I first came across the Dutch East Indians in November 2024 at Zebulon. They were playing with a band called Autogramm. I wrote an NFV Song Spotlight on one of Autogramm's songs, which you can click on this link for the write-up. Now I'm writing up a NFV Song Spotlight on Dutch East Indians.
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| Dutch East Indians at Harvard & Stone |
My plan on Sunday night (Dec 29th) was to go see Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee. Then I noticed that Zebulon was having an early 6 p.m. opening. Hmm, maybe I could club venue hop? I know that the first band at Club Tee Gee generally goes on stage between 8:30 p.m. and 9 p.m. I also know that Zebulon usually has bands going on stage either at 7:45 p.m. or 8:45 p.m. If that was the case, it wasn't exactly worth club venue hopping, because I might have to leave before the first band at Zebulon finished their set. I wasn't certain if Zebulon was just opening their doors earlier than normal or if that meant bands were going on stage earlier than normal, as well. I noticed an Instagram Stories that highlighted the set times at Zebulon and they were indeed having bands starting their sets earlier than normal. That was that, I figured why not start my night off early, as well, by first heading to Zebulon and then jumping to Club Tee Gee.
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| Pink Stiletto at Zebulon |
Soft Palms is a duo that brings together the wife and husband team of Julia Kugel-Montoya and Scott Montoya. The partners also are the founders of one of my favorite music festivals, Happy Sundays Long Beach. That festival is often my only annual trip to Long Beach to catch the music scene in that city. I have on rare occasions gone to Alex's Bar or DiPiazza's to catch a favorite band.
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| Soft Palms at Club Tee Gee |
It was the last WFNM of 2024. I, of course, circled this Bar Lubitsch on my music calendar. I also knew before heading out that I would be highlighting AZRA for my NFV Song Spotlight series. The day before, I was on Youtube and figured I would do a search for her music. I came to her page and decided to click on "if It wasn't for you" because I liked the cover image of AZRA looking lost in her forlorn thoughts. The song hooked me with the power anthem, "If it wasn't for you. And all you put me through. The miscommunication spiral." The video has her dancing through the streets of Boston along with power kicks into the camera when she sings "you." You've got to watch until the end, because the videographer and her start laughing. A slam of a door that was meant as an emphasis did not occur, because the door was one of those safety theater doors that can open quickly, but closes slowly.
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| AZRA at Bar Lubitsch |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Tuesday, Jan 28th: Desperate Hauswives at Moroccan Lounge. Doors at 7 p.m.I do love residencies. I've been going to residencies for well over a decade. It is one of my favorite things to do when it comes to the Los Angeles music scene. I happened to notice that The Darbies were doing a three Tuesday night residency at Harvard & Stone for the month of December. I believe I didn't figure this out until their second Tuesday (Dec 10th). I ended up going elsewhere that night. I did want to catch their set, but I decided to head to The Fable to catch a wonderful singer-songwriter set by LINNEA. I have to mention, because that is such a significant contrast to what I experienced the following Tuesday when I got to catch the Darbies final residency night.
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| The Darbies at Harvard & Stone |
Kennedy Williams was up first on a WFNM night at Hotel Ziggy. I primarily went to this specific WFNM to catch Night Talks and Beck Pete. I had no idea what to expect when Williams took to the stage. As with many musicians who are up first at WFNM, she did a solo set. It was just her, a multi-color sweater, and a guitar.
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| Kennedy Williams at Hotel Ziggy |
I've known about Bar 10 at the Corbin Bowl for a very long time now, but I've always considered it to be way too far away. I live in Glendale and Glendale to Tarzana is 18 miles. The farthest venue from Glendale that is on my rotation is Hotel Ziggy, which is 10 miles away. So that venue fits into my claim to various people that I hate traveling more than 10 miles to a venue. Heck, I only make it to the Sunset Strip once or twice a year, primarily because I hate the long drive.
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| unpolished* at Bar 10 |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Sunday, Jan 19th: Spare Parts for Broken Hearts at Alex's Bar. Doors at 2 p.m.Cancelled. Monday, Jan 20th: Blu Jay and The Lovebombs at Harvard & Stone. Doors at 8 p.m.
