Quarantine Online Sets: Version 31

Six at Six on The Satellite's Instagram Live hosted by The 6*6*60s had straight six days of music. That's a lot of 6s.

Speed of Light started the sets off on Monday. Since they're siblings the whole band was together to put on their acoustic set. One has to fast forward to the end of the set where drummer Tyler decided to pat Riley on the head. She decided it was time to chase him around the stage with her guitar and then give him some playful kicks.

Speed of Light

On Tuesday, Leandra from Graves and the Bad Weather did a solo set with some scratchy hard rock vocals tuned to an acoustic set.

Graves and the Bad Weather

Nicole Kiki Jaffe took the stage on Wednesday. Perhaps her set was the closest to her true sound due to her singer-songwriter background. I swear that everyone of her six songs was hit out of the park. In fact, every song should be a hit radio song.

Nicole Kiki Jaffe

Jason from The Birth Defects went on Thursday. He mentioned up front that his songs were his own and not The Birth Defects' music. His own music had a southern blues style to it. One could see listening to this music in a smoke filled bar.

The Birth Defects

On Friday, Well Hung Heart got on the stage with the married duo part of the band. It started off with Brian (The 6*6*60s) having this strange dream that The Satellite was being turned into a restaurant. Unfortunately, that is a true statement. You could see glimpses of how their stage show is via how their body movements played off each other.

Well Hung Hearts

Closing everything out on Saturday was Mike Crain of various bands such as Dead Cross and Cunts. There was some great short conversations that took place throughout the set such as Mike saying he'd hung out at The Satellite in his early twenties, but that wasn't that long ago since he was only 23. (For those who don't know, he is not 23.) He was asked about the bands he was in and he jokingly named dropped the fact that his band The festival of the dead deer included the drummer from Slayer. There was also the moment where he highlighted that his whole set list was, "Fuck It All."

Mike Crain

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 30

Winter held a record release party at Non Plus Ultra's secret venue location on Friday evening. The last time I caught Winter was back in 2018. It was wonderful to catch her set on Twitch. Her music was very atmospheric. The sound of her music has a technology quality to it with knobs being turned on the pedals. There is also just a simplicity with slow strums. Then the vocals layer on top of that music with a tender touch.

As can be seen in the below photo, the Twitch streaming gave the perfect background of space and drug-like induced imagery. 

She thanked the people who were at the venue, but noted for those watching online that there weren't really that many people at the venue.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 29

Are musicians starting to figure out how to do online sets? I swear that vocals appear to be so much better than online sets from earlier in this stay at home situation. Or maybe Instagram has spent a lot of money on technological improvements?

It being a Wednesday, I was tuned in to WFNM where Lucy Clearwater started it off with an amazingly cheerful personality. Her vocals just had fun hitting notes and beats while her fingers plucked her guitar. Behind her, were some very tall trees. Why? She was off on a road trip.

Lucy Clearwater

Next up was Saint Blonde playing with some in-home reverb. The band was playing with 3 of the 4 members. I guess 3 of the band members had been in isolation while the 4th was working so it was nice to see that they were taking appropriate social distancing procedures. What great pop tunes. The keys, guitar and vocals all mixed together perfectly. It was like listening to a perfectly mixed album versus an online set.

Saint Blonde

Next up were a couple musicians I'd seen before: Blondfire and Annabel Lee. I saw Blondfire way back in 2016 with a favorite band of mine called Bloke & Bird at Harvard & Stone. Her vocals just makes you wonder about possibilities. Those could been heard in her vocals, "You and me, we're larger than life."

Blondfire

I previous caught Annabel Lee at El Cid during a Wild Riot event. Her online performance was just slightly toned down from her El Cid set. During her El Cid set, she was hitting those keys so hard I thought for sure she'd break the keyboard in half. Of course, she was playing this set in much more cramped confines with her back to a wall that had a number of framed posters and sketches. It she had done this set with as much energy as her El Cid set, I'm sure those frames would have fallen to the floor. A slightly toned down set didn't mean there wasn't passion in those vocals. Great way to end the night.

Annabel Lee

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Kit Major

Kit Major at High Tide

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

What's the story behind what got you to take the step to start performing live? I started doing open mics in Chicago and LA when I was 18. I didn't have my first set until two years ago. A week before my first performance at The Viper Room, my best friend and I did a gig simulator inspired from the movie Tenacious D. We put my keyboard in the living room, and she put up stage curtains and created a fake audience made up of paper plates. She threw things at me while I played through my set. It was hilarious, but helpful, and I've been doing shows ever since!

Outside of music, what are some of your other interests? I love fashion and thrifting for vintage styles, films, writing poetry, screenplays, and short stories and helping my friends with their creative projects! I'm an art school kid, I can't help it.

Own final thoughts: Biggest musical influences: Prince, David Bowie, Lady Gaga.

