RIP Chris Sievey

The comic, whose best know character was Frank Sidebottom, was 54...

RIP Peter Quaife

The original bass player for The Kinks was 66...

Hey Charles!

Nice viral video for the Indie Peddler book release Thursday at Detroit Bar, Costa Mesa. Music is from the full length version of 'Hey Charles' by stanleylucasRevolution...

RIP Marvin Isley

The Isley Brothers bassist was 56...

RIP Stuart Cable

The drummer and founder member of  The Stereophonics was 40. He was sacked by the band in 2003...

RIP Brian Duffy

The photographer who shot the iconic 'Aladdin Sane' picture of David Bowie was 76... He also shot Bowie's 'Lodger' cover...

RIP Dennis Hopper

 The legendary American actor was 74... Hopper starred in a plethora of iconic movies including Easy Rider, Apocalypse Now and Blue Velvet...

RIP Ronnie James Dio

The rock singer, who had a varied career including stints with Rainbow and Black Sabbath, was 68. He had been suffering from stomach cancer...

The bitterest pil...

For anyone less than overwhelmed (myself included) with the current PIL reunion, this is how it should have been...

Flower in the desert (Coachella 2010)

Another year, another Coachella... Great music, managable weather and appalling organization.

Let's get the bad stuff out of the way, first the wristband fiasco: getting into the carpark was worse than previous years - our usual back route led us past our regular parking spot which seemed to be occupied by a few camper vans and tents. Once we finally parked we waited in line an hour for our three-day wristband. Waiting in a mad scrum is never fun, particular in sweltering heat - indeed a girl next to us collapsed and I'm sure this wasn't an isolated incident. I guess we were lucky to get a wristband at all as Goldenvoice (allegedly) sold 85,000 tickets, which would explain why the wristbands ran out (the capacity is 75,000). Day 2 it took us an hour to get into the carpark due to the incompetence of the fool who was directing traffic. Inside the venue there were noticeably less stewards, and trash/recycling bins, making it impossible by nightfall to walk without stepping on an empty water bottle or worse. Finally, there were the cancellations of some of the UK and European bands (Gary Numan, Bad Lieutenant etc) because of the volcano. At one point there was a rumour Ash was flying over from Iceland... (I'll get my coat...) Oh, and the main stage caught fire during Coheed & Cambria but unfortunately there were no casualties...

As far as the music goes I think this was my best year so far:

The Best:

The Specials - seeing them twice in two days (they played Club Nokia Thursday) was brilliant. Terry was at his deadpan best, with Lynval and especially Neville running around the stage with boundless energy. The music sounded amazing, much better than the sometimes dodgy production on the LP's... Quality...

Grizzly Bear - playing tracks from a complex LP like Veckatimest would be fraught with danger for most bands but Grizzly Bear were more than up to it. Brilliant vocal harmonies from all 5 members and a really dynamic set - I've only seen The Dears match their intensity when they rock out at the end of songs...

Beach House - wonderful set from Grizzly Bear cohort Victoria Legrand (composer Michel Legrand's niece) and band... 'Zebra' and '10 Mile Stereo' were the highlights of their set, the latter building in intensity towards a climactic finale...

Thom Yorke - Atoms of Piece played through the gripping Eraser before Thom came back for a solo acoustic rendition of 'Airbag' and piano version of 'Everything in its right place'.

Gorillaz - really cool set with Damon taking more of a front man role than previous Gorillaz tours, ably backed by a band featuring Mick Jones and Paul Simonen. Some great guest appearances by De La Soul, Yukimi Nagano from Little Dragon, Bobby Womack and Gruff Rhys; all reprising their parts on Plastic Beach.

Charlotte Gainsbourg - gained momentum as the set went on finishing with a delightful version of her father's 'Couleur Cafe'. Charlotte is the coolest woman in rock and she looks more like Jane Birkin than Serge now, which is probably a good thing...

Charlotte:

Camera Obscura - enjoyable set from the Scottish jangle popsters

Local Natives - I had an open mind about the much hyped LA band but they were really good. A more rocky Fleet Foxes, with appropriately less facial hair...

MGMT - opinions have apparently been divided on the new LP but I liked what I heard. When we saw them live before they had a whiff of Pink Floyd about them but the new stuff is more indie glam, sounding like Of Montreal and even The Auteurs in places.

Echo & the Bunnymen - I only caught the last four songs but McCulloch/Sergant were on fine form. The former was in good spirits, telling some crude Knock Knock jokes, describing 'The Killing Moon' as the best song ever written and 'The Cutter' as the second or thrid best song ever written. The Bunnymen sounded good but when I see them I only hear what's missing rather than what's there...

