – Dark As Days
9) Earlimart – Face Down in the Right Town
10) Juliette Commagere – Overcome
11) Lavender Diamond – Open Your Heart
12) Munchausen by Proxy – Uh-Huh
13) Great Northern – Mountain
14) The Bird and the Bee – Love Letter to Japan
15) The Submarines – Xavia
16) The Airborne Toxic Event – Does This Mean You’re Moving On
17) Jenny Lewis – The Highs and Lows of Being Number One
18) Silversun Pickups – Substitution
19) Rilo Kiley – Somebody Else’s Clothes

You can stream the songs individually or as a playlist (starting the first one will play them all in order), or right-click-save any song to download it. Or you can grab the whole mix, including my hastily-thrown-together cover art based on a Silver Lake mural, with this zip file (a little under 100mb). If you like the bands, please support them.

You’re going to want to click through the jump – full mix details are under there, with info and photos for every band. And it took me all week to do. So please. Click through. :) Most photos are not mine. Promo-type photos obviously aren’t. Crappy iPhone-looking concert photos probably are.

Coachella 2009: Heating Up the Desert

By Jandy

On April 30, 2009

In Music

I‘ve never made it to a musical festival before (largely because I didn’t really get into festival-type music until a few years ago), but when this year’s Coachella featured several of my favorite bands I decided to spring for it, since it’s the biggest festival close enough for me to drive to rather than fly. And even though everything’s overpriced, it’s hotter than Hades, and I ended up only seeing full sets from seven bands rather then the eleven or twelve I wanted to see, it was worth it. The downside is I think I’ve caught the festival bug – I’m drooling over the Lollapalooza lineup Andrew posted the other day, and though I won’t make it Lolla this year, I’m seriously trying to work out getting to Austin for Austin City Limits.

Anyway, here’s a recap of my subset of Coachella, which woefully underrepresents the available audio overload. Especially since I skipped Sunday altogether – fewer bands I wanted to see meant I didn’t care to spend the money for the extra day and night.

Please go to Row Three: More Pop to read the rest of this entry. It has pictures and .mp3 files, so I promise it’ll be worth it!

My 2008 Recap

By Jandy

On January 4, 2009

In Books and Reading, Film, Gaming, Music

As per usual, I haven’t seen enough 2008 releases to be justified making a Best of 2008 list, so here is my much more egocentric list of my favorite movies that I saw during 2008, no matter when they were released. And I threw in books, music, and games, with the same caveat. The links go to my reviews, reactions, or other previous writings about them. The non-linked ones I, uh, didn’t write about. Because I am lazy. So I’ll throw in a line about them, but I may still write about the more in the future. Or not. Because I am lazy.

Oh, and also, don’t even think these are lists of bests. They’re lists of favorites, 100% subjective. And highly subject to change.

FILM

LOVED

Cleo from 5 to 7

Cleo from 5 to 7 (imdb) – A New Wave film from a female director (Agnes Varda). It’s an excellent combination.
4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Sunrise
Wall-E (imdb) – edit: I managed to forget this one upon publishing this post. BAD JANDY. A breathtakingly beautiful, heartwarming but not maudlin, and prescient sci-fi animated film. Virtually perfect in every way.
Divided We Fall
Easy Rider

The Fall

The Fall (imdb) – A dazzlingly imaginative film set partly in war-torn Spain and partly in the story a dying soldier tells a young girl. Not as cohesive as Pan’s Labyrinth, but very much in the same vein.
Kicking and Screaming
All That Jazz
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Speed Racer (imdb) – One of the most criminally underrated films of the year. A visionary expression of sensory overload and invention. Plus, shiny!
I Walked With a Zombie
Vicky Cristina Barcelona
Planet Terror

REALLY LIKED

I'm Not There

I’m Not There
Rachel Getting Married (imdb) – Fantastic acting and script. Just misses being in the “Loved” section because I could strangle Jonathan Demme for misusing the shakicam.
The Savages
Orpheus
Werckmeister Harmonies (imdb) – Director Bela Tarr is known for using reaaaallllly long takes, and he does. But the slow pacing soon becomes mesmerizing and stunningly beautiful.
Iron Man
The Dark Knight (imdb) – I’m sorry, but I have to say I think The Dark Knight is a little overrated. Ledger is fantastic, and the Joker is the best villain the movies have seen in a long time. But I pretty much can’t remember ANY of the scenes without him.
Go
All the President’s Men
Repulsion

