Tuesday 07.01.08: GRAVY TRAIN!!! / BRidEZ / FRISCO DYKES @ ECHO (Early Show)

Gravy Train!!!! || Listen

Gravy Train!!!! is a John Waters wet dream come to life, with openly gay boys and super-snarky girls singing hilarious lyrics about ghost boobs, 40-ouncers, and cottonmouth blow jobs, all the while playing a giddy form of bubblegum garage-pop that screams Hairspray (if not “holy crap!”). So it’s kind of a shock to hear the Oakland quartet’s third full-length, All the Sweet Stuff, because the disc sounds almost mature.

Ewww.

No need to worry, though. There’s still plenty of the salacious lyrics and exuberant melodies that’ve made Gravy Train!!!! so fun. But for the first time, the band members sound like, well, musicians. By adding glam, disco, and even ’60s French pop to their euphoric garage-rock, Chunx, Funx, Hunx, and Junx have created one of the most thoroughly entertaining records in ages, joining the upper echelon of local bands in the process. – SF Weekly

with:
BRidEZ
Frisco Dykes

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Gravy to 467467

EARLY SHOW: 7pm / $12 / all ages

Tuesday 07.01.08: GRAVY TRAIN!!! / BRidEZ / DRAGON SUEDE BOY @ ECHO (Late Show)

Gravy Train!!!! || Listen

Gravy Train!!!! is a John Waters wet dream come to life, with openly gay boys and super-snarky girls singing hilarious lyrics about ghost boobs, 40-ouncers, and cottonmouth blow jobs, all the while playing a giddy form of bubblegum garage-pop that screams Hairspray (if not “holy crap!”). So it’s kind of a shock to hear the Oakland quartet’s third full-length, All the Sweet Stuff, because the disc sounds almost mature.

Ewww.

No need to worry, though. There’s still plenty of the salacious lyrics and exuberant melodies that’ve made Gravy Train!!!! so fun. But for the first time, the band members sound like, well, musicians. By adding glam, disco, and even ’60s French pop to their euphoric garage-rock, Chunx, Funx, Hunx, and Junx have created one of the most thoroughly entertaining records in ages, joining the upper echelon of local bands in the process. – SF Weekly

with:
BRidEZ
Dragon Boy Suede

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Solo to 467467

LATE SHOW: 10pm / $12 / 18+

Wednesday 07.02.08: MODEY LEMON / THE MUSLIMS @ echo

Modey Lemon || Listen

Somewhere around Curious City, the Modey Lemon made a shift in direction, smoothing its rackety, blues-drunk grooves into a Krautish, hallucinogenic trip. You could pin it all on Jason Kirker, who joined after Thunder + Lightning, but the shift is equally evident in Phil Boyd’s vocals, no longer abrasive, and mixed substantially lower in the fuzz. And since Boyd has kindly created a muxtape of songs from artists that influenced him on Season of Sweets (mondoboydo.muxtape.com), we can see that it goes deeper than production values. Alongside oddities, like a track from Jesus Christ Superstar, he’s included lysergic, drum-happy drone-merchants like the Boredoms, Oneida, Apes and Kraftwerk – not a scruffy blues-rocker in the bunch. About the only thing that hasn’t changed on Sweets is Paul Quattrone’s ferocious drumming – and that’s a good thing, because the Modey Lemon just wouldn’t be the Modey Lemon without it. – Dusted Magazine

with:

The Muslims

Assured-beyond-their-years San Diego quartet the Muslims will definitely get a lot of attention for their name, but we’re much more interested in the band’s catchy, sorta sloppy and stark post-punk-infused rock ‘n’ roll. They mix a kind of Strokes-y, and therefore VU, detachment and something that bumps in the night like Hell and his Voidoids (or, better yet, Hell and the Heartbreakers doing “Love Comes In Spurts”). You can also hear a bit of the Stooges — not just because the band cites ‘em, along with the Replacements, as an inspiration — and early Jonathan Richman & the Modern Lovers (see “Future Rock,” “On My Time,” etc). Whatever the mix of forerunners, the Muslims find a way to make it their own — it’s kinda uncanny. – Stereogum

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Lemon to 467467

8:30pm / $8adv, $10dos / 18+

Wednesday 07.02.08: DUB CLUB @ echoplex

with Resident DJs:
Tom Chasteen
Roy Corderoy
The Dungeonmaster
Boss Harmony

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
(Main Entrance is through Alley)
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI:
Dub Club on MySpace

9pm / $5 / 21+

Thursday 07.03.08: Radio Free Silverlake, Web In Front & LA Underground present FLYING TOURBILLON ORCHESTRA / THE STEVENSON RANCH DAVIDIANS / SUMMER DARLING / FOL CHEN

The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra

A languorous desert landscape of fractured pop punctuated with the rumbling crackle of spinning art-rock, The Flying Tourbillon Orchestra’s new EP, Escapements, swings from dream-lathered reveries of hazy beauty to propulsive, churning nightscapes—songs that sound as if they are the heat-twisted, shimmering and sky-fallen debris after Lee Hazlewood and Scott Walker led a kamikaze nosedive into the 4AD records building.