De La Soul - really got the crowd going at an early time slot... 'Me, Myself and I' was classic but they didn't play 'Three is a magic number' so points deducted for that...

She & Him - actually pretty good. Zooey Deschanel sounds like Nancy Sinatra, which I guess makes M.Ward the new Lee Hazlewood... Anyways, it was poppy and cute...

Pavement - sounded great but overall the crowd just didn't seem that into it. Maybe they had all had their fill at the Fox Theater in Pomona on Thursday night... Anyways, great to have Pavement back on the scene...

The Rest:

PiL - predictably there was a lot of wailing from Mr Lydon and the effected guitar was a little tiring after while. 'Poptones' was brilliant but we were well on the way back to the car when the wind carried us the epic refrain of 'Public Image'...

Hot Chip - the Londoners put on a lively set but to me it sounds like dance music for people that don't like dance music.

Vampire Weekend - it was ok, didn't despise it as much as I wanted to...

The XX - dull x2... The fact that the best thing they've ever done is a Florence & The Machine remix says it all really... Mind you, it is brilliant...

See you in 2011...

RIP Malcolm McLaren

The legendary manager of the Sex Pistols in their meteoric rise to fame and ultimate implosion was 64. Along with partner Vivienne Westwood and designer Jamie Reid, they nurtured the look and style of the British punk explosion of 1976. After the Sex Pistols McLaren became a performer on his own right - using influences from Africa and the Americas and was a pioneer in popularising hip-hop outside of the USA...

McLaren and the Pistols signing for A&M outside Buckingham Palace...

LA Font at Spaceland

Kazai Rex! were entertaining. However, much of the stage presence was at the expense of a reasonable standard of musicianship which was at best shoddy, and in the case of the drumming, particularly (sorry Richie) ramshackle...The songs were kind of theatrical, like if The Magic Numbers wrote a bad musical...

Kazai Rex!

Sacha Baron-Cohen wearing a Fez may not be the look Josh Charney is going for, but after a bland opening number the set gathered momentum with the addition of a cool trumpet player, a great jazzy drummer and an ok bass player. After the non-descript opener the set turned jazzy with a touch of 'Riders on the storm' - Charney's keyboard licks right out of Ray Manzarek's repertoir...

Latin Meds

LA Font sounded excellent, Spaceland's sound system highlighting their brilliant rhythmn section. Singer Danny Bobbe was at his surly best, stalking the expanses of the Spaceland stage like a menacing caged lion, all jagged guitar licks and fractious vocals. Great set from one of my favorite bands on the local LA scene...

LA Font

LA Font, David Shane Smith, stanleylucasRevolution and Robert James at Where 3/26/10

They say a picture paints a thousand words...

Slowly becoming strangers...

Brookline played their final gig this week at La Cave in Costa Mesa - the Orange County band calling it quits after 6 years... Falling somewhere between Pink Floyd and Radiohead, their melodic rock lacked a contemporary edge and was sometimes over-written and somewhat self-indulgent. Having said that they are all great guys and accomplished musicians who I'm sure will be playing in other bands soon. Indeed, a couple of them have already played bass in the hipster rock band Railroad to Alaska...

At La Cave, they threw in a nice version of 'The Killing Moon' although the sound quality on the video is distorted...

RIP Alex Chilton

The Big Star frontman was 59...

Times New Camera

Testing the HDFlip at the LA Font show Monday night... Audio isn't bad considering it was a loud show and I was close to the speakers...



Compare the audio to the distorted audio from the Canon Powershot footage. Shame because I love 'Evening Tea (on the balcony)'...

Toxic Mimics

Fresh from a stunning LA opening last year Faris McReynolds has a new show at Tim Van Laere Gallery in Antwerp, Belgium...

RIP Mark Linkous

The Sparklehorse founder, also a producer and champion of outsider artists like Daniel Johnston, took his own life...

Manchester: a Hacienda timewarp?

Oliver Wilson (Tony Wilson's son) discusses Manchester past, present and future...

stanleylucasRevolution at La Cave

I got lost behind the Orange curtain last night! The Bermuda triangle has nothing on Costa Mesa if you venture away from West 19th St without a GPS... In a perfect world 17th St would be parallel with 19th St, but as you know kids, this world is far from perfect...

Anyways, I arrived in good time to see SLR, who were on top form. The brassy 'This World' was followed by the metronomic rant of 'Demolition 45' with its hooky "meaningless expression..." refrain. Next was a great new song with a funky guitar loop accompanied by a frenzied vocal, the fast march of 'Spanish Boots' and finally the poignant 'Leave the light on' complete with some Blur-a-like vocal melodies...

