LAist: Music Archives

May has been rough on LA.
That very first day we had the May Day Melee, then it got super hot, and then we had to deal with that damn fire. And we're only 10 days in!

If all of this has rattled you perhaps you need to delve into your inner-hippie and escape north about 90 minutes away to Santa Barbara this weekend.
For if you do, you will find a three-day music and art festival that would impress even the crunchiest raw food naturalist on your block. Called " ", the festival has no ATMs; low ticket prices; it rocks till 2am; it serves veggie, vegan, and raw foods; and it's almost entirely powered by renewable energy created with eco-friendly production practices - aka the mamajamma's green.

There will be bands, acts (like Lucent Dossier, pictured) hippy dip new age workshops, crazy stuff to buy, and the most interesting people that you will probably meet all month.
For extra credit, find out how you can be carbon-neutral during your commute between here and the (805) by using the .
Whoever is booking the Silent Movie Theater on Fairfax deserves a raise.

Recently they got Henry Rollins and Janeane Garofalo to do a show there, and now we find our favorite bald Irishwoman Sinead O'Conner is going to play a gig there next month.
In what seems to be one of her two "intimate" acoustic shows in the States (the other will be ), as O' Conner prepares to go on a world tour in support of her new album, Theology (listen to some of it on her ). Her label says

"Theology" premieres eight new songs written by O'Connor as well as three covers: Curtis Mayfield's soul-searching "We People Who Are Darker Than Blue," a ferocious interpretation of Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice's "I Don't Know How To Love" (from "Jesus Christ Superstar"), and the traditional reggae spiritual, "Rivers of Babylon," with new lyrics written by Sinead.

Recently our girl played in Dublin where 4,500 people sang along, and the gig got rave reviews, in part because she isn't afraid to play her hits throughout the show.
The Irish Independent said, "Hearing these songs, with her voice still pristine and just as impressive as it was all those years ago, feels like something very special. She moves on to newer stuff, playing two from her new album 'Theology', which she introduces by saying 'I will play that song shortly, so please don't throw bottles at us'.

True to her word, she sings 'Nothing Compares 2 U' and the audience sings the backing vocal."
Tickets for the June 19th show , so don't blink or they'll sell out of that teenie place quicker than you can say f the pope.
Three words: Free Tim Buckley.

OK maybe more words are needed. To celebrate the upcoming Tim Buckley dvd "My Fleeting House", there will be a free screening . The dvd is a compilation of unreleased performances by the tragic legend.

From the press release:

The footage spans his entire career, from 1967 to 1974, and includes unreleased video of interaction with Buckley on The Steve Allen Show (1969) and on WITF's The Show (1970). The footage is taken from various television programs from 1967 to 1974 right up to the time of his death in 1975. All but two of the musical clips are unreleased.

As an additional oddity, the clip of Buckley being interviewed on The Steve Allen Show includes Jayne Meadows complimenting Buckley on his hair.

Think some patrons at Molly Malone's might sing a long?
Molly Malones - 575 S.

Fairfax (at 6th) - Los Angeles, CA 90036. Sunday, May 13th - 7:00 pm. 21+
They were both really funny and very smart.

Of the two, Mr. Vanderslice seemed to enjoy answering the questions while Ms. Vincent seemed to enjoy eluding them in witty ways.

Vanderslice was originally in the band mk Ultra, had an infamous solo hit immediately afterwards with "Bill Gates Must Die", and when not playing his own music or producing in his low low priced nirvana of a recording studio, Tiny Telephone, collaborates and tours with the Mountain Goats.
I was lucky enough to catch him via email where we discussed how he could possibly hate Bush less than Stalin, his opinions about how Britney Spears should steer her career, if I'm crazy, and how GG Allin has influenced his art.
You might be as well known for your production skills and your recording studio and the way you toil over the records you make.

Perfectionism some would assume. However when people meet you they say that you're extremely friendly and generous. Aren't people who are anal supposed to be introverted and lacking social graces?

Well I bet there are tons of slothful assholes in the world! It's true i am highly socialized, and generally very gracious, but no more so than anyone brought up in the south by a good mother.
Do you find it odd that people fawn over you for putting 100% into your projects?

Do they expect producers and artists to half- ass their art? Is it the equivalent to when Sen. Biden called Sen.

Obama "clean" and "articulate"?
Well I'm very surprised when people tell me i'm hard-working. I am usually scheming on how to do the least amount of work at any given time and wriggle out of pending obligations.

That Biden comment was one of the better gaffes of the year, he is seriously unhinged. Remember when he told a poor fellow in New Hampshire his IQ was higher?
Boxer, out May 22 on Beggars Banquet, is the kind of record that makes you want to do nothing with your life.

