Sebastian Tellier American Apparel Mix Contest on Discobelle

I'm going to the American Apparel flea market sale tomorrow and Sebastian Tellier is supposed to rock out at some point. Although I probably wouldn't throw this mix up on here just to enter the Discobelle contest, I'll do so because I'm going to the throw-down and I'm not entirely focused on the "Fade to Black" DVD playing on my TV. To be honest, I barely even listened to the mix. However, I'm sure its tight. So dig it. And when I win this prize package, I'll certainly spread the wealth.

Mack Winston and the Reflections Bad Ass Mp3

I forgot to add this to the last post: a friggin awesome new track by Mack Winston and the Reflections. It has this gnarly keyboard powering through the song with thick ass guitars and rhythm section dropping in right away. And homeboy can definitely sing. Watch out for the organs battling during the chorus.
Supposedly, they're making a video for this track too and if we live in a just world, it'll be huge. Or at least make it on my nemesis, Indie 103.

Mack Winston and the Reflections "Manipulator" (zshare)

Mack Winston and the Reflections at Le Doux 7/28

Oh, and just because I mentioned this before, I thought I'd follow up:
Mack Winston and the Reflections are playing at Le Doux this coming Monday, 7/28. Also, the guys told me the Donnas are playing now too if you're into that sort of thing. And although I'm a little confused as to how rock bands can play or draw crowds at that kind of venue, it should be cool and I can't wait to take pictures with overly-busy Doux wall paper all over the background.




Did I mentioned these dudes know how to party?

Knyfe Hyts

Alright: I usually don't like to write about bands I've never seen rock out live. And I especially don't like writing about bands that I don't know anything about. But in this case, my homey OD gave me the heads up and I sincerely trust his taste and advice. He knows his shit and has hipped me to a lot of ill shit in the past. And 3 seconds into the song, you'll know Knyfe Hyts are for real. So dig the Maiden cover and I'll figure these guys out at a later date. Holla!

Knyfe Hyts- "Run Free" (zshare)

