Resident to Chinatown Summer Nights: Saturday Adventure

This was a day of diverse music. The Resident was doing free Saturday afternoon shows. The Paranoyds played one afternoon, which I happened to miss. I wasn't going to miss Feels. I hadn't seen Feels since March 2017. That's well over a year! But I have to say in some ways it wasn't that long of a time frame. Shannon Lay has been doing sets across Los Angeles and I saw more than a handful of them. Laena Geronimo backed her up on a number of those nights -- if not all of those nights. Also, Laena is in a band called Numb.er, which I saw during their recent residency. So yes, it was forever since I last saw Feels, but I've been keeping up with the various projects of the band.

For this set at the Resident, they played outdoors on the patio. This actually got me excited due to how things were set up. The area they were playing required the drum set to be set up at the front of the stage. This meant I'd get some photos of the drummer. It is always cool to be able to snap some easy shots of the drummer.

This psychedelic punk band was having fun during this set. There were smiles and on the spot self commentary throughout the set. I believe for one song Laena wasn't able to get her guitar adjusted corrected so put it aside and just did the front woman singing portion of it. At the end, bassist Amy replied, "That was the censored version of the song." And then another time, Laena looked over at Michael on drums and said, "You're playing into the sun." The familiarity that comes from a band that has played together for years. The crowd wanted an encore. The band was discussing possible song options, but then the DJ started up the tracks and that ended any potential encore.

Feels

 From there, it was off to Chinatown Summer Nights to catch a few artists/bands.

La Louma was playing as I walked over to the LA Weekly stage. She's a singer-songwriter. During the set, she used three different instruments. A flute, a guitar, and another string instrument that I'm unsure of the name. Funny moment of the set actually came in at the end. She accidentally started the song with the wrong instrument and she'd already started her backing track. Well, that threw her off the mark so she replied, "Since 98% of you are friends and family, I'm going to just restart it all."

La Louma

Cosmos and Creature brought the electric dance pop. And I have to say, I wasn't sure who was Cosmos and who was Creature. This band put on the dance moves.

Comment of the night: Thanks for hanging with us. It's been really fun. I'm really sweaty."

Cosmos and Creature

Krys Wright changed things up with some RnB. Throughout the set, she made sure we knew how to spell Krys. Let's be honest, it isn't the standard way to spell out Chris or Kris. She also blew away the audience with some stylish vocals that combined a bit of Paula Abdul with Sade.

Krys Wright

Iconique closed out the night for me. There was actually a delayed arrival. The MC announced that Iconique was coming on stage. A moment passed. Another moment passed. Nothing. Than out ran one of the musicians to turn on the introduction tape. That started off 30 plus minutes of disco dancing. Front man Leo just doesn't stop moving. It actually made it hard to focus my camera on him. The show also included a full wardrobe change with Leo running off to a tent to make the change.

I have to say, the audience loved it. Fans were out in full, dancing to their full content.

What did I notice: before the band started, a couple folks wanted to come up to the stage, but then one of them said, "Let's stay back here and let the photographers have their space."

Iconique

Quick Hit Band Interview: PLEASURES

PLEASURES at The Hi Hat

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how you started out as a band? Katherine Kelly, singer/guitarist, and Morgan Soltes, bass/synth player, found each other whilst playing in various bands in the Central Florida area and created PLEASURES in the Winter of 2014. The band toured with an original lineup for 2 years before arriving as a three piece with Roger Lanfranchi on drums/synth. This new lineup wrote and recorded the 2nd LP Body Pop in Fall of 2017.

I see you're on tour. Do you have a cool story from your tour that you can share? Well, we just left from Bisbee, AZ where we played the annual "Alice in Wonderland" themed "Alice in Bisbeeland." Bisbee is kind of our fav place to play and spend time cause we have rad friends there and the place kind of feels like home in some strange way. On this last go round we had a day off after the show and ended up doing a little hike, stumbling upon and exploring a cave house built into the rocks and having dinner with our friend Dana who owns the venue we played at. (The Quarry). So yeah.

