Quick Hit Band Interview: Lily Waters

Lily Waters at The Smell

Q&A time with the band (via Gabbi Green): Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Filled with grit and from the soul.

How would you like your music to impact people who listen or see you play live? A lot of my songs speak against the male gaze, dealing with loss, and struggling with mental health. I want people to realize that there’s a creative outlet for all that pain and hurt and I want to see more badass women channel that emotion and step up in the industry!

Own Q and A: Best (veggie) pho in LA? Pho Cafe in Silverlake, so yummy!

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Albert & His Dreamboats

Albert & His Dreamboats at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the artist. Enjoy:

Other than playing in front of a packed crowd, what thrills you about performing live? It's a tie between drink tickets and guitarmonies.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Sloppy Jane

Sloppy Jane at Zebulon

Q&A time with the band (via Haley Dahl). Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Shifty, as in it is always shifting. Hopefully, it all sounds like the feeling of watching a smoothie being made from above. Familiar chunks rising up to the top and sinking back down, somehow it all congeals.

If you weren’t pursuing music as a career or passion, what do you think you might be doing in its place? I want to split myself into 100,000 little boys and become a choir of little boys but that is still music so maybe I would be lawn furniture or a late night talk show host or maybe I would just be a funeral.

Own Q&A. How long have you been wearing that suit? One and one half months, strong!

Quick Hit Artist Interview: James Allen Spirit

James Allen Spirit at The Satellite

Q&A time with the artist. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Hey what's up man, glad you caught the set! Rock and roll w/ lots of synths.

What inspires you to write your songs? I try to draw on personal experiences and flesh out those ideas into a song, but usually things happen on accident when I'm recording. Cheers amigo!

A Movie Review: Lady Bird

Lady Bird. The year is 2002. Christine 'Lady Bird' McPherson (Saoirse Ronan) is a high school senior in Sacramento. She attends a Catholic school on scholarship. Most of her classmates come from well off families. She comes from a middle class family that is on the brink of economic chaos as her father becomes unemployed early in the movie. She has a best friend, Julie (Beanie Feldstein), and that's about it. She falls for a fellow senior, Danny O'Neill (Lucas Hedges). This opens the door to the wealthy side of the school and she slowly pushes aside her friend Julie for a new set of friends. Meanwhile, her relationship with her mother is falling apart as she feels this desire to leave Sacramento behind.

What I loved about 'Lady Bird' is that in its simplicity, it throws various curve balls at you.

'Lady Bird', herself, to me is a wonderful curve ball. When I first saw her on screen, I thought: she's going to want to be the next great writer or musician or actress. Just pick one. Yet, we learn that she really isn't all that talented in the arts. And she's not all that good at math. The one great thing, is that it doesn't take her long to realize that she's not the next John Steinbeck.

I love the parental relationships. Her relationship with her mother (Laurie Metcalf) is one filled with conflict. In many ways, her mother is unable to emotionally connect with her daughter. The emotional connection occurs between father (Tracy Letts) and daughter. Who knows, maybe it helped that the father was unemployed through much of the movie and had a lot more time for his daughter, but he definitely understood her better. He not only loved his daughter (which her mother did, as well), but also liked his daughter (an issue that perhaps could be questioned in relationship to the mother). It also seemed like the two parents showed their love via different means. The mother showed her love via service while the father showed his love via affirmation. At this moment in her life, it seemed like 'Lady Bird' needed affirmation, which might explain her closeness to her father during that time of her life.

I loved how it was revealed that her second boyfriend, Kyle (Timothee Chalamet), was just a bunch of hot air. He was constantly reading Howard Zinn's A People's History of the United States, yet there is a moment towards the end of the movie (that I won't give away, but you have to pay careful attention) where 'Lady Bird' realizes that he wasn't what he liked to portray himself as.

Of course, this being high school, it wasn't like 'Lady Bird' wasn't filled with a lot of hot air herself. Her explanation for her cigarette brand loyalty. Her deception over her family wealth.

