Quarantine Online Sets: Version 58

Okay, so this wasn't a quarantine online set for me. I got to see Mars Rodriguez perform live. But for those who missed the set and would like to catch it online, you can see it on The Satellite's Instagram page. I first came across Mars back in 2019 when I got a random invite to catch a set at Hotel Café. She is a one person powerhouse and so listening to her at the Hotel Cafe or in The Satellite's backyard were very similar experiences -- though her The Satellite set was restricted to just a guitar. With a couple stars under her eyes and a great big smile, she rocked through her 6 song set with songs such as "Despertar" and "Black Summer." What made for the perfect setting for me is how the set started out under the waning sunlight and by the time the set ended it was night. If you happen to decide to catch the online set, that clicking sound you hear is my camera.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 57

Ariel Beesley took the stage on Reckless Magazine's Better Days Festival. I've seen her do a couple individual online set since the start of quarantine. I last saw her live with a full band in early January during FOMO week. I knew she was supposed to hit the Better Days Festival at 9 p.m. on Thursday via Youtube. I tuned in at exactly 9 p.m. and she had already started her set. How much had I missed? Anyways, I watched the set until the end and then took the Youtube video back to the start of her set and watched it again. She was playing with a full band and the camera work was treating it like one was watching a real concert. It wasn't a one camera straight on take, but moved from one spot to the next. With the full band, her vocals and music composition shined in full. Almost ten months since I last saw her live and I had forgotten how totally awesome her live shows are. Ariel Beesley is a full on Los Angles music talent.    

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 56

WFNM on Wednesday had a number of artists on their Instagram Live.

Stephen Day opened up playing an off-camera piano before switching to a guitar. The way he played the guitar and sang had me thinking about the old The Andy Griffith Show and how Andy occasionally played the guitar on his porch.

Stephen Day

Ash Leone's facial expressions told the story to her music. When the notes went up the scale, her expressions expanded. She knows how to respond to her fans. She read a comment that said she needed to come closer to the microphone so she did -- I personally thought she sounded fine from where she was. She has the coolest talking voice. 

Ash Leone

Windser had this The Traveling Wilburys style. During one song, a motorcycle drove pass the house, which caused some laughter among the two musicians. The lead singer used to be in the band Mainland. 

Windser

Michelle Ray did a Happy Wine Wednesday cheer to those watching online. She has a Whitney Houston musical style. She opened up her set with the catchy "I'm Fine." I could listen to her vocals forever. Perhaps that was why she was on The Voice S4 (I did not know that prior to seeing her set).

Michelle Ray

KidEyes closed out the set. This was my second time catching the band. I previously saw them at The Hi Hat. They were doing a "Don't Hold Back" challenge, which is about gratitude. They sang with passion and like Michelle Ray were drinking wine. I have to give it up to the band for having perfectly clear video, and the vocals and guitar play came across crisp. They must have some real good studio style equipment. It was as close as you can get to watching a live set. Like their live show at The Hi Hat, there were some body dynamics and dramatic hand movements. To end the set, they gave a kiss to the camera to say good-bye while checking out some final fan comments. 

KidEyes

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 55

I dropped by Wonder & Awe Productions for the first time since the start of quarantine. Brenda Carsey organizes the nights where the singers do rounds via Zoom on Facebook. I stuck around for 2 rounds. Starting it off was Pozzi. Lyrics of the round, "Watching the years passing by . . . " His lyrics are emotional poetry. One thing about livestreams is sometimes you get to see their books on the shelves, but I can never make out the titles. 

From top left: Brenda Carsey, Pozzi, Ari Tibi, Jess Jones

Next up was Ari Tibi. "Dancing in the Moonlight." She was coming to us from the beach and had poor WiFi. A couple times she just froze. The lyrics just rolled off her tongue with smooth style. She happened to mention that she clicks her tongue by habit. 

Jess Jones was coming to us from San Diego. She wrote a song about Slab City. Brenda Carsey said she was going to Slab City for her anniversary. A mellow mood with a blues style. 