As a teaser for the EP’s July 3rd release, Web in Front is offering a stream of two tracks after the jump: the sleepfever swirl of “In a Dream”’s hypnotic sway and nightmare visions as well as the shapeshifted, epic buildup of “Audry (love keeps moving)”’s schizoid dynamics. You can pick the EP up at the Orchestra’s Escapements release party concert at the Echo on July 3rd (also featuring the Stevenson Branch Davidians and Fol Chen. – Web In Front

with:
The Stevenson Ranch Davidians || Listen
Summer Darling || Listen
Fol Chen || Listen

Presented by:
Radio Free Silverlake
Web In Front
LA Underground

8:30pm / Free for 21+, $5 Under / 18+

Thursday 07.03.08: RESPECT @ echoplex

@ Echoplex
Enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI: Respect on Myspace

10:00pm / $10 before 11pm – $15 after 11pm / 18+

Friday 07.04.08: ECHO & CLUB UNDERGROUND PRES: SPINDRIFT / FLASH EXPRESS @ echo

Spindrift || Listen

Truly out-of-sight, the seven-piece band celebrates the outlaw spirit with spooky, tripped-out variations on Ennio Morricone’s spaghetti Western tradition. Live, they swirl and tremble like a lucid dream, banging a gong and shaking their tambourines for rattlesnake effect, jamming until the audience feels engulfed by a sandstorm (of course, it helps if it’s an outdoor concert and the wind is already fierce). Spindrift founder Kirpatrick Thomas (who holds together portions of the band’s East and West Coast factions) recently recorded a soundtrack to Mike Bruce’s bizarre concept film Legend of God’s Gun, which is like the original Ocean’s 11 with psychedelic rockers replacing tony rat packers. Visually schizophrenic, Gun follows a preacher turned gunslinger who travels to Playa Diablo to avenge his true love’s death. Trippy shoot-’em-ups ensue. Go west! – Salt Lake City Weekly

with:
The Flash Express || Listen

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Drift to 467467

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

Saturday 07.05.08: BOOTIE LA @ echoplex

BOOTIE LA
LA’s monthly mashup bootleg party

From Seattle, special guest:
DJ FREDDY, KING OF PANTS

Resident Bootie mashup DJs:
ADRIAN & the MYSTERIOUS D
DJ PAUL V.

Midnight mashup show:
FOXY COTTON

BOOTIE LA is now at the Echoplex, with more room to dance, two bars, great sound and lights, and mashup videos on three giant screens!

This month, Bootie welcomes back DJ Freddy, King of Pants, creator of Seattle’s original, long-running monthly mashup night, FrankenBoot. He’ll be dropping the bootleg classics, as well as the newest mashups fresh off the digital press. Resident Bootie DJs Adrian & the Mysterious D and DJ Paul V. will keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. And returning to the stage for the midnight mashup show — with a special political Independence Day-inspired number — is Foxy Cotton!

Launched in San Francisco in 2003, BOOTIE was the first club night in the United States dedicated solely to the burgeoning artform of the bootleg mashup. Mixing and matching every conceivable musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome, it’s a place where all sounds, cultures, and sexualities can unite on the dance floor. Bootie provides the soundtrack for the A.D.D. generation — with free mashup CDs given away like candy! Bootie Š because one song at a time just isn’t enough.

FREE Bootie CDs to the first 50 people through the door!

FMI: http://www.BootieLA.com

9pm / $5 before 10pm, $10 after / 21+

Saturday 07.05.08: SMOG SESSIONS with HATCHA / ROOMMATE & ANTISERUM / SAM XL & PABLO HASSAN / DJ STEADY / MC KEMST @ echo

with:
Hatcha (Kiss FM, Big Apple, Tempa, London UK)
Roommate & Antiserum (OSC) (Argon, Hollow Point, Steps in Time, Mode, SF)
Sam XL & Pablo Hassan (Pure Filth, Smog, LA)
DJ Steady (Drumz, LA)
Kemst (Smog Pure Filth, LA)

Sound Reinforcement by: Pure Filth

Art Installations by: Spectr

BIRTHDAY BASH FOR PAWN!!

FMI: www.smogla.com

9pm / $10 / 21+

Sunday 07.06.08: GRAND OLE ECHO with MIKE STINSON / THE CHEATIN’ KIND / WELLDIGGERS BANQUET / BRET JENSEN’S DEATH VALLEY JUBILEE @ echo

with:
Mike Stinson
The Cheatin’ Kind
Welldiggers Banquet
Brett Jensen’s Death Valley Jubilee

hosted by Chris Morris and DJ Cuz’n Roy

5pm / FREE / all ages

Sunday 07.06.08: PART TIME PUNKS @ echo

resident djs Michael Stock and Benny Shambles spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 21+

Monday 07.07.08: THE GITS MOVIE PREMIERE SCREENING @ ECHOPLEX

THE GITS MOVIE documents the influential Seattle band whose fable was unfairly abridged by the tragic rape and murder of singer Mia Zapata. July 7th is the fifteenth memorial anniversary, and THE GITS will appear alongside friends, family and the filmmakers at screenings in Seattle, San Francisco and Los Angeles -with additional screenings in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Louisville, New York and Portland.

