Stranded In Stereo

Tuesday, August 10, 2010

she saw & produce produce @ Silver Factory Studios


Arty noise rock fans rejoice.  This Friday two bands will fill the 
strange space that is Silver Factory Studios.  Produce Produce  
are an amazing, interesting and fun band from northern California.  
 
They have weird & quirky pop songs buried in layers of noise & 
delay that are as fun as they are layered.  They are playing 
with LA based She Saw who wrap shoegaze, art & noise up in 
prefect song packages.  When they perform live they create
an atmosphere of grungy brooding, unsurpassed in the current 
LA landscape.

The venue is at:
4310 W. Jefferson Blvd. L.A., CA 90016
Doors open @ 10pm
Cover Charge: $5
This Friday the 13th! 
not to be missed.

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Ghost Puncher

I found this Ghost Puncher while trawling through myspace looking for decent music. I'm a huge IDM fan, ever since i was a child and i stumbled upon Aphex Twin, Lexaunculpt, Autechre, Squarepusher, Merzbow, Ubin & a million other awesome groups i have been lost in the glitch heavy, intricate production and strangely beautiful melodies. They play with my ears and make me feel more creatively stimulated. Their was a bit of a dry patch from 2000 till now, but recently people like Flying Lotus, Gold Panda, Health (remixes), the new Autechre album and other random things have re-spark my interest. So if you have a chance, check out these groups above and also Ghost Puncher as i find the music full of variety and intricately fun production!

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

The Rumble - Los Angeles

 

This Thursday the sin-famous? (sorry) Rumble continues to LA on its trek along the coast systematically leading up to its 4 Rumble Parties at SXSW in Austin.  With 3 Clubs in Hollywood playing host to Rumspringa, Twin Tigers and The Beaters it is sure to be a heart melting, soul soothing and ass shaking night of romantic proportions.

Rumspringa has been hailed as LA's best kept secret with their (forgive me for this word) groovy, yet soulful psychedelic rock.  They have massaged LA's ears with their gently soothing sounds through residencies at The Echo and are sure to set people's hearts on fire at SXSW this year.  

Twin Tigers continue their Rumble tour at this LA event laying down their dreamy, shimmery sounds awash with melody and screeching guitars.  Their spacial experience is not to be missed. 

The Beaters are a jarring, edgy and experimental punk outfit from San Diego.  Their sounds laden with harmonies and jumpy fast paced rhythms should surely antagonize the crowd into a frenzy, in the best way possible of course, with great music.

With all this plus DJ S.I.S and it being free you would be a brain-dead fool to not commit your night to this.  Fool i say!


Tuesday, March 2, 2010

The Rumble - San Francisco

 

The infamous Rumble is back in San Francisco tomorrow with a line up that is sure to tantalize and terrorize your fertile listening holes.  San Frans own Lilofee wil be performing alongside noise-dream pop merchants Twin Tigers and workaholics and collaborating genius's Stripmall Architecture who are soon to release new album Feathersongs for Factory Girls.  Plus none other then DJ Bagel Ted.

This is sure to be the best hangover party for the now ending Noise Pop Festival which featured, Yoko Ono and Cornelius among amazing artists.

There is no way to hide our absolute LOVE for LILOFEE. We put out their 7" vinyl for the single, 'Runaway' at the end of 2009, and are set to drop their second single, 'Destroy Me' (+a video + a remix) on Future Sounds Records in March. Stay tuned for more info on that release.

STRIPMALL ARCHITECTURE we were just introduced to but after listening to the Myspace songs and vibing their influences, we're instant fans. Here's what the SF WEEKLY had to say:
"Does the mention of a band somewhere in-between Sigur Ros and the Cocteau Twins make those little hairs on the back of your neck tingle? If so, you owe it to yourself to check for Stripmall Architecture's show." Resident DJ, BAGEL TED, will handle the DJ duties.

That leads us to TWIN TIGERS from Athens, Georgia, a band that will be playing through the circuit starting in SF, into LA, San Diego, and will be playing THE RUMBLE: LAS VEGAS that will be a part of the NEON REVERB MUSIC FESTIVAL on the 12th. They will keep the wheels turning to Austin and will be playing THE RUMBLE @ SXSW at Shangra La, as well as 6 other parties (including the WOXY Official SXSW showcase @ Emo's Annex on Friday night).

  
Come and be Merry at Cafe Du Nord 3/3/10 in other words Tomorrow!

