Quarantine Online Sets: Version 24

Friday night was spent catching some music starting out at 6 p.m. On The Satellite's Instagram page, Suzi Moon from Turbulent Hearts jammed through a six song set with on fire yellow hair. Her set list was written on her hand. She ignored the acoustic rules and had an amp. Basically, she brought her punk attitudes to The Satellite's feed. What I loved were the Q&As between songs. For example, how long does it take you to write your songs? 

 

Suzi Moon

After the set ended, there was a 1.5 hour break before heading over to Los Angeleno's Facebook page at 8 p.m. For an hour, I got to catch short sets by Ben Vaughn, Less Bells, Flames of Durga, Starlight Cleaning Co. and The Blank Tapes. 

Ben Vaughn opened it up with an interesting choice in color palette. He played and wore colors in the tan and brown color segment. I say he came across as someone with a dry sense of humor.

Ben Vaughn

Less Bells provided an interesting combination of instruments: synths and an electric cello that created Gothic sounds that drifted from the high ceilings of an ancient European church.

Less Bells

Flames of Durga had the full band rocking punk style from the high desert. I have to say the video quality of their set was most excellent. It was like I was right up there in the front row.

Flames of Durga

Starlight Cleaning Co. provided some folk tunes from their living room. An upright piano could be seen in the background.

Starlight Cleaning Co.

The Blank Tapes closed out the hour with Americana rock with a 70s beach sound.

The Blank Tapes

Quick Hit Band Interview: Mini Trees

Mini Trees at Bootleg Theater

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What is currently influencing your music? Usually the artists that I'm listening to will have some influence over my music whether I realize it or not, and recently that's been a lot of Andy Shauf, Bon Iver, Clairo. I also tend to write songs as a way to process my past so there's a lot of self-reflection influencing my songwriting, as well.

What’s your favorite Mini Trees song and what makes it the favorite? I think my favorite song I've written so far is Dust. I love playing it live because it ebbs and flows dynamically and has a fun energy to it. Lyrically it's a song that means a lot to me as well. Also, as a drummer, I love a sneaky time signature change mid song.

Own final thoughts: B'Day is my favorite Beyonce album.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Rare Occasions

The Rare Occasions at The Hi Hat

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I would describe our sound as indie rock (specifically garage rock / post-punk). We have some strong jazz influences in our music as well, but stylistically it definitely falls under the "rock" umbrella.

You mentioned that you won the John Lennon Songwriting Contest. What's your process to songwriting? Riff or chord change, and we build out the arrangement from there. We record our rehearsals and make notes about how we can improve the songs. After a few iterations, we either have something we're happy with or we ditch the idea if it's not working. I'll write lyrics and then we start recording the studio version in our rehearsal space. The writing process often bleeds into the recording process as we add layers of different instrumentation.

Own final thoughts: We started this band in the Boston/Providence area while we were still in school and now we're based here in Los Angeles.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 23

Friday night, June 19th, was the creative Los Angeleno sets. I say creative, because as I've mentioned before, artists pre-record their 8 to 15 minute sets. Opening the night was NIGHTJACKET doing a full band set. What beautiful sounds from this 5 member band. I need to catch a live set. It looked like two members of the bands were playing at their own homes while three were playing in a studio. The keyboardist was wearing a mask while the singer and guitarist weren't, which half makes me think they live together? Just well thought out music. 

Nightjacket

Jeremiah Chiu had the synths going that always has me thinking San Francisco 2013. Yet, there was a much more soothing use of the synths. A transformation of that San Francisco binary type use of the synths. He used a background video of spider webs, a home, frying of food to accentuate his sound. At the end, he wrote "thx" on his phone screen.

Jeremiah Chiu

Taleen Kali played a solo set from a roof top building. For a brief moment, one could hear a motorcycle driving down in the street below. And the wind came whipping through every so often, sending her hair flowing. 

