Inflight At Night

Last time I wrote about The Love Me Nots I had yet to see them live, and when I did see them just a week later after that, I fell harder for them than I expected to. They literally blew me away with their performance at the Lava Lounge back in December (I missed their Feb. 2nd show there again ’cause I was seeing the Airborne Toxic Event), I had no idea what I was in for, but The Love Me Nots delivered a show that one wouldn’t expect from a band that was less than a year old and had only a handful of shows under their belt.

I picked up a copy of the album “The Love Me Nots In Back & White” that night on both CD and vinyl and it has remained a staple in my weekly listening routine to this date. Songs like Move In Tight, Keep Talking, Come On Over, and Alley are excuted so well, that any notion of this band being a niche band should be tossed right out the window. At this point the band is hitting mostly genre specific clubs and events in the garage/trash/mod scene, but I believe that this band has a real opportunity to cross over, and I’m not alone here as they have been getting more and more praise from around country and across the pond.

This weekend marks the 4th time The Love Me Nots will be gracing Los Angeles with their presence, with shows in Long Beach and Los Angeles. On February 16th, Friday night, the band will hit Que Sera for Club Strychnine with The Red Hearts, and Crystal Antlers. Que Sera is typically a goth/punk club and should provide an interesting experience for checking out the band, it will be my first time there if I don’t check The Graykid there tonight. Then on Saturday, February 17th, The Love Me Nots will be playing Safari Sams for the Tigermask Trash Au Go Go with Shaun Kama & The Kings of the Wild Frontier, and The Lords of Altamont. This would be my pick of the two shows to goto (if you can’t make both) as Safari Sams is an excellent venue with great sound, unfortunately I will be at a wedding that night, so I will be at the Long Beach show tomorrow night.

Check out the …This Week podcast for a track from The Love Me Nots and a track from The Lords Of Altamont.

Also The Love Me Not have made their album available digitally in the US, head over to their MySpace to download it, you will be pumped. I promise.

Fox Rox, the local San Diego weekly music show, has put a ton of their live in-studio performances up on their new YouTube channel. There are over a 140 to go through, some really good stuff in the sea of shit that is YouTube.

The Damned, The Buzzcocks, TV on the Radio, M. Ward, Gomez, Peaches, Badly Drawn Boy, Lou Barlow, High On Fire, Blonde Redhead, Eagles of Death Metal, Maroon5, Jem, Ozomatli, Calexico, Rocket from the Crypt, Cursive, The Raveonettes, Ben Kweller, Moving Units, The Cooper Temple Clause, The Walkmen, The Thrills, The Album Leaf, South, Howie Day, TSOL, The Aggrolites, Rocky Votolato, French Kicks, Bob Log III, Autolux, Tre Hardson, etc. etc. etc.

I think I first read about The World Without Magic on a New York girl’s blog, it could have been Ultra Girl’s (does she still even blog anymore?) or it might have been over on I Rock, I Roll or I might be completely mistaken about both. I guess it’s not important, I just like to give credit of discovery where it is due.

I have had the two songs below in my iPod for I think a year now, both are from their self titled EP, which I was pleasantly surprised to find is now available on iTunes (btw dudes, your link to iTunes on your MySpace doesn’t work). These two songs have been good enough to last me a whole year without seeing the band live or being able to hear the whole album (until now) to get me to continually check in on the band to see what they are up to.

And what are they up to you ask? Well, they still don’t have any West Coast tour dates yet and they don’t appear to be heading to SXSW next month. But what they are doing is playing the Movable Hype/Gothamist 4-year anniversary show at the Luna Lounge this Thursday, so if you are reading this in NY, get out there and check them out. I would love to know what the band is like live, I have been curious ever since they were paired up with seemingly ill matched tour mates, Portugal The Man, late last year.

Never Begun (mp3) from their self titled debut EP

The Quite Life (mp3) from their self titled debut EP

Upon popping in Albert Hammond Jr.’s debut, Yours To Keep, I kept thinking, “damn this sounds a lot like that Strokes album, This Is It” and then I threw Hammond’s name in Google, what did I find out, that low and behold, Hammond is a member of The Strokes. I have to claim ignorance on that one, it’s just I was never a huge Strokes fan, and I guess the only name that I would recognize from the band is Julian Casablancas’, who happens to guest on the album.

So getting that out of the way, I have to give it to the guy, Yours To Keep is pretty good, I am especially digging the first single, In Transit (mp3).

Hammond wraps up his stint as opener on Incubus’s current tour, but not to worry, Albert Hammond Jr. will be playing two more Los Angeles shows sans gigantic arena rock band.

2/14 - Los Angeles, CA - Troubadour
3/06 - Los Angeles, CA - El Rey Theatre

Yours To Keep will be released in the US on March 6th via New Line Records.

It’s not often I find myself in downtown LA, but last night after checking out Thailand and Radars To The Sky I decided to head over to La Cita for some drinks and to enjoy the sounds of Punky Reggae from the Part Time Punks crew. Being my first venture to the bar, I was really impressed, it doesn’t feel that LAish, less pretentious atmosphere and a wider variety of patrons than most LA bars. But I guess I shouldn’t have expected anything less from the guys that brought us the Scene Bar in Glendale.

Happy Hollows - Tell Me (Feb. 12th @ Spaceland) MySpace

Rolling Blackouts - Hung Up On the Hang Ups (Feb. 12th @ Viper Room) MySpace

The Clamour - I Don’t Belong (Feb. 14th @ Kingston Cafe) MySpace

Paleo - 1992 (Feb. 14th @ Scene Bar) MySpace

Drag The River - Me and Joe Drove Out To California (Feb. 14th @ Gypsy Lounge) MySpace

Rob Crow - I Hate You Rob Crow (Feb. 15 @ Troubadour) MySpace

The Parson Red Heads - Days Of My Youth (Feb. 16th @ Spaceland) MySpace

The Love Me Nots - Move In Tight (Feb. 16th @ Que Sera) MySpace

Lords Of Altamont - Action (Feb. 17th @ Safari Sams) MySpace

Lion Fever - Everyone I Know (Feb. 17th @ Gypsy Lounge) MySpace