SLR also played 'Lost on the way home' with its delightful sea-shanty swing... Unfortunately, I did get lost on the way home...

Here's some of the new song...

Ray of light...

Nice viral by Rob Ray for the SLR show at La Cave tonight featuring a couple of Stanley songs...

David Shane Smith, 1/1, Ray Argyle at Where...

David Shane Smith hosted another entertaining evening at Where, started in fine fashion by 1/1. 1/1 is 19 year-old wunderkid Michael Marcel Castro, who plays and mixes on a laptop, sometimes accompanied by random drum hits and live drumming... 1/1's music moved from James Bond type spy themes, through Eno ambience to kind of a Lymbyc Systym vibe with the live drummer... Great stuff...

1/1

David Shane Smith continued the electronic theme through the first half of his set, playing 'Additives', 'Miserablism', 'Tarmac' and a great extended version of 'Creatures of habit'... These were accompanied by some freaky dancing and visuals which gave the set a rave feel - or at very least the chill-out room at a rave. The second half of the set was mostly acoustic, ending on a mellow note...

DSS

I saw a few songs from Ray Argyle and band, who sounded very accomplished. The songs had a vaguely Dylan-esque feel...

Ray Argyle

RIP Larry Cassidy

Larry was bassist/singer in Factory Records stalwarts Section 25...

Famous for 15 seconds...

I was in a pilot once, but not in the Frankie Howerd sense...

RIP Gena Dry

It's not often I hear about a death of someone in the music business from my mother, but yesterday she informed me of the unfortunate death of Gena Dry. The news story and a brief bio are here but Gena was originally in the band Colour Noise. Her brother Tim Dry, a well known personality on the 1980's new-romantic scene, was in the music/mime/dance/pop group Shock before becoming half of Tik & Tok and appearing in some Star Wars films!

Anyways, Mum and her sister had become aware of the death as their maiden name was Dry, quite an uncommon last name in the UK... Mum had cousins in Redhill, where apparently Gena and Tim grew up... So possibly they are distant cousins...

Robert James 'Voz Roja'

On 'Voz Roja', James' folky blues is somewhere between the blues of the OC's Parker Macy and the folkier side of David Shane Smith (who is on engineering and production duties on these recordings...)

The 5 solo acoustic songs are underpinned by some ambient background noise like birds in a forest, a typewriter and people drinking in a bar, and these give the songs a certain pathos when combined with James' pained delivery... The centerpiece of the EP is the excellent 'Ain't No One', with some effective backing vocals and panning which pushes the song into Bon Iver territory.

'Voz Roja' (red voice) is certainly an applicable title for this EP as James' firey delivery is never short of passionate. I've seen people play the blues because they want to, but Robert James plays them because he has to...

DSS, Wartime Blues and LA Font at Mr. T's Bowl

DSS started off the evening in fine style with a varied set, welcoming a newly repaired acoustic (a cracked head repaired - insert your own punchline here...) and a freshly fixed volume knob, which was apparently repaired by having a blond sit on it (insert your own joke here...)  The acoustic in particular sounded quite wonderful and was put to great use on the poignant 'The Beach', 'Liquor Store' and set closer 'Civilians'... Of the electronic songs, it was good to hear a return of the Christian Bale sampling 'Additives' and the staccato clicks, glitches and rapping of the August collaboration 'Friends & Family'...

The 8 piece Wartime Blues were on tour from Montana. They had a big tour bus which probably dated from the 70's, so hopefully they make it home in one piece (or eight piece...) The music was alt-country, and although not the sort of thing I would listen to on a regular basis, it was catchy enough - some nice cello touches giving some of the songs an Arcade Fire feel... On the whole, the vocals lacked a little variation and they could learn some storytelling techniques from a band like Richmond Fontaine, who have less people in the band and probably a smaller bus...

I went from hating LA Font to liking them within the space of a couple of songs. Their MySpace page describes them as antagonistic cowpunk, but this is only part of the story. Their best moments push into Pavement and even Television territory, coupled with an anglophilic punky delivery akin to bands like Los Campesinos... Well worth seeing again...

DSS

RIP Dale Hawkins

The rock 'n' roller famous for his 1957 hit Suzy-Q was 73...

RIP Doug Fieger

The Knack frontman, co-writer of 'My Sharona' was 57...

