Monday 06.08.09: Manimal Vinyl presents CORRIDOR / PAULO ZAPOLLI / AVI BUFFALO / ADDIQUIT / TELEPATHIC LIBERATION ARMY @ echoplex

CORRIDOR (RECORD RELEASE PARTY)

PAULO ZAPOLLI (PALL JENKINS OF BLACK HEART PROCESSION/3 MILE PILOT)

AVI BUFFALO

ADDIQUIT

TELEPATHIC LIBERATION ARMY

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

8pm / FREE / 21+

Friday 06.19.09: TILT and Binary Present THIEVES LIKE US / NIGHTWAVES / ESSER @ echoplex

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

RSVP to get in for $10 at: Going.com

9pm / $10 with RSVP / 18+

Wednesday 06.24.09: SCION A/V presents TROUBLE & BASS CREW / DROP THE LIME / AC SLATER / STAR EYES / THE CAPTAIN / DJ SKEET SKEET @ echo

Scion A/V presents

Trouble & Bass (CD Release Party)

with:
Drop The Lime
AC Slater
Star Eyes
The Captain
DJ Skeet Skeet

RSVP at http://www.scion.com/avrelease/

10pm / FREE with RSVP / 18+

Tuesday 06.30.09: KSPC and Loudvine present THE STRANGE BOYS / SHIRLEY ROLLS / THE GROWLERS @ echo

The Strange Boys || Listen || Watch

The Austin-via-Dallas based Strange Boys are a young garage rock act whose loose, somewhat rootsy approach to the style brings to mind the old Doug Sahm adage “you just can’t live in Texas / If you don’t have a lot of soul.” The Strange Boys blend Nuggets garage, punk, R&B, blues and country without getting pinned down by any one of those styles. It’s as if those terms are used only as vehicle to create a musical feeling rather than a particular genre.

But where the Black Lips sound entirely of these times, marinating their retro tendencies with Gangsta Grillz swagger, the Strange Boys evoke a sound not unlike that heard on Bob Dylan’s Basement Tapes, or at least a younger garage punk version of that album. That’s not to say the Strange Boys recall the Old Weird America, or the new one for that matter, yet both the Strange Boys and Dylan (and the Band) work a similar kind of magic, the end result being a rock ‘n’ roll sound plucked from numerous influences yet utterly unto itself. In the case of the Strange Boys, however, the Nuggets box set replaces Harry Smith’s Anthology as a blue print.

While Sambol noted that he one day hopes to outgrow any influences, the band’s official debut full-length, The Strange Boys and Girls Club, already finds the band standing solidly on its own. It’s the sound of high school dances stomped out on gymnasium floors long since abandoned; cold nights and warm whiskey; bad decisions and trouble. The jangling guitars are punctuated with strategic bursts of fuzz; the drums provide a laconic shuffling rhythm that pushes the band along just so without ever rushing things. Sambol’s strained bleat sounds simultaneously desperate and elated. The album’s recording history, however, is a somewhat tumultuous one, despite the album’s almost insouciant feel. – Dusted Magazine

With:
Shirley Rolls || Listen
The Growlers || Listen

8:30pm / $7 / 18+

Tuesday 06.09.09: GASLAMP KILLER / BIG MOVES / POLLYN @ echo

Gaslamp Killer || Listen || Watch

For the uninitiated, Gaslamp Killer could be lumped in with the deep diggin of folk like Andy Votel, Cherrystones, and David Holmes… His difference is combining these nuggets of old with forgotten beat heavy gems from the last 20 years, new psych influenced material, and even dipping in to bass heavy dubstep tunes. What gets spat out the other end hits hard, big drums, booming bass, eastern influences and tripped out psychedelic moods, all mixed, cutup and segued together flawlessly, using spoken word creatively to set the mood.

Released on the Obey label, originally in a luxurious box accompanied by a split 7” featuring two Gaslamp Killer and Free The Robots tracks apiece, and the rather impressive embossed artwork, but it is available to purchase without the box and inclusions (well, it is the only way to buy it as the limited box has sold out, you may find it on eBay at a ridiculous price!). If you like a drum heavy ride, I can’t recommend this more, and although there is no track listing included, you’ll recognize some tracks in the mix, snippets of some, and others will amaze. After recognizing tracks by Portishead, Earthling, Danny Breaks, MHE/MRR-ADM, Malcom Catto, and Alexanders Dark Band (a lesser known Depth Charge side project) to name just a few, it got me looking back through some older records to rediscover some much underrated material.

The Gaslamp Killer knows how to excite, making all that hear him look back to the past, and simultaneously projecting us to the future. Keep a look out for future collaborations, most recently with vocalist Gonja Sufi, and appearing on the latest Flying Lotus album. Get to hear him any way you can. – Cyclic Defrost

With:
Big Moves
Pollyn || Listen

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

Saturday 06.13.09: SMOG SESSIONS @ echoplex

SMOG SESSIONS
los angeles dubstep event

JOE NICE
DUB WAR, BALTIMORE, NYC

XI
SUBTRAC, LOETECH, TORONTO

JUAKALI
DUB WAR, SUB SWARA, NYC

THE SPIT BROTHERS
FULL MELT, DUBS ALIVE, SF

DLX
SMOG, DUBS ALIVE, LA

KEMST
SMOG, LA

VISUALS BY: MEKANIX

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

FOR MORE INFO:
WWW.SMOGLA.COM
WWW.DUBFREQUENCY.COM

9pm / $10 PRESALE, $15 DOOR / 21+

Tuesday 07.07.09: KITTY, DAISY, & LEWIS / LE SWITCH / TANDEMORO @ echo

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis || Watch

Multi-instrumentalists Kitty Daisy & Lewis play guitar, piano, banjo, lap steel guitar, harmonica, double bass, ukulele, trombone and accordion between them. Their debut album was recorded in glorious, utterly digital-free analogue by Lewis and his father Graeme in their home studio in Kentish Town. A stickler for living and breathing the music they play and talk so passionately about, Lewis DJs, collects and even cuts his own 78rpm records himself when he isn’t recording with his sisters. This obsessive passion for the vintage music that inspires their performances led to their compilation ‘A – Z of Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – The Roots Of Rock n Roll’ being named one of The Guardian’s 2007 ‘Albums Of The Year – 5/5′.

No dry exercise in musical luddism, their 2008 debut album swings with the passion, intensity and sheer exuberant joie de vivre that makes their live shows one of the UK gig circuit’s greatest and most innocent pleasures. The album is a mixture of the covers their dad used to sing to them when they were children, like ‘Going Up The Country’ – a perfectly rounded summer holiday feel-good jam, full of harmonica solos, handclaps and lyrics about leaving the city smog for fairer country hills – together with new material like the heart torn ‘Buggin’ Blues’, written by Lewis and inspired by the great late Otis Spann (Chess Records) and latest single ‘(Baby) Hold Me Tight’, written by Kitty and featuring Skatalites contemporary Eddy ‘Tan Tan’ Thornton. Kitty Daisy & Lewis’ second artist album is due in 2010. – Sunday Best

with:
Le Switch || Listen
Tandemoro || Listen

8pm / $10adv; $12dos / all ages

Wednesday 07.01.09: A Benefit for The Pablove Foundation- EULOGIES / BAD VEINS / AVI BUFFALO / A DECENT ANIMAL @ echo

Eulogies || Listen || Watch

Can a band that names its debut album Eulogies be taken at face value? The group must be playing their self-reflexive card out of the gate, starting at the end and working their way backwards, or otherwise signaling the poetic finish of something large, with a fresh start to boot, right? Not necessarily, especially if the band itself is named Eulogies. Bandleader Peter Walker’s songs draw inspiration from the literal meaning of the term, dealing variously with despair and regret, and were crafted during a 2006 tour on which he opened for Starsailor; to his credit, Walker plays his songs much closer to the vest than his former tourmates. Eulogies simmers with emotion and brims with understated hooks, registering nearest the sensible introspection of Wheat’s Hope and Adams, Nada Surf’s The Weight is a Gift, or Death Cab for Cutie’s Transatlanticism.

Not so much clenched teeth as effectively restrained power-pop passion, Eulogies’ most expressive moments– the chugging chorus of “Running in the Rain”, the opening guitar fanfare from “Useless Amends”, the temporarily wanky solo from “Life Boat”– are quickly subsumed to calmer tones, most often in the form of shadowy electric guitar and Walker’s whispery pleas. Matters are occasionally expanded, but at the lyrical level: “Under the Knife” elevates denial to universal proportions, questioning the impact of “Those who died for us to live/ On false foundations,” before reaching a fulfilling, yet discreet, refrain. “Can’t Relate” overcomes the occasional overwrought lyric (“We’re all swimming in the bottles of our own accord”) with one of the record’s most effective productions, an organ-laced acoustic brood. Opener “One Man” has a muted, Ric Ocasek-style guitar line weaving throughout, and expands into a satisfying, but self-possessed chorus. – Pitchfork

With:
Bad Veins || Listen
Avi Buffalo
A Decent Animal || Listen

8pm / $10adv; $12dos / all ages

Saturday 06.27.09: TELEKINESIS / THE BOAT PEOPLE / ONE TRICK PONY @ echoplex

Telekinesis || Watch

I didn’t listen to the Telekinesis record when it first arrived at my house. Then I heard the song “Coast of Carolina” on a radio show and waited around to see who was responsible for this infectious little beast. When I realized that it was Telekinesis, I pulled the CD out of its resting place and haven’t stopped listening to it since; it accompanies me in my car, as I write at my desk and on airplanes. At first, I treated the album like I do a lot of other pop records: as a showcase for one standout song. Consequently, I continued to listen to “Coast of Carolina” as if it were the wunderkind and every other song merely runners-up in some imagined talent show. I approached the rest of the album with skepticism and reserve. And, though I never grew tired of “Coast of Carolina” (and still haven’t!), eventually I wanted to know the rest of the story.