In the early 1990s, Seattle was the focal point of an emerging musical underground. The Gits helped spearhead this new scene. Their sound was proto-grunge and all-out punk aggression. The earnest, blues wail of front woman Mia Zapata was its center. Mia was the very embodiment of riot grrrl intensity, talent, and humanity. Her uncompromised integrity epitomized a way of life that influenced an entire generation of female artists to follow.
Upon returning from a successful European tour -and at the height of The Gits’ popularity- singer Mia Zapata was found raped and murdered, unfairly abbreviating the band’s fable. Incredibly, more than a decade later, new evidence would surface, Mia’s case file would be reopened, and a suspect would be brought to justice –as cameras rolled. The Gits is an account of overcoming adversity, addiction, love, loss and pain. It’s a punk rock mystery, but not merely a tale of tragedy. It’s the mythic story of a great American Rock N Roll band.

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Zapata! to 467467

7:30 pm / $10 / ALL AGES

Seated and standing; seats available first come first serve / bands & djs to follow

Monday 07.07.08: Monday Night Residency – JAIL WEDDINGS / WOUNDED LION / VICTIM VISION / GUILTY HEARTS @ echo

Jail Weddings || Listen

Jail Weddings is a force to be reckoned with. Like that bad taste you have in your mouth after a full night of intoxication and things worth regretting but never forgotten, always staying fondly close at hand. Gabriel Hart’s voice perfectly encompasses feelings of love, lust and sorrow. Wonderfully accompanied by the uniquely different, yet harmonizing voices of Tornado Jane and Katya Nadia Hubiak. This band will have you dancing on your feet in no time and wanting to go home with the random stranger next to you for fear of feeling lonely yet another night. This is desperation at its finest, brought straight from the heart and right through the veins. – Swampland

with:
Wounded Lion
Victim Vision
The Guilty Hearts

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Tuesday 07.08.08: VON IVA / ASTRA HEIGHTS / LITTLE PIECES @ echo

Von Iva || Listen

Oh, it’s just plain nasty, you know it is — the moment that molar-chattering low end comes quaking out of your speakers, only to be stroked up by a nag-nagging synth sneer straight out of your most secret Missy Elliott–Wire tag-team fantasies. Bite your lip, lean back, and shake it deeper, ’cause it gets better, just as you knew it would. Twenty seconds onward, our diva steps in — and what a diva! Two sets of lungs, most likely. Her intro is inevitable: “She came / To party!” The full-throated bellow hurls over the bucking and bumping of the futuro–new wave rhythm. Everything elasticizes from there. Three minutes later, you light a cigarette.

And so we have “LALA,” the lead-off single from Our Own Island (Ruby Tower), the new album by local electrofunk swaggerers Von Iva. The fashion-forward trio, composed of soulful vocal powerhouse Jillian Iva and hip-loosening instrumentalists Bex and Lay Lay, straddle the border between skuzzy and sultry with sweat-inducing plunges into the intersections of gossip spit and spunk, Devo-Wire post-punk, and Timbaland gadung-a-dung-dunk. Go on now, boys and girls: surrender to the nasty. – San Francisco Bay Guardian

with:
Astra Heights || Listen
Little Pieces || Listen

8:30pm / $8 / 18+

Tuesday 07.08.08: URB Magazine pres: “The Beauty in Distortion/Land of the Lost” EP release from J*DAVEY plus special guests @ ECHOPLEX

J*Davey || Listen

With a diverse array of influences, eclectic twosome J*Davey — female vocalist Jack Davey (b. Brianna Cartwright) and producer Brook D’Leau — deliberately evade the narrow categories of what urban music should sound like, not to mention that they defy normal conventions of pop music. Drawing equally from neo-soul, new wave, funk, and hip-hop, their melting pot of electronic soul and dance have made music-goers try to classify them somewhere between neo-soulstress Erykah Badu and new wave punks Talking Heads.
- Artist Direct

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / FREE! / 18+

Wednesday 07.09.08: HEARTS OF PALM UK / HAPPY STARS / BROKEN REMOTES @ echo

Hearts Of Palm UK || Listen

LA’s own Hearts of Palm U.K. are Erica Elektra (vocals, keyboard, guitar) and Ambi-D (glockenspiel, guitar, keyboard, percussion). They are two friends who’ve known each other since junior high; two friends whose lives have led them to join together and make a new kind of music. The duo draws their influence from bands like Camera Obscura, Kings of Convenience, Fischerspooner, Ratatat, The Notwist, The Blow and Azure Ray.

Erica Elektra has been electric ever since she was electrocuted playing bass in her New York City basement apartment. The basement flooded, but she didn’t notice until it was too late. Now she’s a superconductor! Ambi D. gets her name because of the ambidextrous way she plays all those instruments at once. Hearts of Palm U.K. are developing their own electro-indie-pop style and couldn’t be happier about it. They are ready to dance, rock out and have fun…just don’t ask about the U.K. – Andy & Otis

with:
Happy Stars
The Broken Remotes

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Wednesday 07.09.08: DUB CLUB @ echoplex

with Resident DJs:
Tom Chasteen
Roy Corderoy
The Dungeonmaster
Boss Harmony

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
(Main Entrance is through Alley)
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI:
Dub Club on MySpace