Brenda Carsey hit some deep notes and then took her voice up the scale. She has those power vocals that make her a songstress on keyboards. I noticed that she was playing her piano while seated on one of those office mesh office chairs. 

A Movie Review: The Virgin Suicides

The Virgin Suicides is Sofia Coppola's directorial debut. The opening of the movie foreshadows the direction of the movie. It starts out with a street view of a Michigan city. Folks are doing every day things. Walking a dog. Playing some basketball on the garage hoop. City employees inspecting dying trees. Then you hear an ambulance. And one might think that this is just part of the every day life of a city, but instead the ambulance is heading to the Lisbon family house where young Cecilia Lisbon (Hanna Hall) has attempted suicide. The whole opening scene is of people living their normal lives even though untold tragedy is happening just across the street.

After Cecilia recovers, the family has a party for her to get her spirits up. Unfortunately, during the party, she succeeds in committing suicide by jumping out of the second floor window and landing on a metal fence spike. The invited friends at the party leave without saying a word, no doubt horrified by what they've seen.

This leaves the remaining four sisters trying to live a normal life. The movie focuses on Lex (Kirsten Dunst) who attracts the attention of fellow high school student Trip Fontaine (Josh Hartnett). At the start of the movie, Lex is 14. Perhaps by this time she's 15. Trip Fontaine is perhaps 16 or 17 and is on the high school football team. He asks her father (James Woods) -- who also happens to teach at the high school -- if he can take Lex out to the high school homecoming dance. The father seems to want to approve of the idea, but has to get an agreement from his wife (Kathleen Turner) as the family policy is not to allow their daughters to date at such a young age.

The wife agrees and all the daughters head to the dance together with dates. Trip and Lex end up winning homecoming king and queen. It really feels like the family has moved pass the suicide of Cecilia. 

Then everything collapses. Trip convinces Lex to leave the dance. They end up having sex on the football field. For some reason, Trip just ends up leaving Lex there, walking home. Through flash forward scenes, Trip argues that he was deeply in love with Lex, but you really have to question that after seeing how he ditches Lex on that football field after having just had sex with her. Lex wakes up and is devastated. She arrives back home in the early morning hours and the parents over-react to the situation in a manner that honestly doesn't feel realistic. They pull all four sisters out of high school and ground them, apparently not letting them leave the confines of the property. Admittedly, the parents are strict Catholics, but one might see them grounding Lex, but all the sisters and for well over two weeks?

Restricted to just being able to communicate via phone and flashlights with some teenagers across the street, the four sisters decide to commit suicide like their sister Cecilia.

The movie comes from the memories of a now 40-ish man who communicated with those four sisters via the phone and flashlights. He is still struggling to piece together the life of the family. One piece of info we do learn is that Trip Fontaine eventually ends up institutionalized. Perhaps he just couldn't live with himself, knowing that he was directly tied to the suicide of four people. 

You also witness the breakdown of the father, which occurs prior to the group suicide. Perhaps the father realizes his failings as a parent. After Cecilia committed suicide, he was very open to giving Lex more freedom to date. But once she broke the rules, he allowed his wife to impose extreme restrictions. Maybe he realized that he just didn't have the strength to go up against his wife even though he knew that it might lead to an unfortunate outcome.

Though obviously not the choice of Coppola, I wonder if the last name Lisbon was inspired by the 1755 Lisbon earthquake.

This movie showcases the under-stated tone that Coppola has taken in movies such as Lost in Translation and Somewhere. I don't think it is as good as those two movies where she no doubt polished this technique, but you do get to see the beginnings. In some ways, you can also see influences from the movie

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 54

WFNM may be shifting gears to pre-recorded performances. It does provide for better performances, but it also eliminates the possibility of amusing technical errors. For example, a few weeks back, one band was playing in a living room and the fire alarm started blasting in the middle of the set, which resulted in band members trying to clear the smoke from the house so that the alarm would turn off. 