And that’s how it came to be that Telekinesis’ self-titled album is my current favorite. My summer sun long before the light and long days actually get here.

Telekinesis is really the work of one man, at least on record, and that man is Michael Lerner. One thing I like about him is that, in addition to being a great singer and songwriter, he’s a good enough drummer — quite a fantastic one, really — to know that you can’t just give that job up to anyone. So he drums and sings on stage, throwing off both the audience’s balance and one’s ideas of symmetry and pop, not unlike his songs themselves.

Lerner sings about water, place, time and ephemera, which are all sneaky and slippery topics. So while the impressionistic approach to lyrical content provides fleeting, oblique images, the catchy music is grounding and indelible. If Telekinesis were a dance, it would be the pogo: with the leap into the air — that hint of uncertainty, of possibility, of letting go — being the words, and the driving, perfectly crafted melody (as sturdy as anything) being the feel of your feet as they touch the ground. Sometimes it’s nice to have a band provide both the lift-off and the landing. – NPR

with:
The Boat People
One Trick Pony || Listen

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

7pm / $10 / All Ages

Thursday 08.27.09: THE DIRTBOMBS / THE SERMON / JAIL WEDDINGS @ echo

The Dirtbombs || Listen || Watch

A couple of years ago, when I talked to Mick Collins, he said that the Dirtbombs were probably more than halfway through their arc as a band and that after one more album, their bubblegum record, they would most likely call it quits. Collins observed that he would ordinarily have had three or four bands during the lifespan of the Dirtbombs. No one was more surprised than he that it had lasted so long.

No kidding. The band has, at this point, been through 17 line-ups, always with the same basic structure, two basses — one regular, one fuzz — a guitar (Collins himself), two drummers and whoever happens to drift into the studio for backing vocals and hand-claps. (Collins’ “innocent bystander” rule requires that anyone physically present at a Dirtbombs session contribute something to the record.) The distinctive double-shot rhythm section has been consistent through the Dirtbombs various incarnations — as a soul band, as a pop band, as a cover band turning its voracious attention to everyone from Yoko Ono to Elliott Smith and even, recently, as the house band at a Cannes film festival party. While not exactly predictable, the Dirtbombs always sound like the Dirtbombs – thunderous, fuzzy, loose, funny, smarter than average and maybe a little dangerous. – Dusted Reviews

With:
The Sermon || Listen
Jail Weddings || Listen

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

9pm / $15 / 18+

Monday 07.27.09: THE MEKONS / THE PULSARS / BOLLWEEVIL @ echo

The Mekons || Listen || Watch

Thirty years after they formed in Leeds, and fifteen or so after most of them relocated to America, the Mekons return to England for their quietest and weirdest album since 1982′s The Mekons Story. Replete with chants, harmonicas, found percussion and an extra helping of haunted London holdout Tom Greenhalgh, Natural eschews the comforting competence of unplugged á la MTV. Instead it delivers the ramshackle, ritualistic, druids-at-Stonehenge mood that campfire crusties at U.K. festivals like Glastonbury aspire to. Convinced Armageddon is upon us, the Mekons are determined to get in some mournful Earth worship first, and for fans who feel the spirit, songs will emerge. Try the beyond-thematic “Dark Dark Dark,” the Iraq-meets-Palm Springs “Burning in the Desert Burning” or the reggaefied “Cockermouth,” in which Jon Langford’s distracted “I ramble” sinks into Sally Timms’ gentle “You have to believe this is the end.” Maybe it’s not the end. But it’s a taste. – Rolling Stone

with:
The Pulsars
Bollweevil

8:30pm / $12 advance, $14 day of show / 18+

Tuesday 07.21.09: MICACHU & THE SHAPES / TUNE YARDS / RACHEL GOODRICH @ echo

Micachu & The Shapes || Listen || Watch

Micachu and the Shapes can rest easy for now, however, since Jewellery turns out to be a thrilling pick ‘n’ mix of puckish pop nonsense that will absolutely charm your kecks off, hoovers and all. Winking broadly at myriad styles from grime to playground skiffle and corrosive noise with nary a bum note bared, in some ways it’s capricious and not exactly fully-formed, but you can’t help but admire how much of this record flat-out works. ‘Golden Phone”s a blinding tune showcasing Levi’s gruff cockney diction, pleasingly pitched midway between a leer and a rictus grin. And ‘Curly Teeth”s a moderately deranging racket that recalls Damon Albarn at his most stridently experimental.

Performed on a specially tuned guitar with a host of electronic glitches and gloops and seemingly held together with elastic bands and spit, Jewellery’s wonky pop architecture finds joy in sheer surrealist musical abstraction, as with ‘Golden Phone’’s lip-smacking lines: “love’s all around, yeah, but I don’t want none / time’s everywhere, yeah, but I don’t want none / gold in my hair, yeah, but I don’t want none / give me that nonsense sound and I’ll be back”.

Call that punk or even Dada if you like, it matters not. Micachu’s a rare talent seemingly heaven-sent to snatch bedroom pop from the ‘pit-sniffing dullards once more, and for that we have only to be thankful. – The Quietus

With:
Tune Yards || Listen
Rachel Goodrich

8pm / $10adv; $12dos / all ages

Tuesday 07.14.09: THE DATSUNS / SPIRIT VINE / SEASONS @ echo

The Datsuns || Listen || Watch

On the one hand, this is simply rock ‘n’ roll at its primal best: lots of loud guitars, tons of “whoa whoa” and “hey hey” choruses and new drummer Ben Cole bashing out a beat that’s all fury and speed. But there’s an underlying complexity here as well. “Your Bones” is epic, meshing the guitar lines of classic Zeppelin with the moody, psychedelic tinge of Jane’s Addiction. And the keyboard-slanted “Hey! Paranoid People” aligns itself closer to the post-punk goofiness of Devo. Nothing startlingly new here, but proof that using boisterous, three-chord rock as your foundation can still bring about some surprising results. – Metromix

With:
Spirit Vine || Listen
Seasons || Listen

8:30pm / $10adv; $12dos / 18+

Sunday 07.12.09: ONEIDA / AMPS FOR CHRIST / CLIP’D BEAKS @ echo

Oneida || Listen || Watch

Oneida are sneaky. Without most people realizing it, they somehow crept into being one of the best bands out there around the time of 2004’s Secret Wars, an album so rich and eventful and simultaneously weird and rocking that even the band which made it sometimes feels recently like they’ve been playing catch-up. The Wedding and Happy New Year both took their eternally wandering muse in a more overtly psychedelic direction, and found the band in fine form. Now they’re going back. But to what? The flippant answer might be to the light light light light light light, at least if you’ve heard their exquisitely punishing 2002 album Each One Teach One and more specifically the opening fourteen-minute pummel, “Sheets of Easter” (the first song to really build on what Spacemen 3 did with “Suicide”). Preteen Weaponry is one 39-minute composition in three parts, not as unrelenting as “Sheets of Easter” or its companion “Antidotes” were, but certainly largely akin to them. The relative mellowness of the band’s last few albums appears to have rubbed off onto this one, although the howling feedback as part one of “Preteen Weaponry” opens might throw you off a bit. As the music toys around with Indian modalities and vaguely “tribal”-sounding drum thump, even as it remains almost fiercely repetitive, you might start thinking of Amon Duul II or Ash Ra Tempel, which is fair. Another good point of comparison might be the sui generis Australian trio The Necks.

The result goes all over the place as much as any ruthlessly focused track can; the second part is certainly much less busy, and the third movement with its odd tones and gnashing drums begins to sound a bit like Two Lone Swordsmen’s memorably gonzo remix of Spiritualized’s “Come Together,” but if you’re not paying attention, you’re almost certain not to notice when the track index changes. This is one long journey, but it’s a remarkably consistent one (it’s interesting to note they’re apparently playing the album live, as you wonder how strictly they follow the text when replicating it), for better and for worse. It makes Preteen Weaponry a very hate-it-or-love-it effort, although Krautrock/comische music/whatever exactly you want to try calling this thing is rare and outré enough that it shouldn’t be very hard to know if you’re going to like it. If you’re into this particular form of mind expansion, Oneida can be trusted; if not, it doesn’t really matter how good they are. - Popmatters

With:
Amps for Christ || Listen
Clip’d Beaks

1pm / $8adv; $10dos / all ages

Thursday 07.09.09: STEVE WYNN & THE MIRACLE THREE / THE URINALS @ echo

Steve Wynn & The Miracle Three || Listen || Watch

For fans of the seminal LA post-punk band, Medicine Show is a pretty polarizing record. Coming off the overwhelming enthusiasm for the band’s debut album, Days of Wine & Roses, the follow-up was a departure, to say the least. Wynn’s voice was put way out front by Medicine Show producer Sandy Pearlman (best known for his work with Blue Oyster Cult, and ruining the Clash’s sophomore record, Give ‘Em Enough Rope). Gone was bassist/future Opal ingenue Kendra Smith. And unlike Chris D’s hands-off approach on Wine & Roses, Pearlman pushed Wynn further to the center — and baffled at least one adolescent Midwesterner eager to hear a follow-up to “Halloween” and “Too Little, Too Late” instead of a different, more in-your-face brand of guitar jamming.
Does Medicine Show hold up after a quarter-century? We don’t know; we admittedly haven’t listened to it in 24 years and 11 months. But West Coast Sound is nothing if not open-minded, and is very curious to find out. (It’s worth noting that Wynn performed The Days of Wine and Roses in its entirety in LA in 2001. This is a natural follow-up.)

