Their music embodies Southern California surf rock; lo-fi, rock and roll with catchy hooks and enough juice to make you want to bounce around and bump shoulders with the person next to you. Each member of the band took their turn on lead vocals throughout the set, and each song, as far as I can recall, were quick and to the point, concise bursts of punk rock energy.
Opening for Hanni El Khatib, I thought their set was a good appetizer of what was to come. Their fans were feeling the grove as bodies were slowly forming a mosh pit, and the temperature of the venue started to rise.
Setlist:
This Town
Bainbridge
Tony’s Song
Wall Walker
Push Over
Father Figure
Summer Fun
Cherry St.
Red Headed Girl
Boardwalk
Forbidden Fruit
Baby I’m Bored
Don’t Shoot Your Guns
Creature
Prayer Knees
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I take music reviews with a grain of salt. I do my best to avoid reading them until I’ve already developed my own opinion about the music myself, but when trying to learn about music that I’ve never heard about before, it’s tough not to read an article or two…
When I looked for information about Jacco Gardner, I stumbled on the Pitchfork.com review of Jacco Gardner’s latest release “Cabinet of Curiosities”. In that article, Pitchfork states:
Being compared to such musical luminaries ranging from Brian Wilson to Love is nothing to scoff at. I only listened to a few tracks available on youtube, and decided that I would reserve judgement until I saw him perform live.
Jacco Gardner’s setlist.
Gracing the stage at the Echo Park United Methodist Church, he and his full band wistfully played set that was filled with all of those elements that made that Pitchfork reviewer recall the musical, psychedelic pop stylings of Brian Wilson and Love. His arrangements were more complex than I would have expected from a young man in his mid twenties, and his performance was that of a subdued and mature veteran.
I loved his sound. His audience loved his sound. I purchased his LP, and his music sounds incredible on vinyl. It may be tough finding large audiences to fall into his music, but I, for one, am very interested in seeing where he takes it. You can too by following his Facebook account.
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Shoegazing is a sub genre of alternative rock that emerged from the United Kingdom in the late 1980s. As per its entry on Wikipedia, “The British music press—particularly NME and Melody Maker—named this style shoegazing because the musicians in these bands stood relatively still during live performances in a detached, introspective, non-confrontational state, hence the idea that they were gazing at their shoes.” One of the biggest UK acts to arise from this musical movement, was My Bloody Valentine (a band that I opted not to see at 2013’s FYF Festival). Pitchfork Media has hailed Medicine as the closest thing to being an American answer to My Bloody Valentine. I had to check them out.
Medicine founder, Brad Laner, is perhaps one of the most accomplished Los Angeles musicians in the indie rock scene. Having played on more than 300 albums, he has worked with the likes of Brian Eno, Savage Republic and Rick Rubin. After over a decade of the band being on hiatus, band members Laner, singer Beth Thompson and drummer Jim Goodall recorded and released the highly regarded album “To The Happy Few” earlier this year.
To be honest, I wasn’t all too familiar with Medicine’s catalog of music. Truth be told, growing up, I wan’t that big of a fan of the “genre” of shoegazing. It was only somewhat recently when I started to get into M83‘s music that I started to look into the genre. But where M83 is more pop-synth rock, Medicine’s brand of shoegazing is massively more psychedelic rock with silky vocals and wall of expert guitar playing and driving drums. It was a great set, and I have money that this set was much more entertaining than the My Bloody Valentine set at FYF Festival, which I heard was plagued with technical difficulties. US-1 : UK-0.
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Earlier this year (2013), Snoop threw up some beats he had cobbled together onto his Soundcloud account, giving other musicians on Soundcloud the opportunity to record melodies and lyrics on top of them for fun. It so happened that an amazingly unique vocalist from Poland caught Snoop’s ear. Her name was Iza Lach p/k/a “Iza” and Snoop decided to scoop up this hidden jewel of a talent before anybody else could releasing several EPs executed produced by Snoop (as Berhane Sound System) and released under Snoop’s wife’s imprint label “Boss Lady Entertainment”.
When I heard the tracks she had recorded, I got excited. Like, being a kid and finding the toy in the cereal box kind of excited. Iza’s voice and vocal technique is so unique that I couldn’t really compare it to anything that I’ve heard before … and I listen to a lot of music. Maybe a souled out Portishead with a Sade vibe? I don’t know. All I know was that I wanted to hear more.
When management told me that she would be performing in Los Angeles, I knew that I had to buy a ticket. She performed three sets at Culture Collide, but unfortunately I was only able to attend her first one on Thursday as I was already attending a friend’s wedding on the Saturday she was scheduled to perform twice.
The performance I attended was in a small lounge of a restaurant, and it couldn’t have been a more perfect setting to watch her perform live for the first time. Backed by a full band (drums, guitar, bass and Iza playing keys), the music filled the intimate setting, drowning out the drunken chatter of the guys hitting on girls at the bar.