Anyways, on this night Baker Grace started it off with some subtle pop dance tunes. Her choreographed danced moves were smooth and slow, matching nicely with her soft vocals. She had a full band in place and the video was a nice mix of music videos that spliced in with the recorded performance. It did feel like one was watching a full music video.  

Baker Grace

The K's appears to be a four piece band, but only two played this particular set. I say, what must they sound as a full band, because I was already stunned by their sound? The music was so beautiful with just two members of the band. The piano playing was amazing. The vocals brought the emotions. Perfection.  

The K's

Alice Pisano played in a room full of books. It had me thinking of movies from the 1930s/1940s where at some point in the movie there is a scene in a mansion's room that is dedicated to the home library. Back to her set and the room she was in, there was even the ladder on wheels that allows you to get to the top shelves. The camera angle of the recording allowed you to focus in on her hands as she played the keys. She wore a butterfly sweater and her music had lyrics such as, "Tears will set you free." 

Alice Pisano

Closing out the night was Charming Liars. Now their set was most like watching WFNM on Instagram Live. The video looked like it was recorded via a smart phone just based on how the Youtube video was presented. In the middle was a thin rectangular performance with the sides in black block. Their set was southern country rock that involved vocals that howled.

Charming Liars

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 53

Culture Collide used to have this awesome music festival in Echo Park that brought bands from across the globe. I so miss it. Well, recently, they had RONI on for an online set. She came on from New York City. She brought some blues jazz tunes to their Instagram set. She started the set on the guitar before shifting over to the piano and then back to the guitar. One of her covers was Ariana Grande's "Into You." For the cover she played both the guitar and piano. Some of her songs started off with her doing some improvisation on her guitar. It was a enjoyable 52 minute set. 

RONI on Culture Collide

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 52

It was Los Angeleno's final Friday Night Showcase. They've been doing the Showcase for 7 months now and this was their final one. There wasn't any specific reason provided for ending the run.

Juana Everett started it all of with throwback 70s folk. She played her set solo with a guitar and microphone. Lyrics of the night: Fake Love.

Juana Everett

Trevor Beld Jimenez was up next doing a rather short 3 minutes and 33 seconds set. It was a sweet 1 song set with Bob Dylan vocals and a harmonica and guitar just to add that additional comparison. While watching the set, I happened to notice that he had 2 stacks of books against the wall. I couldn't make out any of the titles.

Trevor Beld Jimenez

The Magenta Rainbow was totally colorful, just like their name implies. They had this mix of "Weird Al" Yankovic, show tune duet and cruise ship vibes. And their cloths were loud to match. And yet, their two pet dogs seems oblivious to it all. Both were on the couch. The bigger of the two looked fast asleep. The smaller paid attention initially and then dosed off, as well. I guess the two dogs were all too use to this musical expression.

The Magenta Rainbow

Duderella is a band I actually saw last year during Echo Park Rising at Sick City Records. Their music had an operatic Dracula vibe. Slow. Electronic. And flamboyant green hair.

Duderella

Closing out the night for me was Muwosi. Her music involved sampling and a soulful voice. She vibed to her music and I'm sure those watching online did, as well. One other thing I noticed was how the sun lit up the room. The white glare was turned up, making her fade into what seemed like the a bit of heaven.

Muwosi

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 51

Wednesday night meant catching some WFNM sets. I was only able to stick around for the first two artists. Though it was unfortunate to miss the full lineup, the first two artists were amazing.

Ella M put on a very professional set. The set was in black and white. What a cool format to use. She had two back-up musicians: electronic percussionist and keyboardist. There was a video person (or maybe just multiple cameras) that switched from the full 3 person band to just zooming in on Ella M. The music had this cool pop sound along with pre-recorded background vocals. And a couple times, she called on "Siri" to do a screen shot of the comments. She only did a 20 minute set that unfortunately does seem to have been saved to the WFNM Instagram page. 

