Guantlet Hair - Live @ The Satellite Review 5/11/2012

What happened to being musically curious? I feel like that trait diminishes exponentially as people get older. Well, by people, I mean people I know. You see, I had four tickets for Gauntlet Hair at The Satellite last night (2 purchased, 2 deeded to me by the venue) and I could not convince a single friend to come out with me. Ok, ok....it was Friday. People had things going on already. But let me tell you, Gauntlet Hair was probably better than all of them.

I first heard about GH way back towards the end of April when Liza (the Paraliza) Richardson played them on KCRW She said something akin to "That was Gauntlet Hair. They're playing The Satellite in a few weeks". That was good enough for me. As soon as I parked, I whipped out my iPhone and bought tickets.

Fast-forward to last night. Despite 2/3 of the band playinig barefoot, these guys from Colorado put on a foot-stomping show that was sort of equal to (Explosions In The Sky - the boring parts) + WU LYF. Opening up with Mop It Up - the 3rd track on their self-titled debut on Dead Oceans, they played a nearly 45 minute non-stop set drenched in reverb, delay, and 808 beats coming from the drum set. To me, that sounds like a perfect way to spend a Friday.

As one friend of mine texted back upon being invited: "Hahahaha - that's the weirdest name ever. I commend them". And beyond their moniker, they are definitely worth the commendation.

A Quick Catch Up

Since I feel like writing again, I figured I should memorialize all the shows I went to (aka have ticket stubs for) since the Detour Festival post.

11/6/2008 - TV On The Radio @ The Wiltern
11/12/2008 - Dungen @ The Echo
11/21/2008 - Rodriguez @ The Echoplex
12/2/2008 - Smashing Pumpkins @ Gibson Ampitheatre
12/11/2008 - CCS/Natalie Portman's Shaved Head @ The Echoplex
12/18/2008 - Warpaint @ Bordello
12/20/2008 - Warpaint @ Space 20
12/21/2008 - Buddyhead Christmas @ Hotel Cafe
2/17/2009 - Lykke Li @ The Glass House
3/24/2009 - The Spinto Band @ Spaceland
5/9/2009 - Iron and Wine @ The Troubadour
5/29/2009 - Black Moth Super Rainbow/School Of Seven Bells @ The Troubadour
7/11/2009 - Camera Obscura @ The Fonda
8/29/2009 - Modest Mouse @ The Grove of Anaheim
8/30/2009 - The Mars Volta @ Hollywood Palladium
10/4/2009 - Miike Snow/Jack Penate @ The Echoplex
10/7/2009 - Fever Ray @ The Fonda
10/15/2009 - Dan Deacon @ The Echo
10/19/2009 - The Decemberists @ Royce Hall
10/29/2009 - Built To Spill @ The Echoplex
11/4/2009 - Pixies @ Hollywood Palladium
12/14/2009 - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros/Fool's Gold @ The Mayan Theater
12/16/2009 - Zero 7 @ The Orpheum
12/17/2009 - Fool's Gold @ The Echo
1/13/2009 - Warpaint @ The Echoplex
1/14/2010 - The Builders and the Butchers @ Spaceland
1/15/2010 - Rebirth Brass Band @ The Roxy
3/9/2010 - Laura Viers @ Spaceland
3/12/2010 - The Cave Singers @ The Echo
3/24/2010 - Cymbals Eat Guitars @  The Echo
3/29/2010 - Warpaint/Moonrats/Dot Hacker @ Spaceland
4/16/2010 - Bad Religion @ Sunset House of Blues
4/30/2010 - Murder City Devils @ The Fonda
5/9/2010 - Les Savy Fav @ The Echoplex
6/2/2010 - Miike Snow @ The Fonda
4/5/2010 - The Buzzcocks @ Club Nokia
7/9/2010 - Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti @ The Echoplex
7/20/2010 - Omar Rodrigues-Lopez Group @ Spaceland
9/14/2010 - Omar Rodriguez-Lopez Group @ The Troubadour
9/16/2010 - Menomena @ The El Rey Theatre
9/28/2010 - The Black Keys @ Hollywood Palladium
10/5/2010 - Belle & Sebastian @ Hollywood Forever Cemetery
10/18/2010 - Foals @ The El Rey Theater
10/19/2010 - Manu Chau @ The Troubadour
11/16/2010 - Blonde Redhead @ The Fonda
4/2/2011 - Bill Frisell Trio @ Royce Hall
4/20/2011 - Paul Simon @ Kodak Theater
5/2/2011 - Battles @ The Echoplex
5/22/2011 - Yeasayer @ The Glass House
5/29/2011 - Prince @ The Forum
6/21/2011 - Jaga Jazzist @ The Troubadour
7/1/2011 - Blonde Redhead @ The Echoplex
9/29/2011 - Fool's Gold @ The Troubadour
10/18/2011 - Gotye @ The Satellite
1/16/2012 - Portlandia Tour @ The Echoplex
1/25/2012 - Alabama Shakes @ The Troubadour
2/1/2012 - Fujiya & Miyagi @ The Echo
2/9/2012 - Class Actress @ The Echo
2/23/2012 - Wye Oak @ The Troubadour
3/7/2012 - Blitzen Trapper @ The Troubadour
3/8/2012 - Crystal Antlers @ The Echo
3/20/2012 - Sharon Van Etten @ The Avalon
4/9/2012 - At The Drive-In @ Red 7, Austin TX
4/11/2012 - Charlift @ The Troubadour
4/17/2012 - Kimbra @ The Troubadour
 4/19/2012 - Wild Flag/First Aid Kit @ The El Rey Theatre
5/2/2012 - Tennis @ The Troubadour
5/4/2012 - Father John Misty/A.A. Bondy @ The Natural History Museum
5/7/2012 - Youth Lagoon @ The Troubadour

