LA / LBC / OC
Long Beach’s Magic Lantern have finally gone and released a new sonic document after what seemed like an eternity of waiting. Eagerly anticipated by those who have been biding their time waiting for the band to get on with their uber limited cassette only and CD-R releases (their Self-Titled CD-R was limited to 30), “High Beams”, the band’s latest opus [...]
News Bytes Twitter Next Week’s New ReleasesSo it seems bloggers always like to stick together and support each other, but I have noticed that the very small amount of southern California bloggers don’t seem to even know each other exist. Is this just our culture, has the nature of our solo hour long work commutes spilled over into the rest of our lives?
People always say that New Yorkers are the most unfriendly people, but I beg to differ I’ve visited many times and have not found this to be true, infact I think Southern Californians (paricular Los Angelenos) are the most unfriendly. I have been to almost every state in the US and this theory tends to hold up, even when you travel just a few hours up the California coast, the farther you get away from Los Angeles the more friendly people get.
So in an effort to give a cyber shout out to other SoCal bloggers, here is a list of those that I read daily, and hopefully next time we’re at the same show we can get a beer.
Rock Insider – This girl is on her stuff, always on the ball with new bands.
Radio Free Silverlake – These guys got great interviews, features and record and show reviews.
Autopia Music – Though not technically a blog anymore, this fellow Long Beacher is always up on local band news, reviews, and interviews.
You Set The Scene – Duke’s got your weekly show picks, album releases, and the occasional feature.
Rewriteable Content – Interviews, interesting themed posts, and plenty of pictures and show reviews.
LA By Word of Mouth – Secret shows, after parties, art shows and other interesting events get their say here.
Portable Infinite – Alexander is a man about town that thankfully doesn’t hit all the same hot hipster shows as every other blogger.
The Rawking Refuses to Stop – Plenty of mp3s and news tidbits.
Floating Away – News, mp3s, and pop culture all rolled up in nice little blog.
Can I Get A Receipt – This little scout lets you check out what she’s digging.
Kofi’s Hat – MP3s, music news and reviews, and a sprinkling of pop culture.
Tickets will be $20 a day or $55 for a weekend pass. One ticket gets you a wristband that gets you into all 3 venues. There will also be stand up comedy show taking place and a number of art galleries will have their doors open. Everything is walking distance from one another and is all ages.
Friday August 18th:
The Bronx
400 Blows
Burning Brides
The Black Lips
Horse the Band
Future Pigeon
Nudity (members of tight bros from way back when and dub narcotic sound system)
Blood Meridian (members of Black Mountain)
Issei Sagawa (members of the Mean Reds and on Youth Attack Records)
The Po Pos
Bad Dudes
Horses
Sex Eyes (first show. Members of the Fuse, Sabertooth Tiger and Lifter Puller)
+many more.
Saturday August 19th:
Giant Drag
The Thermals
Dios Malos
Darker My Love
Envy (From Japan. Only and first west coast show ever!)
Subtitle
Sleeping People
Brother Reade
Foreign Born
The Rolling Blackouts
Hit me Back
Carry the Casket
Graf Orlock
Chuck Ragan of Hot Water Music
Minor Canon
Whiskey Biscuit
The Strange Boys
Upsilon Acrux
Thee Make Out Party
Shapes and Sizes
Micheal Runion
Tod Adrian Wisenbaker
Wilmont Provisio
Sunday August 20th:
The Ponys
Midnight Movies
Erase Errata
Plot to Blow up the Eiffel Tower
Partyline (ex Bratmobile)
Icarus Line
Wires on Fire
Bobby Birdman
BARR
The Adored
Fortunes Flesh (ex Stravations)
Sabertooth Tiger
No Age
Matt & Kim
Teenage Talking Cars
Jack Bambis
+more to be announced.
Ok so I am kind of breaking a self imposed rule here of writing about a band that isn’t from the LA or OC area and isn’t touring through here either, but I just couldn’t help myself. I had to post something about San Francisco’s Dead To Me, a band made up if former members of One Man Army and Western Addiction, the latter I never listened to, but the former, I spent many hours listening and playing guitar along to as well as seeing them live when they played the Showcase Theatre in Corona some many years ago. See back then when I was in High School I was totally into bands like Swinging Utters, One Man Army, Dropkick Murphys, Ducky Boys, US Bombs, etc (you get the point).
Well just the other day I got a CD from Dead To Me and not having really paid much attention to those type of bands mentioned above for quite a few years I was pleasantly when I poped this into my CD player and was instantly transported back to my days of riding around in my car with my friends listening to The Clash and hitting up thrift stores and Spin Records (before it changed owners and went belly up).
Dying to tell everyone about the awesome album you just picked up? Or tell the truth about that album everyone loves, and you hate? Well, submit an album review at Insound! Just click on the product page and select ’submit a review’ below the product description.
And for helping out your fellow Insound shoppers, they’re giving away coupons. One in every 25 submissions will receive a 25% off coupon at Insound, and once a month, they’ll randomly choose someone to receive a $100 gift certificate!!!
Go to Insound for all the details.
The onscure Austin duo of Aaron Behrens and Thomas Turner, better known as Ghostland Observatory recently released their second album Paparazzi Lightningare and are set to make West Coast appreance at The Scene Bar in Glendale on August 10th.
Said to be influenced by electronic artists such as Daft Punk, Laurent Garnier and Green Velvet, as well as rockers such as The Animals, David Bowie, and The Clash, Ghostland Observatory have cultivated a sound that is the culmination of past influence and present inspiration. Not only creating something that appeals to our hips and the beats they crave, but also pumps rock ‘n roll into our darkened souls.
What reminded me of this band and prompted me to revist them was a new mash up of their track “Midnight Voyage” with Ghostface Killah’s “Be Easy” that I read about on GorillavsBear. Which was funny that I had to read about this on some dude from Dallas’ blog when I am friends with the duo (Car Stereo (Wars)) that are responsible for this mash up (where was the heads up dudes?). Anyways, not being much of a mash up fan, other than the one that started it all, The Grey Album, and Q-Unit, and most recently For Those About To Rock from Deaf In The Family, so I was pleasantly surprised when I found this to be quite good.
Find Ghostland Observatory tracks on the Hype Machine