“”Medicine Show’ is the weirdest, most idiosyncratic, nastiest, funniest and most revealing record the Dream Syndicate ever made,” wrote Wynn in the liner notes from Medicine Show’s 1991 reissue — and reprinted in the press release. “It’s also my favorite.”

Steve Wynn and the Miracle 3 perform Medicine Show at the Echo on July 9. – LA Weekly

With:
The Urinals

8pm / $10 / 18+

Thursday 06.04.09: KCRW presents FOL CHEN / KARIN TATOYAN / POST FOETUS / WAIT. THINK. FAST @ echo

Fol Chen || Listen || Watch

“We are cryptic and joyful and we would like you to dance,” claim the enigmatic Fol Chen, likening themselves to the mysterious black monolith on the cover of Zep’s Presence – a complete red herring as regards the group’s musical approach, which favours synths and strings rather than rock and riffs.

One aspect they do share with the former rock gods is a careless attitude to personal responsibility, with the protagonist of “Cable TV” trying to lure the object of her affections to some dubious motel, while the singer of “You and Your Sister in Jericho” offers her temptations more bluntly: “Fuck your friends, they don’t care/ Smoke too much, and dye your hair,” she murmurs enticingly, while guitar, pedal steel and horns perform a slow, slurred waltz over an enervated drum-machine pulse, before it all dissolves into a blur of drums and thunderous distortion. It’s impossible to pin the sextet down to a specific area of the musical map: one moment they create a kind of quirky electro-pop, as on the funky “No Wedding Cake”, but elsewhere, disparate elements – lumbering, brusque drums; lap steel; prepared-piano; calliope-textured synth lines; various horns – are mingled in intriguing combinations that avoid definition. – The Independent UK

With:
Karin Tatoyan
Wait. Think. Fast.
Post Foetus

8:30pm / $7 / 18+

Friday 06.26.09: AIR SEX COMPETITION @ echoplex

Air Sex Competition || Trailer || Photos || Twitter

After a year of sold out shows at the Alamo Drafthouse and the Paramount theater in Austin, TX, the Air Sex World Championships are taking to the road and touring fifteen U.S. cities in the search for this year’s Air Sex Champion. Air Sex is sort of like Air Guitar, except instead of pretending to play an invisible guitar on stage, contestants get up there and pretend to have sex with someone who isn’t there. With their clothes on, typically. They pick a song to perform to and then have two minutes to impress the judges with their overall Airness.

The concept for Air Sex originated in a small club in Japan, and YouTube clips of a Japanese oddity TV show from Britain burned up the Internet two years ago. When that video landed on League’s desk, he knew it was a show that had to be brought to America. The first Air Sex Championship season took place exclusively in Austin, with semi-monthly competitions at the Alamo Drafthouse and a finals performance, pitting all the winners of previous rounds against each other, in the historic Paramount Theater as part of the opening night of Fantastic Fest.

To find a new champion for this year, we are taking the Air Sex crew on the road across North America for three weeks, bringing along emcees, judges, and performers that wowed the crowds in Austin last year. In each city, they’ll be inviting local Air Sexers up to the stage at rock club venues, and the winner of each round will be flown to the Air Sex World Championship Finals later this summer. – Alamo Drafthouse Cinema Blog

For any and all potential participants please email chris@airsexworldchampionships.com

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

7:30pm / $10 adv, $12 at the door / 18+

Friday 06.05.09: FIRST FRIDAYS with Z-TRIP / DAMFUNK @ Natural History Museum

with:
Z-Trip || Listen
Dam-Funk || Listen

plus Dublab DJs:
The Phatal DJ
Gaslamp Killer

@ Natural History Museum
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007

FMI: http://www.nhm.org/firstfridays/

5:30pm / $9 / All Ages

Thursday 06.25.09: Puma, Turntable Lab, and Terrorbird Present The “Friends of Friends” Label Launch Party w/ DAEDELUS (live) / PEANUT BUTTER WOLF (A/V set) / JOGGER / MEXICANS WITH GUNS @ echoplex

Daedelus || Listen || Watch

Alfred “Daedelus” Darlington is a proponent of Edwardian dandyism for the Internet age, and his electronic whimsy has been influenced equally by Coldcut’s chopped-up beats and Bernard Herrmann’s orchestral Vertigo. But on Love to Make Music To, the L.A. producer unveils a nocturnal soundtrack toughened up by booty bass (“My Beau”), hardcore techno (the astringent “Hrs:Mins: Secs”), and coked-out club rap (the slurry “Touchtone” with Paperboy and Sa-Ra’s Taz). Daedelus’ furious stylistic shifts are engrossing (if challenging), and when he closes the album with the glowing predawn ballad “You’re the One,” it sounds like hard-won catharsis. – Spin.com

with:
Peanut Butter Wolf || Listen || Watch

PB and a cadre of DJ’s and Stones Throw affiliates crowd the DJ cabinet, and the mob from inside assimilates into the patio’s mob, an army of hip, unhip, dread-locked, fro-hawked, fedora topped anticipation. PB did not disappoint, after some tech stall, up comes the video projection to the immediate left. DJ Rhettmatic (Beat Junkies/ Visionaries) handling hype duties, the music video mixing was a new experience for me. One might assume that the somewhat younger crowd may not appreciate “oldies night”, and I would have to Homie The Clown their asses across their crown, everyone was sold. 50′s to early 70′s, funk to hippie-rock, the mixes of the videos and the music was audio/video ecstasy. I dug, they dug, it was a good time. – Urb

plus:
Jogger
Mexicans With Guns

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

9pm / $8 advance, $10 Day of Show / 18+

Tuesday 08.04.09: BOWERBIRDS / MEGAFAUN / BIG EAGLE @ echo

Bowerbirds || Listen || Watch

On Bowerbirds’ 2007 debut, Hymns For A Dark Horse, the coupled-up North Carolina duo spun folksy tunes and gypsy rags about the wonders of nature, which made sense—the record was made with singer Phil Moore and accordionist Beth Tacular living in an Airstream trailer in the woods, building themselves a cabin between band practices. Just as fittingly, Bowerbirds’ sophomore LP, Upper Air, is a more intimate affair that finds the pair well nestled in a spare-but-sound set of songs. Most noticeably, the “Go-Earth!” Pollyannaism (which was impressively tolerable the last time around) has been replaced by a flair for verbiage on par with Andrew Bird and Elvis Perkins, the two singers most conjured by Moore’s syllable-stretching and emotive coo. There’s still a line drawn in the dirt between the natural world and civilization, but that divide is explored through narrative on “House Of Diamonds,” and lines like, “You are free from the greed of your culture / you are free from the lust for the luster of the diamond houses in the city’s cluster.” And this isn’t Upper Air’s primary focus: Love is, and on songs like “Ghost Life,” stones, dunes, and oceans are metaphorical fodder used to soften the tougher parts of romantic entanglement. Bowerbirds benefit from a more-is-less dynamic musically, as well. Moore and Tacular break out organ, piano, autoharp, violin, and upright bass, among other instruments (not to mention a killer boy-girl harmony), but all in a successful effort to arrive at a simpler, more measured sound epitomized by the soulful jangler “Northern Lights” and the delicate surge of “Teeth.” Upper Air is a comely album through and through, and certainly one of this year’s high-water marks for the acoustically inclined. – The Onion AV Club

with:
Megafaun || Listen
Big Eagle

8:30pm / $10 advance, $12 Day of show / 18+

Sunday 08.16.09: PART TIME PUNKS with NITE JEWEL / SILK FLOWERS @ echo

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

With:
Nite Jewel
Silk Flowers

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 08.09.09: PART TIME PUNKS – FACTORY RECORDS NIGHT @ echo

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

FACTORY RECORDS NIGHT
A tribute to Tony Wilson

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 08.02.09: PART TIME PUNKS with NERVOUS GENDER / LOTO BALL SHOW @ echo

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

With:
Nervous Gender || Listen
Loto Ball Show || Listen

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $8 / 18+

Sunday 07.26.09: PART TIME PUNKS – SMITH / MORRISSEY NITE @ echo

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 07.19.09: PART TIME PUNKS with PSYCHIC ILLS / INDIAN JEWELRY @ echo

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

With:
Psychic Ills || Listen
Indian Jewelry

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $10 / 18+

Sunday 07.12.09: PART TIME PUNKS with MAGIC BULLETS / THE SUMMER CATS / THE TARTANS @ echo

All-Indiepop/Twee Nite!

With:
Magic Bullets || Listen
The Summer Cats
The Tartans

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 07.05.09: PART TIME PUNKS with TALL HANDS / TIJUANA PANTHERS @ echo

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

With:
Tall Hands || Listen
Tijuana Panthers

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Friday 08.28.09: TED LEO & THE PHARMACISTS / JEFF THE BROTHERHOOD @ echo

Ted Leo & The Pharmacists || Listen || Watch

Ted Leo, one of rock’s last great intellectual populists, likes to throw you. Now on his fifth album, Living With the Living, the thirtysomething rocker still prefers the same music he’s probably loved since his teens: the smarty-pants punk and new wave of turn-of-the-1970s UK labels like Stiff; the amped-up rhythm’n'soul of 60s mod and ska; the rangy heavy rock of Thin Lizzy; the hard-strumming folksiness of 80s indie; and the idealism impressed on him by American hardcore. The Pharmacists’ oeuvre is all of a two-toned piece, but each record stands on its own, just different enough from its predecessor. So while I haven’t lived with Living for very long, it’s steadily grown on me, making me want to rave louder about it than it may deserve.