9pm / $5 / 21+

Thursday 07.10.08: TILLY AND THE WALL / CASTLEDOOR @ echoplex

Tilly & The Wall || Listen

Tilly and the Wall’s music is childlike in the sense that it celebrates the tactile and emotional world with the verve of unjaded perception; organs of pure sense probe the enticing recesses of the night. Their music is a prism that refracts the wonder of the human pageant from various angles, making familiar colors bend fantastically. It doesn’t deny harsh realties– Tilly’s world of teenage knife fights and drunken bra-clasp fumblings doesn’t elide homeless women walking the snow; a prostitute with “money spilling out of her hands;” “the newly born crying, realizing what life is” or a grandfather’s weathered eyes. Tilly blurs them all into a giddy compendium of humanity, at once acknowledging and renouncing the possibility of despair: “The world is big and it’s got a loose heart/ So you either start screaming or start singing.” – Pitchfork

with:
Castledoor

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Tilly to 467467

7:30pm / $16 adv, $18 dos / All Ages

Thursday 07.10.08: KING KHAN AND THE SHRINES / THE JACUZZI BOYS @ echo

King Khan and the Shrines

King Khan & the Shrines are a groovy bunch of guys who turn out some righteously partylicious grooves and butt-bobbing collisions of goodfoot R&B and fuzz-faced ’60s-style garage rock. A 12-piece band featuring a full-on horn section and the manic James Brown-meets-Kid Creole stylings of the good sire Khan, they moved to Berlin to purvey their get-down magic under Teutonic skies in 1999. They released their first album in 2002, and now they’re set to shake out a new slab of soulful goodness on June 17th, the modestly titled The Supreme Genius of King Khan & The Shrines, on Vice Records. It’s a wonderful thing that their supercharged, dance-demon sound will be reaching a wider audience now that they’ve made the Vice move. – Prefix Magazine

with:
The Jacuzzi Boys

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Goodfoot to 467467

8:30pm / $12 / 18+

Thursday 07.10.08: RESPECT with ASIDES / SCOOBA / MC QUESTIONMARK / MC XYZ @ echoplex (11pm)

With:
ASIDES [METALHEADZ, EASTSIDE RECORDINGS, UK]

SCOOBA [RESPECT]
MC QUESTIONMARK [CONTAGIOUS MUSIQ]
MC XYZ [RESPECT]

@ Echoplex
Enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI: Respect on Myspace

11pm / $5 / 18+

Friday 06.11.08: MARIA TAYLOR / JOHNATHAN RICE / NIK FREITAS @ echoplex

Maria Taylor || Listen

In ten songs (the eleventh is more a late-coming interlude than a song — it unspools a child’s sing-songy tribute to “Lynn Flower”), Taylor lays out tales of sadness, self-doubt and elusive love that seem hand-dunked in humanity — see “My Own Fault” and “Smile and Wave” for the best examples. Throughout, a cutback on shimmery electronic effects results in a lived-in sound; there’s a shabby chic-ness to these songs, and also a believability. Taylor’s voice is part Elizabeth Mitchell and part Sarah McLachlan, minus the syrup. Like the name “Lynn Teeter Flower,” it issues from somewhere plain and true and captivates fully. – Allmusic

with:
Johnathan Rice || Listen
Nik Freitas || Listen

Maria Taylor’s van was broken into in San Francisco the other night and almost everything was stolen.
Guitars, basses, equipment, suitcases full of clothes and merchandise are all gone.
Tonight’s show at the Echoplex is the last night of her six-week tour of the U.S. with Johnathan Rice and Nik Freitas.
Johnathan and Nik have decided that tonight’s show should be a benefit to help Maria and her band recoup some of the many thousands of dollars that they lost in this tragedy.
Please, come out and show your support for Maria in her new adopted hometown of LA.
All donations will be given to Maria.
It’s been a rough summer for bands out there with gas prices being what they are, and these kids could really use your help.

Not to mention the show is gonna be fuckin’ sweet.

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Flower to 467467

7:30pm / $13 / all ages

Friday 07.11.08: CLUB UNDERGROUND with MAGIC MIRROR / LOWER HEAVEN @ echo

with:
Magic Mirror
Lower Heaven

plus resident DJs spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

9pm / $5 if 21+, $7 under 21 / 18+

Saturday 07.12.08: RATATAT @ Echoplex

Ratatat || Listen || Watch

Tucked away in a private studio named Old Soul, in Catskill, NY the two musical forces behind Ratatat, Evan and Mike, have collaborated yet again to redefine the current state of instrumental music. This time, the album is called LP3 and though it doesn’t use much in the way of hi-tech recording equipment it’s still laced with a unique balance of penetrating beats and ethereal riffs. However they broaden their palette of sounds this time around by relying more on keyboard instruments than guitars. Don’t worry, Mike’s characteristic guitar style is still present on this record but there are also an abundance of new textures emanating from the likes of a harpsichord, a wurlitzer, a mellotron and even a grand piano. – www.brooklynvegan.com

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / $20 / 18+

Saturday 07.12.08: DESCARGA with MENTIRITAS @ echo

Mentiritas

Mentiritas is a musical project lead by Grammy® Award Winning Musician, Wil-Dog Abers of Ozomatli, that combines cohorts (who happen to be some of L.A.‘s top session musicians) from bands such as Ozomatli, Beastie Boys, Cava and Plastilina Mosh, among many other noteworthy acts. In 2007, Abers (Bass), Walter Miranda (Keys), Fredo Ortiz (Timbales), Ulises Bella (Saxophone) and Anton Morales (Drums) combined their love for Latin music with humor and satire and thus, the Mentiritas project was born. Mentiritas keeps the crowd on its feet from start to finish and pokes fun at 80‘s and 90‘s hits, the “boy band” experience and gaudy Mexican Regional fashions and sometimes over-the-top banda music. In January 2008, ¡Descarga! featured the band at its sold out 5th Anniversary Party at Echoplex. The band now includes the powerful vocals of Claudia “Cava” Tenorio and on July 12, 2008, the show will include special appearances by Herbert Siguenza and Ric Salinas of Culture Clash theatre group.