So yes, what's so lovely about this movie is the simple tale of the final year in high school that is filled in with wonderful details.

Is this one of the best movies of the year? It is hard for me to say as I haven't seen many of the top Oscar contenders for Best Picture. I will say I have a soft spot for high school coming of age movies. And I will say, I'd love a sequel to see how things turn out for Christine during her freshman year of college.

The Big Pink and Nightmare Air at The Hi Hat

First thing: awesome light show. Both The Big Pink and Nightmare Air had some awesome lights going on.

It was almost two years since I last saw The Big Pink. They were playing a set with Elohim when I caught their set. I remember them making an impression on me two years back. They made another impression on me this time around, as well. I loved how their second guitarist played. He moved around in a small area of the stage, but his guitar went swinging all over the place. Since I was up close to the stage taking photos, I had to check myself at times wondering if my camera might accidentally crash into his guitar. The bassist knew how to swing her hair. It made for some fun photos. Over-all, their music was pulsating good. I just didn't want their set to end -- both because their sound is awesome and taking photos was so much fun.

The Big Pink

Nightmare Air recently had a successful August residency at The Satellite. So yes, I was eager to catch them again. They played their shoegaze sounds though the thick fog that hung over the stage. And I have to mention the lights again. There was this brilliant fight of lights coming from stage left and right. Stage left had a purple hue while stage right had an aqua hue. And the two met right in the middle, often with bassist Swaan splitting the two lights.

Nightmare Air

Quick Hit Band Interview: Gypsum

Gypsum at The Echo

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Cerebral. Sometimes floaty, sometimes crunchy and hard, sometimes mathy/technical.

What is your favorite Gypsum lyric and what about it makes it so special? That's tough . . . The entire song "Disappear"--Rosie wrote the lyrics and it's a beautiful poem.

Own Q&A. What is our favorite taco truck you ask? Either Leo's or Tacos Tamix . . .

Quick Hit Band Interview: Rotten Blossom

Rotten Blossom at The Smell

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is sort of like a panic attack going through puberty.

If you weren’t pursuing music as a career or passion, what do you think you might be doing in its place? If we weren't pursuing music, we would probably be more focused on struggling through college/continuing education.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Liv Slingerland

Liv Slingerland at The Echo (LA)

Q&A with the artist. Read and enjoy!

How would you describe your sound? I’d describe my sound as alternative rock. I’ve always loved classic rock and pop rock. A few bands that were my favorites growing up and are still my favorites to this day are Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers and The Pretenders.

What inspires you to write/compose your songs? My inspiration for songwriting usually comes from wanting to work through an experience, situation, or set of feelings taking place in my life at the time of the writing. Often my songs will stem from a small idea or emotion and I will end up adding to those bits by drawing from both real life and imagined imagery and experiences depending on what chords, melodies, and lyrics come to mind.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Pipe Dreams

Pipe Dreams at Harvard & Stone

Q&A time with the band (via Caitlin). Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I usually say our ‘sound’ is emo slut-core.

What motivates you to write your music? As for what motivates me, I have to blame the voices in my head.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Molino

Molino at Silverlake Lounge

Q&A time with the band (via Abraham). Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I would say we're a grungey/shoegazey/psych-rock band with a heavy "Manchester" influence (even though we all grew up in LA). Kind of like a mashup between Stone Roses, Oasis, Spacemen 3, and Nirvana...

What’s the story behind how your band started? It literally started with a trip out to Sedona to visit a Native American shaman for an energy clearing ceremony in a sweat bath in a yurt in the Arizona desert; needless to say afterwards I felt it was time to start a new musical project... Luckily I have super talented friends that also are musicians, so when the band came together it wasn't too difficult to find peeps to jam with... That's one of things about this project I love, we are all friends first, no egos, and the music just flows...

And if there's a Q&A you've always wanted to or love to answer... A. You're a new addition to the crayon box. What color would you be and why? Black, cuz it's the color of my soul...