I'm back! Minus my hearing thanks to Youth Lagoon @ The Echo

Where have I been the last 3 and a half years??? I'm pretty sure I went to a show or 100. Twitter was invented too. More on that later. For now, I feel like writing about Youth Lagoon. Writing is all I can do to describe the show since the words coming out of my mouth in a verbal account would be unintelligible thanks to my new found deafness. It was LOUD. The subwoofer was like a weaponized subwoofer. My insides sloshed, my teeth rattled, my boogers dislodged, my ear drums melted.

Youth Lagoon played a late night set (only late because there was no opener) taking the stage around 10:50. I don't know his songs well enough to recall the titles but I was in a euphoric dance mood watching the young Trevor Powers layer his synth on top of some seriously awesome 80's drum beats. His friend Logan (no relation to Lagoon) provided the "real-life" instrument notes on a strat which complimented and balanced out the bedroom synthesizer feel of Trevor's part. Don't get me wrong, the music was great and I was dancing along to it whenever I wasn't protecting my ears from imminent rupture.

Coming straight from his opening set for Death Cab at Disney Hall, they played a short but sweet set to the very sold out crowd at The Echo. They played one encore and were finished by 11:30. If you know anyone who went to the show, give them a break should they constantly ask you to repeat yourself. I know I'll be doing that for a few days.

LA Weekly Detour Festival Review

I don't know if having my favorite band headline the Detour Festival was a good or bad thing. On paper, it looked like a day full of new bands to check out culminating with the icing on the cake, The Mars Volta. What happened though, was that I was so anxious to see Mars Volta I wasn't really feeling any of the opening bands!

Waiting for the Volta


So, in brief, Datarock were still wearing the same red track suits. If their new song was any indication of the rest of their forthcoming album, I must say "I'm glad to have seen them when...".

Datarock


Bitter:Sweet were pleasingly KCRWish-thanks for the tickets BTW ;)

Bitter:Sweet


Hercules and the Love Affair provided disco beats that bled from one song to the next. They were a great way to warm up our dancing shoes.

Though I've been intending to check out Gogol Bordello for quite some time, when it came down to actually watching them, I just wasn't feeling the gypsy punk amongst the aforementioned disco beats and the anticipation of the Volta.

I'm sorry Teresa, I know they're your new favorite but Cut Copy were passable-at least in the festival setting. They essentially played backup to their CD. What happened to LIVE MUSIC??

Mars Volta. What can I say? I'm partial. They played a beatiful set beginning with a 30 minute Drunkship. The band has been known for providing sub-par performances at festivals but that was not the case here at all. With family and friends-including John Frusciante-watching from the side stage, TMV played as if they're year of constant touring was all practice for this final US performance.

A new song was introduced before Wax Simulacra which wasa along the lines of the mellow Asilos Magdalena. The band were in great spirits with smiles all around. Omar was the maestro of the evening-he apperaed as if he should have had a conductors wand instead of a guitar at times by the way he controlled the direction of the improvisations.

And for those who say they can't ever hear Ikey's keys or Ardrian's horns, they were both given extended guitar-less solos during the closing 30 minutes Goliath jam. Long live the Volta! It wasn't all jams though, "old" favorites Viscera Eyes, Meccaamputechture, and The Widow were played along with Ouroboros and Ilyena

Ouroborus


New Song! and Wax Simulacra

Nice surprise at Molly Malones

I had gone to watch a co-workers band play and sat down to watch the band before them. They were a nice rock/jazz/singer-songwriter quartet called The Jane Carrey Band. Well, it turns out that it was Jane Carrey's birthday and her dad Jim was sitting at the table next to us!