Call me a booster rather than a critic, but I love Ted Leo and the Pharmacists and seriously want this band be, like, fucking huge. But at the same time, and call me old-fashioned, it’s honorable the way Leo has opted to grow his audience and his songwriting talent organically– and watch both increase exponentially, on his own terms. I like that he’s got ethics and ideals that go beyond lifestyle choices. I like that he sees writing the most compassionate song possible about eating disorders as a political act, because it is. And with its airtight rhythm section and the crackling energy of its bug-eyed frontman in his Conflict T-shirt, no rock band currently touring puts on a better live show than the Pharmacists. – Pitchfork

with:
JEFF The Brotherhood

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

8pm / $15 advance, $17 at the door / 18+

Monday 06.29.09: Monday Night Residency – OLIVER FUTURE / CASXIO / ALL WRONG AND THE PLANS CHANGED / RADARS TO THE SKY @ echo

Oliver Future || Listen

In Oliver Future’s new configuration, Lit will remain out front, his brother will man a bank of keyboards affectionately called “rig-zilla” and Raver will drum. “Sam just went out and bought a kit and said, ‘I’m going to be your drummer and we’re going to be a three-piece,’” Noah Lit says. “So the story is we just downsized because of the economy.” Lit says the trio “locked ourselves into an antique storage warehouse” and thrashed out new songs. “If you like the more epic and weird stuff on the first record, you’ll like his,” he adds. “There’s no feeling anymore that we have to write a single. But in a weird way, when there’s just three people playing — even though the songs are out there — everything just sounds more simple. “Before we were like an aircraft carrier. But there’s something to be said for being minimalistic.” – Buzz Bands

with:
Casxio || Listen
All Wrong and The Plans Change
Radars to the Sky

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 06.22.09: Monday Night Residency – OLIVER FUTURE / CAPSHUNS / HORSE THIEVES / DIVISIBLE @ echo

Oliver Future || Listen

In Oliver Future’s new configuration, Lit will remain out front, his brother will man a bank of keyboards affectionately called “rig-zilla” and Raver will drum. “Sam just went out and bought a kit and said, ‘I’m going to be your drummer and we’re going to be a three-piece,’” Noah Lit says. “So the story is we just downsized because of the economy.” Lit says the trio “locked ourselves into an antique storage warehouse” and thrashed out new songs. “If you like the more epic and weird stuff on the first record, you’ll like his,” he adds. “There’s no feeling anymore that we have to write a single. But in a weird way, when there’s just three people playing — even though the songs are out there — everything just sounds more simple. “Before we were like an aircraft carrier. But there’s something to be said for being minimalistic.” – Buzz Bands

Capshuns
Horse Thieves
Divisible || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 06.15.09: Monday Night Residency – OLIVER FUTURE / GLISS / ALEXANDRA HOPE / DEAR OR THE DOE @ echo

Oliver Future || Listen

In Oliver Future’s new configuration, Lit will remain out front, his brother will man a bank of keyboards affectionately called “rig-zilla” and Raver will drum. “Sam just went out and bought a kit and said, ‘I’m going to be your drummer and we’re going to be a three-piece,’” Noah Lit says. “So the story is we just downsized because of the economy.” Lit says the trio “locked ourselves into an antique storage warehouse” and thrashed out new songs. “If you like the more epic and weird stuff on the first record, you’ll like his,” he adds. “There’s no feeling anymore that we have to write a single. But in a weird way, when there’s just three people playing — even though the songs are out there — everything just sounds more simple. “Before we were like an aircraft carrier. But there’s something to be said for being minimalistic.” – Buzz Bands

with:
Gliss || Listen
Alexandra Hope
Dear or the Doe

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 06.08.09: Monday Night Residency – OLIVER FUTURE / OTHER LIVES @ echo

Oliver Future || Listen

In Oliver Future’s new configuration, Lit will remain out front, his brother will man a bank of keyboards affectionately called “rig-zilla” and Raver will drum. “Sam just went out and bought a kit and said, ‘I’m going to be your drummer and we’re going to be a three-piece,’” Noah Lit says. “So the story is we just downsized because of the economy.” Lit says the trio “locked ourselves into an antique storage warehouse” and thrashed out new songs. “If you like the more epic and weird stuff on the first record, you’ll like his,” he adds. “There’s no feeling anymore that we have to write a single. But in a weird way, when there’s just three people playing — even though the songs are out there — everything just sounds more simple. “Before we were like an aircraft carrier. But there’s something to be said for being minimalistic.” – Buzz Bands

with:
Other Lives

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 06.01.09: Monday Night Residency – OLIVER FUTURE / USELESS KEYS / SUPERHUMANOIDS / THE DELTA MIRROR @ echo

Oliver Future || Listen

In Oliver Future’s new configuration, Lit will remain out front, his brother will man a bank of keyboards affectionately called “rig-zilla” and Raver will drum. “Sam just went out and bought a kit and said, ‘I’m going to be your drummer and we’re going to be a three-piece,’” Noah Lit says. “So the story is we just downsized because of the economy.” Lit says the trio “locked ourselves into an antique storage warehouse” and thrashed out new songs. “If you like the more epic and weird stuff on the first record, you’ll like his,” he adds. “There’s no feeling anymore that we have to write a single. But in a weird way, when there’s just three people playing — even though the songs are out there — everything just sounds more simple. “Before we were like an aircraft carrier. But there’s something to be said for being minimalistic.” – Buzz Bands

with:
Useless Keys || Listen
Superhumanoids
The Delta Mirror

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Thursday 07.16.09: Dub Frequency presents THE VERY BEST / RAINBOW ARABIA / BERSA DISCOS @ echoplex

The Very Best || Watch

It’s easy to be cynical about this process of easing Western listeners into Esau Mwamwaya’s music– RIYL Vampire Weekend, Ruby Suns, other English-language artists cribbing from African music– until you hear the music itself, and in particular the whole of he and Radioclit’s free mixtape, Are the Very Best. Once you get through the indie-guarded gates, Mwamwaya and Radioclit are open here to everything from South Africa’s marabi and kwaito music to Hans Zimmer scores to French and American hip-hop to Michael Jackson– and in most cases, it’s the tracks that lean furthest away from the familiar that work best. The regal “Sister Betina”, BLK JKS collaboration “Salota”, and Radioclit productions “Funa Funa” and “Kada Manja” are as immediately likable as the rest of the mix. And, frankly, much of the best-known source material here– “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa”, the AiH backdrop on “Kamphopo”, the True Romance via Badlands theme on “Chikandi”, the loathsome Beatles song “Birthday”– is either simply a blueprint or sketch for other ideas, or is vastly improved by Mwamwaya’s treatments.

Mwamwaya’s cultural cross-section is no accident. Although he sings in his native Chichewa, he met Radioclit’s Etienne Tron when he sold the producer a used bike in a London junkshop. Despite that, Mwamwaya and Radioclit’s talents lie far beyond cultural fusion and curatorial skills: In short, they’ve created just about the most listenable and flat-out enjoyable record of the year– and one that happens to dovetail nicely with the urgency for and overdue embrace of morally guided globalism. – Pitchfork

With:
Rainbow Arabia || Listen
Bersa Discos

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

8:30pm / $13 Advance, $15 Day of Show / 18+

Tuesday 06.02.09: OLIN & THE MOON / LESLIE & THE BADGERS / DEEP SEA DIVER / EAGLE & TALON @ echo

Olin & The Moon || Watch

Three Idaho boys bring their rural charm to the Los Angeles scene with a little help from a pretty face along the way. Olin and the Moon’s self-titled album is a promising start for these old friends as they attempt to stand out from the crowd they’ve chosen to surround themselves with.

Drummer Marshall Vore allows the band to reside confidently in between the overtly fast and the unconsciously mellow, while singer David LaBrel shines with storytelling skills that stand up to the likes of Bright Eye’s Conor Oberst. Invoking images of a rock star retiring to the moon, “Moon Man” is like a monotone ballad version of “Ziggy Stardust.” In “Home,” the band conjures up fond memories of simple farm life protecting innocent love: “I wanna take you to the trees / Where the forest and the farm lands meet … Where you can lay out on the grass all day / Where it is safe.” Songs like these benefit from acoustic guitar strums, heavenly bells and sweet piano undertones.

Tracks like “Oh Bells” and “Song of the Summer” are focused more around the band’s own experiences on the road as musicians, referencing sound guys and getting drunk while singing. Olin and the Moon’s adolescent drive comes via David LaBrel’s brother Travis and his powerful lead guitar. His chord formations draw in ears to his trickling melodies — most notably on “Changin’“ and “Take It To Hell” — but they often overtake the songs, drowning out Erica Wheeler’s bass and David LaBrel’s vocals.

