Friday, August 31, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: SWIMM

SWIMM at the Teragram Ballroom
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I’m never too good at this one so I took what Alison Green from LiveFast magazine wrote about our recently released album... “Dreamy and distinctly danceable sound, a haunting and genre-bending blur of shoegazey psych pop laced with funk and falsetto, a swirling mixture of ethereal tones tinged with an edgy recklessness that is impossible not to get swept up in.” - Alison Green

How do you believe the band/artist has progressed over time? We’ve gotten better at being on time although I’m writing this while on the way to a gig we’re late for.

Own Q&A: Who do I make this 3 million dollar check out to? Adam Winn, thank you.

Wednesday, August 29, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Honeysticks

The Honeysticks at the Teragram Ballroom

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? I had been working on putting a tour together for my debut LP in mid 2015, Montgomery Ricky, and The Honeysticks started out as the touring band. I realized pretty early on that I felt much more excited about the opportunity to make a new band entirely and we went that route. I met our bassist in kindergarten, our guitarist on Vine (we were both viners at one point), and our drummer on Craigslist.

I noticed a number of individuals singing along to your songs. Do you find greater enjoyment writing a great song or performing a great song? Why the choice? I grew up wanting to write books, so I suppose writing is really where I feel the most confident. I also unapologetically love pop music, so I feel like that’s why folks wanna sing along.

Own Q&A. I’ve heard a lot about The Honeysticks Patreon . . . expand on that? Of course. We’ve got a service we’re developing with Patreon’s help where folks can watch us post early stage demos, stream, blog posts and so much more for free as part of a paid subscription. We give free stuff to our patrons all the time and they run a mobile forum with us. It’s all very exciting and new. Join the Patreon, folks!!!

Monday, August 27, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Super Space Nation

Super Space Nation at The Satellite
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how the band started out? Super Space Nation started out as Evan and Zac’s ukulele hip-hop duo while their last project was on tour! After they moved to California, they met up with drummer Dex Sullivan and soon after guitarist Jonah Weinreich to round out the line-up you see today! After a hiatus from 2014-2016, Super Space Nation reunified in Los Angeles in May of 2017 and have been playing around LA and writing and recording new material ever since! Our first single back from hiatus, “Silverlake” will be released with a music video on all streaming platforms shortly!

What’s a dream venue you’d love to play at and what about it intrigues you? We’ve got too many dream venues to name! Not the least of which would be CapitalOne Arena in Washington, DC, where Evan and Zac saw their first concert, N’SYNC and Puff Daddy, back in the early 2000’s!

Own thoughts: This band is comprised of brothers from the east coast and San Luis Obispo who moved to LA to pursue their dreams and follow their passions of creating art that makes people move! Every time we play, whether it’s to an intimate crowd of friends or a giant audience of fans, we give 100% of ourselves onstage to create an epic full-body experience that radiates with the positivity we share and the joy we have to do what we do, pursing our dreams with our best friends! Stay tuned for the new single and video, which should be out shortly!!

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Echo Park Rising: Saturday/Sunday 2018

Egret on Ergot
I got to shoot for Buzzbands for the second year straight at Echo Park Rising. I was recovering from a cold so wasn't 100%, but I still had a lot of fun doing it. If you'd like to see a ton of photos that I took as well as read a couple brief write-ups, click on the two links below.

Buzzbands (Day 3)

Buzzbands (Day 4)



Here's the band/artist list that I saw:

Saturday:

IAMCHELSEAIAM
Canto
Beach Cities
Foxes and Lions
Lucy and LaMer
Hydro Kitten
Sara Dee
Hawk Percival and Friends
Vava
Smoke Season
Carly and the Universe
Manhattan Murder Mystery
Michelle Young and the Collection
Pink $ock/
Bart Davenport and the Bedazzled
Spare Parts for Broken Hearts
Apoolo Bebop
Livingmore
Rachel Goodrich
Gypsum
Young Creatures
Mod Pods
Harley Cortez
Katzu Oso
Sikemor
Potty Mouth
The Millennial Club

Sunday:

Elizabeth Woolf
Love Fuck City
Sonoda
Young Lovers
Olivia Morreale
Nathan Owen
Dead Dawn
Polartropica
Lily Kershaw
Pipe Dreams
Anahita Skye
Goon
Jerry and the Rest
Young Jesus
LIA
Disco Shrine
Ramonda Hammer
Brenda Carsey
Pair of Arrows
Sam Marine
Sam Valdez
GospelbeacH
Egret on Ergot

Some random notes that you won't find on Buzzbands:

A. Egrets on Ergot t-shirt: Fuck Sexual Predators.

B. I got caught up in an Egrets on Ergot's mosh pit and the person who did the most damage to my back was another photographer who did more body slamming than photography.

C. I got asked by one person over the weekend for my Instagram handle. I told him: @notesfromvivace. Which he then responded, "Oh, you're that guy." Not sure if that was a compliment or an insult.

D. Annabelle Maginnis of MetronOhm gets the award for being the most support musician to the musicians. She was everywhere.