HEALTH live in the 'burg/ The plight of drinkers in LA's all-ages scene

Watch the full concert at baeblemusic.com


The good people at Baeble Music were nice enough to hip me to the live HEALTH show in Brooklyn they just posted. And on the real...it is ridiculously tight! I've only seen HEALTH once and it was at some suited up industry party that Village Voice and their city paper cohorts around the country (I don't feel like doing the pertinent internet digging right now, but I'd bet one dude owns them all) threw during SXSW. While I can't knock them too hard because it was a decent lineup (shit, HEALTH played) and they gave away these sweet gym bags with the show flyer printed on them, the crowd of almost entirely forty-somethings wasn't really feeling experimental noise punk at noon. And even though I'm friggin certain those dudes weren't partying nearly as hard as I was the night before, I can totally see where they were coming from. If I wasn't already hooked on the intensely abrasive and still defiantly melodic HEALTH album I'd just copped before heading to Austin, I might have been sulking near an A/C duct and pounding bloody marys too. So to quit acting tough and finally set the scene: I stood real close to the stage and rocked out for the duration of the set and I shit you not, there wasn't a single person within 15 feet of me or the band. And as we all know, it is kind of awkward to dance by yourself to noisy art punk, let alone doing so at noon. But the point is: HEALTH are so goddamn amazing live that I couldn't help but flail around and air drum. And all the while, I was dead sober. Or, you now what, I guess I was probably still a little boozed from ending my night a few hours beforehand. Also, I'm fairly certain me and Brian burned one on the ride down...
But speaking of sober, this brings me to my next point: I'm kind of bitter that all the best and most exciting shows in LA are all all-ages and no beer. I totally feel like a dick saying this because I was such a fervent hater throughout my childhood whenever bands I liked didn't play all-ages shows. "Punk's supposed to be for the kids, man" and all that business. I can't tell you how many times I snuck in and/or got kicked out of 18 or 21 and up shows. Shit, the second best show I ever saw was the 21+ Modest Mouse show we snuck into when I was 16 and they were touring for Lonesome Crowded West. (Quick side note: I had just gotten my license three days beforehand and my midnight curfew came and went about 15 minutes into the 2 hour set. When I finally got home around 2, my mom started screaming and I calmly replied "you can ground me forever but it was worth it." And it was. To her credit, she saw that look in my eye and I got off with a stern warning. Her leniency might also have had something to do with a similar occurrence involving my dad and a Who concert in Philly when he was 16). But for the most part, I saw some pretty sweaty shows in community centers and church basements and loved every one of them.
Sadly, nowadays I've become a mutant drug addict that needs a lukewarm PBR in my hand in order to enjoy a show. (I know, I know...but it breaks down like this: I always have some sort of beverage handy no matter what. Coffee, water and beer are my go-to bevies of choice. And if I'm out somewhere at night, I really don't wanna pay money for anything but a beer. Ya know?) Obviously, there are plenty of good shows at beer-selling venues in LA. I go to Spaceland every Monday and hit up the Echo, etc. on a pretty regular basis. Sometimes there are good local bands at the bars (see postings below). Additionally, I'm certainly not above pounding said lukewarm beers in the bathroom at the Smell (see postings below).
But coming back around to Brooklyn: it just never seemed like age was an issue for shows in New York. Although I never really looked into it, their alcohol laws are probably less strict about shit like that. And besides: kids in NYC all get fakes well before their 21st and flaunt them. Damn, I must have gone through 10 fake ids before I turned 21. But out west, LA just seems to have a gaping chasm surrounding your 21st birthday and it's really weird sometimes.
While I've been noticing this schism between the ages since I got here, going to the 18+ party at Cinespace with DJ Huggs the other night really drove this fact home: all the under 21s were dancing (forget about whether they were on drugs or not) and all of us that were of age were scornfully watching them have fun. They were just so different and it was blatant: you could tell who was of age and who wasn't just by their demeanor. I mean, yeah, I'm totally down for dancing when the time is right and everyone know I always end up getting rowdy when the music hits me. But these kids were crazy ecstatic just to be at a club in Hollywood with a DJ playing...gasp...fucking MSTRKRFT! I don't know: they just seemed really different and immature. And I certainly don't mean that in a bad way at all. I just mean it. It was almost like they were dancing because they thought they were supposed to dance.
On the flipside, we saw Meho Plaza at an all-ages cafe show last week and Doug and I couldn't help moving around and pounding our legs like tom-toms. Meanwhile, the teens sipped from their contraband Tecates and watched in utter stillness. It was almost like they weren't dancing because they were certain they weren't supposed to show any emotion.
Once again, I want to reiterate that I don't mean to hate and I certainly admire the youth. But it kinda pisses me off to see them underage drink from communal backpacks full of beer while I sit and salivate because I remain too respectful of the all-ages atmosphere to bring in the beers I always have waiting in the cooler (or what I call my real man's purse) in the trunk of my car. Ya heard? And if I do bring them in, I hide in the bathroom (see above) or cautiously sip them when I think no one is looking. It is just such a crazy role reversal and it annoys me to no end. It is especially frustrating that all the best shows and bands from LA (HEALTH or Meho Plaza, for starters) play these venues. And this is the whole reason I got all tangent-ed: I've only seen HEALTH play once and it was in Texas! And last time I checked, they lived down the street. But because I like beer, I'm stuck seeing shitty bands that sound like they're ripping off b-sides from Interpol's last album (I don't know if I mentioned this before, but due to the fact that so many of the bands at Spaceland sound like Interpol, I rate them on a scale of first album [obviously the best] through last album [a flaming chunk of ass germs]).
I'm going to make a bold statement here (with no real factual evidence), but please don't criticize before you think about it: LA's best bands (i.e. the bands that play mostly all-ages jump-offs) spring up organically from like-minded individuals getting together and playing music they enjoy. While fame and fortune are welcome footnotes to the music, punk rock's shadow looms and getting down and rocking out are the first concerns. On the other side of the spectrum, bands like Spaceland's current Monday night residents, Under the Influence of Giants, seem like they are the product of either a) an ego-driven and unoriginal front man who moved to LA in order to get famous, or b) a bunch of ego-driven dudes with minimal talent who wanna be famous and don't care whose coattails they have to ride to get there. We all know it: those of us who live out here are surrounded everyday with almost exclusively people who wanna be famous one day. Usually, it's amusing and cute and not really that bothersome. But sometimes, it leads to shitty results for those of us who just love music and want to see people do it big as often as possible. (Just to reiterate, I'm in law school and getting the hell back east when I'm done).
And once again, I'll bring it full circle: watching HEALTH play in my old hood just makes me wish for those days in the early 2000s when Brooklyn was awesome. Of course, New York will always have wanna-bes latching on to scenes. But back then, they were too busy playing yuppie bars in Manhattan to bother anyone rocking out in the boroughs. And there was never a need for a comparable all-ages scene in NYC because almost all the venues have all-ages shows "where the beer flows like wine." But the originality is fading and nowadays, it really seems like bands move to BK just so they can call themselves Brooklyn bands. I see it every time I go back or one of those schmuck-rock bands comes out this way and makes it onto a bill (usually at Spaceland). Or shit, SXSW this year was a prime example: all the "new" bands from BK were totally derivative and un-amusing. Brooklyn is just too expensive to really devote yourself to art anymore (please don't let me hype Philly again) and tons of cheesedicks have infiltrated the scene on both sides of the East River. The music is no longer organic and therefore, dying out.
I'm not all that familiar with what was going on out here in the last ten years, but it doesn't seem like LA ever really had a scene comparable to the one in Brooklyn during the first part of this decade: there aren't enough good venues now and I can't imagine the dearth of hipster infrastructure when rent was actually affordable! Even if the scene is popping off now, it is annoying as hell to people like me to have to choose between socializing with my peers and hanging out with the kids that are ill-adjusted because they're barely allowed in grown-up spots. Does LA have a pedophile problem? Is that why they keep it separated like this?
Maybe I'm wrong, but I'm guessing musicians that come to LA have just always done so in order to get famous. In contrast, I know for a fact that plenty of kids went to New York ten years ago to rock out with talented and like-minded individuals and a scene just sprang up in their wake. For now, LA's best scene is the one with the kids just playing music that they know is good. But like I said...it is different and problematic.