Ella M

Gillian Heidi came up next. First thought that popped to mind was that she has great vocals. And then there was the Amy Winehouse photo in the background -- made me want to listen to some Winehouse music on Spotify. One of her songs was about not wanting to deal with FOMO, but at the same time not wanting to go out. When she sang, you could just see the emotions via her facial expressions. During the set she gave out a yell to an individual in the comments, Henry, "You can do this, also [playing an online set]. I can just do it better." In case we thought she was just being rude, she said, "That's my brother." Also, was that her mother doing the video and clapping in the background? It was a full family affair. She came across as being very extroverted with an exciting personality. It showed in her music. 

Gillian Heidi

Coronavirus Diary: October 12

The Dreams Diary. I must really be missing live music. I recently had two dreams that featured local Los Angeles musicians -- I'll leave out who the musicians were. 

Dream 1. This was just a brief encounter with a local musician. I was in a coffee shop, making my order. As I was waiting for my order to arrive, I turned around and saw a musician having a cameo role in "The Office." For some reason I knew it was "The Office." I wasn't watching this musician on a television set. And it wasn't being filmed by a camera crew. It was two individuals at a table in the coffee shop, having a conversation. So it was like a live situation in my dream and yet really was an episode of "The Office." And yet even though I could have gone over and interrupted the conversation to say hi, I knew that I wasn't doing a cameo in the comedy series myself. Seemed like there were two parallel universes or something like that.

Dream 2. I was moving out of an apartment. It was the end of college life. Everything was getting moved from the apartment into a U-Haul truck. Where was I going? My parents apparently had a vacation house and I was moving all my stuff there while I figured out what to do with my life. Driving the U-Haul was Musician A. Someone was in the middle seat. And I was in the passenger seat. So there were three of us. Just as we were about to leave the apartment drive way, crossing in front of the truck was Musician B. I asked Musician A to stop and I jumped out and ran over to Musician B. I said something like, "I just wanted to say good-bye. I doubt we'll ever see each other again." 

Dream 2 was really depressing. Was my dream telling me that the Los Angeles music scene is dead and gone?

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 50

School Night is back with Home School, which can be watched on Twitch.TV. They're presenting artist who perform pre-recorded 15 minute sets. 

Jordana came up first, playing on her couch with her legs crossed. On her wall were street signs: English 400 E and Emporia 200 S. I'm not sure if those meant anything specific to her. She played on a four string ukulele, which looked larger than the ukuleles I'm used to seeing. Vocals were like an ocean breeze, cool and pleasant. She ended her set with her face turned square-ish and a large smile via the use of an app.

 

Jordana

Luwten came up next from the Netherlands. There was a full band of 5. All members in the band wore black like a classical quintet. The sound was a blend of new age and soul. The music just took a graceful time to develop. Though the band was from the Netherlands, the lyrics were in English. 

Luwten

Closing out the night was Role Model. The music genre shifted from singer-songwriter sets to an upbeat pop set. The set included some vocal solo moments with the microphone held into the air with flair. He had me bouncing around my apartment. 

Role Model

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 49

WFNM put on another Wednesday night event. This one started earlier than the other nights with Ethan Roche hitting the online stage at 5 p.m. His set actually started around 5:10 p.m. due to technical glitches, but when he came on he had vocals that would cause teen girls to scream. His songs are pop romance.

Ethan Roche

David Hugo came on next with a unique approach to his set, which was similar to a listening party. Towards the middle of his set, he asks which of two songs he should play first. "The Boy" won out. Since it was a new song, he brought up the lyrics on his computer screen so that he wouldn't mess up the song. After singing the song acoustic, he then gave the audience a preview of how the song sounded with full production. He also did that with another song. A very nice approach. 

David Hugo

St. Panther closed out the night for me. She started out her set a cappella. I was thinking this would be a very unique set. Then she abruptly, because she hadn't plugged in her various equipment. After she plugged in, her first song was a dance party. Ha ha, far different from the a cappella sound. She bobble head danced throughout her set. Her music was big on horns. It sounded awesome. She used a fisheye lens for her set, which provided a rounded look to those of us watching. 

