PANGEA @ Echo

Crystal Antlers || Listen||Watch
Long Beach’s Crystal Antlers covered the same Mose Allison song as Blue Cheer on their first 7-inch—which is now trading for upward of $100 among people who didn’t have the opportunity or sense to go buy ’em fresh at Long Beach’s Dyzzy On Vynyl. They grew from there into a fearsome beast that was part American fringe-garage freak-out and part early Funkadelic, with long, loping songs just bristling with guitar. After unfair hard luck when their label Touch and Go went under just after releasing their first LP, Crystal Antlers regrouped with a recording retreat to Mexico and a self-released single that added a strange, engaging pop sensibility to their much-loved heavy-rock madness. They haven’t made bands like this since the heyday of SST—independent, unpredictable and righteous in both riff and deed.OC Weekly

Cold Showers

Clorox Girls || Listen||Watch

Pangea || Listen||Watch
Pangea is from Newhall, CA, and they have that upbeat surf-y sound that goes wonderfully with The Lovely Bad Things and Tijuana Panthers. You can tell a lot about their attitude and sound from the names of their songs. They started it up with “To Drunk To Come” (the appropriate spelling written on my note card courtesy of William, the lead singer and guitarist), a very fast paced mosh-worthy song at first that slows down into a 1960s reminiscent beat. They then played “Get Away Free,” a fun song that made us all break a sweat in the ill ventilated sardine can that Burger Records became. Next was “Hold My Hand,” which forced me to take my Cosby sweater off and dance like I was an American Bandstand girl (except Pangea wasn’t lip syncing). William said “Thanks for clapping you guys,” as they then played “Shitty,” which has that old surf sound with a new age twist, because obviously The Routers wouldn’t title a song “Shitty.” William said “This is our last song. Thanks for putting up with us. We appreciate it.” He then began their last and favorite one, “No Feelin’,” which made the crowd go wild. The stop-and-start drum beat and the loudly defined bass definitely didn’t stop anyone from dancing, and neither did the heat of the record shop.LA Record