Oh! Denver was a pleasant surprise - playing to a packed room of young wide-eyed future mega fans brimming with enthusiasm for your shit. You ever see a guy's mind stretch? Pretty cool.

Own Q&A: Make up our own question? Sure. "Hey PLEASURES!" Says us to ourselves while pretending to be someone interviewing ourselves. "Who's that fourth guy you had at the show twiddling knobs on midi controllers back by the merch table?" That's Riley - aka Rye dog, rye toast, catcher in the rye, etc. He does live lights and projections during the set. His tireless work provides an invaluable live audio to visual juxtaposition ensuring a consistent and tangible vibe that PLEASURES shows tend to be known for.

Quick Hit Band Interview: illuminati hotties

illuminati hotties at the Echoplex

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how you started out as a band/artist? I have always been writing lil songs here and there, and started to regularly write toward the end of high school. As a producer & engineer, I found songwriting to be an integral part of my craft - it's essential to running successful sessions when an artist is in the studio. illuminati hotties really came about when I noticed that my songs were following certain patterns that I loved, and I thought it would be cool to make a record as sort of a calling-card to my production work. I was encouraged by several close friends to start playing the songs out as well, and as soon as I got on stage I caught the artist bug. I buckled down on playing out around LA a bunch and finishing the album with my friend Collin Pastore, who is my voice of reason and an amazing soundsmith in his own right. Once I had a finished product, I was fortunate enough to catch the ears of the label Tiny Engines, and the rest took off from there. It's so wonderful to be in a place where I can combine studio work with performance so naturally, and I'm excited to see where this project takes me!

What inspires you to write/compose your songs? So many things! Inspiration can be so fickle and insincere, so I try to combat the irregularity of the muses by being an expert observer. I've collected so many small moments by watching the world around me, and engaging with the people or surroundings nearby (or far away!). I try to write at least a small something, even just a line of lyric or a short riff, every day. The practice of writing things down, no matter how "good" or "inspired" they are, has generated a lot of ideas that eventually show up in songs. Mostly though, the practice of noticing and internalizing has really informed my music.

Wild Riot in the afternoon/The Hi Hat in the evening

It was off to Wild Riot's Summer Sessions. I've learned, after going to the prior week's version, that the Summer Sessions is all about music genre mashup. On this specific afternoon you had The Millennial Club and The Colour Coast who bring the indie grooves. Sherif Serag and the Time Travelers and Glam Skanks pumped up the volume.

Weather. So it wasn't as hot as the previously Summer Sessions. Hot, but manageable.

Interesting occurrence. If someone was to blow the electricity, you'd think it would be either Sherif Serag and the Time Travelers or Glam Skanks. Nope, it was the indie grooves of The Millennial Club that blew the electricity. Luckily, Wild Riot was able to find another electric outlet that was working. It just happened to be in a corner that was furthest from the stage. Who says that Wild Riot doesn't come prepared. They brought out multiple electrical extensions and had things up and running in no time.

The Millennial Club

Couldn't help but notice: The Colour Coast was a total family affair. Wives/girlfriends/children. It was a big family affair. Funny moment was when the bassist started to look and play in my direction. I noticed him indicating with his eyes. I looked over to my right and his daughter had a smart phone in her hand. He was obviously wanting her to take a cool picture. I think she was feeling intimidated, because she made no move to take a photo, instead looking a touch shy.

The Colour Coast

You've got to notice fashion choices sometimes. For Sherif Serag and the Time Travelers, we have a 4 member band. Three of the band members were in all black: pants/shirts. One band members decided to go against it all. He wore black pants, but went with a Hawaiian t-shift. And there was a nice wind blowing that brought in the cool air. It blew just enough to bring down the Wild Riot signage that was set against the wall behind the drummer. For the last few moments of the set, the drummer picked it up and put it over his head to show that this was a Wild Riot event. Amusing.

Sherif Serag and the Time Travelers

Sometimes you run into a musician once every 3 years. The bassist for Glam Skanks looked incredibly familiar. I couldn't for the life of me place it. I had to do a little snooping. I went to her Instagram page and noticed only two similar connections. From there, it wasn't difficult to figure out. I'd seen her once before at Hotel Cafe, playing in a band called Spectacular Spectacular. One of my other connections (friend) was playing back-up during that specific night.