Burn After Reading

Burn After Reading (imdb) – The black humor Coens return in force (and farce) here. It’s nothing like No Country, but it’s an over-the-top great time.
The Innocents (imdb) – This should’ve been in my Month of Horror post; don’t know how I forgot it. Very well-done quiet (maybe) evil kid horror film based on The Turn of the Screw.
Them!
Let the Right One In
Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist (imdb) – Perhaps a movie about hipsters running around New York City in search of an elusive band is just made for me. Granted, it’s slight, but it’s really enjoyable.
Australia (imdb) – There are admittedly a lot of tonal problems with Australia, but I enjoyed watching every second of it.
Tell No One (imdb) – A man’s wife is murdered…or is she? When he starts seeing her and hearing from her years later, it quickly becomes clear there’s much more going on in this twisty French thriller.
Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street
Transsiberian (imdb) – A couple travels from China via the Transsiberian Railway, but gets pulled into trouble by a couple of young drifters. A solid thriller with a good twist or two.
Shaft (1971) (imdb) – I saw Samuel L. Jackson’s remake a few years ago. As cool as Sam Jackson is, he WISHES he were as cool as Richard Roundtree, the original iconoclastic black private eye facing off with Harlem and Italian gangsters and the NYPD.
Night of the Living Dead

Saawariya

Saawariya (imdb) – This fairy-tale Bollywood film is extremely stylized and imaginative – one of the more interesting Indian films I’ve seen so far. They’re always visually sumptuous, but this one takes it to a whole new level.
The Flower of My Secret (imdb) – Pedro Almodovar film similar to All About My Mother in tone. Not as good, but still very worthwhile.
Synecdoche, New York (imdb) – I can’t do this one justice in a few sentences. I’m still working out in my head what I think about it. The best quote I’ve seen about it, though, is from Roger Ebert: “a film that should never be seen unless you’ve already seen it at least once.”
Les bonnes femmes
Atonement
Village of the Damned (imdb) – Evil alien children take over a rural English town. It’s way better than it sounds, a classic old-school British horror flick.
My Blueberry Nights (imdb) – Wong Kar-Wai’s first English-language film is a visually beautiful odyssey following a girl as she tries to find out what she wants. I’m excited to see his other films now, which I’ve heard are better.
Sunshine
Metropolitan
Some Came Running (imdb) – Frank Sinatra gets to prove his acting chops again as a cynical soldier returning to his small-town home. Shirley MacLaine is a revelation, and Dean Martin gets probably his best role, as well.
Lars and the Real Girl

Ace in the Hole

Ace in the Hole (imdb) – Reporter Kirk Douglas will do anything to get a good story, even keeping a trapped miner trapped as long as he can to increase the media frenzy. It’s Billy Wilder, so you know it’s going to be solid, and it is.
Two-Lane Blacktop
The Body Snatcher
Wristcutters: A Love Story
Isle of the Dead
Do You Like Hitchcock (imdb) – This Dario Argento film has a film student getting involved with a murder that bears a close resemblance to Strangers on a Train; the overall film also had plenty of Rear Window and I like to think a little Vertigo in there.
Be Kind, Rewind
Leatherheads
Shadows (imdb) – John Cassavetes’ first film, and often hailed as the beginning of American independent film. Touches on show business, youth, and sibling rivalry, but the tough look at 1960s racial issues is the most interesting aspect.
In Bruges (imdb) – I expected a comic action film, and it is that sometimes, but it’s also got a huge dose of thoughtful philosophy in there, as two hitmen go to Bruges (read: Purgatory) to wait out a botched job.

RECOMMENDED

Hannah Takes the Stairs
Lacombe, Lucien (imdb) – A young German boy falls into working with the Nazis during WWII, but finds his loyalties divided when he befriends a Jewish family – and falls in love with the family’s daughter. It’s a big tough at first to relate to the implacable boy, but there’s more here than meets the eye.
The Seventh Victim (imdb) – Val Lewton, occultism, missing sisters, overall creepiness – what more do you want?