More specifically, The National’s fourth, full-length album is an offering of unfussy rock that is neither sentimental nor whiny, rather, a perfectly romanticized malaise that could convince even the most upwardly mobile type-A to consider a path of murky, scotch-fueled depression.
Matt Berninger’s confident and dreamy bass-baritone opens the record by quietly guiding the piano to the drums on Fake Empire, and you can almost see him sitting like a cool sadsack at a dusty truckstop somewhere. That imagery saturates the album, though I recall no mention of dust or trucks.

Because does understated so well, flourishes like layered background vocals, choruses of horns and gentle swells go a long way to enhancing the overall sound. Mistaken For Strangers stands out with its twitchy pop precision and fleeting moments of Interpol drone, Green Gloves is like a pretty and sad memory of not getting what you wanted, while Slow Show is destined for hipster-in-love mixes wanting to convey that eternally complex “I’m totally into you” sentiment. Also noteworthy is a guest appearance by Sufjan Stevens playing piano on tracks Racing Like a Pro and Ada.

This must-have for summer will take the pressure off of feeling good, and the edge off of feeling bad.
Clearly these kids do not understand disco. Nevertheless, silver, swoopy-haired Barry Gibb (sounding oddly like Darryl Hammond’s Sean Connery ) mentored and coached the hatchlings into eight counts of nostalgia butchering.

Much like colorized movies, this was a bad idea.
Melinda started us off with the very dirty, “Love You Inside And Out” oblivious to the connotation. For her second number she chose the timeless, the epic, the boooooooooooooring “How Can You Mend A Broken Heart.

”
Blake’s “You Should Be Dancing,” sounded like a Euro remix complete with echoing falsetto and weirdly forced beatboxing. His number two pick was the tuneless and obscure “This Is Where I Came In,” and though it was far from great, anything short of vomiting on stage an eating it will probably get him into the next round.
Lakisha’s eyes lit up during her pre-game with Mr.

Gibb in a way I have yet to see. She took on “Stayin’ Alive” and “Run To Me” with tepid results.
Jordan’s version of “To Love Somebody” sounded better on the rehearsal reel, and she screamed her way through “A Woman In Love.

” Still, she’s cute as a button and took top marks from the judges.
Today will be a day of reckoning. Stay tuned.

It is hard to call Bright Eyes’ frontman Connor Oberst old or grown up as he only recently turned 27, but having recorded and released albums since the age of 14 it may be safe to say that he has found a new sense of stability and maturity in his craft. Not only does his latest and album of the year front runner Cassadaga, his “Americana” album, reflect this but his live performance this Sunday at the Walt Disney Concert Hall only serves as re-enforcement. However, the themes of life, love, war, drugs and death are all still present in his songs but now in a more subtle and refined manner.

“This is a strange place for us to play,” Oberst said in a transition between songs in reference to the ethereal Walt Disney Concert Hall. While the outside is a twisted wave of metal, the hall itself is intimate and, as one can imagine, acoustically spectacular. In this hall his music has never sounded better, “Four Winds” and the epic finale “Road To Joy” were immense and full as they boomed off the acoustically tuned wooden panels, while the slower, more intimate songs, “Lua” and “First Day Of My Life.

” were sweet and resonate.
It may be that the performance consisted greatly of songs off Cassadaga, an album full of upbeat and hopeful tracks, more so than previous efforts, but there was sense as he stood in front of his band that he truly has come of age and will continue as one of the premier song writers in American music.
Bodies of Water, The Western States Motel, No Little Kindness, Seasons @ The Echo
Sticky Yeti, The Scene, Roses on Her Grave, Pan America, Stepsonday @ The Troubadour
Not for Now, Art Beat @ The Good Hurt
LAist is proud to offer a weekly chart roundup of Magazine's most coveted rankings.

Join us as we revel in the conventional standard of musical success. Let us cross our fingers, hoist our lighters, and dream together of the supreme resurrection of artist-driven recordings that will forever eclipse the dark cloud of big label greed, A R sleaze and disposable audio. Amen.

Here are this week's chart toppers. Behold the #1s.
Issue Date: May 12, 2007
The Chuck Dukowski Sextet, May 5, 2007.

This interview was recorded outside of the very glamorous rock-and-roll Big Lots next to Suzy’s in Redondo Beach, where the live footage was recorded.
The Chuck Dukowski Sextet is made up of Chuck, his wife Lora Norton, guitarist Milo Gonzalez, and drummer Tony Tornay. Chuck and Nora founded Nice Friendly Records.

Chuck was a founding member and driving force behind Black Flag, SWA, and Fishcamp. In addition to being a musician, Lora is a visual artist and creator of Lord Carrot.
Tony Tornay is a talented photographer.