Glam Skanks

In the evening, it was off to The Hi Hat. More than a couple weeks had passed since my last stop at The Hi Hat. It was time to return. Leggy Peggy was having an EP release and brought the Americana sounds to the venue. Boots, cowboy highs, Western style skirts. And there was a song, I believe, titled "New Mexico." With that all, it was a singer with her guitar and raspy vocals.

Leggy Peggy

Opening up was The Terns. Per Hannah (Leggy Peggy) it was a family affair as her brother is the drummer for this band.

The Terns

Quick Hit Band Interview: ALÉ

ALÉ at the Redwood Bar

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is Rock/Electronic/pop/bi-lingual (English/Spanish).

What’s your favorite band song and what makes it the favorite? One of my favorites is “Past Life.”

Wild Riot Summer Sessions One

The Wild Riot Summer Sessions was an outdoor event along Sunset Blvd in Echo Park. It was a hot one, weather-wise. Like so hot I am surprised there weren't some heat exhaustion problems -- though I did see some folks packing themselves in ice. Yet, under the oppressive heat, there was some awesome music.

Playing as I arrived at the Wild Riot Summer Sessions was JEMS. They are a female music trio that plays with a backing band. They have that sweet sounding western sound that reminds you of other Los Angeles based bands such as Dear Lemon Trees and The Wild Reeds.

JEMS

Ariel Beesley changed things up with her pop sounds. She came up on stage with a red hair bow as well as red lips and fingers nails. This model/singer brings a fun personality to her set. And there was a ball of energy that wasn't wilted by the summer heat. Put all that together and it got the audience into her set.

Ariel Beesley

Martin Dovali changed things up again with his rap jams. He took full advantage of the area that was provided him, leaping from one side of the area to the next. He also got some audience participation when he got three individuals to joint him in some dance moves as well as getting the crowd to shout back at him. He also gave me the middle finger.

Martin Dovali

Sikemor is a fronted by three siblings. They bring dreamy pop sounds with vocals that work so wonderfully together. One takes lead vocals and then another comes in and adds to the symphonic sound.

Sikemor

Graves and the Bad Weather brought the good old rock music to the Summer Sessions. No fashion statement other than jeans and t-shirts (or no t-shirts). The music was loud and the vocals were vicious. And one child was scared crazy by the band. Ha ha. A family was hanging out with their daughter. The guitarist did a little gig for the girl who then freaked out and ran away. She ran, funny enough, right to a total stranger. The parents were laughing.

Graves and the Bad Weather

Flames of Durga closed out the night for me. I've been wanting to catch this band for close to a year. I missed their Wild Riot set during Echo Park Rising. The band is fronted by twin sisters who have a sound that fits perfectly on the Sunset Strip. They brought the screaming vocals and acrobatic moves.

Flames of Durga

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Colour Coast

The Colour Coast at The Satellite

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Tropical indie rock.

Is there a specific decision the band has made (good or bad) that it feels other bands/artists can learn from? Always putting an emphasis on community building and supporting other artists.

Own Q&A: Where are you all from? Canada, Argentina, El Salvador, Nicaragua, Miami, Bay Area, Minnesota.

The Echo: Black Flamingo with Nights Talks, The Great Sadness and Dancing Tongues

I was a touch obsessed with Black Flamingo from the years 2011 - 2013. Around 2013, they broke-up and eventually formed various other bands such as Draemings and Brass Box. I'd argue that Brass Box carried on the legacy sound of Black Flamingo while Draemings went in a different direction. Either way, I followed both bands. I got a hint back in December 2017 that Black Flamingo might be hooking back up when I posted a throwback photo on Instagram and got a reply from Dreamings: not ended forever.

Black Flamingo

It took about 7 months, but the band got together and put on a show at The Echo. It was a Who's Who of Echo Park musicians hanging out at The Echo on a Friday night. Black Flamingo, of course, had to joke about how they knew most everyone inside The Echo and that we'd all aged 10 years. Of course, that's a bit of an exaggeration, but true none the less. Though not everyone there knew who Black Flamingo was. As I was photographing, I over-heard someone ask a friend, "What's the name of this band?"