Made in USA

Made in USA
The Blue Angel
Lola Montes (imdb) – Max Ophuls’ only widescreen, color feature about the rise and fall of a the title character in the courts of Europe is sumptuous, but a little distancing. Perhaps purposefully.
Paprika
The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert
Lantana
Mickey One
Michael Clayton
The Cool World (imdb) – Another early independent film, this is the story of a young Harlem boy who thinks everything in his life would be better if he just had a gun, and thus some power and authority. Hard to see due to rights issues, so if you get the chance, jump on it.
I Am Legend
Papillon
Bottle Rocket
Ghost Ship

BOOKS

LOVED

Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray
The Portrait of a Lady by Henry James – First thing I’ve read by James, and I was highly impressed. His mastery of depicting the interior life is a great foreshadowing of Modernism.
Watchmen by Alan Moore and Dave Gibbons – Proof that graphic novels can be just as complex and well-written as traditional novels.
The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway – The basis for my current revaluation of Hemingway, who I used to not like. But this one is great.
The Woman in White by Wilkie Collins – A Victorian mystery, and with my general dislike of Victorian lit, I was shocked at how much I liked it. It’s perfectly written, and so much more than *just* a mystery.
Gaudy Night by Dorothy L. Sayers – Similarly here, as this is technically a Lord Peter Wimsey mystery, but the mystery is almost secondary to Sayers’ exploration of life at an Oxford women’s college, with side notes on feminism, class, and academia.

LIKED

Good Night Mr. Holmes by Carol Nelson Douglas – Douglas rewrites Sherlock Holmes from a woman’s point of view, making Irene Adler, the only person to outwit Holmes (in A Scandal in Bohemia), the heroine.
Alias Grace Margaret Atwood – Grace is a convicted murderess, shuttled between prison and mental institution; she tells her story to a sympathetic doctor who hopes to absolve her. But the truth of the matter is elusive, even to the reader.
Bleak House by Charles Dickens
Things Fall Apart by Chinua Ichebe – A leader in an African tribe struggles with pride and the conflict between tribal customs and the incoming Christian missionaries. Achebe is known for being among the first to bring a truly African voice into English-language literature, and his minimalist style suits the story perfectly.
Spook Country by William Gibson

MUSIC

With music it’s more “these are what I’ve been listening to the most in 2008.” Although I think I did acquire all of these albums in 2008, even though several of them are from earlier. All 2006-2008, though, I think. I linked Music Monday or concert coverage posts where I had them; otherwise tacked on a MySpace link so you can hear them yourself.

LOVED

Jenny Lewis – Acid Tongue
The Submarines – Honeysuckle Weeks
Babyshambles – Shotters Nation (MySpace)
Mates of State – Rearrange Us
Los Campesinos! – We Are Beautiful, We are Doomed / Hold On Now, Youngster
Metric – Live It Out (MySpace)
Army Navy – Army Navy
Silversun Pickups – Carnavas
The Apples in Stereo – New Magnetic Wonder (MySpace)
Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (MySpace)

REALLY LIKE

Fleet Foxes – Fleet Foxes (MySpace)
We are Scientists – Brain Thrust Mastery (MySpace)
She & Him – Volume One (MySpace)
I’m From Barcelona – Who Killed Harry Houdini / Let Me Introduce My Friends (MySpace)
The Rosebuds – Life Like
Vampire Weekend – Vampire Weekend
The Fratellis – Here We Stand

GAMES

LOVE

Mass Effect
Bioshock – One of the most amazing stories and art direction in any game ever.
Bully – Like GTA, but at a boarding school. :) Not particularly innovative, but a blast to play.
Portal – The only problem with Portal is it’s too short! Fantastic puzzle game with a fun story to boot.
Fallout 3 – I’ve only played a few hours of this, but I can already tell it’s headed to the “loved” category. Looks fantastic and plays like Oblivion (aka, my fave game of all time).
Rock Band 2 – Not much different than Rock Band, but don’t fix what ain’t broken, and the improvements made are good. I just keeping coming back for more.