Olin and the Moon desperately strive to engage listeners in music that expresses their love for the art form; with an album like this, they just might succeed. – Performer Mag

with:
Leslie & the Badgers
Deep Sea Diver
Eagle & Talon || Listen

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Thursday 05.21.09: SMOG + DROID present APPLEBLIM @ echoplex

SMOG + DROID PRESENT

APPLEBLIM
SKULL DISCO, APPLE PIPS, TEMPA, BRISTOL UK

Bristol UK based APPLEBLIM made a name for himself working with Shackelton on their Skull Disco label. An innovator in the dubstep-techno hybrid sound, he has joined the alumni of the Dubstep All Stars mix cd series and recorded a major podcast for ResidentAdvisor. This past year he started his own Apple Pips label featuring music of Martyn, Peverlist, and Ramadanman to name a few. We welcome him on his first visit to LA for a unique night of dubstep and techno.

with:
HYPERACTIVE
4TRACK, CONTACT, CHICAGO

DRUMCELL
DROID BEHAVIOR, LA

PAWN
SMOG, LA

HOSTED BY: KEMST
VISUALS BY: MEKANIX

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

10pm / $10 / 21+

Friday 06.05.09: CLUB SUICIDE ONE YEAR ANNIVERSARY BASH @ echoplex

SuicideGirls Presents…
CLUB SUICIDE’s One-Year Anniversary Bash!

with:
DJ Scotty Boy (Voted # 5 DJ in America by DJ Times)
&
DJ Erick Neutron (Bang & Heist)

Electro, remixes, mash-ups, pop, indie, rock, ’80s, ’90s, and more…

plus:
SEXY SUICIDEGIRL GO-GO DANCERS
HULA HOOP BURLESQUE BY XIOLITA SUICIDE
SUICIDEGIRLS MERCHANDISE GIVE-AWAYS
TICKET GIVE-AWAYS
FREE GLOWSTICKS FOR THE FIRST 50 TO ENTER

LOTS of photography!
-Photo booth by Drew Yoon-
*Check out pics @ ClubSuicide.net

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

Buy advance tickets at: ClubSuicide.net

10pm / $8 advance, $10 day of show for 21+, $15 day of show for under 21 / 18+

Friday 05.15.09: SPACE ISLAND presents TIPPER / RD / JUPIT3R / KETHER & MORE @ echoplex

SPACE ISLAND
Presents

TIPPER
Tipper Music

RD
Designed Disorder

JUPIT3R
Space Island / The Do Lab

KETHER
Space Island

ART GALLERY WITH FEATURED ARTIST:

1028 Designs

Hans Haveron

John Park

Rajiv Jain

Muck

Live Painting by CARLOS VERA

Live Painting by HANS HAVERON

Live Painting by JOHN PARK

Art Gallery curated by Karim So

Sexy Stilt Walkers by STILT CIRCUS

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FMI: http://www.spaceisland.org

9pm / $25 / 21+

Friday 05.22.09: OH NO OH MY / DJANGO JAMES @ echo

Oh No Oh My || Listen || Watch

Gone are the apostrophes from the shout of surprise that doubles as a band name for, Oh No Oh My. With it the perversely eccentric pop of Between the Devil and the Sea – an EP actually recorded long before its 2007 release date. On Dmitrij Dmitrij, the multi-instrumentalists adapt to a more polished, accessible sound. It’s still essentially quirky indie pop, but the edges and lines are cleaner and neater. With Between the Devil, Oh No Oh My kept company with basement recording acts such as The Mountain Goats (albeit with less folk and more spunk). On Dmitrij Dmitrij, there’s sure to be a wider appeal.

Dmitrij Dmitrij is nearly college radio ready with an indie rock opener, “Wham Bam Thank You Spaceman,” slightly reminiscent of The Killers. What sounds like ghostly, vibrato keyboard chicanery keeps things interesting on the song. I have to hand it to Oh No Oh My that even with an easier sound nothing is completely straightforward. By the second track, “The Boy with an Anchor,” Oh No Oh My is swimming in the indie pop pool along such acts as The Magic Numbers and I’m From Barcelona. “The Boy” is as catchy as anything available on the record shelf. – Blog Critics

with:
Django James

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

7pm / $10 / 18+

Thursday 05.28.09: BUST Magazine and Comedy is the New Black present – LOL 2 @ echoplex

BUST Magazine and Comedy is the New Black present:LOL 2

Some of the funniest female comedians who you’ve seen on Comedy Central,The Late Show,MTV,VH1, as well as the funniest almost- famous up and coming female stars of tomorrow!

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

7:30pm / $10 / 18+

Saturday 05.16.09: HANG THE DJS with BLACK STROBE / REBOTINI @ echoplex

Black Strobe || Watch

Black Strobe fuses together traces of acid house techno, death disco, and industrial, with their distinct sound. The duo recorded several tracks that appeared on numerous compilations and released a succession of succesfull 12″ singles on the Output, Crostown Rebels, and Kitsuné with the massive hit Italian Firefiles. They have also remixed some of the most revered artists of the indie electronic movement, including Tiefschwarz, The Rapture, Bloc Party and Alter Ego, and have also lent their remixing skills to synth pop juggernauts Depeche Mode and EBM pioneers Nitzer Ebb. In 2007 The band realease Burn your own church produced by Paul Epworth best known for his work with Bloc Party, Maxïmo Park and The Futureheads. Now the Band is working on a new album.

with:
Arnaud Rebotini || Listen

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

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

9pm / $12 / 18+

Saturday 06.06.09: BOOTIE LA 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY with SMASH-UP DERBY / ADRIAN & the MYSTERIOUS D / DJ PAUL V. / R.A.I.D. @ echoplex

BOOTIE LA 4-YEAR ANNIVERSARY PARTY
LA’s monthly mashup bootleg party

At 11 PM — From San Francisco, the world’s first mashup rock band:

SMASH-UP DERBY

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

Bootie LA’s resident dance crew:
R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance)

Free 20-track Bootie Anniversary CDs for the first 300 people!

Dress like a pirate!

This month, Bootie celebrates four years of mashing it up, LA-style! Since launching at The Echo back in 2005, Bootie has grown quite a bit, becoming the epicenter for mashups in Southern California. To mark it’s 4-Year Anniversary, Bootie is proud to bring back Smash-Up Derby, the house band at Bootie SF, and the world’s first mashup rock band. They’re back from doing several gigs in Beijing, China, and they’ll be hitting the stage with their own rockin’ brand of live mashups at 11 PM . Also performing will be Bootie LA’s resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance) and of course, your resident DJs, Adrian & the Mysterious D and Paul V. It’s an anniversary party, so dress up like a pirate! We’ve also got special 20-track Bootie LA Anniversary CDs for the first 300 people, featuring tracks from every guest DJ we’ve featured over the past year!

Launched in 2003, Bootie was the first club night in the United States dedicated solely to the burgeoning artform of the bootleg mashup — and is now the biggest mashup event in the world, with monthly parties in seven cities on three continents. Mixing and matching every conceivable musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome, Bootie provides the soundtrack for the A.D.D. generation — with free mashup CDs given away like candy!

Resident DJs Adrian, Mysterious D, and Paul V. keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. Resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance) performs a mashed-up dance number nearly every month. Bootie showcases the best in mashup productions from around the globe and delivers them on the dance floor … because one song at a time just isn’t enough!

FMI: http://www.BootieLA.com

9pm / $6 before 10 pm, $12 after / 21+

Thursday 05.21.09: F Yeah Fest & Echo present BLK JKS / HECUBA / HALLOWEEN SWIM TEAM @ echo

Blk Jks || Listen || Watch

The muggy swatches of layered, synthetic distortion, pounding afrobeat drums, generic promiscuity, and the low, sultry timbre of Linda Buthelezi’s oft-multilayered voice most obviously call to mind TV On The Radio, but not the worthy or the awkward or the am-I-honestly-enjoying-this?-TVOTR. Nope, though it’s pretty hard to shake the comparison; it’s the fun of ‘Dancing Choose’ or ‘Wolf Like Me’ that comes to mind when contemplating EP lead track ‘Lakeside’, a deep swirl of processed moaning and frenetic percussion punctuated every so often with a joyous, chaotic eruption of whistles and chants, in turn collapsing in a searing shred of ebullient guitar.

Similar thrills abound from the near six-minute title track, which slowly hauls its way from a vaguely funked up soup of distortion, goes just a wee bit rubbish for 30 seconds as Buthelezi mutters some truisms about life being, y’know, mysterious, before unexpectedly picking up a breathtaking head of steam and haring off over the horizon, the singer leaving English behind as he screeches and moans through an improbable number of octaves, weaving through the glowing tangle of supercharged, Zep-ish guitar.

It’s idea after idea after idea, and though TVOTR comparisons are as inevitable as they are fair, billing BLK JKS as the Brooklynite’s more giddy cousins is perhaps a little off the mark: better to say both bands tap into the same ultra-distinct vein of murky sonic magic. It’s taken them the best part of a decade to get to the point of releasing a single EP, but if there’s any justice in the world, 2009 should be the year the floodgates burst right open. – Drowned in Sound

with:
Hecuba || Listen
Halloween Swim Team || Listen

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

8pm / $10 / 18+

Saturday 08.08.09: SATURDAYS OFF THE 405 with THE DODOS / DJ TURQUOISE WISDOM @ Getty Center Courtyard

The Dodos || Listen
Visiter, The Dodos’ 2008 sophomore album, and first for Frenchkiss Records, was seen by many as a resounding success. Combining simple pop ditties that were centered on a two prong axis of drum and guitar, the results were beautiful, chaotic, melodic, and ingenuity personified. Songs like “Ashley” were haunting in their aching beauty while a song like “Undeclared” had the unassuming charm of a young man groping with his convictions and feelings in the simplest of terms.

This is one of the reasons to be excited about news of The Dodos’ forthcoming studio album. Another is the album’s title, Time to Die, which in itself kicks ass. Other reasons? Well, the nine-track effort, which is due out on September 15th, was produced by indie rock producer Phil Ek, the same Phil Ek who has previously worked with the likes Built to Spill, Fleet Foxes, and The Shins. The album will also mark the band’s first with new member Keaton Snyder (yes, the band is now a trio!), a classically trained music school dropout who will be bringing his killer vibraphone skills to The Dodos, which according to frontman frontman Meric Long (via Pitchfork), allows Time to Die to “sound more like a band.”