E. Some bands I saw just randomly like Pink $ock. Why was Pink $ock random? First, I saw The Paranoyds heading inside. Then I saw a group jump out of an Uber and run into the venue. I figured I'd better check the band out.

F. I walked to the BlueCollar venue 3 times to see if Rachel Goodrich was playing. The venue was behind schedule by a good 30 minutes and I had other bands/artists to shoot. That shows how much I wanted to shoot Rachel Goodrich for Buzzbands. Great photographer Michelle Shiers was doing her thing, as well, when I finally got to catch Rachel Goodrich on the third try.




Thursday, August 23, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Symbol Six

Symbol Six at Redwood Bar
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how the band started out? In 1979, I was in the 9th grade and punk rock made its way into my world. My life changed as Southern California punk rock affected me in ways no other music had. I wanted to be part of this movement! So my freshman year of high school I made it my mission to start a band! But, I wanted to do this with the best people I could find. Now, since I couldn’t play an instrument, of course I became by default the lead singer and talked the guys into letting me join the band I was putting together! Hahaha! Miraculously, within a year we were playing with Social Distortion, Bad Religion, Christian Death and many others. That same year we signed with the infamous Posh Boy Records who released some of the best punk rock records of all time! To this day we truly recognize and appreciate the privilege to be even a small part of this huge and important time of Rock n Roll history! One of my best memories ever was when I heard our song played on the radio on Rodney on the Roq. In 2018, I'm lucky and thrilled to still be in this band with my best friends Phil George, Evan Shanks and Tony Fate! We still enjoy playing, touring, writing and recording the original tunes as well as the new music we make and release together as a band.

What are some of your favorite spots, locations, areas in Los Angeles? What make them your favorites? Honestly, we loved the scene and the clubs of that long lost time with venues such as Madame Wong’s, the Starwood, Whisky a go go, Club 88, the Fleetwood, Godzilla's and lots of warehouse shows! What was great is that they were ALL ages and there was a thriving scene we felt a part of.

Own thoughts: We still love writing and playing original music! It’s still from the hearts . . . perhaps more now than ever! It's a very fractured culture out there. There are so many great bands playing to empty rooms . . . people seem to find their unconsciousness at home on social media. There is a big overall disconnect between reality and fantasy. Today, music is experienced and created by the ones that have genuine interest and connections in the songs, in their meanings, in their value and effects on the world.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Chris del Rosario

Chris del Rosario at Junior High
Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I'm an indie singer-songwriter, so acoustic guitar and vocals are the core of my sound and artistry. Because I've experimented outside of those two instruments, it pulls my sound in different directions and makes it harder for me to label. I want to say alternative / indie-folk is a close description - I'm inspired by the works of Radiohead, Fleet Foxes, Andrew Bird, and many other similar acts.

Other than Los Angeles, where could you see yourself living/playing music and why? I've been hearing a lot of good things about Portland. A friend of mine told me my work would be a good fit over there, and that I'd get along well with other people in the music community. Probably because I'm a little weird, and apparently in Portland there are tons of weirdos who admire the same stuff I do. I'll have to find out for myself one day.

Sunday, August 19, 2018

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Miko Masoto

Miko Masoto at The Smell
Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how you started out as a musician? My mom had this boyfriend who was an R&B musician and I would sing with him on certain songs, he would just record over these beats using the bare minimum.

How do you go about combining lyrics and sound? I like to start off with a melody. I’ll sing whatever comes out, usually nonsense. The lyrics come secondary, usually after I’ve sat with the melody for a little while.

Friday, August 17, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Big Air

Big Air at the Redwood Bar
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound has been steadily evolving over the last few years. Initially it was all ripping-fast, angsty garage punk, but gradually we've incorporated more psychedelic sounds, more complex song structures, more changes in temp and dynamics, etc.

For the band and its future, how would you define success? Success for us is probably different than most of our peers. We aren't interested in getting signed, touring, or trying to "make it". That shit is exhausting and for me takes most of the fun out of playing music. It's more than a hobby - it's something that I have to do and the process is incredibly fun and fulfilling (most of the time). We play as often as we can and strive to improve and evolve from record to record. The fact that we've been able to keep this going and that anyone is interested at all is success enough for me.

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Espresso

Espresso at The Smell
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? We are psychedelic sex funk, melting minds and creaming jeans.

What is your favorite Espresso lyric and what about it makes it so special? All lyrics from the song “Alvin Bovin,” they tell a story of all the little stories we have accumulated while on the road. Listen to it and hear what’s going down !!

Monday, August 13, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Prissy Whip

Prissy Whip at Zebulon
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Our sound is like morbidly orthopedic. As well as diabetic-ally and utterly ferglicious with a dash of sweet sweet harmonic horse piss / ejaculate

What’s the favorite part of your Prissy Whip set? My fav part of the set is when I impregnate the cis sound man via sext and lactate on dem hoes

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Thick

Thick at The Hi Hat
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how the band started out? Craigslist ad with the title “Two Girls One Drummer” 😂

What’s the favorite part of your set? When we perform bad stand up between songs

Own insight: We bring a deck of cards everywhere we go on tour so we can play “Shithead” wherever we stop for food.