Black Flamingo describes their sound as Tropical Goth or whatever. Their primarily duo vocals (used to be a trio of vocals) soar above and linger in the air, which brings that goth imagery. I think the perfect example is their song "Living Ghost" where Kimi and Ammo start off the song just going off on a choir harmony sound. Their sound just makes you want to sway in joy even though I suppose one should be a touch depressed. I have to admit that I had a smile throughout the set even though there was a lot of goth dress in the audience.

Opening up was Night Talks, The Great Sadness and Dancing Tongues.

Night Talks is always fun to photograph with lead singer Soraya always putting on the moves. They lost a couple members a couple months back. I think that's led the band towards a more guitar driven pop sound.

Night Talks

This was my second time catching The Great Sadness. This is a two piece band that likes to play it on the rough side of the tracks. They opened the set with both under a red covering that was slowly pulled off from them via friends. I nearly had a camera collusion at the end of the set when the drummer tossed his cymbal towards the front of the stage. Not sure how many inches it got to the lens, but it got close enough.

The Great Sadness

Dancing Tongues opened the night. They didn't ease the audience into the night. They went all out for that loud rock sound. And I couldn't help but notice some folks in the audience mimicking the hair tossing of one of the band members. 

Dancing Tongues

Quick Hit Band Interview: Fenster

Fenster at The Hi Hat

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how you started out as a band? A window fell on JJ's head and we wanted to travel the world.

As you're from Berlin . . . if a Los Angeles music fan wanted to explore the Berlin music scene, what suggestions would you give? Well, Berlin is known to be kind of the Mecca of techno and electronic music at the moment. But there is definitely more than that. The city has tiny pockets of different music scenes run by passionate people. Go to events organized by Shameless/Limitless, Neukölln Country Club, Weeeirdos, or iMAD. Check out venues like Internet Explorer, Loophole, Schokoladen, Spektrum. There is a pretty eclectic music scene coming from all over the world! When in Berlin, you should check out the awesome zine The Chop.

Own comments: We are writing this interview in the car on I-15 South on the way from Las Vegas to LA where we played the last show of our first ever West Coast tour.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: NKRIOT

NKRIOT at Broke LA

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how you started out as a musician? I've began playing the guitar at age 12 and became serious about my music career at 13-15. I never knew where, or what genre I was gonna adapt to, but I knew I loved sound! It's been a struggle since then because it was a battle between my family and society, which couldn't accept being a " starving musician" as a way of life. But hey, here I am now as a full time artist, doing what I love, inspiring others, and making others feel good.

Other than playing in front of a packed crowd, what thrills you about performing live? Performing live is and will always be a thrill. That's what I live for, to be able to take a piece of art that I've worked on so passionately for what ever time and show it to the world. The cool thing about all of this, I get to perform it as different and as unique as I want. Only making it that extra special, for that specific crowd. Never two shows are alike.

Own Q&A. What does NKRIOT mean? There is a deep explanation about the meaning of NKRIOT which can only be access thru an Easter egg on my website. Go Check it out :-) [www.nkriot.com].

Quick Hit Band Interview: TWINKIDS

TWINKIDS at Broke LA

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Modern 80's Sparkly Gay Kind of Weird Electronic Pop

Where is your favorite spot to write music? And why the spot? My favorite is to write in my room! It's the most comfortable and my dog is always there to console me when I'm having a hard time coming up with good ideas.

A Movie Review: Thoroughbreds

I saw this movie months ago, but had to re-watch Heathers for comparison purposes. Of course, a few months have passed so my memory of Thoroughbreds has faded. Initial review was written after seeing the movie so that is more timely than my comparison between Thoroughbreds and Heathers.

Thoroughbreds. The movie opens with Amanda (Olivia Cooke) in the process of killing her horse -- though we don't see the actual killing. Interestingly, we don't even learn Amanda's name until well into the movie.