OK, I'm done. But because I know I'm not always that clear when I have a lot of abstract shit to vent about, here is a succinct conclusion:
1) I am bitter because LA's best bands play all-ages shows.
They most likely play these shows because: a) they retain a sense of punk rock morality, and b) there are way too many synthetic d-bags at the LA rock bars playing ass music in hopes of one day having an opportunity to suck a dick for record contract consideration.
2) Even though LA may have one of the most exciting and innovative music scenes in the world right now, it will never be as enjoyable as New York's scene from a few years ago because of the aforementioned problems. This fact sucks.
3) While they are earnest and mean well , LA's kids don't necessarily deserve or appreciate the bands/shows they are privy to.
4) As a result of the division of music scenes out here, the youth stay young and ill-informed while the twenty-somethings become frustrated and prematurely bitter.
5) Fuck all-ages club owners: I'm bringing my Coney Island backpack full of beer to every friggin no-beer venue in town from now on.

Rape Valley

Since I got added to the SLU myspace page, I guess I am one of the artists now? Cool huh? But dig this: me and Doug (aka DJ Omar Omar) are doing a mix tape called "Rape Valley" that is going to be pressed up and released for real! Tight, right? I don't wanna give anything away or run my mouth, but its going to be extreme and violent but also eerie as hell. Just think of barely legal knives, illegal drugs, red jeans, Patrick Bateman and associated acts of debauchery usually reserved for HBO drama, Hype Williams videos and millionaires with vacation homes in Thailand. Sound good to you? Cause it sounds good as fuck to me.
As far as music I've been rocking out to, it has been weird: Doug was here for a week and than after he left, DJ Alex Huggs came in the next day. So I was just keeping it real with my boys for like weeks straight and instead of geeking around the blogs finding new tracks to wow yous guys, my homies and I were blasting tracks we like. Also, anything associated with raping valleys is now classified for the next couple months. However, Doug and I had to dig up the first Hollertronix mixtape one crazy night because I couldn't get track 6 out of my head. And that's below in case ya'll feel me. Also, I have to give Huggs props on his current project. I'm not saying anything else, but it is gonna be tight and out soon. Keep your eyes peeled if you're not looking up out of a hole in a valley somewhere. Well I mean, I guess you could still keep your eyes peeled at that point... but you probably wouldn't give a rat's ass about some mixtape. Even though they're both awesomer than you can imagine.
Oh, and Hellboy 2 was decent and I already copped tickets for the new Batman next Thursday/Friday at 1 AM. To be clear, I don't think I've been this excited for movie (superhero or otherwise) since the first Ninja Turtles movie came out when I was 6. But to reiterate, for now you should rock out to this old Hollertronix track and be prepared for all the aforementioned dope shit I just mentioned.

Hollertronix: "Feeling Some Kind of Way" mp3 zshare