He also plays drums in Fatso Jetsom. Milo is an acrobatic circus performer who will be performing at the Lightning in a Bottle Fest next weekend in Santa Barbara.
Although they started out as an experimental band, the Chuck Dukowski Sextet is much more straightforward these days.

Tony's intense, steady backbeat gives Chuck something solid to riff freely off of. Milo keeps the energy up, and takes it to a slightly more psychedelic, Hendrix-inspired plane. Lora is probably still the most experimental member of the group.

Her voice moves freely between low, throaty torch singing, Yoko-like ululations and screaming punk rock.
This clip starts out with the band's version of My War, one of the Black Flag songs that Chuck wrote. It ends with Chuck commenting that although he still has the same agenda that he had in the days of Black Flag, he is taking a positive approach.

Then my photo chip, which is still a hard-core nihilist, cut him off and refused to record any more.
Did you know that starfish are not really fish? In between rocking out to Ima Robot there were things to be a’learned at this month’s First Friday event at the Natural History Museum.

Just a bit of back story, I have heard about the First Friday events since I moved to Los Angeles just over two years ago but never made it down to the ‘hood to attend. I have also heard the band Ima Robot on Indie 103.1 and through friends since I moved here just over two years ago, but never once attended a show of theirs.

Friday night the planets, stars, Paris Hilton and everything else seemed to align and the union of the two got my ass to a museum on a Friday night! There are puns abound when you see a rock concert in the depths of a Natural History Museum, for this review and for the readers sake I will refrain from them (or at least try).
Amidst the ruble of generations of civilizations and creatures, Ima Robot frontman Alex Ebert’s warbley falsetto voice echoed and rocked the place to its very bones!

(LAME!) As the band reached a high point with the lead single, “Creeps Me Out” off their latest release Monument to the Masses, It became an odd scene as Ebert gyrated and caressed his chest in front of the surprisingly young crowd, who ate up every ounce of it. What this crowd lacked in age they made up for in enthusiasm and energy.

They jumped, screamed and sung along like good li’l hipsters-in-training and the place began to feel more like Spaceland or The Troubadour rather than a museum. In the shadows of elephants and lions, Ima Robot brought their brand of electric energy to the lifeless, albeit stuffed, mammals, who seemed completely captivated by the event. (LAME!

)
I honestly didn’t know what to expect when going to this event, how often do you hear of rock concerts in museums? But I was surprised, entertained and I even learned! It is a genius move by the people at the NHM to make people aware of their exhibits and events and something that everyone should check out next month, the last for the season.

I have to say that I love compilations. Variety is the spice of life and what’s better than an assortment of tunes shoved at you. Universal Music Enterprises (Ume) has put out a set of 20 compilations of “number ones” of various genres, artists, and eras.

The eras are by decade from the ‘60s through the ‘90s. The genres are from jazz to country. The artist roster is composed of Motowners: Diana Ross and the Supremes, Marvin Gaye, James Brown, and the Temptations.

The CDs are well designed and are in ground-breaking and environmentally conscious packaging – the sleeve and tray are completely paper-recyclable, a first for the music industry.
The 2 CDs that were sent to us were ’80s Soul and Motown Vol. 2.

I never really thought of myself as a fan of Motown but since I’m in a funk lately, some of these songs annoyingly spoke to me: “You Can’t Hurry Love”, “You’re All That I Need To Get By”, “Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)”, etc. What a sap. After a while of listening to this though and going over the song lists for the other 18 albums its more than apparent that every town in the US has a selection of AM and FM stations that pretty much play these tunes back to back, not to mention the genre-specific satellite and internet radio stations that broadcast it 24/7.

The whole premise of this set of CDs is that they were “number ones” on various lists, mainly R B – so anyone over 30 has heard all of these songs about a million times. Also, just because a song was “number one” on the R B chart for 2 weeks in 1986 doesn’t mean it was a good song, like Oran “Juice Jones’ “The Rain” for example, a song with no redeeming values.
There are a couple of items that confuse/annoy with this series.

The songs on the CDs are not consistently listed in any particular order, chronological or otherwise – ‘80s Soul seems random but Motown Vol.2’s tracks are listed by date but most of the other compilations are haphazardly arranged. Also, there is quite a bit of duplication of tracks across the different CDs: ‘80s Soul and Motown Vol.

2 both contain Lionel Ritchie’s “All Night Long (All Night)” as well as Dazz Band’s “Let It Whip” and I've seen similar repitition on other compilations in the set.
My complaints aside, there is something to be said for paying for music and being able to play tracks that you want to hear when you want to hear them. While these compilations don’t delve deep into any particular decade or genre, they are at least superficially representational.

While there might be plenty of pop fluff to sift through there are at several iconic tracks on each collection, just pick carefully, and you'll be satisfied.