St. Panther

Echo Park Rising 2020: Online Edition Part 2

I ended Part 1 of my Echo Park Rising review with Veneer  After their set I took a short break and then returned to Portia Street Studios Youtube page to see Spare Parts for Broken Hearts. Their set just blew me out of my apartment. Did I need to wear ear plugs!

Spare Parts for Broken Hearts

From there, I jumped over to Bands in the Barbershop via Twitch. I caught the last song of Jagged Baptist Club. Then Chase Petra came on. All members of the band wore masks. I liked that fact. What I noticed was how the bassist and guitarist bounced their feet to the beat in the same directions. Their duo vocals perfectly built on top of each other. 

Jagged Baptist Club

Chase Petra

ModPods' lead singer wore a hockey type mask. The drummer started the set off the stage, watching her band members. "My headache is like a bullet." The band is like a lounge singer deciding to go punk. The band goes without a guitarist and the drummer / bassist switched off. The lead singer asked, "Are other bands better at banter?"

ModPods

Broken Baby's lead singer wore a t-shirt that said, "We are RBG." Her energy just takes her body in every direction. The microphone stand traveled along with her sometimes ending up on the stage and other times ending up on the floor and sometime held high like an exclamation point. It got a workout. "This is the first time we've practiced since April . . . no, February." Pretty good practice session.

Broken Baby

Back over to the main Echo Park Rising site, Alica Blue played "Queen of Echo Park," a song dedicated to Lauren Ruth Ward. And Lauren Ruth Ward joined in for part of the song. Leila Sunier shared the stage with Alica Blue. They did a two person round. Leila Sunier had the wind blowing through her hair throughout the set. I learned that Alicia Blue wanted to be a poet and that she wakes up at 6 a.m. What was interesting about the set was watching the shift from late afternoon to night fall. They finished the round singing Fleetwood Mac's "Landslide.

Alicia Blue, Leila Sunier, Lauren Ruth Ward

Clit Kat hit the Bands in the Barbershop Twitch page. Their set started off with a brief John Williams introduction and then their Blade Runner inspired android punk music took over. They scream with a metal growl. I noticed that the band members (other than the lead singer) all wore midriff t-shirts and gym shorts. The Twitch comments section was all about mosh pits. The floor lights of the Barbershop were flashing. And the lead singer had her notes on the floor, which might be a reason why she spent moments throughout the set looking down at the floor.

Clit Kat

A jump back over to the main site had Skullcrusher up. I first saw this musician during this quarantine. I got to catch her a second time during this quarantine. She has a soft approach to her music that is filled with emotion. She played her set on the edge of her bed. Winter made what I think was a surprised appearance as I don't believe it was on the schedule. She did a one song set. 

Skullcrusher

Winter

Ramonda Hammer also played a one song set with each member of the band playing from different locations. Their song was their recent release "Big Hands." The video was done in B&W.

Ramonda Hammer

Slaughterhouse took over at Bands in the Barbershop. The lead singer was dressed in a leopard dress suit. And to end the songs, she'd often shake her head and make a kick with her right foot. The vocals at one moment are screaming and the next they're like a giant taking its time to crush you as you run as fast as you can away from it (of course, with those long legs, a leisurely stroll by a giant means they're rapidly closing the gap no matter how fast you run). A couple members of the band couldn't help but crack smiles throughout the set. In the comments section it felt like it was a live show. Instead of emojis people were typing out comments like, "Didn't put on deodorant so I can smell like I'm there."

Slaughterhouse

For me, I closed out my time at Echo Park Rising by heading back over to Portia Street Studios to catch Naia Izumi who was a blissful way to end the night. A guitar aficionado providing jazz vocals. But wait, was that some recorded growling during one song? 