Iza’s setlist at the first of three of her scheduled performances at Culture Collide.
She played songs that I was familiar with, and also sang some songs that I didn’t remember hearing before. But the part of the performance that really impressed me was when Iza shed her coy and seductive sound and rocked out the refrain of a song. It was unexpected, but pleasantly surprising. I loved it.
I probably would have loved watching her performance that was scheduled in the church venue, but c’est la vie. One can only hope that she gets to perform in Los Angeles sooner rather than later.
To check out some of Iza’s music, check out her Bandcamp page. Support independent music!
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This year (2013), Snoop’s wife’s company, Boss Lady Entertainment, signed an artist from Poland named Iza Lach. I’m a huge fan of her sound/voice, so when I found out that she was slotted to perform several sets during Filter Magazine’s Culture Collide music festival, I was giddy. I was even more giddy when I saw the impressive number of foreign bands set to perform. I had a wedding in Santa Barbara to attend Saturday, October 12th, so I’d have to miss out on The Ravonettes, Alice Russell, Rhye, King Khan & The Shrings, and a handful of other lesser known acts, but I still managed to get a press pass (my first of the year!) to check out some of the bands playing Thursday and Friday.
Now, there are a lot a music festivals that go on throughout the year, all across the United States, but the Culture Collide festival is particularly unique in that it’s an extremely affordable way to see different kinds of bands from all over the world- 24 countries (including the United States) were represented this year. I sat next to a couple for Jacco Gardner who echoed that sentiment by telling me that they, “go to this festival every year. It’s only $30, and to get to hear great music from places I know I’ll never get to go? It’s totally worth it.”
Below are the bands that I was able to catch (click through the names of the bands to check out the entries that I wrote up). Hopefully this music festival has another go at it next year, as I certainly would attend, with or without a press pass.
Hollie Fullbrook, a folk singer-songwriter from New Zealand, is Tiny Ruins. She made some waves in 2011 when the BBC Wold Service programme The Strand named her album first full length album one of the top five albums of 2011. With such glowing reviews, I marked it down as a set that I wanted to check out.
It was an intimate set in a modestly sized church. With just her voice and guitar, she filled the churches’ architecture with a soft, mellow, etherial sound. The lighting was subdued and appropriate, and the only criticism I had of the venue was that they didn’t turn-off the buildings fans prior to the start of her performance. A video clip of Hollie performing one of her songs is below, and you’ll note the fan noise in the background.
As it was my first time listening to her music, I wasn’t as committed to her lyrics, for which she is known, so I suppose that I didn’t appreciate the music as much as I possibly could have. When I have some more time, I plan on listening toSome Were Meant For Seawith an open ear. I won’t be able to attend her upcoming gig at the Silverlake Lounge on October 23, but for $8, I definitely think it’s worth the cover.
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Phoenix, Daft Punk, Justice … France turns out some great electro, synth pop bands. Oh yeah … M83 is pretty damn good too. Named after the spiral galaxy Messier 83, M83’s music is as cosmic as that system of stars. Adding a full orchestra and choir to their already sonically complex arrangements like “Midnight City” only raised the level of their cosmic sound.
I wasn’t planning on attending the show. In fact, I had been offered to get in on tickets when they first went on sale, but passed it up since I purchased some tickets for other shows and funds, at the time, were running low. But as fate would have it, a dear friend of mine called me up last minute the day before the concert to see if I wanted to attend the sold out show, and I got to attend the last installment of KCRW Radio’s World Festival series. The stars were definitely aligned for me …
The indie pop/Electronic rock band Phantogram opened for M83. It was my first time listening to their music, but I could tell why they were opening for M83. Their songs were all dance friendly, and had catchy hooks. Sarah Barthel’s vocals were strong and sexy. The band didn’t seem intimidated by performing on the famous stage, but they expressed their humble gratitude by acknowledging the hallowed stage they were on, and thanked the audience for listening.
M83’s performance, back by the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra and its choir, was stunning. For a band whose music is already big with layered synths, guitars and voices, I wondered how the orchestral arrangements would come off and how it would alter the original arrangements. Surprisingly, the orchestra didn’t overpower the band’s sound. Rather, at least in my humble opinion, they seemed to be used only to accent the original sound. Truth be told, it was hard to me to actually note when the orchestra was playing and when they weren’t. M83’s sound, alone, is that big.
M83 used a lot visual media in their performance. Though it was hard for me to actually glean what the purpose of some of the visual montages were, I supposed that it was used to evoke mood and metaphors for the audience to come up with. As visually stunning as the montages were, personally, I think that the performance could have done without it, as I hardly spent time watching the video screens.