¡Descarga! is a monthly Afro-Latin music gathering for the people. This event is an alternative to the commercial salsa nights that have dominated the LA scene for years. Resident DJs Sloe Poke, Mando, Bobby Soul, Loslito, and Mexican Dubwiser spin classic salsa and cumbia; plus merengue, punta and reggaeton. With live bands gracing the stage at midnight at nearly every show, it has become the taste-making New York to L.A. soiree, running over 5 years strong.

FMI:
www.descargaclub.com
Descarga on Myspace

9pm / $7 before 11pm, $10 after / 21+

Sunday 07.13.08: GRAND OLE ECHO with JAMES WILSEY / DAVID SERBY / LISA DEROSIA / AUSTIN HARTLEY – LEONARD / Squaredance with TRIPLE CHICKEN FOOT @ echo

with:
James Wilsey
David Serby || Listen
Lisa DeRosia || Listen
Austin Hartley- Leonard

Plus Squaredancing from 3pm-5pm with
Triple Chicken Foot || Listen

hosted by Chris Morris and DJ Cuz’n Roy

3pm / FREE / all ages

Sunday 07.13.08: MATMOS featuring WOBBLY & DUB LAB DJs @ ECHOPLEX

MATMOS

Legions of Kraftwerk wannabes miss the band’s secret weapon: From their man-machine fashion to their preference for dinky beats, the self-described showroom dummies could always tease out a good joke. And although they’re purely instrumentalists, Matmos can too, with a charm that sets the laptop duo apart from lesser lights for whom chilly beats and icy synths are ends in themselves. “Rainbow Flag” is a Jetsons-esque symphony for telephone touch pad and synthesized trombone, “Exciter Lamp” sounds like a computerized toy xylophone, and the title track juxtaposes Space Invaders bleeps against progrock noodling—a gag Matmos stretches across 24 minutes and change. Conchords, time to step up your game. – Spin.com

with:
Wobbly
Dub Lab DJs

9 pm / $17 / ALL AGES

Sunday 07.13.08: PART TIME PUNKS @ echo

resident djs Michael Stock and Benny Shambles spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 21+

Monday 07.14.08: Monday Night Residency – JAIL WEDDINGS / MORIS TEPPER / SOME DAYS / LISTING SHIP @ echo

Jail Weddings || Listen

Jail Weddings is a force to be reckoned with. Like that bad taste you have in your mouth after a full night of intoxication and things worth regretting but never forgotten, always staying fondly close at hand. Gabriel Hart’s voice perfectly encompasses feelings of love, lust and sorrow. Wonderfully accompanied by the uniquely different, yet harmonizing voices of Tornado Jane and Katya Nadia Hubiak. This band will have you dancing on your feet in no time and wanting to go home with the random stranger next to you for fear of feeling lonely yet another night. This is desperation at its finest, brought straight from the heart and right through the veins. – Swampland

with:
Moris Tepper || Listen
Some Days
Listing Ship || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Tuesday 07.15.08: MUCCA PAZZA / THE HOLLOYS @ echo

Mucca Pazza || Listen

Well, this should be interesting! It’s not every day a traveling marching band rolls (marches?) through town. Mucca Pazza was conceived by composer Mark Messing and the band has been performing in and around the Chicago area, in bars, parks, parades and theaters for over three years. The lineup includes St. Louis expatriate Jeff Thomas, aka Jeffrey Positive, of The Honkeys, on guitar. The following is from their press kit:

30 people in a band? No problem. At every rehearsal, BBQ, and party, everyone loves one another like one big family. Until a gig comes along, and then… The trombones rumble with team saxophone, who fight for stage space with the clarinet and the fiddle, who don’t notice because they are busy vying for the attentions of the accordions, who could care less because the drum corps are a bunch of bullies, who are constantly melting at the sight of the glockenspiel, who has an eye for the cymbals, who keeps falling over the sousaphone, who is busy avoiding flying pom poms, who are chasing after the trombones, who are rumbling… Mucca Pazza are marching misfits. They play everything from Gainesbourg to Le Tigre, Bar-Kays to Ali Hassan Kuban and lotsa original compositions (including one commissioned by a queen from a distant planet – long story). One would think that only in Dr. Seuss’ imagination could a marching band perform in 10 canoes going down the Chicago River, but Mucca Pazza was there! They play everywhere: from punk venues to orchestral halls, from public parks to private extravaganzas, from diva palaces to dive bars, from TV shows (did you see them on Conan O’Brien?) to Lollapalooza. Your town is next! Watch out! – Trouble in River City