REALLY LIKE

Fable 2 – Does a nice job of improving on the first Fable, which was already good. The difficulty’s not perfect, though – I found I got through the whole main quest with very little leveling.
Guitar Hero: World Tour – The first Guitar Hero game that remotely gives Rock Band any competition, to my mind. I actually think the gameplay is a bit better, but the overall experience was less enjoyable.
Assassin’s Creed – Climbing up every building in town and running over rooftops never got old. The gameplay here is spectacular, but it’s not one I’d ever play again. Looking forward to seeing what the sequels do with the story, though.
Mirror’s Edge – Again, groundbreaking gameplay, once you get the hang of it. But I’m about halfway through and I’m already bored with the story and missions. Still, paves the way for potentially stupendous games in the future.
Lost Odyssey

Bishop Allen @ The Echo, 11/11/08

By Jandy

On November 14, 2008

In Music

Guess who finally remembered to take her camera to a concert and thus can use her own pictures instead of scrounging ones from Flickr? Yay! On the other hand, I’m still working on finding the best camera settings for low light conditions, so… Still. MINE.

007 - Bishop Allen @Echo, Los Angeles, 11/11/08

Before Bishop Allen, though, were three opening bands, all of which I enjoyed. First up was The One AM Radio, who actually started before I got in (whole ticket fiasco which was not as much of an issue as I thought it was going to be, but caused me to be in the wrong line – won’t get into it). I was in line with a bunch of people who knew the keyboardist/backup singer, so that was cool. For a little while I felt almost part of the Silverlake scene. Speaking of the Silverlake/Echo Park music scene, the Echo is a great venue. It’s the perfect size, with a good bar (and food, apparently, though I didn’t eat there) and a really great vibe. The bands were wandering around before, during, and after the show, so it felt really casual and intimate. Okay, back to the show. I’d actually heard of The One AM Radio before; they have a track on the compilation CD “Give. Listen. Help.” (available from Urban Outfitters; almost all of the proceeds go to children’s cancer research), which I really enjoyed. Their newest album (from 2007) is called This Too Will Pass, available from Amazon CD and MP3. I apologize for the blurryness of the photo. First one I took, and I was still testing flash vs. no-flash. (Flash is better, FYI.)

001 - The One AM Radio @Echo, Los Angeles, 11/11/08

The One AM Radio – Old Men

Then came The Electric Owls, which turned out to be one guy – but I think there are sometimes more of them in the band? I wasn’t really clear on that. Anyway, he could pick a mean guitar, and he sorta reminded me a little bit of Glen Hansard, except not Irish. I didn’t have a good angle from where I was at the time, so no pictures of him.

And I REALLY liked the third opening band, An Horse. Not only because they’re from Australia, though I admit that’s part of it. Kate Cooper, the singer/guitarist, was adorable and funny. She bantered more between songs than most. “We’re from Australia, which I’ve just been told is right next to Switzerland. It isn’t really. It’s actually a whole other planet in the solar system.” The other band member, Damon Cox, played the drums and sang backup. Sort of a Mates of State sort of thing, except with guitar instead of keyboards. I wanted to pick up a CD or something of theirs, but didn’t see any on the merch table as I went out. I must’ve missed them. Their album Not Really Scared is available on iTunes, or as an import from Amazon, but that’s way more expensive.

003 - An Horse @Echo, Los Angeles, 11/11/08

An Horse – Scared as F**k (sorry for the title, but it is the best song, and the one containing the album’s title)

Then Bishop Allen! I will say that I finally know how annoying it was for fans of The Shins when Garden State came out and suddenly there were a lot more Shins fans based solely on their inclusion in the film. Not that I object to bands gaining more fans, and in fact, I’ll admit I’m a Garden State Shins fan. But now I feel an irrational, overly defensive need to declare that I was a Bishop Allen fan long before they were featured in Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, and in fact, went to see the film in no small part because of Bishop Allen’s involvement. There, done being defensive. Sorry about that.

Anyway. They had an issue with Darbie’s mic, so after futzing with it for a while, they finally had to make do with one less mic than usual, which meant that bassist Keith kept having to run over to guitarist Christian’s mic whenever he was needed for backup vocals. :) In his tour blog, he complained about tripping over cables, but assuming he wasn’t actually hurt, it ended up being rather more amusing than not.