M83 brought up a couple of special guests during their performance: grade-school aged Zelly Meldal-Johnsen (performing “Raconte Moi une Histoire”) and Brad Laner (from the band Medicine) and though each special guest’s performance was entertaining (Zelly’s song about the frog was especially cute), I was hoping that the special guests, especially at the Hollywood Bowl, would have been more exciting or well-known…. After all, it IS the Hollywood Bowl.
Special guests notwithstanding, M83’s performance was the kind of show you hope to see- and is typically delivered- at the Hollywood Bowl. Grand in scale. Aurally pleasing. Toss in a seat in a Terrace Box, with great friends on a lazy Sunday? Perfect.
Raconte-moi une histoire (with Zelly Boo Meldal-Jophnsen)
Skin of the Night
Midnight City
Lower Your Eyelids to Die With the Sun
Encore:
Oblivion (Susanne Sundfor)
Outro
Couleurs
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I LOVE soul music. I listen to all genres, but if I had to guess, I’d venture to guess that probably a third of my music collection (iTunes indicates that I have 19,452 songs that last 54.4 days) consists of soul tracks and about half of my vinyl collection consists of soul LPs. From Aretha Franklin to Amy Winehouse, Marvin Gaye to D’Angelo, I have a thing for soul music. Period.
When I heard that KCRW, in association with the Echo/Echoplex, was having a Soul/Reggae Festival, I was excited. As soon as I saw the line-up, I bought tickets. The Bay Area soul duo, Myron and E; The prolific and enduring Lee Fields; one of the architects of Funk, Maceo Parker; the hippie with soul, Allen Stone; and the former rapper turned soul-man, Aloe Blacc: I knew and respected all of these artists and there was no way I was going to miss out on this full day of soul music. I bought an “early bird” VIP ticket which only cost me $45, and my Saturday, September 21st was set. Below is a list of the artists whose performances I had the pleasure of catching. Click through on their names to read my thoughts, see pictures and watch performance snippets. If there is a “(pending)” notice next to the name, follow my blog, twitter (@methodman13) or Instagram (@methodman13) for updates. Hey…. these entries just don’t write themselves! LOL.
Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festival 9/21/13 [@methodman13]Myron & E are a soul duo based in the Bay Area. They are currently signed to one of my favorite independent labels, Stones Throw, so even though I wasn’t too familiar with their catalog, I was relatively sure I would be pleased with their music.
The Stones Throw website introduces the band as follows: “The vocal duo is something of a rarity. There have been countless solo stars, trios, quartets and quintets, but the pairing of equally talented singers isn’t nearly as common. Sam and Dave, Ashford and Simpson, the Righteous Brothers and the Everly Brothers comprise a short list of standouts. Enter Myron & E.” A tall order to live up to, for sure, but I’m willing to bet that the Stones Throw folk know what they’re co-signing on.
They had the earliest set in the day so the crowd hadn’t reached critical mass yet, but they had their die-hard fans in the trenches, wearing their screen-print Myron & E T-shirts, and they performed with the type of gusto to satisfy their own, and to drawn in new fans. Half way through their set E mentioned it was Myron’s birthday, and the crowd joined in on an impromptu singing of “Happy Birthday”.
It was a solid set to establish the “soul” mood for the rest of the day, though at times I felt that some of the vocal tuning was a bit off, which I could attribute to the blazing midday sun, but it was good enough want me to follow them on Facebook so to keep up with their music and see how their sound develops. You should too.
They are touring domestically and throughout Europe throughout the fall, so check them out when they are in your neck of the woods.
Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festival 9/21/13 [@methodman13]Myron of Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festival 9/21/13 [@methodman13]E of Myron of Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festival 9/21/13 [@methodman13]
Every year, since 1999, the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro holds a Lobster Festival where families can enjoy mouth watering, freshly cooked Lobster, in a carnival like setting, overlooking the Pacific Ocean. I’ve been before, but when I did, I went for the food, and not the entertainment. Not this year. When I saw that Dead Sara was slated to headline the Saturday evening entertainment, I decided that I would head out to San Pedro, eat some lobster, check out some new music, and watch one of the hardest rocking, female fronted bands in music today crush it.
Click through the name of the act below to read my thought, see some pictures and watch some video:
A lot of good music has come out of Long Beach, California. Nate Dogg, Snoop Dogg and Warren G left their mark on West Coast hip-hop. Zach De La Rocha of Rage Against the Machine, Bradley Nowell, founder and vocalist of the band Sublime, No Doubt … All based out of Long Beach while coming up in the music game. Tijuana Panthers are from Long Beach too. 
This Town
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![Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festiva 9/21/13 [@methodman13]](https://musicofmymind14.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/dsc05060.jpg?w=1075)
![Myron of Myron & E at The Beach Ball Festival 9/21/13 [@methodman13]](https://musicofmymind14.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/dsc05063.jpg?w=1075)
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