Thursday, August 9, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Haunted Summer

Haunted Summer at The Hi Hat
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how your band started? The band started at The Echo's Halloween show in 2012. We put the band together to do an entire set of Animal Collective covers. During our last song when the rest of the band had left the stage and just left us up there for the encore, we did "Bees" together and the response was overwhelming with support for us writing our own music together as a duo. From there we wrote a few demos and the band started getting busier than any of our last projects from the decade prior, we have been very lucky.

You’ve played the Los Angeles music scene for a few years now. What are your observations about the scene? Things have a changed a lot, but there are still tons of great bands in town helping keep the diversity like Draemings, Livingmore, Dream Phases and De Lux. The venues are more diverse now too, so it's no longer a two venue town as it once was in Echo Park and Silver Lake. It's been great running into all these bands out of LA, touring and helping represent our hometown at awesome festivals together!

Tuesday, August 7, 2018

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Sara Hallie Richardson

Sara Hallie Richardson at The Hi Hat
Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? At the root, my sound is folk-based with soaring melodies and intricate harmonies. From there, I intertwine electronic and orchestral instrumentation.

What motivates you to write your music? What motivates me most to write music is the imperative need to feel. So much of our world teaches us to fear emotion and vulnerability, but I believe we can only begin to heal when we are given permission to feel. If I can write music that moves someone, or holds a space for them to feel ok with vulnerability, than I will continue to write music forever and ever.

Own thoughts: I am a singer, songwriter, and producer from Maine and living in LA for the last couple of years has been a REAL wild ride for this east coast gal.

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: Graves and the Bad Weather

Graves and the Bad Weather at Wild Riot Summer Sessions
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? Ever evolving rock. We are often described as “Janis Joplin meets The Black Keys”.

How do you believe the band has progressed over time? We love experimenting with new songs and vibes. The more we play and write the tighter our sound becomes.

Own Interesting facts: vocals and lead guitar are a married couple as well as band mates.

Friday, August 3, 2018

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Grinning Ghosts

The Grinning Ghosts at Harvard & Stone
Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What’s the story behind how the band started out? We all went to the same elementary school where we were instructed to music by a man that played an Ewok in Return of the Jedi (seriously a true story). Eventually through a Rube Goldberg of bad luck and tough calls we ended up being in a band together.

If you weren’t pursuing music as a career or passion, what do you think you might be doing in its place? I, Daryl would be dead. Thomas would be a wrestling as a jobber. Leo would be a drug dealer. Alex is a thespian. He does this when he’s not on set. Dan would be … fighting robots?

Own Q&As between Daryl and his bandmates:

Daryl asks Leo: You’re such a beautiful boy. Why do you so dislike having your picture taken so? Leo: As a model I get paid per the shot.

Daryl asks Alex: As a proud San Franciscan, how irreparably has Barry Bonds soiled the legacy of Giants baseball Alex: Barry Bonds, in my opinion, absolutely took peds throughout his career. When you go back to look at the Barry Bonds of the Pittsburgh Pirates and compare him to that of the one of the Giants, it paints a very clear picture of his usage. Does Barry's usage of PEDs affect or take away from the legacy of the San Francisco/New York Giants? Absolutely not. As to make this answer a little shorter, I will just refer to: Willie Mays, Will Clark, Gaylord Perry, Madison Bumgarner, William Mcovey, Tim Lincecum. Giants also have the record for the most players in the hall of fame; Giants won a World Series before the New York Yankees won a World Series title and own the greatest rivalry in professional sports against the Los Angeles Dodgers. If that doesn't make you forget about Barry . . .

Daryl asks Dan: I understand you’re quite the entrepreneur/business mogul. What's an invention you’re working on Dan: A keurig-vape pipe.

Thursday, August 2, 2018

The Satellite: Sumeau

I occasionally head off to venues not knowing what to expect. Usually, that means I'm heading off to The Smell, Harvard and Stone or Silverlake Lounge. On this particular night, it was off to The Satellite. A band called Sumeau was playing. The place was packed, which meant good things in my mind. Why else would so many people be there if it wasn't for the band.

One might think that a group that sings dreamy pop tunes wouldn't have such a memorable set, but you'd be wrong.

First thing I noticed was that everyone in the band was dressed in white. So my first impression was, "This reminds me of HBO's The Leftovers and the Guilty Remnant." Okay, the Guilty Remnant wouldn't talk, but my first impression was emphasized when the lead singer said, "Do you want to joint the cult?"


Then there's just something wonderfully addictive about lead singer Kat Primeau. There is this bubbly joy that she has while singing. She even got the audience to join in various arm motions during a couple songs.


Finally, they had a group of dancers at the front of the stage. Initially, it wasn't anything that wasn't done before, but then the dancers started going into the crowd. They sort of just moved around, seemingly following directions provided by their smart phones. Interesting. Then it just blew up. Folks in the audience started joining in the dancing. Soon there were circle dances and Congo lines. I doubt that Kat was expecting it, because during most of that you could see this surprised amazement across her face.

I left after the set with a sense of awe.