Thursday, Jan 23rd: Tropa Magica at Alex's Bar. Doors at 8 p.m.I've noticed that Tashaki Miyaki has a rather passionate following amount photographers who have shot the scene for a number of years. Though I am perhaps not as passionate as my other photographers, I do have a long history with the band. I saw the band way back in 2012 when they opened up for Family of the Year. In my notes from the night, the reason I went was for Family of the Year (I am a big Family of the Year fan), but also because I noticed a band called Tashaki Miyaki was playing and I found the band name intriguing. A couple years later, I saw the band at Make Music Pasadena. Looking through my records, it looks like the last time I saw them was at their Echo residency in 2017 when they played with L.A. Witch and Z Berg. That was a line-up.
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| Tashaki Miyaki at Zebulon |
I'll occasionally head out to The Fable to catch a Ryan Pollie hosted Tuesday night. Sometimes I go out to The Fable because I know a band that he booked such as Janelane. Other times I'll go there even though I don't know a single person or band on the bill. That was the case when I went out on a recent December night. First up was LINNEA (Linnea Delaney Johansen). It took about 5 seconds, let's say, to come to the conclusion that I made the right decision to head out on this particular Tuesday night.
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| LINNEA at The Fable |
Lovecolor came on through Los Angeles in support of their (at the time) soon to be released debut album "LOVECOLOR." The Hotel Cafe was the place to be to catch the set. The band played seven of the nine songs off the album as well as two of lead singer Vanessa Silberman's own previous releases.
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| Lovecolor at The Hotel Cafe |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Cancelled. Monday: Jan 13th: Hannah Hughes at Harvard & Stone. Doors at 8 p.m.When random encounters happen, you've got to mention it. The setup is that I caught Eleven Green on the Tuesday night prior to Thanksgiving. The band was playing a WFNM night at Hotel Ziggy. Fast forward to Black Friday. I was at Best Buy picking up an external hard drive to store all the photos and videos I take of the Los Angeles music scene. After being handed the external hard drive, I did a beeline towards the exit. Walking right past me was the lead singer, Nare Nikoyan. I didn't know her name at the time of this random encounter so I yell out, "Eleven Green." She turns and I told her that I saw her Wednesday night. She looked slightly confused, perhaps because I got the days messed up. I saw the band on Tuesday night. My excuse is that I went to Hotel Ziggy on both Tuesday and Wednesday night. I added, "Hotel Ziggy. I was one of the photographers."
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| Eleven Green at Hotel Ziggy |
I've seen Dove Armitage (Quincy Larsen) twice this year. Interestingly enough, she was opening on nights that I was covering for US Rocker Music. In October, she was opening up for Sunflower Bean at Zebulon. In December, she was playing The Fonda Theatre in support for Zaho de Sagazan. To clarify, the year 2024 is not the first time I've come across Dove Armitage or, for that matter, Larsen.
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| Dove Armitage at The Fonda Theatre |
Like many a band, my first introduction to Night Talks happened at a venue now since closed called the Bootleg Theater. It was July 2016. I then caught the band a month later at Chinatown Summer Nights. That was a fun weekend of music. Echo Park Rising and Chinatown Summer Nights were both on that same weekend so I spent Friday night at Echo Park Rising, Saturday night at Chinatown Summer Nights, and Sunday night back at Echo Park Rising.
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| Night Talks at Hotel Ziggy |
A Handful of Show Alerts
Sunday Jan 5th: Ben Reddell at Club Tee. Doors at 8 p.m.Who has to rank as one of the bands / singers most happy about being invited to play the WFNM stage? Mikayla McLean who recently played Hotel Ziggy has to make that list. She said towards the end of the set while thanking WFNM, "[thanks for] letting me jump onboard last minute. I've been scheming and trying to get on stage." Someone dropped out at the last minute and she jumped onboard and put on a wonderful set.
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| Mikayla McLean at Hotel Ziggy |
A couple days after Christmas, Rocco DeLuca played a set at Zebulon. It was to celebrate his birthday. He was joined on stage by Liberate Elemental Forces, which is an Indian raga collective. Zebulon had what I call their "Hotel Cafe" setup going. Seats and round tables were setup near the stage with standing room behind. The night initially started with an instrumental opening with DeLuca playing his steel guitar and two friends on stage with one playing guitar and the other playing an upright bass.
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| Rocco DeLuca at Zebulon |