Taleen Kali

Lucy & La Mer is one of my favorite bands in Los Angeles. To me, she's shifted her sound from folk-pop to a more straight pop sound. Yet, for this set, she shifted her set back to that original folk-pop sound that had me fall in love with her music. She opened the set with my favorite, "Honey, Put Your Weapons Down," which talks about a painful moment in a relationship.

Lucy & La Mer

Closing out the night was Yung Student Loans, which ran into an unfortunate situation with Facebook (the corporation). This is the second time I've noticed something like this happen in this online world. The first time was on Instagram with Molly Moore who was cut off from Instagram Live for doing a Brittney Spears cover. This time, for Yung Student Loans, the vocals were just silenced. From what I read on Facebook, Facebook told Los Angeleno that they "didn't have the rights to post" the video. Life in the Internet world.

Yung Student Loans

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 22

I'm starting to hear about one off music sets being performed live at various restaurants and bars though it doesn't look like music venues are opening up. But I'm not ready to head out there to catch live music yet. Luckily for me, I'm able to catch live music online still. 

Gritty in Pink opened things up for me on Tuesday night. What captured my attention was that Plasmic was playing a quick set. Prior to the COVID-19 lockdown, I had noticed her name pop up on various show nights, but just wasn't able to make it out to catch her sets. I also happened to see her on DJ duties one night at The Satellite. Her enthusiasm during her brief set was catchy. Pink hair. Angle wings. It was all just fun. 

Plasmic

Opening the Gritty in Pink night was Shira Girl who I did catch doing a set at The Satellite during the whole FOMO week that opened up 2020. Actually, I guess FOMO week is really The Echo. I should say Satellite Nights. That night in January, she was showing her stretching abilities on The Satellite floor. This night, she was jumping on her bed while two of her friends were playing along with her bed action.

Shira Girl

In between Shira Girl and Plasmic was Tatiana DeMaria. Between the two pop gymnastics of the two, Tatiana DeMaria came in with a Hotel Cafe like calm. Behind her was a brick wall, which reminded me of Trencher in Echo Park. I couldn't help but think that she was doing a set during Echo Park Rising.

  

Tatiana DeMaria

Wednesday night shifted to WFNM. I'm telling you that I just look forward to Wednesday nights like I used to look forward to Monday nights when there was live music (residency night). WFNM always introduces me to new musicians. On this night, I got introduced to three new artists: Anna Dellaria, 

Paige Alyssa and Gayle. I also got to catch up with Leyet who I previously saw at The Hi Hat. Anna Dellaria opened up the night playing a set from her living room. While she sat throughout the set, her music had you imagining how seeing a live set would be, which would include a lot of great choreography on stage. That's my guess.

Anna Dellaria

Paige Alyssa came in from Missouri with a soulful sound. In between songs, she gave shout out to friends that were popping in on the set. It really was like a piano bar for the online world. 

Paige Alyssa

Gayle had the most fascinating backdrop. There was a mirror that was framed with wood fencing that had me wondering if it was framing that was against the wall or sticking out from the wall. Anyways, her music was pure pop joy.

 

Gayle

Closing out the night was Leyet who has a youthful enthusiasm. Her set at The Hi Hat was all about the dance moves. Her WFNM online set had her on a guitar and introducing an acoustic style to her music.

Leyet

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Asa Ey

Asa Ey at Madame Siam

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What's the story behind when you knew you wanted to pursue being a singer? I always felt you can communicate so much more with music and singing. My parents split up when I was 3 years old, and grew up with so many feelings about it, I couldn’t express it any other way. Singing and writing songs became my therapy.

Do you have a message or objective behind your music? If so, what is it? As a band, our main objective musically is to write songs that feature guitars and bring live instrumentation back into the mainstream. Lyrically, we want to write songs that tell stories and explore human nature. We want to get people to reflect inward, being able to recognize the patterns in yourself and others. That’s the key, to create life how you want it and not live according to a program.

Quick Hit Band Interview: Liposuction

Liposuction at The Smell

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What would you describe your band's sound? We’re just a glorified Beach Boys’ cover band.

What motivates you to write your music? Easily the Wilson brothers. They’ve truly changed the world with their talent. God bless Luke and Owen.