What was great was that no one bothered him about autographs or pictures. It's very nice to see that in this city people can still go out to enjoy family events despite their recognition (see Flea's attempt to get a beer in my last post).

Jane Carrey Band

John Frusciante & Flea Rock The Troubadour

My improv-jam-god wish list just got shorter Thursday evening when Jon Frusciante and Flea spontaneously announced a secret show at the Troubadour.

The first act of the night, Weave, seemed to be riding on the "So bad we're good" coattails of No Age. I'm not buying it. They belonged in a high-school quad.

The middle-child though, was of another school entirely. Warpaint is one of the freshest acts I've seen in a while. Fronted by three beautiful girls (not that that matters, right?), their music was complex, ethereal, and grooving all in one. I was captivated and can't wait to see them again.

Warpaint


Flea and Frusc were in the house from early in the evening. Between Weave and Warpaint, Flea attempted to get himself a beer walking through the floor and was immediately mobbed by fans looking to update their myspace (facebook) defaults with cell-phone pictures of them and their favorite Chili. Needless to say, Flea went thirsty for a little while.

When the jammers finally took the stage (as if the Troubadour wasn't always on schedule-another reason why I love them), the venue was sold out to it's 300 person capacity. Frusciante was donning a full Jesus beard and grandpa pants hiked up to his belly button. But more importantly, he had his beautiful vintage Strat. He and Flea gave each other a count-off and the jam was on.

The first song lasted nearly 7 minutes and set the tone with a complex rhythm that was trademarkedly groovy at the same time. The amazing Stella Mozgawa of Mink provided the drums alongside Josh Klinghoffer who was primed to give us some spaced out sounds. Sadly, Stella's thumping ruptured her bass drum about 25 minutes into the set. Her tech swapped out her drum with Josh's but that left a noticeable void coming from his kit. Then, sadly, his effects seemed to not work for the rest of the evening either.

Once these technical difficulties presented themselves, John seemed to become a bit distracted but still managed to fill all our heads with his sweet sounds. The entire set was around 50 minutes and like all great bands, no encore was provided-though that could be more to do with half of the musicians performing with broken instruments.

Tickets were readily available at the door thanks to the Troub only allowing fax or cash orders. THAT is how secret shows should be done.

John and Frusciante - Intro Jam

The truth about the Republicans lies this week

from Truth Fights Back:

This is what’s wrong with our politics. At the Republican convention, speaker after speaker just flat-out lied, and our news media isn’t calling them on any of it. YOU CAN’T GET THE STORY FROM THE PUNDITS.


They smeared Barack Obama repeatedly and told lies big and small.


Here’s just a few of them:

- Sarah Palin and John McCain claim that Barack Obama wants to raise our taxes, but the vast majority of families are way better off under Barack Obama’s plan. JOHN MCCAIN ACTUALLY WANTS TO TAX OUR HEALTH BENEFITS!!! Barack Obama’s plan only raises taxes on people with individual incomes over a quarter-million dollars.


- Sarah Palin and John McCain lie and claim that their plan is better for people like us. They don’t cut taxes for us hardly at all, and wipe out that cut with their plan to tax our health benefits!!!! Barack Obama actually cuts middle class taxes to try to restore fairness that was lost under Bush.


- Sarah Palin lied when she said Barack Obama had authored “no major law, not even in the state senate.” This is just a bald-faced lie. In fact, just in the US Senate, Barack Obama passed the most sweeping reform package since Watergate, and reached across party lines to pass, with Senator Lugar, legislation to help keep nuclear weapons out of the hands of terrorists and, with Senator Coburn, legislation to create a revolutionary database that makes government more transparent and accountable.


- Sarah Palin and John McCain continue to lie about Barack Obama’s energy plans. They keep pushing more drilling as the main answer to our problems, when it won’t do anything to lower the price of gas. And then they claim Barack Obama, in the words of Palin, “is against producing [more energy]. Barack Obama is for producing more clean energy and ending our addiction to oil. He has the most comprehensive energy plan of any Presidential candidate in history.


- The Republicans keep attacking Barack Obama’s plans for Iraq, even though the Iraqi government AND THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION just signed an agreement that follows the plan Barack Obama has been advocating for months.


- It’s the same thing on negotiations and diplomacy. Sarah Palin attacked Barack Obama for holding the position that the Bush Administration has belatedly been forced to adopt: holding direct talks with Iran. We’re too strong a country to be afraid of talking to Iraq.


Let’s pass this along and let everyone know what’s really happening.