Time to Die? Yes, please. – Consequence of Sound

With:
DJ Turquoise Wisdom

Getty Center Courtyard
1200 Getty Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049

6pm / FREE / all ages

Saturday 06.20.09: SATURDAYS OFF THE 405 with CHAIRLIFT / DJ FROSTY @ Getty

Chairlift || Listen || Watch

Plus:
DJ Frosty (Dub Lab)

Fridays Off the 405 are now Saturdays Off the 405! The free outdoor performance series is back on Saturday nights this summer with a lively mix of today’s most exciting emerging bands and DJ sets to open and close the night. And starting this summer, parking is free at the Getty Center on Saturdays after 5pm.

Starting off the new series in June is Brooklyn-based trio Chairlift. They are best known for their hit single “Bruises,” which was featured in the latest iPod Nano commercial. Band members Aaron Pfenning, Caroline Polachek, and Patrick Wimberly perform a unique blend of synth-pop that weaves together keyboards, guitar, bass, drums, and tambourines. The night includes sets from Dublab DJs Frosty and Ale.

Getty Center Courtyard
1200 Getty Drive
Los Angeles, CA 90049

6pm / FREE / all ages

Sunday 06.28.09: PART TIME PUNKS with ST. CHRISTOPHER / THE TARTANS / SEA LIONS@ echo

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

With:
St. Christopher
The Tartans || Listen
Sea Lions

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 06.21.09: PART TIME PUNKS – ROUGH TRADE RECORDS NIGHT@ echo

PART TIME PUNKS
presents a tribute to
ROUGH TRADE RECORDS
DJs Michael & Benny spin The Fall, Liliput, Delta 5 and
the rest of the Rough Trade Records label all nite long

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Sunday 06.14.09: PART TIME PUNKS with THE URINALS / GESTAPO KHAZI @ echo

resident DJs Michael Stock and Benny Shambles spinning Post-Punk, DIY & Indiepop

With:
The Urinals
Gestapo Khazi

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $8 / 18+

Sunday 06.07.09: PART TIME PUNKS @ echo

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 and a can of soup / 18+

Friday 06.26.09: CLUB UNDERGROUND & Echo present PAPERCUTS / PORT O’BRIEN / SEAN BONES @ echo

Papercuts || Listen || MP3

Jason Quever’s one-man (plus guests) band makes blurred-edge music with damp organs, milky guitars, reverbed vocals, and sticky, half-familiar melodies seemingly snatched from some collective unconscious. And the album’s opening couplet, “Once we walked in the sunlight/ Three years ago this July 4th”, sums up Papercuts’ temperamental pitch with tweet-like brevity. Their 2007 LP was titled Can’t Go Back, but as a songwriter Quever can’t help but indulge nostalgia, including its bitter constituents, regret and remorse.

Papercuts, however, aren’t agoraphobic shut-ins exorcising romantic demons and venting life’s inequities. A backward– and inward—looking predilection actually serves the band artistically. Quever crafts his aesthetic from the raw materials of Zombies, Velvet Underground, and Galaxie 500 appreciation, Phil Spector worship, and an indie rock gospel that equates modest ambitions with really, really meaning it. And the Bay Area singer-songwriter has buffed this sound to a rose-colored finish playing in and touring with 60s-rock fetishists Vetiver and pop deconstructionists Beach House and Grizzly Bear– folks who consider musicological context. – Pitchfork

with:
Port O’Brien || Listen
Sean Bones

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

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

7pm / $10 / 18+

Friday 06.05.09: CLUB UNDERGROUND @ echo

with 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 06.27.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 06.20.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 06.13.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 06.06.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Wednesday 06.24.09: DUB CLUB presents THE HEPTONES @ echoplex

The Heptones || Listen
backed by The Lions

The Heptones were a Jamaican rocksteady and reggae vocal trio most active in the 1960s and early 1970s. Leroy Sibbles, Earl Morgan and Barry Llewelyn first came together as “The Hep Ones” in 1965 in Kingston but they soon changed their name to “The Heptones”. They recorded for the major Jamaican record producers at the time, beginning their career , after one unsuccessful single for Ken Lack’s “K Calnek” label, under the watchful eye of Coxsone Dodd of Studio One. The Heptones had a number of Jamaican hits for Studio One, beginning with “Fattie Fattie”, their first Studio One single in 1966. They remained at Studio One well into the reggae era, where they cut tunes such as “Message from a Black Man”, “Love Won’t Come Easy”, “I Love You” and a very successful cover of “Suspicious Minds”, then went on to record with Joe Gibbs, Harry J, for whom they cut the classics “Country Boy” and “Book of Rules” (itself based on an American poem called “A Bag of Tools” by R.L.Sharpe, written early in the 20th Century) in 1973, Rupie Edwards (re-recording “Give Me the Right”) and former journalist Danny Holloway.In 1977, they revived their career by returning to work with Lee “Scratch” Perry, having issued a number of singles (including a cover of Billy Stewart’s “I Do Love You” on his Justice League imprint five years previously, and released the album, Party Time one of Perry’s finest productions, which included a remakes of some tunes originally cut at Studio One, including Bob Dylan’s “I Shall Be Released”, along with newer compositions such as “Sufferers’ Time”. The original trio reunited in 1995, and released Pressure!, produced by Tapper Zukie.

special 18 and over Dub Club

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

9pm / $10 advance, $10 before 10pm day of show, $15 after / 18+

Wednesday 06.17.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Wednesday 06.10.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Wednesday 06.03.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Sunday 05.31.09: Grand Ole Echo with DAVID SERBY (CD Release Party) / THE BELIEVERS / KILLING CASSANOVA / TIPPY CANOE @ echo

David Serby || Listen
The Believers || Listen
Killing Cassanova

Back Porch:
Tippy Canoe

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Sunday 05.17.09: Grand Ole Echo with DAVE GLEASON / JASON HEATH & THE GREEDY SOULS / THE DECEIVERS / WATER TOWER STRING BAND @ echo

Dave Gleason || Listen
Jason Heath & The Greedy Souls
The Deceivers

On The Back Porch:
Water Tower String Band

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Friday 05.01.09: First Fridays with THE RUBY SUNS / WOLFMOTHER @ Natural History Museum

with:
Wolfmother
The Ruby Suns

plus Dublab DJs:
The Phatal DJ
Chico Sonido

@ Natural History Museum
900 Exposition Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90007

FMI: http://www.nhm.org/firstfridays/

5:30pm / $9 / All Ages

Friday 05.15.09: Echo, KSPC & Club Underground present: PONYTAIL / CEX @ echo

Ponytail || Listen

Ponytail is the sound of ecstasy: tall exclamation points of guitar, mad, rambunctious percussion and wild-eyed ululations, an enormous blast of shocking pink bouncing off the walls and shooting up toward the sun. It’s absolute happiness, a drill boring straight down into the human id and recording everything it finds. You could call it no wave if it wasn’t so bright-eyed and bursting with joy. Old-time noiseniks embraced chaos as a weapon, but Ponytail are more interested in hugging than haranguing. The guitars prick like apostrophes, skipping across the top of songs; the drums are hollow and throbbing, tribal rhythms from some Martian colony. So it’s a pleasant surprise that, in person, the group’s four members are irrepressibly cheery, chatty and — above all else — down-to-earth. Vocalist Molly Siegel — a leaping, shrieking cipher on stage — is as giddy and talkative as a teenager. Guitarist Dustin Wong is all smiles and patient explanations, and all four of them seem genuinely touched and stunned that an interviewer would buy them dinner (at one point, Siegel asked if it was ok that she ordered an iced tea). If to hear them is to develop a crush, to meet them is to fall head-over-heels in love. – EMusic

With:
Cex || Listen
Club Underground DJs

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

8pm / $10 / 18+

Sunday 05.10.09: Grand Ole Echo with SARAH GAYLE MEECH / THE CHEATIN KIND / JEREMIAH AND THE RED EYES / FRANK FAIRFIELD @ echo

Sarah Gayle Meech
The Cheatin’ Kind
Jeremiah and the Red Eyes

Back porch:
Frank Fairfield

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Sunday 05.03.09: Grand Ole Echo with TONY GILKYSON / THE GOLDEN DAYS / NEXT OF KIN / TRIPLE CHICKEN FOOT @ echo

Tony Gilkyson
The Golden Days
Next Of Kin

Back porch:
Triple Chicken Foot || Listen

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Thursday 05.28.09: JENS LEKMAN / TIG NOTARO @ echo

Jens Lekman || Listen

Whenever you get the chance to see Jens Lekman perform live, do not pass it up. It’s not that he doesn’t play often, because he’s been pretty much touring on and off since he released 2007′s Night Falls Over Kortedala. But he’s one of the most charming and charismatic performers out there, and his songs are pretty wonderful, too, for that matter.

Lekman is doing another round of shows on the West Coast, so if you happen to be on our side of the country, you won’t want to miss out. – Treble

with:
Tig Notaro || Watch

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

8pm / $15 / All Ages

Wednesday 05.27.09: JENS LEKMAN / TIG NOTARO @ echo

Jens Lekman || Listen

Whenever you get the chance to see Jens Lekman perform live, do not pass it up. It’s not that he doesn’t play often, because he’s been pretty much touring on and off since he released 2007′s Night Falls Over Kortedala. But he’s one of the most charming and charismatic performers out there, and his songs are pretty wonderful, too, for that matter.