Friday, February 26, 2010

Dinosaur Jr and T-Mobile live?


Corporate shows are a weird monster.  Big rock shows have been sponsored by corporations for eons, i imagine that you cannot see a Rolling Stones show or a U2 show without massive Virgin screens, or AT&T billboards.  Still you don't expect to see one of Grunge's father figure bands presenting a show to celebrate the release of T-Mobiles new smart phone.  Weirder still their was no mention of the phone throughout the entire show, barely a billboard or a poster even, albeit a few projected words referencing the aforementioned phone.  

You can't blame Dinosaur Jr, they have never been a talkative band, and honestly i would cry if J Mascis was to begin a speech on the benefits of touch screen, wi-fi enabled phones and the apps available.  As amazingly awesome as it was to see Dinosaur Jr live for free, and they did play a great show, it was very strange to see moshing at a corporate show.  I half expected a power point presentation about coverage at the intermission.  

The fans and the band seemed as confused as each other with this weird event.  Still all that aside, J, Murph and Lou played a solid set of classics and new material with soaring solo's and low key vocals.  Still one of the best ear-blistering country grunge bands around, or just one of the best bands around.

  If Kurt Cobain had not of blown his face off i wonder if he would have accepted his place in music and presented a show sponsoring the new iPad or latest 3G smart phone, possibly this would have made him end it all again. 

Monday, February 15, 2010

This night has opened my eyes

Over the weekend their was an outstanding collection of free shows for the artistic or fashion inclined and internet savvy financial crises sufferers.  On Friday the 12th at Hollywood retail experiment Space 15 Twenty their was a Valentines party at the hipster by numbers shop Urban Outfitters.  Their was discounts galore and 16 year old hipster's in their brand new flannel + ironic shirt and skinny jeans combo wading through the rejected, last season clothes.  But their was two things i was interested in, free alcohol and Pearl Harbor.

Pearl Harbor are a cute band of shimmery Smiths'esque guitar lines and heavily reverbed vocals.  They have the archetypal California sound of psychedelic pop cuteness and low-fi cavernous hooks.  Their 16 yr old guitarist's love of what she does is both honest and obvious and quite enchanting in its hooky-ness.  This is probably the blondest band i've ever seen, from the sister duo of long blond locks to the posy 2nd guitarist and his perfectly manicured blond mop.  Even the Bass-Player has mousey-blond hair.  But who cares, they are a good band and have a long time to develop.

On Saturday after a day of eating Kim-Che fries and abstract fusion burritos at the LA street food festival what could be better then finding out a band you love featuring revered music legends will be playing near your house.  Family bookstore on Fairfax is, no.1 one of my favorite places for books, no.2 fucking cool. 

They had a gallery opening for musician/artist and legend Tim Kerr and to celebrate they had LA punk band No Age featuring legendary Mike Watt on Bass and Tim Kerr himself on guitar.  They played a two song jam set with layers of art noise and punk passion.  Tim Kerr was stunning with his balding refrain and his outright awesome guitar moves, thrusting his guitar high into the air and into the crowd.  It was one of those nights where you slap yourself and go, "i live here."  It was an eye opening experience and a sheer privilege to be able to walk down the street and witness such a thing.  It was so good i gradually forgot about the free Alcohol.  Thank you LA.

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Maps & Atlases





Achieving some hype in 2006 when signing with Sargent House, Maps and Atlases set a strange tone in music. Part math, part finger tapping glory and a whole lot of whimsical pop cuteness. Check out the demos on their myspace for their soon to be announced 2010 release and you cant help but smile to their melodically intricate yet perfectly catchy new songs. It would be easy to point to other bands of now like Vampire Weekend as a reference point, merely due to the songs being melody based and happy. The pseudo-African rhythms wont help comparisons either but i don't see Vampire Weekend finger tapping.

It may not have seemed possible back in 1986 of anyone finger tapping without the pretension of jumping of a drum riser with dry ice, crotch shots and endless montages of screaming groupies, but maybe the time has come to utilize this technique. Anyway we have Steel Panther to keep the latter alive as their is something hokey and kitsch about hair metal bravado in this weird world of sensitive guys in flannels with beards.

The new Maps & Atlases album is being recorded by Jason Cupp (Finch, Nurses) across the US in various places. No details of a release date yet, but with their East Coast tour coming to wraps shortly it cant be far away. All hale the un-rawk and pomp of nu-finger tapping.