Inflight At Night

Sunday, June 17th: El Ten Eleven @ The Scene Bar
Bad ass two piece instrumental rock, it’s not all ambient and delicate, nor is pounding or pulverizing, it’s rough and jagged and happy. Happy? Yes, happy is how I feel listening to this.

El Ten Eleven - Living on Credit (mp3)

Monday, June 18th: Dan Deacon @ Pehrspace
Dan Deacon is a sort of mad scientist composer that uses an array of cheap electronic keyboards to achieve his sound. Dude should have been in Devo or something. Also at Check Yo’ Ponytail the Saturday prior to this at the EchoPlex. w/Health, Juiceboxxx, Video Hippos, Knight Rider

Dan Deacon - The Crystal Cat (mp3)

Tuesday, June 19th: Architecture in Helsinki @ Henry Fonda
Architecture in Helsinki are in the States on a 10 date tour in support of their new ep Heart it Races, and to drum up some buzz on their upcoming full length, Places Like This, which will be out in August. Odds are they will be back for a full length US tour before the year is out.

Architecture in Helsinki - Heart It Races (mp3)

Wednesday, June 20th: Das Llamas @ Safari Sams
A four piece from Seattle, whose influences range from dance to goth to punk to dub, and have created a platypus of sound on their new album World War out now on Aviation Records.

Das Llamas - The Legacy (mp3)

Thursday, June 21st: Sea Wolf @ The Echo
There isn’t much more I can say about Sea Wolf that I haven’t already said before here, that is until the full length is released. The recent EP only whetted my appetite. w/Grand Ole Party

Sea Wolf - You’re A Wolf (mp3)

Friday, June 22nd: Division Day @ Safari Sams
Come celebrate what was Sea Level records. Division Day recently inked a deal with the local label, Eenie Meenie Records, who will re-release Bear Trap Island with 2 bonus tracks and new art later this year.

Division Day - Lights Out (mp3)

Saturday, June 23rd: Riverboat Gamblers@ Alex’s Bar
The Gamblers hit the West Coast on a short little tour with Chicago’s, The Arrivals, who just happen to have Paddy from Dillinger Four playing with them now.

Riverboat Gamblers - Don’t Bury Me…I’m Still Not Dead (mp3)

I couldn’t be more excited about this. Seriously Grand Ole Party will be the next band to break out of San Diego.

Read my old post for links to streams from their Pyles Sessions broadcast on 94.9fm.

Believe dis.

Grand Ole Party Los Angeles shows in June and July
June 21st @ The Echo w/ Sea Wolf
July 16th @ Troubadour w/ Vampire Weekend
July 19th @ The El Rey w/ The Shout Out Louds

Ever since Chris Zeigler left the OC Weekly I haven’t really picked up the paper, given that my main interest in the OC Weekly was the tabs it kept on the local music scene and those who were passing through it. But just the other day, Dave Segal who took over the music editor position at the paper, posted a quick blog about his “current obsession” with The Lovetones track, “Wintertime in Hollywood” from the band’s forthcoming release, Axiom. This I have to say was the first time I think his and my tastes have crossed, and since he admitted that this track “is not the type of song that normally takes hostage of my internal jukebox”, which is probably the reason our tastes don’t usually cross, since so far I haven’t been interested in the bands he writes about.

Ok, that was a long intro. Anyway, the song in question above is from The Lovetones new album, Axiom, as I mentioned before and will be released on this coming Tuesday, June 19th, on Tee Pee Records. The band is touring the States in support of the album’s release and will play The Prospector this Saturday June 16th and Safari Sams next Monday June 18th.

Download “Wintertime In Hollywood” (mp3) from The Lovetones new album Axiom

and “Mantra (radio edit)” (mp3) from their 2005 release, Meditations.

Axiom comes out June 19th on Tee Pee Records, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic

The Airborne Toxic Event
“Does This Mean Your Moving On?”
Directed by: Jason Wishnow

The Airborne Toxic Event recently released their first music video for their single, “Does This Mean You’re Moving On?” from their 3 song ep that was self-released here in the States and by Square Records in the UK, and I had a chance to ask Mikel (singer/guitarist) over email a few questions about the video and their recent trek to the UK. Also for some more background on the band, check out Joe’s interview with Mikel from last year on Radio Free Silver Lake.

IAF: The video for “Does This Mean Your Moving On” turned out great, how did you guys get hooked up with Jason Wishnow, his Oedipus vegetable short is great. 
 
Mikel: Thank you. That’s very kind. Jason and I have been friends for a long time. We went to college together. We’ve always been peripherally involved in one another’s projects. He did a play in college that was set in a cafe. I was the singer in the cafe. He used to make short films and I would be in them. I would play shows and he would always say he wanted to play the bass. (That’s bass, the fish, as in Chilean sea bass. He wanted to stand on stage with an enormous bass fish, like nothing was going on. That’s just how he thinks.)

He’s an amazing film-maker and the kind of person that’s always got his hand in 100 things at once. So when we were going to make our first video, I thought, of course I’ll ask him to do it.

IAF: Is the video getting some airplay in the UK?
 
Mikel: We’ve heard rumors that it’s going on MTV over there.

IAF: You just did a short week long UK tour, including The Great Escape Festival, to support the release of your single in the UK. How was the tour?
 
Mikel: The tour was simply amazing. We didn’t expect the response we received. At one point, we were playing Komedia in Brighton as part of the Great Escape Festival. When the doors opened 20 kids walked in and we thought, “well, at least we won’t be playing for the bar.” Which would have been fine. We’ll play anywhere. But then Mary, our manager, asked us if we’d seen the line outside. So we went out and looked and there was a line four people across all the way down the block. 600 people showed up. It was surreal. There 1200 people at the London Club NME show. We just never would have expected that. But then, you know, in Birmingham we played for 30 people and spent the night looking for good kebab and chips.

