Inflight At Night

I unfortunately missed The Love Me Nots set at the Juke Joint Saturday night (the photo above is from their show there back in November, review here) due to not being able to be in two places at once. Lucky for me, the band dropped by the KUCI studios to record a live set for Jeff’s (who’s from Long Beach) weekly Punk Becomes Eclectic radio show the next day - so I could still get my Love Me Nots fix.

I recorded the set, but the sound quality at a 128-bit stream is not that great so I won’t be putting any of the live stuff up here, though posted below is Jeff’s interview with Nicole and Christina who give the low down on some of the details of their forthcoming sophomore release, which they reveal is titled, Detroit, and will be released this summer.

The Love Me Nots are gearing up for their first European tour and won’t be back in California for quite a while, late summer I believe.

Punk Becomes Eclectic is on every Sunday at 6pm on KUCI 88.9 FM out of Irvine.

Upon first reading about the Alberta Cross show at Spaceland, memories of 2006 and another UK band’s first Los Angeles performance at the venerable east-side cathedral of cool came rushing through my mind. Ill prepared (aka no guest-list) and waiting outside to see some band called Editors, we waited… and waited… and waited, only to ultimately depart in frustration. “We’re at capacity” - who knew?

So come Wednesday night, having sufficiently pestered IfAN editor and brother from the same mother, worries were assuaged - I had my spot on the list secured.

With a belly full of Vermicelli and 33 Export, I arrived at the club on the strike of 10 bells only to see an empty curb. No line, no pockets of bearded brethren or silver lake sisters keeping the tobacco companies in business. Nada. If I was late it meant I would have to brave the bowels of west hollywood the following night to catch the repeat, and if I was early it meant I unhealthily inhaled a bowl of rice noodles for no reason. Either way it seemed I was in for future discomfort.

As I entered however, the peppering of fans eyeing a couple of scruffy Brits preparing onstage calmed my neurosis; I WAS on time. But the fact remained that there were far fewer people in attendance than I possibly could of imagined, and it’s a shame as Petter Ericson Stakee and Terry Wolfers along with their keyboardist and drummer were a site not to be missed. There set consisted mainly of songs I wasn’t familiar with, I assume from their oft-mentioned “upcoming” full-length album that for the moment appears to be stuck in some kind of record label purgatory. However the songs “Lucy Rider” and “The Thief and the Heartbreaker” from their 2007 EP named for the latter of the two, did grace their set and didn’t disappoint. I couldn’t help but be a bit let down they didn’t play more material I was familiar with, particularly songs like “Devil’s All You’ve Ever Had” and “Leave Us of Forgive Us” (from their UK only EP), but if the songs I heard are indeed an indicator as to what their LP will contain, my anticipation has thoroughly increased.

Familiar songs or not though, their set was tight and well received by those who crept over from the bar in twos as it became apparent this was a band not to miss. I hope that Alberta Cross begins to get more recognition by us Yanks, because their Brit-blues/roots/rock/whatever you want to call it, is the real deal. I’ll even go as far as to say if I show up at one of their future Los Angeles shows, I would be only too happy to hear those fateful words once again and depart not in frustration but relief. Who knew? Me.

For a limited time courtesy of the band, you can also download the UK only EP, Leave Us or Forgive Us at Hear Ya.

The Thief and the Heartbreaker EP is out now, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes

I didn’t expect this morning when I spread open the Arts & Music section of the Sunday edition of today’s L.A. Times to be completely bowled over by a story right out of a Cormac McCarthy novel and ripe for a Hollywood adaptation. Read Scott Gold’s piece on the West Texas singer songwriter, Ryan Bingham, a young musician who grew up the son of wayward substance abusing mother and father who spent his early years bouncing from town to town as his father followed whatever oil “roughneck” work he could find, only to eventually drop out of school and become a bull rider on the Texas rodeo circuit before being discovered and signing to the same record label as Willie Nelson.

In May of 2007, Bingham with Marc Ford (Black Crows) at the helm, entered The Compound Recording Studio (Mars Volta, Dusty Rhodes and the River Band, Ikey Owens, Greater California, Fielding, Codpiece, The Valley Arena, The Year Zero, and many more) in Long Beach to work on his debut record for Lost Highway Records (Ryan Adams, Willie Nelson, Lucinda Williams), which would consist of a collection of new recordings, revisited sessions, and remixes of prior recordings.

The results of recording session at The Compound is Mescalito - released in October 2007 - a fourteen song release that blurs lines between traditional and contemporary country. Bingham’s voice and lyrics are raw and sound more like that of a forty or fifty something, a point that those unfamiliar with Bingham’s back story might claim as being unauthentic, that is until they learn what events have led to this young 26 year old’s current place in life. Ford’s helping hand is apparent, but not over baring, in fact it was at his urging that a lot of the previous polished BS on earlier recordings be stripped from the songs.

Bingham is again taking up residence at The Compound this week - already recording a new album - before he and Ford play King King on April 9th (the same place Ford first saw Bingham perform) where the two will be filming a music video for Bingham’s song, “Bread And Water”.

For those who can’t make it to King King on the 9th, Bingham will also be performing on Saturday, May 3rd at Stagecoach (Coachella for country fans) in Indio, CA.

Check out “Hard Times” via of The Compound, from Bingham’s debut release, Mescalito.

Mescalito is out now, get it from: Insound | Amazon | iTunes | Amazon MP3 | eMusic

First things first, I need to get it out of the way that I am squarely on The Raconteurs side of the fence when it comes to making a choice between which two Jack White projects I prefer. It is evidenced on the last Raconteurs release, Broken Boy Soldiers and this new release, The Consolers Of The Lonely that Jack White is much better when the spot light isn’t shining on him so brightly. Aided by real musicians who are able to lend a helping hand in crafting a huge rock n roll sound. It may not be as raw at his White Stripes stuff, but I’ll take it hand over fist any day over that cutesy boy girl call and response shit that Jack and Meg do.

Enough has been said about the lead up (or lack there of) to this release, the “message” Jack is trying to send to the industry, and the iTunes snafu over the weekend. Whatever. I dig it. I loved learning a week ago that there would be a new Raconteurs release and that I only had to wait one week to buy it. No pre-release over hype buzz kill here - maybe a little post-release over analyze buzz kill - just new music now without any frantic scouring of the interwebs to get a taste of what an anointed few who get an advance listen are blabbing about 2 months before the music sees the light of day. …continue reading »

Via Detroit Bar MySpace bulletin:

Attention all Orange County and Long Beach Bands:

Starting in May we will launching a new night on Tuesday to showcase up and coming bands from Orange County and Long Beach.

The format will be 2-3 bands per Tuesday. There will be no cover so there will be no pay to the bands. However, for the bands we like, can draw etc. we will book you for future shows to open for national headliners or headline your own night. For which pay is involved.

This will be the way for Detroit to showcase up and coming talent, and filter through all of the bands for future shows.

If you’re interested in being considered for this.
Please email:

jon@detroitbar.com

Thanks.

Detroit.

I missed this release last year, in fact Scott just told me about them last week (of course after a Google search I found that JAX was already on it), but for anyone else like me who’s not always paying attention, definitely check out Alberta Cross tonight at Spaceland.