After the brief encounter with the horse, the movie shifts to Amanda knocking on the door of Lily's (Anya Taylor-Joy) house. It doesn't take long for us to understand that these two teenagers live in a wealthy Connecticut suburb. A maid opens the door and let's Amanda inside. The maid calls about for Lily a number of times. At this point, we immediately learn Lily's name, but still don't know the name of Amanda. It appears at first that Lily is helping tutor Amanda with the SAT. Instead, Amanda's mother has hired Lily to hang out with Amanda. The two had been close at the start of high school, but grew apart. At the moment, Amanda doesn't have any friends.

Though the two are brought together via the grease of money, they are able to reconnect their friendship. To a large extent, it seems that Amanda actually brings more to the table in terms of friendship. Lily is feeling isolated as we learn that she doesn't get along with her step-father along with one or two other tidbits of information that is provided.

The movie takes a turn to the dark side as Amanda and Lily hatch a deadly plan, which I won't go into.

I will say that I'm not in love with this movie. I really found both characters to be emotionally dead. Amanda has an excuse as she has a medical issue that prevents her from feeling emotions. Yet, Lily also is played in an emotionally dead manner. It is actually hard to see why Lily is a popular person -- we see her hanging out at a party and seems to be one of the popular kids. With such dead emotional characters, I found it hard to connect with them and see things from their point of view.

Though I didn't love this movie, I did find that it lingered in my mind. Yet, it isn't some great philosophical movie, so I'm not sure one can say that it should be given a positive review due to that. What did entice me about this movie is trying to think through the friendship between Lily and Amanda. Was it really a friendship? Or did Lily realize that she could manipulate Amanda to do what she wanted. There is an interesting scene in a pool that perhaps has Lily testing Amanda's feelings towards her. Back to why it took so long for us to find out Amanda's name? Was it because she was essentially not important, just a person to be manipulated by Lily? Did either have any moral character?

As can be seen in the one sheet, this movie is being compared to Heathers . . . it took awhile, but I finally put aside some time to re-watch Heathers. I don't recall when the last time it was that I saw Heathers. Maybe more than a decade ago. This was probably my fifth time seeing it. It definitely is one of my favorite teen movies. To me, it works perfectly with Pump Up The Volume, the Christian Slater double feature.

So is Thoroughbreds similar to Heathers? In terms of the end goal, sure, though on a more micro-basis. Though I think Heathers has something that Thoroughbreds doesn't have: morals. Both Lily and Amanda seem to have rather poor morals with little emotional responses. Heathers has Veronica (Winona Ryder) playing off of J.D. (Christian Slater). Yes, Veronica is pulled into a couple of J.D.'s murders, but you can tell that she is horrified. She is someone who has morals and emotions. As mentioned in my review of Thoroughbreds, I don't think either character does. And even J.D.'s quest had a grander vision versus the more microcosm that surrounded Lily and Amanda. To me, Heathers is a movie that connects deeper with the viewer .

Chinatown Summer Nights: Holy Wars, Blacktop Queen and Gothic Tropic

One of my favorite events during the summer are the monthly Chinatown Summer Nights. I've been going to these nights for a number of years now. I was really anticipating this night as Holy Wars and Gothic Tropic were playing.

I almost missed the start of Holy Wars. I was stuck with my real job 15 - 30 minutes longer than anticipated. I got there with about 5 minutes to spare. This is a band where every song drips with emotion and missing a single song is just too much, in my opinion. I first saw this band about a year ago at Harvard and Stone. At this point, I've seen them a handful of times. And that thrill just never leaves. I noticed on Instagram that someone commented that Kat had that Beetlejuice style going. I don't disagree, but I was also thinking Pris (Daryl Hannah) from Blade Runner.

What I noticed: Nicolos Perez (guitarist) ripped out his guitar strings to end the set and tossed his guitar to the side. He's done this in the past. I'm going to need to remember to capture this moment if he does it again.

What I noticed 2: I wasn't there to see all the bands, but I have to say a lot of photographers showed up for Holy Wars. As one photographer friends said, "They're famous now." 