with:
Holloys || Listen

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
text Honk! to 467467

8:30pm / $8 / 18+

Wednesday 07.16.08: HELL YA! NIGHT with THE MONOLATORS / THE ROLLING BLACKOUTS / THE GROWLERS / SPIDER PROBLEM @ echo

The Monolators || Listen

The ultracharming husband-&-wife duo the Monolators have expanded into a full quartet, with singer-guitarist Eli Chartkoff and singer-drummer Mary Chartkoff now joined by bassist Andrew Bollas and lead guitarist Tom Bogdon. Their new 10-inch EP, You Look Good on the Train, which is available only on vinyl or as a digital download (www.ninjastarrecords.com), fleshes out Eli’s lo-fi tunes with keyboards, saxophones and other instruments to wonderful effect. Eli croons the offbeat love songs “At the Top of the Stairs” (where he collects sea shells and rhapsodizes about a gal “in pink jeans and tambourines”) and “My Weaker Self” with his distinctly unusual, rubber-throated yowl, whereas Mary spits out the jangly title track and the loopy punk rock ditty “Eagle Fighting Zebra” (which is apparently about crazy women brawling at Mr. T’s Bowl) like a more melodic Exene Cervenka. – LA Weekly

with:
Rolling Blackouts
The Growlers
Spider Problem

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Wednesday 07.16.08: DUB CLUB @ echoplex

with Resident DJs:
Tom Chasteen
Roy Corderoy
The Dungeonmaster
Boss Harmony

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
(Main Entrance is through Alley)
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI:
Dub Club on MySpace

9pm / $5 / 21+

Thursday 07.17.08: Aquarium Drunkard presents BODIES OF WATER / THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE / SEASONS @ echo

Bodies of Water || Listen

Bodies of Water may have waited barely a year to release a follow-up to their hand-clapping, head-nodding, heaven-looking debut, but musically, they take their time. “Under the Pines”, a mostly instrumental track from their upcoming A Certain Feeling, takes a while to get to its verse, instead carefully establishing a theatrical organ-and-power-chords overture with all the rock-opera oomph of a homespun Jim Steinman. They project toward the rafters, but build the song carefully, bringing in David Metcalf’s snaky guitar line and letting their wordless harmonies comment on the earthly action of music. The first verse doesn’t kick in until after the two-minute mark, but the chorus sets the song loose: “Under and under and under and under the pines!” they shout in unison, alluding to Leadbelly or Nirvana or those 40 days in the wilderness. Here’s hoping they never make just a three-minute pop song. – Pitchfork

with:
The Henry Clay People || Listen
Seasons

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8:30pm / $8 adv, $10 dos / 18+

Thursday 07.17.08: RESPECT with THE INSIDERS / ROXANNE / MACHETE / MC XYZ @ echoplex

with:
THE INSIDERS [METALHEADZ, RUFIGE RECORDS, UK]

ROXANNE [GROUNDSCORE]
MACHETE [RESPECT]
MC XYZ [RESPECT

@ Echoplex
Enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI: Respect on Myspace

10:00pm / $5 before 11pm – $10 after 11pm / 18+

Friday 07.18.08: Echo, Dangerbird & Club Underground present DARKER MY LOVE w/ Special Guests CRYSTAL ANTLERS @ echo FREE!

Darker My Love || Listen

You turn it on. Turn it up. And the feedback-filled guitars of “Northern Soul” instantly wash over you like an old friend. The pounding rhythms get down into your bones, making it impossible to sit still. And those melodies…they stick with you for days. “Baby, you’ve got me talking words…” There’s a new sheen at play here, courtesy of studio guru, Dave Cooley (Silversun Pickups, J Dilla), allowing the sunburnt harmonies to part through the sonic squall like an indie rock Moses. A sophomore record in every sense of the word, 2, will be released August 5, 2008.

with:
Crystal Antlers

8:30pm / FREE until 10:30pm, then $5 for 21+, $7 under / 18+

Saturday 07.19.08: DEVON WILLIAMS / RESIDUAL ECHOES / SILVER DAGGERS / THE MONA REELS / OF AIRES @ echo

Devon Williams

I was elated when Williams played a cover of “Alex Chilton” towards the end of his set, not just because it’s a killer song, but specifically because one of the notes I scribbled down in the first few minutes of Williams’ playing was “Waiting for Somebody.” The same feeling of whimsical mischief felt when listening to Westerberg’s love song from the 1992 Singles soundtrack is aroused when hearing Williams’ innocent pop guitar and string arrangements. Just as The Replacements sound like the lighthearted black sheep of the early 90s (compositionally, not lyrically) when occasionally/awkwardly lumped into the same category as grunge superpowers Nirvana and Alice in Chains, Williams’ work stands out as effervescent defiance in the face of the indulgent psychadelia that is getting much of the local attention. Spindrift, Entrance, and Devendra Banhart are all acts that I have written about and very much appreciate, but Williams is unique in that he refuses to be another psych-folk-blues musician in Los Angeles. He’s just not having it. Instead, Williams writes refreshingly light tunes tinged with Westerberg-like self deprecation that could have been fitting on the soundtrack of any My So Called Life episode: songs for being distraught, but laughing about it. – LA Weekly

with:
Residual Echoes
Silver Daggers
The Mona Reels
Of Aires

5pm / $8 / All Ages

Sunday 07.20.08: GRAND OLE ECHO with GRANT LANGSTON & THE SUPERMODELS / NICOLE GORDON / CLAIRE HOLLEY / SMITH AND WESSON @ echo

with:
Grant Langston & The Supermodels || Listen
Nicole Gordon
Claire Holley || Listen
Smith and Wesson

hosted by Chris Morris and DJ Cuz’n Roy

5pm / FREE / all ages

Sunday 7.20.08: A HAWK AND A HACKSAW / FRANK FAIRFIELD / BENJAMIN WETHERILL @ echoplex