Lekman is doing another round of shows on the West Coast, so if you happen to be on our side of the country, you won’t want to miss out. – Treble

with:
Tig Notaro || Watch

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

8pm / $15 / All Ages

Sunday 05.31.09: KIDROCKERS presents LANGHORNE SLIM / ONE TRICK PONY @ echo (day show)

with:
Langhorne Slim
One Trick Pony || Listen

KiDROCKERS is a concert series that began in January 2007. These All Ages shows are designed to bring families together to experience some of the most engaging and vital artists in indie music and comedy. Artists perform original (not specifically made for children) songs in a manner that is both authentic and kid-friendly. Past artists include Tad Kubler (and members of the Hold Steady), Matthew and Ira of Nada Surf, Ra Ra Riot, Langhorne Slim, The Jealous Girlfriends, Harlem Shakes, Rogue Wave, The Subjects, Looker, Bishop Allen, The Spinto Band, Locksley, Phonograph, Palomar, Pela, Los Campesinos!, Chris Baron and LEVY.

Hosted by Seth Herzog & Matt Dwyer

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

Ages 3-13 recommended. Adults must be accompanied by a kid and vice versa.

1pm- 2:30pm / $9 in advance $12 at the door / All Ages

Saturday 05.09.09: SMOG presents ALL OUT DUBSTEP – LOS ANGELES featuring L WIZ (live!) @ echoplex

L-WIZ LIVE!
DUB POLICE, ALL OUT DUBSTEP, STOCKHOLM
Swedish duo Claes Rosén and Ola Näslund (a.k.a. L-Wiz) are most known for their jazzy and dubbed out releases on Caspa’s DUB POLICE label. They will be performing together live on laptops and keyboards representing Stockholm’s All Out Dubstep crew

IRK & TRICKYKID
ALL OUT DUBSTEP, STOCKHOLM

EMU & PAWN
SMOG, BASSHEAD, LA

STEADY
SMOG, DUBTROIT, LA

KELLY DEAN
SHIFT, DUBTROIT, LA

MC SANDOR
ALL OUT DUBSTEP, STOCKHOLM

KEMST
SMOG, LA

VISUALS: DEJA KRU // SOUND: SOLID SOUND

located:
ECHOPLEX
Enter at:
1154 Glendale Blvd.
Los Angeles, CA 90026

FOR MORE INFO:
http://www.smogla.com

9pm / $10 / 21+

Saturday 05.30.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 05.23.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 05.16.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 05.09.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Saturday 05.02.09: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Wednesday 05.27.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Wednesday 05.20.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Wednesday 05.13.09: DUB CLUB presents Reggae Meets Africa with EXTRA GOLDEN / THE MEDITATIONS / FOOL’S GOLD / YOUSSOUPHA SIDIBE @ echo & echoplex

with:
The Meditations || Listen
Extra Golden || Listen
Fool’s Gold || Watch
Youssoupha Sidibe

Upstairs in the Echo there will be 2 acts, Fools Gold—local Afrobeat heroes , and Extra Golden , Thrill Jockey recording artists who fuse a unique blend of Kenyan Benga music with American Rock. Downstairs in the Echoplex , the opening act will be Youssoupha Sidibe , a traditionally trained Kora player from Senegal whose music is a hybrid of African and Dub sounds , and the headliner will be Reggae legends The Meditations , one of the premier harmony trio vocal groups in roots music, who are still going strong with all original members. The audience will be able to walk between the 2 rooms all night, the Dub Club DJs will be spinning and it should make for a very memorable evening of music and culture.

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

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

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

9pm / $10 before 10pm, $15 after / 21+

Wednesday 05.06.09: 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

9pm / $5 / 21+

Saturday 05.02.09: BOOTIE LA with DJ TRIPP / ADRIAN & THE MYSTERIOUS D / DL PAUL V. / R.A.I.D. @ echoplex

BOOTIE LA
LA’s monthly mashup bootleg party

On his Bootie World Tour:
DJ TRIPP
spinning a special ALL-VIDEO mashup set!

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

Bootie LA’s resident dance crew:
R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance)

Joby Joy presents the 3rd Annual Cape Party! Wear a cape and get a free Bootie CD!

This month, DJ Tripp returns to LA to kick off his Bootie World Tour with a special ALL-VIDEO mashup set on the Echoplex’s giant video screen. Resident dance crew R.A.I.D. hits the stage at midnight with a freshly synchronized dance number, and Joby Joy will be doing his 3rd Annual Cape Party at Bootie LA — wear a cape, and you’ll get a free mashup CD!

Launched in 2003, Bootie was the first club night in the United States dedicated solely to the burgeoning artform of the bootleg mashup — and is now the biggest mashup event in the world, with monthly parties in seven cities on three continents. Mixing and matching every conceivable musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome, Bootie provides the soundtrack for the A.D.D. generation — with free mashup CDs given away like candy!

Resident DJs Adrian, Mysterious D, and Paul V. keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. Resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance) performs a mashed-up dance number nearly every month. Bootie showcases the best in mashup productions from around the globe and delivers them on the dance floor … because one song at a time just isn’t enough!

FREE Bootie CDs to the first 75 people through the door!

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

FMI: http://www.BootieLA.com

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

Friday 05.22.09: Echo & Club Underground present FREELAND (live) / DJ ALEX METRIC @ echo

Freeland (live) || Listen || Watch

Adam Freeland is the grammy nominated DJ/Producer most often hailed for the fusion of breakbeat and electro, and who owns and runs Marine Parade Records in the UK. With his 1996 Coastal Breaks album, he was heralded as championing a new sound, nu skool breaks. Today he is one of the most respected DJs and producers in the industry and has remixed some of the biggest names in music including Marilyn Manson, The Prodigy, The Doors, Fujiya & Miyaki and many others.

with:
Alex Metric

Plus Club Underground djs spinning Britpop * electro * indie* garage

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

9:30pm / $10 advance, $13 day of show / 18+

Tuesday 05.05.09: Custom Made/Bad Time Charlie Presents – CINCO DE MAYO CELEBRACION DE LOCO @ echoplex

featuring:
The Ladies of Pink Mink Mafia
The fyne art of David Lozeau

Appearing Live:
Los Creepers
Rezurex
Viernes 13
The Tenderbox
The Slanderin
The Howlers
Societys Parasites
A Pretty Mess
The Uglies
and more TBA

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

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

8pm / $10 / 18+

Monday 05.25.09: Monday Night Residency – JULIETTE COMMAGERE / CHAPIN SISTERS / JOGGER / LANDY @ echo

Juliette Commagere

Lately I’ve been so knocked out hearing these great and gorgeous pop tunes created and performed by the lovely Juliette Commagère. You might know her as the Keytar-slinging, charismatic front woman for the adventurous indie-rock band Hello Stranger, which she formed with drummer Joaquin Cooder; or you might have heard her singing and playing on recent endeavors by Avenged Sevenfold and Puscifer. That varied batch of interests hints as to the unclichéd gifts of the multitalented Commagère, which are given a fuller flowering on her new solo album, Queens Die Proudly (Aeronaut Records). A vividly orchestrated pop-art project veering from the wistful and elegiac to the epic and otherwordly, Queens is like a No. 1 chart-topper from another dimension, where remarkably memorable songs are given evocative musical twists via her classically designed song structures and sensual ’70s synth stylings. On her recent cross-country residency stints, Commagère has assembled local orchestras (via Craigslist!) of strings and horns, which brings a radiant gleam to her superb material. – LA Weekly

With
Chapin Sisters || Listen
Jogger
Landy || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 05.18.09: Monday Night Residency – JULIETTE COMMAGERE / ROBERT FRANCIS / CECI BASTIDA / RADEMACHER @ echo

Juliette Commagere

Lately I’ve been so knocked out hearing these great and gorgeous pop tunes created and performed by the lovely Juliette Commagère. You might know her as the Keytar-slinging, charismatic front woman for the adventurous indie-rock band Hello Stranger, which she formed with drummer Joaquin Cooder; or you might have heard her singing and playing on recent endeavors by Avenged Sevenfold and Puscifer. That varied batch of interests hints as to the unclichéd gifts of the multitalented Commagère, which are given a fuller flowering on her new solo album, Queens Die Proudly (Aeronaut Records). A vividly orchestrated pop-art project veering from the wistful and elegiac to the epic and otherwordly, Queens is like a No. 1 chart-topper from another dimension, where remarkably memorable songs are given evocative musical twists via her classically designed song structures and sensual ’70s synth stylings. On her recent cross-country residency stints, Commagère has assembled local orchestras (via Craigslist!) of strings and horns, which brings a radiant gleam to her superb material. – LA Weekly

With
Robert Francis
Ceci Bastida || Listen
Rademacher

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 05.11.09: Monday Night Residency – JULIETTE COMMAGERE / GRIZZLY OWLS / VAUDEVILLE / PAIGE STARK @ echo

Juliette Commagere

Lately I’ve been so knocked out hearing these great and gorgeous pop tunes created and performed by the lovely Juliette Commagère. You might know her as the Keytar-slinging, charismatic front woman for the adventurous indie-rock band Hello Stranger, which she formed with drummer Joaquin Cooder; or you might have heard her singing and playing on recent endeavors by Avenged Sevenfold and Puscifer. That varied batch of interests hints as to the unclichéd gifts of the multitalented Commagère, which are given a fuller flowering on her new solo album, Queens Die Proudly (Aeronaut Records). A vividly orchestrated pop-art project veering from the wistful and elegiac to the epic and otherwordly, Queens is like a No. 1 chart-topper from another dimension, where remarkably memorable songs are given evocative musical twists via her classically designed song structures and sensual ’70s synth stylings. On her recent cross-country residency stints, Commagère has assembled local orchestras (via Craigslist!) of strings and horns, which brings a radiant gleam to her superb material. – LA Weekly