Holy Wars

Blacktop Queen was the middle band for me. Too many folk were stuck in the beer garden for this set. The lead singer mentioned this when saying something like, "They've put the beer garden fence just far enough away to make things awkward. I'm going to need to make this feel less awkward."

Their music combines styling moves and pop-dance tunes. The band dressed in yellow, making one think for a moment of Stryper. The lead singer put on the stage show with some shifty moves that had his guitar swinging all over the place. Kevin Bronson, who hosted the day, mentioned that if Blacktop Queen didn't sing his favorite "Desert" that he might just need to jump to his death. They held that song to the end and that song does provide those pop-dance hooks. I could see this song being played at dance clubs across America. 

Blacktop Queen

Gothic Tropic is a band I first came across in 2012 at Silverlake Jubilee. I saw them on a side stage, El Cid. After that night, I've always kept them in mind. I should note that that 2012 festival had some awesome bands that are still around currently: Las Cafeteras, FIDLAR, Allah-Las, Robert Delong, The Record Company, Mondo Cozmo (via Eastern Conference Champions).

What did I notice? Okay, I didn't actually notice this until looking through photos shot by other photographers . . . but lead singer Cecilia was playing on a clear, see-through guitar.

Gothic Tropic has this smooth tropical sound off set with the occasional guitar jam.

Gothic Tropic

Lodge Room: Dan Sadin with friends

It was off to the Lodge Room to catch Dan Sadin. I got an invite by his PR group. I didn't exactly know what to expect. When I arrived, there were seats set up in the auditorium. I thought that was a little strange for a local rock concert. I think those there also thought it strange as the bands had to encourage folks to take a seat instead of hanging out in the rear near the bar. The seats actually worked to create an intimate environment in a packed room for the various singer-songwriter/acoustic sets during the night.

Dan Sadin

Dan Sadin has some Bruce Springsteen vibes. His guitar and lyrics put you into a reflective mood. Also, just take a look at his song titles: "The Way That It Hurts," "Here Comes The Heartbreak," "Edge Of The Dark," and "Lost on Nothing." Those are some moody song titles. "Here Comes The Heartbreak" title makes you think of love that is coming to an end and you just know that it is around the corner.

Holy Child

Opening up the night were a number of his friends, many who backed him during this set so in a way it was a family affair for the night. Liv Slingerland, Talker, Colyer, Holy Child and FRENSHIP played mini-sets of 2 to 3 songs. Liv Slingerland is a musician who I've followed for a couple years as she used to back-up Lauren Ruth Ward. FRENSHIP is a band that Dan Sadin plays in. They had a fun time joking about Dan. They also put him front and center. They let him go off on his guitar during the songs. Talker is the name for Celeste, who also happens to play with FRENSHIP. She also backed up Dan during his set as did Colyer who brought some awesome Hotel Cafe vibes. Holy Child did a mellowed down version of their set that I saw at Echo Park Rising 2017. When I saw them setting up, I was wondering if they'd have any of the thrilling stage show that they put on at Echo Park Rising. It was definitely toned down, to work with the night's music style, but you could see traces of Liz's stage show presence.

Liv Slingerland

Echoplex: Cat Scan with Shark Toys and D.A. Stern

I wish I had seen Cat Scan twice, but it just didn't work out. I did get to see them for their final residency night and that will have to do for now. This band will just rock you with their garage punk sounds. I love how the band switches vocals between two of the band members. It helps switch up the sound. In the back of my mind, I was thinking, "I'd love to see Cat Scan playing with The Paranoyds and Potty Mouth." That would be one fun night. Especially since each has a band member who likes to put on a stage show with wild moves. 

Cat Scan

Opening up for Cat Scan was Shark Toys and D. A. Stern.

Shark Toys played similar to Cat Scan's punk sounds. In fact, one members in the audience attempted to start up a mosh pit, but failed. If only, the night was all-ages. They were speeding up their music to the point where I thought for sure a stage fire would start.

Shark Toys

D. A. Stern started the night with some calmer sounds. The keyboardist added a nice twist to the band.

D. A. Stern