25 years ago, Sonic Youth invaded the Los Angeles music scene from New York. They played a series of riveting shows (some of which this writer was fortunate to perform in with in another band) and established themselves as a new force in what became known as indie rock with albums such as Bad Moon Rising, EVOL, Goo and Sister. Sonic Youth returned to Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theater on January 9, focusing on new album The Eternal, but with encores featuring material from the mid-80s. Guitarist Lee Ranaldo mentioned to me after the show that the band decided to perform songs such as “Death Valley 69″ — also from the early period — to remember their first L.A. shows. The Wiltern performance was as powerful as ever. If anything, the band attacked the jagged rhythms and melodies even more fiercely. But it was the pensive intros and extended endings to each number that offered the most jarring beauty. Abstract, colorful, surging, transcendent… these instrumental waves of guitar bliss would surge into pure psychedelia if they weren’t also so deep, hard and heavy. Ranaldo’s “Walkin Blue” was a highlight: A wise and empathic message of comfort to friends. Which kind of sums the whole show.
Steve Appleford from Los Angeles Times also wrote a review, here.
A classic song. A brand-new video. Performance Artist The Dark Bob and poet Jack Skelley (also Paolucci Communication Arts’ Senior Vice President) join their old pal, “X” drummer DJ Bonebrake to wish everyone a HA HA HA HA HAPPY NEW YEAR!Ha Ha Ha Ha Happy New Year
It’s one thing to dismiss grunge as noise, but not when it becomes crucial to music history. A major grunge prototype band played recently in downtown DC at Constitution Hall – the Pixies. This blogger attended with someone who had never heard of the Pixies. I had to explain that what today sounds like clichés – powerful drums, and stop/start extreme dynamics such as hushed verses exploding into wailing choruses, and melodic guitar cutting into screaming distortion – were actually Pixies inventions.
Gary Smith who produced the Pixies first recording Come On Pilgrim commented on the bands influence: “I’ve heard it said about the Velvet Underground that while not a lot of people bought their albums, everyone who did started a band. I think this is largely true about the Pixies as well.” The Pixies’ sound was too original for mainstream success. However, they became major influences on the flannel wave of Seattle bands such as Read More
What Amoeba Music calls “the Euro musical tour de force duo,” Italian classical pianist Alessandra Celletti and Hans-Joachim Roedelius (of the electronic/experimental group Cluster) will offer three rare performances next week in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and New York. The L.A. concert will be in the intimately rewarding Zipper Hall, at the Colburn School in downtown, next to MOCA. Celletti creates beautifully pure – even simple – soundscapes. The minimalism that stretches from Eric Satie to Philip Glass is part of her territory. But always tinged with emotional color. German electronica maven Roedelius (a one-time Brian Eno collaborator) adds synthesized textures to Celletti’s organic moods on their new Transparency recording Sustanza de Cose Sperata (“Essence of Things Hoped For”). The recording includes a new version of Eno’s “By This River.”
What to expect at the Zipper Hall concert, December 5? “A trip into the colors, from azure to rose, through orange, magenta, turquoise, black and white,” says Celletti. “We think that the sounds are also colors and we love to share all shades.” Tickets available through Amoeba.
Vic Mizzy was a composer who captured a huge share of the 60s and 70s zeitgeist by writing the theme songs and soundtracks for the Addams Family, Green Acres, and the most of the Universal movies starring Don Knotts, including The Ghost and Mr. Chicken. He has died at the age of 93. In addition to those popular shows, he also composed dozens of other scores and songs. This Hot Sheet writer has always appreciated his work, and even co-dedicated an album by Lawndale (Jack Skelley, Dave Childs, Steve Housden and Rick Lawndale) to Mizzy. (Rick Lawndale’s song “Atta Boy, Luther,” on Lawndale’s Beyond Barbecue album is inspired by the Don Knotts character in The Ghost and Mr. Chicken.) The unique instrumentation Mizzy used in Green Acres and The Ghost and Mr. Chicken lifted his work above typical theme songs. It included bass harmonica and fuzz guitar. In contrast, the Addams Family themes – including complete and separate motifs for Morticia and Gomez Addams – are based on the harpsichord. Mizzy owned the publishing rights to the Addams Family theme, and its contagious simplicity found its way into thousands of major-league baseball games, helping to make Mizzy a huge success. Here is the Los Angeles Times obituary.
Once upon a time, The Beatles surfed the zeitgeist. For their few years in the sun, they ushered or least feasted upon dozens of culturally defining music trends, from the English invasion to folk rock to psychedelia. They recaptured a bit of that on September 9, 2009, with the release of re-mastered albums: Everyone seems to be talking – or writing – about them. As Los Angeles Times Ann Powers recaps, “A team of top engineers, led by longtime Beatles associate Allan Rouse, labored for four years to return the feel that was lost in the flimsy-sounding 1987 compact disc reissues.” Powers has been leading up to this moment with several blog posts, but in this article notes how The Beatles have been re-interpreted over the years. To take just “I Want to Hold Your Hand” as an example, two inspiring renditions are to be had from soul singer Al Green and T.V. Carpio (from the Beatles-inspired musical Across the Universe… particularly moving).