Own final thoughts: Hmm… I suppose the only thing I’d want the world to know about lipo is that we truly do practice liposuctions inside Emanuel’s apartment after we all get home from work. We do free consultations and liposuctions start at only $99.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 21

Los Angeleno was back on Facebook highlighting three musicians. Los Angeleno doesn't do live sets. Instead, they allow the musicians or bands to do pre-recordings ranging from 8 to 15 minutes. Some artists use it to put together low cost music videos. Others play it straight. There are a wide range of uses that makes it a fun hour of music. Also, the advantage to their presentations is that it gets rid of the horrid sound and picture quality that can often pop up during a live stream (which I'm guessing is highly dependent on the quality of the recording devise and WiFI of the musician or band).

On this particular Friday night, Dustin Wong starting things off with synth sounds that as time went by was soothing in a way. The video we viewed was broken into four sections. The upper right and lower left windows showed water scenes. The upper left focused on his pedals that he would twist with his hands or tap with his feet. The lower right focused on his two keyboards.

Dustin Wong

Nancy Sanchez came on next with Spanish folk sounds that bounced pleasantly against the walls of her home. She used a wide angle camera that curved her keyboard. Between songs, she cut away to a screen that introduced the name of the next song.

Nancy Sanchez

Closing out the night was Sunny War who played some blues from her bedroom. I was fascinated by just watching her pick those guitar strings. It felt like it was time to go to a honky tonk bar and let it hang out on the dance floor. The goal on the dance floor would be to see if your feet could keep up with the speed of her fingers and see if your fitness would allow you to outlast hers.

Sunny War

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 20

It was a WFNM night on Instagram. I got to catch Foley, Audrey Nuna and Minke.

Best set of the three has to go to Minke. I was just blown away. I was so blown away I had to check her music out online. I went to Youtube and just fell for the music even more. Her song "Something Better" must be inspired by choir music. She's a London transfer to Los Angeles. We are lucky to have her and I hope to catch her live soon.

Minke

Audrey Nuna was very humorous as she brought her music from her spot on the East Coast. She asked questions of those watching such as: What's your favorite type of potatoes? Baked, French Fries, mashed. Do you have an innie or an outie belly button? She had a friend playing keys while she sat on a chair and did her free style, tune driven rapping.

Audrey Nuna

Opening up the night for me was Foley from New Zealand. They played off each other well while hitting their dance sounds. I say dance as when I checked out their music online it had a party sound to it, but during their set they played it out acoustic style on their guitars.

Foley

Quick Hit Band Interview: Rose Cologne

Rose Cologne at the Bootleg Theater (shot for Buzzbands)

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? A blend of post-punk, surf and psychedelia... the love child of The Cramps, Mazzy Star and Shocking Blue.

What motivates you to write your music? Pain, fear, love... and a desire for a deeper inner experience shared thru sonic wavelengths and shot out into hearts and minds of the universe.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Tiffany Stringer

Tiffany Stringer at The Hi Hat

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? The sound of live shows are pretty pop-rock centered. I’ve been referring to my latest recordings as alternative-pop because I’ve been experimenting with the classic pop elements as well as anything I come across that inspires me/ makes me feel carbonated inside.

Where is your favorite spot to write music? And why the spot? My favorite place to write music is in a special moment as it is happening. It feels like I’m a researcher, trying to capture as much of the moment as possible.

Own final thoughts: Life imitates art! I’ve started being quite intentional about the art I create because I’ve seen first hand how it changes one’s reality.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Gems

The Gems at The Smell

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? The band started when the lead singer (Thurston Day) and drummer (Jackson Fox ) became friends in their freshman year of high-school and started casually playing music together. It grew more intense from there.

What band/artist would you most like to open for and why the choice? A band we would love to open for would be Franz Ferdinand. We have opened for them before in 2018 at the Wiltern and it was a really fun and interactive show and we are looking forward to playing with them again in the future. However, we would love to open for a band like Interpol because we look up to them in a lot of ways.
Own unique information about the band: we started with just 2 members and have now grown to be a 4-piece band with: Thurston Day (vocals/guitar) Jakob Sorensen (Bass) Michael Faust (keyboards/vocals) Jackson Fox (Drums) We have finished recording our latest Album “WHITE LIES” and will be releasing it sometime towards the end of this year!