Editors at The Wiltern

I read that Princeton are from Eagle Rock, so I'm guessing they go (or went) to Occidental College - they're far too clean cut to be part of the hipster community south of Colorado (or SoCo as I like to call it...) They are clearly a distant cousin of Vampire Weekend but without the Paul Simon fixation, which is obviously a good thing. However, naming your band after a university encourages people like me to typecast them as students - not an easy image to shake off when the time comes... They were good though...

Or at least a lot better than the self-indulgent pile of festering crap that is The Antlers... I have to thank them though - I was under some misguided notion that everything coming out of Brooklyn was hip and interesting. The Antlers are neither... Proggy keys, some MBV-lite guitar, a drummer who looks (and plays) like he wants to be in Staind and a vocalist who wishes he was Billy Mackenzie. Every song is 8 minutes long, the final 4 of which is an extended playout of cymbal crashes and guitar fx... Bad...

Some of Editors new electronic material veers dangerously into Depeche Mode territory - Tom Smith's rich baritone a dead ringer for Dave Gahan. The Mode do that kind of thing better, although the Editors bass player probably surpasses Andy Fletcher in cheesy stage moves... The songs from the first LP still sound the best and this doesn't auger too well for the future, but for now Editors are still a great live proposition!

Editors

RIP Alexander McQueen

The British fashion designer was 40. He was found hanged in his London apartment just a week after the death of his beloved mother...

DSS at Bolt Barbers

DSS: I'm playing at a barbers shop...
IDM: Did you tell them there was four in the band?

Bolt is a barbers shop at the less than salubrious 5th and Spring intersection of downtown LA... I was offered crack four times between Broadway and Spring - just say no kids...

David played a short set before before threatened off by the compare, who lives in the infamous Rosslyn 'hotel'... Apparently it's not exactly the Ritz, unless the Ritz has turned into a wretched rat infested crack-den... Anyways, I guess it was a comedy night as she slipped into a routine about transients, transients with dogs and being able to hold her breath for 14 floors until she gets to her room in the Rosslyn... I guess you had to be there...

DSS played an all acoustic set which included 'The Beach', 'City of the future', 'Sickness Songs' and the location appropriate 'Liquor Store'...

RIP Sir John Dankworth

The veteran British jazz saxophonist was 82. He composed TV themes such as The Avengers and Tomorrow's World, and was married to jazz singer Cleo Laine.

stanleylucasRevolution at Ferns...

Despite more floods of biblical proportions there was a good turn out for the SLR show at Ferns cocktails in LBC... Ferns looks like it hasn't changed much in 30 years - a dive bar hosting punk bands...

SLR played a short but impactful five song set, the bulk of which will be included on new album Opus 21...

Demolition 45
Lost on the way home
This world...
Leave the light on
We still love them

ExDetectives at Silverlake Lounge

The newly shorn ExDetectives sounded excellent last night at Silverlake Lounge. Unlike Samson, who lost his powers after a haircut, ExDetectives seem to have gained theirs, via rejection of all things hursuit. The guitars were playing together rather than against each other, the bass sounded clear and warm, and the drums were as tight as a nut. All these factors in place provided a rock solid background for Faris and Meriah's fragile vocals to work as intended. A great set...

ExDetectives

Deep Sea Diver is Beck and Yeah Yeah Yeahs guitarist Jessica Dobsons' band. They sound like a female fronted Grizzly Bear - Dobson's reverb drenched guitar right out of Veckatimest. The vocal is like St Vincent or whoever the preferred muso chanteuse of the day is - in other words nothing to write home about. I found their set a little boring to be honest and lacking any emotion...

Deep Sea Diver

Factory opening...

In 2008 when visiting Manchester we checked out the old Factory Records offices on the corner of Princes Street and Charles Street. Most of the early Factory work was done from a house on leafy Palatine Road in the suburbs, but in the middle of the 'Madchester' period Factory setup up offices in central Manchester near the BBC building on Charles Street.

Indeed, timing is everything. When we built the Hacienda, it was too soon, when we built the Factory offices it was too late. It did, however, have a zinc roof, which was very cool, although you could only see it from a helicopter. (Anthony H. Wilson)

It also had a hanging table in the board room that cost 30,000 quid... Sean Ryder broke it!

When we saw the building in 2008 it was empty and somewhat neglected - trash and junk mail filling up the area inside the entry gate...

However, in typical Factory style the story doesn't end there. On Friday February 5th 2010, the building re-opens as Factory Manchester - a live music venue brought to you by (amongst others) Peter Hook and Ben Kelly, the architect behind the original design of the offices and The Hacienda... Hooky has put together a band for the occasion which includes Mani from The Stone Roses and Rowetta from the Mondays. They will be playing songs from Hooky's career, so expect a lot of Joy Divsion and New Order and not so much Revenge... Lets hope the club does well and Hooky won't need to write a sequel to 'How not to run a club'...