Of course, it all just makes you remember how explosive “I Want to Hold Your Hand” was to begin with. Over at the New York Times, Dave Itzkof gathers many of the reviews of the re-mastered reissues. This includes Pitchfork, the alternative music site, which gives long, historically re-assessing raves to nearly all the re-releases.
Last night Depeche Mode proved that their crowd-drawing prowess is undiminished – after nearly 30 years – by packing a gigantic venue. One of England’s most successful bands from the early 1980s, DM lit up the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia. The group is on a world tour supporting Sounds of the Universe, its 12th studio album. As cited in ifmagazine.com, keyboardist Martin Gore has lately been scavenging vintage ’80s keyboards, mixing old-school synth sounds and new technology. Onstage, the performance included a giant light sphere and enormous image projections of psychedelic symbols behind the band’s beats, hooks and pitch-perfect vocals. “It’s No Good” and “Enjoy the Silence” got fans dancing like maniacs with Read More
From London via Sydney comes hot indie four-piece with a woman manning the microphone. Howling Bells (not to be confused with another dream pop band, School of Seven Bells) are expressive, well-trained singer Juanita Stein backed up by the tasteful guitar weavings of her brother, Joel Stein, along with bass and drums. Howling Bells’ dark, moody, minor-key numbers verge on Goth but never forsake the appeal of classic song structure. In their sound some will hear another recent chik-rawk outfit, The Duke Spirit. While others will be reminded of Mazzy Star in their less opiated moments. Howling Bells are on tour with Coldplay.
The Mermen, the world’s most psychedelic surf rock band, have not paid a visit to Southern California in about five years. (The Mermen are based in San Francisco). The trio returns Thursday, July 9th, at Brixton, a club at the Redondo Beach pier. It’s hard to verbalize the effect of this powerful, all-instrumental band, but here’s how Rick Reger of the Chicago Tribune put it: “Jim Thomas’s dazzling guitar work steals the show. Informed by both Dick Dale’s staccato precision and Hendrix’s molten psychedelia, Thomas possesses a flawless technique and a highly personal sound. Moving from deftly controlled feedback to breakneck accuracy to hushed crystalline passages, Thomas proves that he is one of rock’s premier ax wielders.”
We’re not supposed to admit such things, but it wasn’t until after the third or fourth album that The Beatles starting writing good lyrics. The reason their early songs are filled with diamond rings and yeah-yeah-yeahs is that McCartney and Lennon didn’t want meaning to get in the way of the music. Something like that is at play in the deceptively simple new power-pop supergroup Tinted Windows. (Last month The Hot Sheet previewed the concept. This is the (short!) review.) Adam Schlesinger (Fountains of Wayne) wrote the catchy rave-ups with James Iha (Smashing Pumpkins) and Taylor Hanson (Hanson). Fountains of Wayne is a power-pop group too, but with much more literate and witty lyrics. Schlesinger worked hard to dumb-down the material for Tinted Windows. Iha keeps things punkish, while drummer Bun E. Carlos of Cheap Trick adds new-wave cred. They won’t win any poetry awards. All the better to inject your brain full of hardish rock with a clean sheen.
25 years ago, Sonic Youth invaded the Los Angeles music scene from New York. They played a series of riveting shows (some of which this writer was fortunate to perform in with in another band) and established themselves as a new force in what became known as indie rock with albums such as Bad Moon Rising, EVOL, Goo and Sister. Sonic Youth returned to Los Angeles at the Wiltern Theater on January 9, focusing on new album The Eternal, but with encores featuring material from the mid-80s. Guitarist Lee Ranaldo mentioned to me after the show that the band decided to perform songs such as “Death Valley 69″ — also from the early period — to remember their first L.A. shows. The Wiltern performance was as powerful as ever. If anything, the band attacked the jagged rhythms and melodies even more fiercely. But it was the pensive intros and extended endings to each number that offered the most jarring beauty. Abstract, colorful, surging, transcendent… these instrumental waves of guitar bliss would surge into pure psychedelia if they weren’t also so deep, hard and heavy. Ranaldo’s “Walkin Blue” was a highlight: A wise and empathic message of comfort to friends. Which kind of sums the whole show.
It’s one thing to dismiss grunge as noise, but not when it becomes crucial to music history. A major grunge prototype band played recently in downtown DC at Constitution Hall – the 
What 
Vic Mizzy 
Once upon a time, The Beatles surfed the zeitgeist. For their few years in the sun, they ushered or least feasted upon dozens of culturally defining music trends, from the English invasion to folk rock to psychedelia. They recaptured a bit of that on September 9, 2009, with the release of re-mastered albums: Everyone seems to be talking – or writing – about them. As Los Angeles Times Ann Powers 
Last night Depeche Mode proved that their crowd-drawing prowess is undiminished – after nearly 30 years – by packing a gigantic venue. One of England’s most successful bands from the early 1980s, DM lit up the Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, Virginia. The group is on a world tour supporting Sounds of the Universe, its 12th studio album. As cited in 
From London via Sydney comes hot indie four-piece with a woman manning the microphone. 
The 
We’re not supposed to admit such things, but it wasn’t until after the third or fourth album that The Beatles starting writing good lyrics. The reason their early songs are filled with diamond rings and yeah-yeah-yeahs is that McCartney and Lennon didn’t want meaning to get in the way of the music. Something like that is at play in the deceptively simple new power-pop supergroup