Also, the tour was sort of like being on vacation with four of your best friends. We saw all these cities and landmarks and took pictures and all that. Noah and Daren and Anna and Steven are all just really smart, funny people and we definitely found ways to entertain ourselves in the van.

IAF: How did you get hooked up with Cerne Canning (Franz Ferdinand’s manager) and his new label Square Records who released the “Does This Mean Your Moving On” single in the UK?
 
Mikel: A friend of his in Los Angeles got the EP from a friend of ours, you know how things just get circled around like that. So he contacted us and asked if we were interested in doing something with him in the UK. What’s so unique about Cerne is that he really wasn’t interested in making money off of us and, you know, clearly didn’t need us or anything for his career or whatever. He just liked the music and wanted to help.

He’s one of these great appreciators of music. When he came to L.A. a few months ago, he spent his days scouring swap meets and tiny record stores looking for out of print 45’s and rare vinyl. He’s also just such a centered guy, which is rare, I think. He’s very clear about the importance of relationships, staying grounded, focusing on what’s real. We feel lucky to have him around.

IAF: Is The Airborne Toxic Event Square Records first release?
 
Mikel: Yes. I don’t know if he plans to make it a full-blown label or not. Again, I think he just wanted to help us.

IAF: Is there a full length planned in The Airborne Toxic Event’s near future? 
 
Mikel: Absolutely. We keep planning to do it, thinking, oh, yeah next month when we catch our breath. But everything has just been happening so quickly, the timeline keeps changing. I have about 100 songs at home from the past year and a half or so. Of which, I brought, say 40 to Daren (our drummer), of which we brought 30 to the band, of which we’ve played about 20 during shows. We think maybe 12 will make it to a record. It’s really a long process. Kind of daunting to think about how much work has gone into it. But we feel very ready to make this record. Like it’s the pinnacle of a pyramid that took two years to build.

IAF: I see your playing the Sunset Junction in August (side note: personally I’m pumped about seeing Morris Day and the Time), can we expect anymore Airborne Toxic Event shows between now and then? 
 
Mikel: Totally: “Jungle Love! Whooooah” “Hey JJ, no, no Jerome…Yeeah.” It just occurs to me we’ll be playing on the same stage as Morris Day. Isn’t that fucking weird?

We’re not playing any Los Angeles shows between now and then (other than maybe some radio stuff). We’re going to spend the summer playing in San Francisco, San Diego, Orange County, Santa Barbara, places like that. I’m selling my car and buying a van.

IAF: One last question, you guys seem like a well read bunch, what books are currently on your night stand?
 
Mikel: I’m currently reading The Book of Laughter and Forgetting by Milan Kundera. I love his books. It’s a novel, it’s an essay, it’s first person, it’s third person, it’s present tense, it’s past tense, it’s narrative, it’s commentary. He just breaks every rule. Plus there’s a lot of freaky sex. But, you know, among Czechs living in Paris, so it’s sort of civilized.

IAF: thanks.
 
Mikel: thank you.

Download “The Girls In Their Summer Dresses” (mp3) ’cause the weather’s final nice and girls are pulling out said dresses.

Get The Airborne Toxic Event’s ep from iTunes that includes the track “Papillon” not included on the physical CD release.

Usually “collection” albums are just another way to bilk the customer out of more of their money to rebuy what they have already purchased in the past. But not so with Rhino’s release of The Traveling Wilburys Collection that includes both Volume 1 and Volume 3, and a DVD with a short Wilburys documentary and their music videos. Considering that Volume 1 and 3 have both been out of print for some time, this a pretty good opportunity to either get into the band for the first time or update your old cassettes copies of these releases (hi dad!).

For my money, Volume 1 is a perfect album, with Volume 3 falling short of that same greatness, which can probably be attributed to Orbison’s passing between albums. Of course this also might be to due to the fact that Volume 1 was one of the most played cassettes in my house growing up, so much so that when I spied both albums on vinyl at Ameoba a while back, I picked them up immediately.

In addition to this being available on CD, iTunes has the collection available for download that does include the videos and the documentary (a free 6 minute trailer to the documentary is availble here).

And if you’ve read this far and have no clue as to why the Wilburys are worth knowing about and you don’t recognize the dudes in the picture, you might want to ask your parents.

The Traveling Wilburys will always be George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Tom Petty, Roy Orbison, and Jeff Lynne.

For more information on the formation of the band, watch these two clips from a 1988 MTV interview George Harrison did with Kurt Loder, Part 1 and Part 2. Also, all the Traveling Wilburys videos are up on their YouTube page.

The Traveling Wilburys Collection 2CD/1DVD set is available now: Amazon | iTunes

Okay, here’s the long and short of it on River City Tanlines.

River City Tanlines is a 3 piece rock n’ roll band from Memphis, TN that combine their delta area musical heritage and the fury of 70’s punk. The current line up is made up of Alicja Trout (guitar), Terrence Bishop (bass), and John Bonds (drums). Trout used to play in The Clears and then later in The Lost Sounds (can really hear that influence in the Tanlines), and Bishop and Bonds have played alongside RL Burnside and Kenny Brown.

I had been meaning to seek out the River City Tanlines two full lengths I’m Your Negative and All 7 Inches Plus 2 More (12 track compilation of singles and 2 demo tracks) on vinyl at one of my local records stores, but I broke down in an instance of “got to have it now” and downloaded both albums from iTunes last week.

Download “Black Knight” (mp3), my favorite song from All 7 Inches Plus 2 More, and you can find more mp3s here.

Buy River City Tanlines releases from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes | eMusic