Quick Hit Band Interview: Talk Time

Talk Time at The Satellite

Interview with the band (with Mike). Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? It started by accident! Edson (singer, guitarist) accidentally emailed Mike (guitarist) with something he was working on thinking it was a different Mike. They had played a bit before when Mike stood in on a couple gigs for Edson's previous band, and at the time both of them were still sort of reeling from the break up of their last projects. From there Mike shared something he was working on which ended up being the proof of concept for 𝑇𝐴𝐿𝐾 𝑇𝐼𝑀𝐸 and the first single, Year of Self. We were then fortunate enough to round out the group with players, Andrew, John, and Derek to finish an EP with Producer Matt Bishop and forge a path forward as a cohesive ensemble.

Is there a story behind one of your songs that you’d like to share? One of the centerpieces of the EP, "True North" is about finding perspective and keeping love as a compass in this terrifying, ambiguous, but beautiful life.

Quick Hit Band Interview: The Haunts

The Haunts at The Hi Hat

Initially seen on  CaliforniaRocker.

Interview with the band. Enjoy:

What's the story behind how your band started? Aaron and Alanna had been in several bands prior to The Haunts, and had just left their prior band to start a more stripped back project. After several unsatisfactory sessions auditioning vocalists, they were ready to just go fully instrumental, until they met Max in the final few auditions they had scheduled. One hungover morning audition later, The Haunts were official!

For the band and its future, how would you define success? For us, success is getting to play shows in front of different crowds and have the music we make be positively received. We really do appreciate each and every person that comes to our shows, and we love to meet and interact with everyone. We have a lot of goals and plans for 2020, and are excited to see what the next year holds for us as we branch out of California more. Hopefully our future successes include being able to fully support ourselves off of our music!

Own Q&A: Why don’t The Haunts have a bassist? We started this band with the concept of being able to strip down a song to its most bare components, while also still being able to write songs we all felt were complete. We think a big aspect of our songwriting process is to not overthink any aspect and remember that there really aren’t any rules to what defines a band. We’re sure we’ll end up with a 4th member at some point, but for now, as long as we’re happy making and playing the music we write, the rest will hopefully follow. Plus, our minivan we tour in is super small, but that answer isn’t as fun.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 19

Friday nights on Los Angeleno's Facebook page hosts short videos from various artists between the hours of 8 p.m. to 9 p.m. -- though occasionally some artists/bands have their videos posted much later. The short form videos allow for creativity to shine through.

Up first on this recent Friday night was Corey Vogel. He's a drummer and his video was just memorizing. He was never on screen. Instead, there was video that started off with him spraying a water hose at clay cups/planters. It then shifted to the vibrating drum beats that had maroon clay bouncing around. Waffle shaped objects were put on the same surface and the drum beats shattered the objects into thousands I small pieces within a few moments. It closed with wooden sticks beating on bamboo.

Corey Vogel

Pure Protein was up next with sonic space sounds. Emily Lacy has to be close friends with Bloody Death Skull. She spent half her video providing a tutorial about her playing methodology. It was just strange with her playing her keyboard with every part of her body. It was expressionist keyboard playing.

Pure Protein

Emily Lacy

The Gooms is a band I've seen play a couple online music festivals. Yet, it was always just the lead singer. This time, 3 of the 4 members were playing. The fourth member, their bassist, was in the Bay Area with his parents. It was so great seeing this band in almost full form. You could tell they were having such a good time together and it makes it a thrill. The band was dressed in a vacation type of mood with a Hawaiian shirt and lei.

The Gooms

Closing out the night was Polartropica. Polartropica is always up to provide some interpretative surrounding. There was a whole plastic garden set up around her. That was my interpretation though Los Angeleno described it as "candy-colored spaceship."

Polartropica