A Hawk and A Hacksaw || Listen

There’s a twinkle of lore in A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangár Ensemble, the limited edition, eight-track EP that follows A Hawk and a Hacksaw’s best album to date, last year’s The Way the Wind Blows. As the band puts it, they “walked into a music store in Budapest, Hungary and walked out with a score of four collaborators versed not only in Hungarian folk, but also…jazz and minimalism.” Béla Ágoston, Zsolt Kürtösi, Ferenc Kovács, and Balázs Unger became the ad hoc Hun Hangár Ensemble, sharing their ancestral repertoire with Hacksaw’s Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost and allowing the two younger musicians to add their own arrangements and ideas. Such obvious cultural immersion may sound disingenuous or self-serving, but it works here and on the accompanying tour diary DVD, finally allowing A Hawk and a Hacksaw the chance to bloom amid a parcel of the folk heritage from which they’ve long drawn. – Pitchfork

with:
Frank Fairfield
Benjamin Wetherill || Listen

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

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7pm / $12 adv, $14 dos / All ages

Sunday 07.20.08: PART TIME PUNKS with THE MUSLIMS / CHRISTMAS ISLAND @ echo

with:
The Muslims
Christmas Island

resident djs Michael Stock and Benny Shambles spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Monday 07.21.08: Monday Night Residency – JAIL WEDDINGS / THE MOON UPSTAIRS / THEE MAKEOUT PARTY / WEAVE @ echo

Jail Weddings || Listen

Jail Weddings is a force to be reckoned with. Like that bad taste you have in your mouth after a full night of intoxication and things worth regretting but never forgotten, always staying fondly close at hand. Gabriel Hart’s voice perfectly encompasses feelings of love, lust and sorrow. Wonderfully accompanied by the uniquely different, yet harmonizing voices of Tornado Jane and Katya Nadia Hubiak. This band will have you dancing on your feet in no time and wanting to go home with the random stranger next to you for fear of feeling lonely yet another night. This is desperation at its finest, brought straight from the heart and right through the veins. – Swampland

with:
The Moon Upstairs || Listen
Thee Makeout Party || Listen
Weave

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Tuesday 07.22.08: Echo and Dub Lab present PETER WALKER / BIG SEARCH @ ECHOPLEX

Peter Walker || Listen

Walker once directed music for Timothy Leary’s infamous “Celebrations”, in which Leary would rant to an acid-drenched audience of thousands. He also played with Sandy Bull, the legendary Indian-folk fusionist, and hung around with people like Joan Baez who, by the end of the decade, would be far more famous than him. As a fixture of both the Cambridge and NYC Village scenes, Walker was, like Bull, an early devotee of Eastern musical traditions; during and especially after Rainy Day Raga, Walker studied and experimented with the sitar and other then-exotic instruments. After fading from the limelight and settling in Woodstock, he apparently studied flamenco in Spain and kept up with his craft. Here on Raga, it sounds as if he’d never left.

His…playing is a marvel, halting and propulsive at once. “Day at the Fair” moves awkwardly but inexorably forward with a slow but insistent push, looping usually linear progressions around on themselves. On “Hot Fusion”, his cross-eyed phrasings sound like reluctant play, strands gradually being woven together into an intricate whole. Walker has the ability to distort time with his compositions, to move forward or back as if there was no real difference. – Pitchfork

with:
Big Search

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

7:00 pm / $12 / all ages

Tuesday 07.22.08: SUMMER DARLING / CHIKITA VIOLENTA / WRITER / AMATEURS @ echo

Summer Darling || Listen

I’d never seen Summer Darling before. It only took me about three bars of the first song to fall in love with the foursome. For large portions of their set I felt like I was transplanted to the year 1994, nearly sure my track jacket had transformed itself to an old flannel shirt found at Goodwill. One or two songs reminded me of something like The Promise Ring or early Jimmy Eat World. That’s not to say that Summer Darling is playing in the past because there was something very contemporary about what they were doing. I think ten years younger and played twice as fast, and Summer Darling might be at The Smell instead of The Scene.

