New Music Alert: Iress' album "Flaw"

Iress recently released their album "Flaw." The album was produced and engineered by Sarah Tudzin of illuminati hotties. It is a dark shoe-gaze sound with soaring gothic chants that bridge the lyrics of the music. There is also a hint of a darker version of Enya in the vocals. Listening to the music has one thinking of walking through a dark forest with potential dangerous creatures lurking at every turn. The longest song on the album is "Shallow," coming in at slightly over 7 minutes. It combines all those elements along with crashing percussions. 

photo taken at The Resident

New Music and Video Alert: elle belle's "Everyone Knows (But They Won't Tell You)"

 

elle belle just released a new music video for his song "Everyone Knows (But They Won't Tell You.)" Lyrics such as "I'm too nice for punk rock, I'm too angry for rock & roll." reference how hard it is to please everyone listening to your music. 

He writes in his press release: "Everyone Knows..." was written about the impossible feat of trying to be everything to everyone and not excelling at any of it. There is so much time spent switching lanes that we end up in the middle of the road and Elle Belle is asking how many of us feel this way? Elle Belle's lyrics are straightforward statements such as. "I’m too strange to follow, But not desperate enough to fold I’m too scared to let go, But so miserable in control....and Everyone Knows but they won't tell you." This is a refreshingly honest song in a world where we are consuming life's highlight reels on social media ...instead of the truth. But don't we all feel like this?  

Though the song references punk rock and rock & roll, I'd argue it is a great blend of pop sounds. 

photo taken at the Resident

Resident: Feels with Reckling

The last time I saw Feels was earlier in the year when I caught their record release party with The Paranoyds. This was also the first time this year that I've gone down to the Resident. I used to head down to the Resident far more often, but they appear to have changed their format at this venue, shifting away from live music. This was also the first time since the apparent departure of Shannon Lay from the group. I believe that there are now two original members left (Laena and Michael) from the Raw Geronimo days. So in some ways the night felt like a first for many reasons.

The band mixed it up between their two albums, but they also covered a Mariah Carey Christmas song. Laena Geronimo was in a good mood. Swinging her hair. Smiles throughout the set. Taking a stroll into the crowd. It must have felt good playing in front of an appreciative Los Angeles crowd that included a number of us faithful photographers. Amy Allen on bass gave us the stage presence that made her such a great addition to the band a couple years back. And the music was that slightly scratchy garage/punk/rock mix that just has a touch of those original psychedelic sounds. Based on what Laena said, this was their last live set for awhile as they put together a new album.

Their set list was: Tell Me, Car, Find A Way, Slippin, Running, Unicorn, Toll Booth, Mariah Carey cover, Flowers, Anyways, Sour, Post Earth, Deconstructed, Close My Eyes.

Feels

Opening up was Reckling. Their music goes at hyper speed. And vocals that stretches across those speedy jams.

Reckling

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: O’neill Hudson

O'neill Hudson at the Resident

Q&A time with Paris of O'neill Hudson. Hope you enjoy:

How would you describe your sound? I like to think of my sound as Romantic Indie-Rock.

Other than Los Angeles, where could you see yourself living/playing music and why? I could see myself living in many places, but Portland and London draw me in the most - I love the music scene in both places and feel kindred to the people in both.