Toyko Industries have put together an excellent website here - check out the Blog page which features some excellent video diaries...

Tate of the nation...

Nice little short from our friends at the Tate about Linder Sterling. Sterling is a somewhat legendary and enigmatic fixture in the punk and post-punk Manchester music scene - friend and muse of Morrissey, singer in the band Ludus and designer of some of Buzzcocks most striking images. She also designed a menstrual egg timer for Factory Records which was given its own catalog number - FAC8...

The Hotrats at The Troubadour

Gaz Coombes and Danny Goffey gave their energetic and entertaining take on some of their influences at The Troubadour last night. From psychedelia to glam, from punk to post-punk, they worked through a set of inventive covers. Highlights were great versions of 'Love is the drug' (Roxy Music), Bowie's 'Queen Bitch' and The Kinks 'Big Sky'... The only song that didn't work for me was The Sex Pistols 'EMI', where Steve Jones chunky layered guitars were replaced by an ineffective acoustic that was lost behind Goffey's (Keith) Moon-like assault on the drums... They finished with a little ditty called 'Caught by the fuzz' - now that did sound like the original!

Année érotique

Trailer for the Serge Gainsbourg biopic, now titled Gainsbourg (Vie Héroïque)... The release has been overshadowed by the death of actress Lucy Gordon which I wrote about here...

Toy Robot and The Fresas at Mr T's Bowl...

The Antiques were pleasant enough alt-country, however they were neither 'alt' or 'country' enough be memorable... They want to be The Band but doesn't everyone these says? Everest do it better...

I haven't seen The Fresas for a while and I was a little disappointed compared to previous shows - kind of ragged and unrehearsed... However, even on a bad night they have a certain charm and one new song in particular (Veronica) was excellent. The Fresas still have the potential to be an East LA version of The Bangles but do they want it enough? Judging by last night I'm not so sure...

The Fresas

Toy Robot were very good. I didn't get past the first song on their MySpace page which is a limp MGMT facsimile but live they were an altogether more interesting proposition. Some glam guitar - shared boy/girl vocals and tight harmonies presented an enjoyable, if somewhat poppy, set...

Toy Robot

RIP Teddy Pendergrass

The singer, who found fame as singer of Harold Melvin & the Blue Notes before launching a successful solo career, was 59...

RIP Jay Reatard

The garage punk musician from Memphis (born Jimmy Lee Lindsey Jr) was 29...

The Happy Hollows at The Mint

I enjoyed support band One Trick Pony, who sounds like what The Dears would sound like if they were into Dexys rather than The Smiths. I like their image - trendy geek (which is a refreshing change from hipsterdom) and singer Randolph Williams III was accordingly dressed as an airline pilot. He has a pleasant chilled demeanor and sounds a little like Sondre Lerche...

The Happy Hollows are currently enjoying 15 call minutes of fame as poster children for Samsung, but proved they weren't stuck inside of mobile with the memphis blues with a storming set. Highlights were TV favorite 'High Wire' and an incendiary closing couplet of 'Lieutenant' and 'Tambourine'. After handing out some vinyl to the kids (oh to be young...) they came back on for the driving 'Delorean'. Great show...

One Trick Pony
















The Happy Hollows

The Rhone Occupation at Spaceland

I think I'm getting to grips with the new camera - I even got a couple of shots of The Rhone Occupation facing the audience which is no mean feat. Apart from a shyness that is criminally vulgar, the pacing of their set left a little to be desired - after a spritely opener things came to a brief stop with the slow Radiohead-esque 'Would It Kill You To Talk This Out' coming far too early in the set... Anyways, TRO picked up the pace and finished strongly. Kevin Bronson seems to like them, but then he likes everyone doesn't he?

Before TRO were the garage rock chics Wet and Reckless, who I didn't hate as much as I was expecting. Their sixties pebbles sound owes a little to the Velvets, but apart from that had few redeeming features. I have to say the drummer is appalling but that's probably the point isn't it? Whatever, at least I have a new pickup line - "are you wet and reckless?"

JUJU cover

I just finished the artwork for the new JUJU compilation cd... The project spec was 'something with Saturn and a disco-ball'...

Exquisite Corpses...

Warpaint's 'Elephants'. In other news, Warpaint will be covering 'Ashes to Ashes' for Manimal Vinyl's David Bowie tribute featuring artists such as, ahem, Duran Duran...