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Sie Sie Benhoff

Sie Sie Benhoff at the Bootleg Theater

Q&A time with the artist. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Well, I guess I like balancing humor and heartbreak. Sad sac soul shit.

Other than Los Angeles, where could you see yourself living/playing music and why? I’d love to be in the mountains soon. Picking my ax and farming. Probably a pipe dream, but I hope to get there someday with a big ol dog and a tall drink of water.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Justus Proffit

Justus Proffit at The Hi Hat

Q&A time with the artist. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I don't really like to talk about my sound, I just try and practice as much as I can so I can become a better musician, I stopped worrying about what people think about me and I feel a lot happier about it. My influences are Duster, The Pretenders, Elliot Smith, Big Star and a whole lot of others.

What’s a dream venue you’d love to play at and what about it intrigues you? A dream venue is not the venue itself but the community of the people running it. Music to me is a strong community of people sharing their talents for fun, not competition.

Quick Hit Band Interview: LANTERNS

LANTERNS at The Satellite

Q&A time with the band. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? LANTERNS are Mid-Fi Apocalypse Rock. Melodic Noise. Kick Out The Jams Songs. Shambolic Arena Rock.

For the band and its future, how would you define success? “A man [or woman] is a success if he gets up in the morning and gets to bed at night, and in between he does what he wants to do.” - Bob Dylan

That being said, we'd love to craft the garage rock Bedlam version of Pet Sounds. Roam the world as Punk Pop Juggernauts. Drink the blood of our enemies.

The Echo's Final October 2017 Residency Night

It was a great night of music at The Echo for the end of the Alyeska/Goon residency.

Gypsum opened up the night. Just a few days back at The Smell, I walked in during the final notes of their set. I was actually a bit upset that I'd missed their set. I always thought The Smell's first set started at 9 p.m. On that particular night, it'd obviously started at 8:30 p.m. So when I figured out they were playing at The Echo, I looked to see what time they would play. They were the first band up at 9 p.m. I made sure I was there. Wow, so good, they remind me of a female-version of Local Natives.

Comment of their set: I brought candy to throw out into the audience, but I forgot it in the car. You all are too old for that anyways . . . Except for you out there who complained. You're never too old for the magic of Halloween.

Gypsum

Alyeska came up on stage next with Alaska Reid on vocals. This was my second straight Monday night at The Echo. I just couldn't get enough of Alyeska. My first time seeing her was about 1 1/2 years back. There is just so much power in her set. A sense of shyness, yet a power to her sound. Yeah, her set was memorizing.

What did I notice: Whenever the tempo picked up during a song, there was a definite smile that cracked her lips.

What did I notice 2: There was a nice play between Alaska Reid and her band mate Wolf Woodcock. She played it cool, while he'd go wild. A fun little contrast of styles.

Story of the set: There were some bones that were at the front of the stage. I just assumed they were fake bones, bought at a store. But no, they were real. Alaska Reid's father found the bones in the mountains and gave them to her.

Alyeska

I caught partial sets of Lily Waters and Goon. I previously saw Lily Waters at The Smell on that same night that I just missed out on seeing Gypsum. I'll also say this, I just missed seeing Lily Waters a few months back at Echo Park Rising. All these random missed connections and I am so happy I ran into both bands later on. Lily Waters is this beautiful combination of Lauren Ruth Ward and LP. Think about that awesome combination of sounds.

Lily Waters

I do love Goon, but I do have to admit I snuck out through part of their set. Sometimes, I just need to hit my bed. There is just something beautiful about their music. There's this pulsating power beat that just blends in with this awesome melodic sound. To me, they're just amazing and they also have some great band interaction. That isn't something you can say about every local Los Angeles band.

Goon

And a final note: so the first time I went to see the Alyeska/Goon combo, I was shocked at how small the crowd was. The Echo was perhaps less than half full. On this night, the placed was nicely filled. I was happy to see that. Who in their right mind wouldn't want to check out the bands that played on this night.