Naia Izumi

Echo Park Rising 2020: Online Edition Part 1

As August approached, I just figured that Echo Park Rising would be cancelled for 2020 due to COVID-19. Then I noticed an Instagram post that hinted the event would be held online. A couple weeks passed and I didn't hear much else so figured plans had fallen apart. I was wrong, because the online event was held on Saturday, September 26th.

For me, Echo Park Rising started on the 20th when I got an invitation to head down to American Barbershop to shoot the band FARTBARF. While there, everyone was social distancing. There were 3 cameras doing video. Two were being handled by humans while the third was in front of the stage and was just mechanically moving horizontal to the stage. The sound person was actually off in a separate room of the barbershop. There were 3 photographers (me being one) in the back about 15 yards from the stage on the left side. And then there were a couple other people off on the right side. Everyone except for the band wore masks. It was all done with solid social distancing. Even without an audience, the band dived head long into their relentless synthesizer sound with enthusiasm. 

FARTBARF

Flashforward a week, and Echo Park Rising went live with a multitude of pre-recorded sets. The festival started off with Masa of Echo Park doing an introduction video. With some background music, one of the pizza makers cut mushrooms and opened/closed oven doors to provide the beat. With that, it switched over to Kevin Bronson of Buzzbands walking around Echo Park doing some jaywalking and being angry that The Echo was shut down due to COVID-19. With that added introduction to the festival, Kevin did a brief interview with COSMO GOLD. The band then had their music video play their dance sounds. The video had some interplay with a futuristic Garden of Eden with UFOs travelling across the landscape. The dance songs including 2 backup singers one of which was Gracie Gray, a favorite singer of mine. 

GOSMO GOLD

Masa of Echo Park

Leroy from the North came up next playing his Southern rock sounds from the patio of The Echo. It was really nice seeing that patio again. Just like my normal self while doing photography during a live Echo Park Rising, after catching a couple songs of his I jumped over to the Portia Street Studios Youtube page to catch Deep Waters. It was a jump from Southern rock to a grunge attack on the patriarchy. Portia Street Studios looked like they had 3 cameras going, perhaps 4. There was definitely one that was hanging from the ceiling or atop an elevated platform that provided a top-down view. And then cameras from the sides. Pretty cool setup. I couldn't help but wonder who put the music video together as well as all the videos that were shot at the studios. The band did a shout out to the city of Lancaster due to the support they got from an enthusiast audience one time. That's my hometown city. 

Deep Waters

Leroy from the North

From Portia Street Studios I jumped back over to the main page to catch Kid Row. Kid Row teaches children how to play musical instruments. There were a handful of one song sets by those who take classes there. One lead singer was definitely a Peanuts fan. A guitarist was making sure he hit his chords. And the final set was played like a Zoom meeting with three teachers helping out.

Kid Row

I jumped back over to Portia Street Studios to catch Nate Redmond and his songwriter type jams. He allowed the music to take center stage. One of the comments left on Youtube was "silky smooth." I agree with that comment. 

Nate Redmond

Jumping back over to the main site, The Gooms had their set in the middle of a tennis court. For one song, a couple friends popped in to sing a few notes. During their song "Judy Garland," tennis balls came flying across the screen.

The Gooms

REL provided some big vocals songstress tunes. I loved seeing the carefully written musical sheet music. I love movie watching and with theaters shut down, I've been watching a lot of movies on TCM. Of course, TCM shows movies from the 1930s and 1940s so listening to REL had me thinking about those movies where jazz bands play their tunes in large dining halls. 

REL

Trip Tides had a lava lamp atop of an electric organ. That provided the backdrop for their 70s grooves. Veneer  played their set from the same location as Trip Tides. During last year's festival, I caught them at Little Joy Cocktails. For this set, they went with a no vocals set. Just a great jam session, but I have to say I missed the standup bass. I hope they still plan to keep that in their live sets.

Veneer

Trip Tides

There was more to the festival than just the above, but those will be found in Part 2.