Quick Hit Artist Interview: Disco Shrine

Disco Shrine at High Tide

Interview with the artist. Enjoy:

Your song Power is about being strong during times of doubt. Are you interested in providing an example of one of those moments in life? Yeah, I think as an artist you're constantly doubting yourself and your worth and if you're making the difference you want to make with your art. I definitely struggled with that this year, but instead of turning my back, I just dived deeper into music and ended up reassuring myself and finding my confidence again through the music I was writing.

You've released 2 singles in short order: Alright and Power. What's your song writing process been like for those two songs? They were so different. Alright was written a long time ago remotely, because UNBLOOM [co-writer] lived in Canada. So we never met in person as we were writing the song together. Power was more organic. We met up in Magdalena Bay's [co-writer] home studio in Mid Dity and just talked and shared about music and our lives and ended up with this song.

2019 is coming to an end. Anything you'd like to share about plans you have for 2020? Yes. Music, music, and more music. Going all out next year and plan on sharing a lot of the new music I've been working on.

Editor note: this was posted first on Instagram back in 2019 so the final question is a touch dated.

Quarantine Online Sets: Version 28

In pre-COVID era, I seldom jumped venues on the same night. I'd just stick with one venue and catch the bands for the night instead of jumping to catch a favorite band at one venue and then jump to another venue to catch another favorite band.

Well, for this Version 28 of online sets, I did just that on a Wednesday night (July 15). I jumped from the WFNM online live stream to Desert Nights and then back to WFNM.

I started off with Nightly. They're a band from Nashville, but their lead singer was playing a set from Philadelphia. He was in Philadelphia, because his sister just gave birth. What a talent. Those pop - folk vocals just had a perfect pitch.

Nightly

Devin Kennedy had a nice solo set-up going on with a microphone stand, high chair and a stacked drum set that he didn't use other than for a glass of water. There was the rug and maroon curtains. The set with just lower lights would have worked perfectly at Hotel cafe.

Devin Kennedy

Then came the jump to Desert Nights to catch Rachel Goodrich. The set was played at Valida's house (host of Desert Nights). This has to rank as one of the most humor filled sets during quarantine. Rachel Goodrich played both full songs and then did partial demo songs. In between that, she'd run into the house (she was playing outside) to give Valida a hug. There was a whole WiFi conversation that would make for a perfect comedy sketch. It was like watching late night TV.

Rachel Goodrich

After Rachel Goodrich, I jumped back to WFNM to catch Cailin Russo. The set was played in what looked like someone's back yard. It was a full band set with friends (maybe family, as well) hanging out watching the set. With it being 9 p.m., the set was played under the bright porch lights. The country-tinged sounds gave the perfect setting to call the evening a time well spent.

Cailin Russo

Massacre Week for the Los Angeles Music Scene

The coronavirus pandemic hit the Los Angeles music scene hard during the week of July 12th - 18th. Music venues announced that they were closing left and right. The parade of closures started first with Saint Rocke. The owners are putting the location up for sale. I suppose if the right investors bought the property, there is the possibility it might remain a music venue. Who knows, maybe if they can't sell the property and coronavirus becomes a non-issue in say 2021 perhaps they'll just go ahead and re-open. I will admit that I don't think if I've ever been to this venue. It is possible I went there once way back when, but definitely not twice. Yet, hearing the news was more than concerning.

Then there was a Friday massacre. The Satellite and The House of Machines called it quits. The Satellite will switch over to a full-time bar and restaurant. Now at some point they could turn back into a music venue, but how likely will that be as they've torn down the stage and are investing money. Here is part of what they wrote on Instagram:

We are currently removing the stage and redesigning the club to be more of a place to get good quality drinks and food. We will be re-opening the kitchen and doing a complete redesign. Due to the lack of funds, this will not happen quickly. 

We will be opening in the parking lot for food and drinks as soon as we have the kitchen re-opened or the government lets us hire a food truck.

Doing all that takes money. This isn't something that one can go ahead and just switch everything back to a music venue as doing that would also cost money.

This was a big hit for me as I've been going to The Satellite for well north of a decade. All those wonderful memories. In fact, one of the greatest local music line-ups that I've ever seen happened at The Satellite in 2012 when Haim, Cold War Kids and Milo Greene played on a Monday night.

Gustaf at The Satellite (my last time at the venue)

Soon after learning about The Satellite, someone sent me an Instagram IM about The House of Machines. I don't have the same history with The House of Machines as I do with The Satellite. I've only been going to this venue for the last year or so. Yet I would often find myself heading down there just to catch a band.

Their Instagram post said:

To our THoM family and beloved L.A. community – it’s with great sadness that we announce the closure of our store in the Arts District. The ongoing uncertainty in California caused by Covid-19 has left us with little choice.

And honestly, I expect that The Hi Hat will eventually announce that they're closing down. The owner just needs to find a buyer for his property.

Taleen Kali at The House of Machines (my last time at the venue)