With:
Grizzly Owls || Listen
Vaudeville
Paige Stark

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Monday 05.04.09: Monday Night Residency – JULIETTE COMMAGERE / OBI BEST @ echo

Juliette Commagere

Lately I’ve been so knocked out hearing these great and gorgeous pop tunes created and performed by the lovely Juliette Commagère. You might know her as the Keytar-slinging, charismatic front woman for the adventurous indie-rock band Hello Stranger, which she formed with drummer Joaquin Cooder; or you might have heard her singing and playing on recent endeavors by Avenged Sevenfold and Puscifer. That varied batch of interests hints as to the unclichéd gifts of the multitalented Commagère, which are given a fuller flowering on her new solo album, Queens Die Proudly (Aeronaut Records). A vividly orchestrated pop-art project veering from the wistful and elegiac to the epic and otherwordly, Queens is like a No. 1 chart-topper from another dimension, where remarkably memorable songs are given evocative musical twists via her classically designed song structures and sensual ’70s synth stylings. On her recent cross-country residency stints, Commagère has assembled local orchestras (via Craigslist!) of strings and horns, which brings a radiant gleam to her superb material. – LA Weekly

With:
Obi Best || Listen

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

Wednesday 05.06.09: NO CULTURE @ echo

FMI: No Culture on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Friday 05.29.09: CLUB UNDERGROUND @ echo

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

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

11pm / $5 if 21+, $7 under 21 / 18+

Friday 05.08.09: Echo & Club Underground Presents SPECTRUM / ABE VIGODA / THE ENTRANCE BAND @ echo

Spectrum || Listen

Spectrum is the most high-profile of the projects undertaken by Pete ‘Sonic Boom’ Kember after the demise of psych-rock avatars Spacemen 3. Spectrum satisfies the singer/guitarist’s more ‘conventional’ pop leanings, while never losing sight of the hypnotic otherworldliness and psychedelic soundscapes that are his music’s trademark and legacy.

In 2009 performing new material from the most recent album –‘Indian Giver’, songs from the new EP ‘War Sucks’ plus Spacemen 3 originals and classic Spectrum tracks audiences can expect a varied and dramatic collection of songs.

The current live show see’s an artist moving between the recent kraut-rock style ‘Mary’, the drug ecstasy of ‘Set me free’, the ever shimmering ‘Transparent Radiation’ & older, heavier pieces lulling the audience into a trance-like state before diving deeper down into the wah-wah, feedback & fuzzed out frenzy of powerchord epics such as ‘Revolution’ and ‘Suicide’.

With:
Abe Vigoda || Listen
The Entrance Band

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

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

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

8:30pm / $12 / 18+

Friday 05.08.09: NIGHTLIFE with THE BEAT JUNKIES / PETE ROCK @ echoplex

with resident DJs THE BEAT JUNKIES:
J.ROCC
BABU
RHETTMATIC
MR. CHOC

plus special guest:
PETE ROCK

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

10pm / $15 / 21+

Thursday 05.07.09: HER SPACE HOLIDAY / CITY LIGHT / HANNI EL KHATIB @ echo

Her Space Holiady || Listen || Watch

Marc Bianchi, the man behind Her Space Holiday, is a master of finding new ways to make clinical depression sound gorgeous. On The Past Presents the Future, Bianchi perfects his formula of spinning morose tales sprinkled with a few torturous moments of hope, while backing them up with a swirling combination of majestic strings that violently clash with the throbbing electronic beats that propel the songs. Perhaps spurred on by the work of the various artists and producers who successfully remodeled his previous album on The Young Machines Remixed, Bianchi experiments even more on the latest Her Space Holiday release, providing a somewhat more ambitious album that his previous albums. – Popmatters

With:
City Light
Hanni El Khatib

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

8pm / $12 advance, $14 day of show / All ages

Friday 05.01.09: Club Underground presents THE FLASH EXPRESS / THE SHIRLEY ROLLS @ echo

The Flash Express || Listen || Watch

“What’s up with the music?” That’s a question posed by the outstanding local trio the Flash Express on its appropriately titled debut album, Introducing the Dynamite Sound of the Flash Express (Hit It Now!).

It’s a distinctly non-rhetorical question that’s posited in the similarly non-rhetorical song called “Who Stole the Soul?” Guitarist-vocalist-ringleader Brian Waters attempts to answer that titular question in the same tune: “I don’t know who stole the soul/the Flash Express gonna give it back to the people now.” Although Waters, bassist Tommy Branch, and drummer Lance Porter have been kicking around for about three years now, they still seem to be languishing in contender status. But I haven’t seen such a legit rock band working up a for-real sweat on a Hollywood stage in many a moon. It’s time for everybody to get on board and, to borrow from another song title, ride the Flash Express. – LA City Beat

with:
The Shirley Rolls || Listen

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

9pm / $8 / 18+

Saturday 05.09.09: LA CABAL, 826LA & Echo present THE FIRST ANNUAL CRAFT BEER FEST LA @ echoplex

On May 9, Los Angeles gets its first festival devoted to California’s craft beer culture. Call it the next wave in the artisinal beer revolution brewing here in Southern California.

A dozen of the state’s best brewers will pour 26 handcrafted beers while L.A. chefs will sling FREE pub grub (gourmet bar nuts, artisan cheese pairings, vegan snacks). Attendees can feast on beer treats like ale cupcakes and stout ice cream from the gelato geniuses at Scoops. And a slew of local bands will share the stage with renowned brewers giving tips and discussing their wares, as well as cheese experts lecturing on pairing beer with food. There will truly be something for every beer drinker, from new fan to freak!

Breweries include: The Bruery, Craftsman, Firestone Walker, Hangar 24, Port Brewing, Lost Abbey, Sierra Nevada Telegraph and more to be announced soon.

Food courtesy of: Pure Luck, Hot Knives, Burrito Project, Scoops & more

entrance fee covers beer, food, brewery roundtables and live music.

Proceeds benefit 826LA, the nonprofit tutor program and children’s writing workshop founded by author Dave Eggers.

Craft Beer Fest LA is a new annual tradition brought to you by LA CABAL.

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

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

2pm / $30 / 21+

Saturday 05.30.09: KING KHAN AND THE SHRINES / MARK SULTAN / WOUNDED LION @ echo

King Khan & The Shrines || Watch

Most people didn’t hear about King Khan and the Shrines until last year, when What Is?!, their most recent LP for German label Hazelwood, seared the band’s combustible combo– Stax plus Nuggets plus hiss-covered indie-rock screwiness– onto listeners’ collective noggins. It was as if they were the Dirtbombs on simultaneous James Brown and Sun Ra kicks, or Black Lips with less of the Vice-ready comedy and more underlying pathos. Now signed to Vice, King Khan and the Shrines present a few of the best tracks from What Is?!, along with some of their earlier cuts, on label debut The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines. Despite the appropriately over-the-top title, it’s not so much a Greatest Hits– What Is?! has slightly better songs overall– as a chronicle of how Khan became King.

The strongest tracks, where the band’s unhinged nostalgia meets not only squealing discord but also Khan’s stupefying jester/soul-man antics, appeared previously on What Is?!. Take nourishment from the Hammond-drenched soul food-stamps of “Welfare Bread”. Hear Khan go howling mad and a step past girl-crazy amid the sitar-like guitar and wah-wah pedals of “I Wanna Be a Girl”. The string-tying absurdity of “69 Faces of Love”, or the prickly dick jokes and “Venus in Furs” string drone of “The Ballad of Lady Godiva” are sadly absent, but the deafness-repping James Brown of “Land of the Freak”, the Stooge-ian assault of “No Regrets”, and the relatively sane red-line retro of “Outta Harm’s Way” are all present and accounted for, as they should be. – Pitchfork

With:
Mark Sultan || Listen
Wounded Lion

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

7pm / $13 / All Ages

Friday 05.29.09: KING KHAN AND THE SHRINES / MARK SULTAN / WOUNDED LION @ echo

King Khan & The Shrines || Watch

Most people didn’t hear about King Khan and the Shrines until last year, when What Is?!, their most recent LP for German label Hazelwood, seared the band’s combustible combo– Stax plus Nuggets plus hiss-covered indie-rock screwiness– onto listeners’ collective noggins. It was as if they were the Dirtbombs on simultaneous James Brown and Sun Ra kicks, or Black Lips with less of the Vice-ready comedy and more underlying pathos. Now signed to Vice, King Khan and the Shrines present a few of the best tracks from What Is?!, along with some of their earlier cuts, on label debut The Supreme Genius of King Khan and the Shrines. Despite the appropriately over-the-top title, it’s not so much a Greatest Hits– What Is?! has slightly better songs overall– as a chronicle of how Khan became King.

The strongest tracks, where the band’s unhinged nostalgia meets not only squealing discord but also Khan’s stupefying jester/soul-man antics, appeared previously on What Is?!. Take nourishment from the Hammond-drenched soul food-stamps of “Welfare Bread”. Hear Khan go howling mad and a step past girl-crazy amid the sitar-like guitar and wah-wah pedals of “I Wanna Be a Girl”. The string-tying absurdity of “69 Faces of Love”, or the prickly dick jokes and “Venus in Furs” string drone of “The Ballad of Lady Godiva” are sadly absent, but the deafness-repping James Brown of “Land of the Freak”, the Stooge-ian assault of “No Regrets”, and the relatively sane red-line retro of “Outta Harm’s Way” are all present and accounted for, as they should be. – Pitchfork

With:
Mark Sultan || Listen
Wounded Lion

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

8pm / $13 / 18+