There was a lot of band interaction as they played, turning to face each other and look each other in the eyes. What I really loved were the lyrics. They were honest, if not venomous, but still endearing. The words to the songs were sung above, not beneath, the instrumentation and that made for a very intimate set despite the deafening buzz and fuzz. – Classical Geek Theatre

with:
Chikita Violenta || Listen
Writer || Listen
Amateurs || Listen

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Wednesday 07.23.08: HERCULES AND LOVE AFFAIR / GUNS N BOMBS @ ECHO

Hercules and Love Affair || Listen

Forget disco for a second. The most significant thing about the debut album from New York’s Hercules and Love Affair has less to do with revival than arrival– that of a compelling new voice in American dance music. Not Antony Hegarty’s, of Antony and the Johnsons, even though his pipes are an integral part of Hercules’ aesthetic, but Andrew Butler, a twentysomething resident of New York who has made one of 2008′s great albums, and one of the best longplayers from DFA. (DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy surely deserves some of the credit as well, as the album’s co-producer and the programmer behind most of the record’s beats.) Butler got his start writing music for art projects in college– “like a remake of Gino Soccio’s ‘Runaway’ done in the style of Kraftwerk,” he told Fact magazine– but Hercules and Love Affair’s music doesn’t require Fischerspooner-type theatrics. This debut album is a self-contained, self-assured, 10-song set that runs vintage styles through a restless compositional imagination to create something joyfully, startlingly unique. – Pitchfork

with:
Guns N Bombs (All Disco Set)

8:30 pm / $15 adv, $18 dos / 18+

Wednesday 07.23.08: DUB CLUB @ echoplex

with Resident DJs:
Tom Chasteen
Roy Corderoy
The Dungeonmaster
Boss Harmony

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
(Main Entrance is through Alley)
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI:
Dub Club on MySpace

9pm / $5 / 21+

Thursday 07.24.08: LUCERO / JESSICA LEA MAYFIELD / GLOSSARY @ ECHO

Lucero || Listen

If the Pogues embody the Jameson-addled anthems of Ireland, Lucero turns the whiskey into bourbon aged in Tennessee oak and chased by a Bud. Their sound is a roll-up-the-sleeves-and-take-a-deep-sniff kind of pure angst. It’s like rain on the windshield as you drive through a cold November morning after a particularly regrettable evening. Raspy-voiced lead man Ben Nichols sings about themes associated with good loving and good drinking—thieves, love, getting drunk, and losing control—in a world where getting into trouble with a lady makes things turn thirsty fast. – Popmatters

with:
Glossary || Listen
Jessica Lea Mayfield || Listen

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8:00pm / $15 / all ages

Thursday 07.24.08: Echo & Respect present – DIZZEE RASCAL / HOLLYWOOD HOLT / THE 87 STICK UP KIDS / KENAN BELL / DJ AARON LA CARTE @ ECHOPLEX

Dizzee Rascal

Onstage, Dizzee shows a really serious young-lion charisma, and he knows how to put on a show; he and his never-introduced hypeman hit all their marks hard enough that they’d clearly spent a whole lot of time rehearsing. On a technical level, Dizzee is a monster of an MC, capable of belting out serious double-time lines without losing his breath or letting the beat swallow his words. All night, he stuck tenaciously to his beats, never leaving the pocket; it’d be nice if El-P learned something from that during their forthcoming coheadlining tour. Better still, Dizzee managed to keep an industry-heavy Park Slope crowd from losing energy, some kind of Herculean feat. “This place is known for its stiffness,” he said as he took the stage, before letting us know that fuck all that and launching directly into “I Luv U,” the single that made his name. Last night’s show was a serious breath of fresh air: a young but seasoned rapper with effortless stage-control barely letting up over the course of an hour. More rap shows need to be like that one. – Village Voice

with:
Hollywood Holt || Listen
The 87 Stick Up Kids || Listen
Kenan Bell
DJ Aaron La Carte

@ Echoplex
Enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

Save Money when you order tickets by mobile phone
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8:30 pm / $20 adv, $22 dos / 18+

Thursday 07.24.08: RESPECT @ echoplex

@ Echoplex
Enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI: Respect on Myspace

10:00pm / $10 before 11pm – $15 after 11pm / 18+

Friday 07.25.08: Echo, Dangerbird & Club Underground present – DARKER MY LOVE w/ Special Guests FOOL’S GOLD @ echo FREE!

Darker My Love || Listen

You turn it on. Turn it up. And the feedback-filled guitars of “Northern Soul” instantly wash over you like an old friend. The pounding rhythms get down into your bones, making it impossible to sit still. And those melodies…they stick with you for days. “Baby, you’ve got me talking words…” There’s a new sheen at play here, courtesy of studio guru, Dave Cooley (Silversun Pickups, J Dilla), allowing the sunburnt harmonies to part through the sonic squall like an indie rock Moses. A sophomore record in every sense of the word, 2, will be released August 5, 2008.

with:
Fool’s Gold

8:30pm / FREE until 10:30pm, then $5 for 21+, $7 under / 18+

Saturday 07.26.2008 – DOES IT OFFEND YOU, YEAH? & THE BLACK GHOSTS @ Echo

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

As its name suggests, opening act Does It Offend You, Yeah? doesn’t take itself terribly seriously: The British electro-rock band infuses its ambitious and chaotic music with bass slaps, cowbells, and signifiers of ’80s pop, not to mention healthy doses of electronic screeching. A go-to remixer for the likes of Muse and Bloc Party, the band makes music suitable for ravers and rockers alike. – NPR

and

The Black Ghosts

Some of you may have caught their sick single “Any Way You Choose to Give It” with Playgroup’s nasty Baltimore breaks mix on Norman Cook’s Southern Fried imprint. One thing’s for sure–Black Ghosts’s Simon Lord and Theo Keating (formerly of Simian and The Wiseguys, respectively) can rock the funky beats and sing. They have a knack for combining dance-punk, indie-pop, and electro-breaks, and somehow do it without sounding lame.
XLR8R

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text YEAH! to 467467