NFV Song Spotlight: Together Pangea's Misery

The band Together Pangea was the special guest headliner for Kills Birds' performance at Gold-Diggers. The Los Angeles based band has been around for north of 10 years. How many times have I seen Together Pangea? Zero times. For as much time as I've spent catching bands across Los Angeles, there are still bands out there that I've never seen. I had to admit this at the venue. A person who knows how long I've hung out in the scene joked that I must have seen the band when they first started out. I responded honestly that I knew of the band, but had never seen them. 

Together Pangea at Gold-Diggers

NFV Song Spotlight: Warm Human's Maybe

How did I cross paths with Warm Human (Meredith Johnson)? If you've come across my Instagram page or even this blogsite, you know that I enjoy a good Janelane set. Just a few months back, Janelane had a record release party at Zebulon for the album Love Letters. Scanning through Zebulon's website, as I so often do, I noticed that Janelane was once again playing at the venue on November 10th. The band was opening for Warm Human who I had never heard of, but was also having a record release party that night for Hamartia. That was a double reason to head on out. 

Warm Human at Zebulon

NFV Song Spotlight: Moonily's Evil Eye

I came across Moonily while covering one of my favorite Los Angeles based punk bands, The Paranoyds, for Buzzbands. Venues had just started to reopen in mid-2021 and The Paranoyds were playing The Echo. To me, it was one of the first big local nights and the place was packed. I recall during The Paranoyds set fans were having fun crowd surfing. It was such a joyous time to be back listening to live music. The three members of Moonily also joined in the crowd surfing craze of the night, coming to the stage together. Their set had already put them on my list of new favorite bands and their fun stage dives cemented that opinion all the more. 

Moonily at Harvard & Stone

NFV Song Spotlight: Kills Birds' Glisten

I was introduced to Kills Birds via Buzzbands. Back in 2019, Kevin Bronson sent out a monthly list of bands that he wanted his various photographers to cover. He had Kills Birds highlighted as a band he really wanted a photographer to cover. At the time, I'd never heard of them, which is amusing as just a month earlier I had covered Echo Park Day 2 for the site and in the compilation post for the day (that included photos from various photographers) Kills Birds was the highlighted band in both the title and lead photo. I also noticed that the band was playing at the Bootleg Theater, which was one of my favorite venues (since shut down due during the COVID shutdown). That convinced me to do a little research on the band by checking out their music on Youtube. My memory isn't perfect about things that happened five years ago, but I'm pretty sure that their video for "Ow" was the song that got me to put my hat in the ring to shoot the band. 

Kills Birds at Gold-Diggers

NFV Song Spotlight: Sarah Once Was' Thumbnail Moon

About every other Monday, The Witching Hours and Safe Travels Presents presents their Alphabet Soup music series. As can be derived from the name, each night is dedicated to an alphabet and the bands / musicians names start with that alphabet. Recently, they got to the letter S. That leaves 7 more letters to go, which will take them into early 2025. Will they re-start the whole series again come 2025? One can only hope. The series used to take place at the Resident, but as the Resident has shifted away from live bands they had to move on to Non Plus Ultra. They mentioned on Instagram that this resulted in their funding getting cut. I'm sure that will play a role in how things go in 2025. Hopefully, the music community comes out to support this labor of love music series. 

Sarah Once Was at Non Plus Ultra

NFV Song Spotlight: Halo Kitsch's i was a virgin (on drugs)

I first came across Halo Kitsch at a WFNM in November 2021. I was blown away by the set. Since that time, I've tried to catch a set as often as possible. I've learned that she loves to use parentheses in her song titles such as "i was a virgin (on drugs)" or her current biggest hit on Spotify "All (Your) Fault" and many others. I also learned that she got fascinated with the word daisy cutter and finally was able to include it in her song "i was a virgin (on drugs)."  

Halo Kitsch at Broadway Night Lights

NFV Song Spotlight: Kat French's Casket

You never know what hidden gems you'll discover when you go to a WFNM night at Hotel Ziggy or Bar Lubitsch. Some of my favorite bands and singers were discovered at a WFNM night such as coming across King Mala and Halo Kitsch on the same night at Bar Lubitsch. 

Kat French at Hotel Ziggy