005 - Bishop Allen @Echo, Los Angeles, 11/11/08

They did a great mix of songs from The Broken String and the various EPs they’ve put out – last year, they tested the limits of prolificness by putting out an EP every month. And succeeded. I should’ve picked up some of those, but being faced by all 12 EPs on the merch table was a little overwhelming. And did a couple of new songs from the album they’re working on now. Yay new stuff! After the briefest pre-encore break ever, they finished it all up with the Darbie-led “Butterfly Nets” (which was the first song that made me a fan). And it was good. And then I mostly copped out of a review by mostly posting photos.

015 - Bishop Allen @Echo, Los Angeles, 11/11/08

Bishop Allen – The Same Fire (from “June EP”)
Bishop Allen – The Monitor (from “The Broken String”)
Bishop Allen – Butterfly Nets (from “The Broken String”)


Amazon.com CD Amazon.com MP3	EPs at Bishop Allen.com Amazon.com MP3	EPs at Bishop Allen.com Amazon.com MP3

(Amazon.com MP3 has all the tracks from the EP Project available in two sets, but they were originally released as twelve 4-song EP CDs. Check out the Bishop Allen store page to see the original covers, designed by Darbie.)

Jenny Lewis @ UCSD

By Jandy

On November 5, 2008

In Music

Tap tap tap. “Is this on? Hello? Check check check. Do you just wanna do it like this?” Jenny Lewis moves to the edge of the stage, her chorus (aka her band members sans their instruments) ringed behind her. She puts a finger to her lips, lulling the excited crowd into silence. And she held them completely enthralled with just her voice and guitar throughout a fantastic unplugged rendition of “Acid Tongue,” the highlight of an already great concert.

Some have denigrated Lewis’s sophomore album (as well as Under the Blacklight, the 2006 release from her band Rilo Kiley) for being derivative rather than delving into her own psyche as effectively as she has done, as singer and lyricist, on earlier solo and band records, and I understand where they’re coming from. Acid Tongue as a whole is not as lyrically sophisticated as More Adventurous, The Execution of All Things, or Rabbit Fur Coat. (That’s too pat an analysis, but a concert rundown is not the place to go into the relative merits of Jenny’s songwriting oeuvre.) But trust me when I say that watching her live, you won’t be able to help falling under her spell anyway.

After opening her set with “Jack Killed Mom,” a rollicking rock number about abuse, bullying, and matricide, she settled into a few songs from Rabbit Fur Coat, including “Happy” – a song I never thought would work in concert. She slowed an already slow song drastically from the record version, but gave such an incredibly emotion-filled performance that I doubt anyone felt it went on too long. The only danger was that she and the microphone might have to go get a room.

Some performers treat a gig so much as a performance that it all seems by rote and others get so into the music that the audience might as well not be there. Jenny walks the line between the two – she’s clearly performing (her acting background is obvious) and has specific pieces of stage business choreographed in advance, but there’s an air of spontaneity to it, too, as when the band went acoustic for “Acid Tongue.” Which may have been planned as well, but it certainly didn’t feel as though it was (and photos from other stops on the tour have a microphone, as in the shot above). On the other hand, she can get so deep into the music that you feel privileged to witness it, but she never forgets the audience – rather, she brings you into her intimate moments.

Acid Tongue may not feel as personal as Rabbit Fur Coat, but for a concert, it’s truly awesome in its variety. Right after the small brokenness of “Acid Tongue” came the huge Southern rock-inflected anthem “The Next Messiah,” its eight+ minutes filled with style shifts, fills from guitarist/vocalist/boyfriend Jonathan Rice, and power belting from the little woman who had just finished testing how softly she could sing without disappearing entirely.

After having seen Jenny in the opening show of this tour in Los Angeles, I dragged a friend with me to see her at the final show in San Diego – having prepped her with Rilo Kiley and solo Jenny tracks first. And it was somewhere around half-way through the first song that she tapped my shoulder and said “I’m a total fan now.” Jenny is great on record, there’s no doubt. But she’s even better live. Her innate stage presence draws you in and won’t let go to the point that even after standing up for four hours in line, through opening bands, and her set, you still wish she’d continue singing all night. Let’s hope she continues performing for a long while to come. And if you get the chance to see her, do.

Hear three songs off Acid Tongue at her myspace.