Saturday 12.01.07: GWENDOLYN & THE GOOD TIME GANG @ Echoplex

Gwendolyn & The Good Time Gang

It is very much to Gwendolyn’s credit that her second album for kids, Get Up and Dance!, released late last month, is entirely irony-free. Somehow, though, the songs are eager without turning off the parents. For example, kids will enjoy her exhortation to “bounce and bounce and bounce” (ad nauseam) “around” on the leadoff title track, while parents will smile wanly at the recognition of the fact that this, yes, is exactly how their child moves. But somewhere in the course of the song, the music opens up, adding handclaps and becoming sonically interesting (without losing the kids). The rest of the album is like that, too — the super funky “Eensy Weensy Spider,” the disco freeze-dance of “Red Means Stop,” and the best song never recorded for Grammar Rock!, “I Can Read.” The listing of vegetables “Out in My Garden” is reminiscent — in a good way — of their debut album’s “My Anatomy.” I also appreciate the fact that the album doesn’t end with a typical kids-album-closer slow song, but instead with the peppy “Sunny Day.” It fits perfectly here. – ZooGlobble.com

with:
DJ Lance Rock from Yo Gabba Gabba

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

10:30am / $12, Family of four for $44 / all ages

Saturday 12.01.07: THE NEW CHECK YO PONYTAIL w/ SURKIN

with:
Surkin
Dre Skull
DJ Hyphy Crunk

Plus resident DJs:
Franki Chan
Paparazzi

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / $10 / 18+

Saturday 12.01.07: SMOG SESSIONS w/ PLASTICIAN

with:

PLASTICIAN
(Rephlex, Terrorhythm, Rinse FM, BBC Radio1, London UK) Plastician came into the spotlight with a nod from the ‘Grime’
compilation on Aphex Twin’s Rephlex label. Riding the line between dubstep and grime, Plastcian is both – yet neither. This year he gained control of the BBC airwaves by hosting a regular show on Radio 1′s ‘In New DJ’s We Trust’.

BREAKAGE
(Digital Soundboy, Pure Filth, London UK) While well respected in the world of drum n bass for his dubbed out musical masterpieces, Breakage has been working hard at producing dubstep worthy of his name. This year he’s put out genre breaking tunes like ‘Clarendon’ that have turned heads across the world.
Currently he is working on a new album which has been highly anticipated.

EMCEE CHILD
(Narco.Hz, Grime City, B.I.G. Crew, SF)

DLX
(Smog, Steps In Time Records, LA)

KNIFE DREAMS
(Smog, Sub FM, Pure Filth, LA)

SOUND REINFORCEMENT BY:
PURE FILTH

ART INSTALLATIONS BY:
SPECTR

Buy Tickets at Groovetickets.com

FMI: www.smogla.com

9pm / $8 Presale, $10 before 11pm, $15 after / 21+

Sunday 12.02.07: PART TIME PUNKS

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 21+

Monday 12.03.07: VAMPIRE WEEKEND

Vampire Weekend || Listen

Fans describing Vampire Weekend often mention “Graceland” — the album, not the estate. It’s an inexact reference point, but an effective one, evoking 1980s nostalgia (it’s getting harder to find people who pretend to dislike that Paul Simon masterpiece) and an unfussy approach to Afro-pop. On Saturday the band members laid down a series of playful indie-rock grooves: plinky keyboards and spidery guitar lines, rattling drums and nudging bass. One of the band’s best-loved songs, “Cape Cod Kwassa Kwassa,” seems to evoke the pleasant confusion of making out, or not making out:

Can you stay up to see the dawn,
in the colors of Benetton?
Is your bed made? Is your sweater off?
Do you want to? Like you know I do?

The title makes reference to Congolese soukous music, and so does Mr. Koenig’s guitar figure. But if fans can’t tell exactly what has been borrowed from where, that’s part of the point. And in the refrain Mr. Koenig name-checks the guy who helped make so-called world music a genre unto itself, singing, “This feels so unnatural/Peter Gabriel too.” The band members all attended Columbia (online they claim to be specialists in “Upper West Side Soweto,” among other styles), and something about their preppie, polyrhythmic sound feels fresh and funny and, weirdly, inevitable. Instead of borrowing from early Talking Heads albums (the way Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and many other bands have done), they’re borrowing from Afro-pop, just as Talking Heads did on later albums. In retrospect it’s a brilliantly well-timed approach.

with:
Grand Ole’ Party
Princeton || Listen

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

Tuesday 12.04.07: PORT O’BRIEN

Port O’Brien || Listen

But Port O’Brien has earned the right to the salt-crusted imagery adorning its first full-length, The Wind and the Swell, as well as to the numerous mentions of seas and oceans and fishing boats and puffins in these jagged, intelligent indie-folk songs. Port O’Brien mainstay Van Pierszalowski, a California native and son of a commercial fisherman, spends his summers aboard an Alaskan salmon schooner, either fighting the seas or bored in port if the weather’s bad. He named the band after an Alaskan port, uses photos of his father’s crew as album art, and keeps a detailed ship’s blog on the group’s web site. But The Wind and the Swell, which collects the group’s first two out-of-print releases on one disc, sounds like a much better journal of days at sea. Like most tracks, opener “I Woke Up Today” could be a sea-legs lament: “Yes I understand I cannot live on this land,” Pierszalowski sings, “but does that truly mean I have seen all that can be seen?” The song is all windworn surfaces: the guitars sound rough and creaky, the voices cracked but resolute. These same lyrics repeat on the sparse closer “Simple Way”, which slows the tempo and pares down the music: instead of a stormy passage, the song fades gradually, like land disappearing on the horizon. – Pitchfork

with:
The Cave Singers || Listen
Whispertown 2000 || Listen

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

Wednesday 12.05.07: HELL YA! NIGHT with MAN LIKE ME

with:
Man Like Me
Hyper Crush vs. LMFAO
Villains
Lunar Fiction

Plus The HELL YA! DJS

8:30pm / FREE for 21+, $5 under 21 / 18+

Wednesday 12.05.07: 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 12.06.07: SPACELAND ON ICE w/ CASTLEDOOR @ Pershing Square

Spaceland Productions Presents:

Castledoor
You Me & Iowa || Listen

@ Pershing Square
532 South Olive St
Los Angeles, CA 90013

FMI: Downtown On Ice

7pm / FREE / all ages

Thursday 12.06.07: Grand Ole Echo and Echo Present – COUNTRY CHRISTMAS

A Hee Haw Styled Country Variety Show with:

5 O’clock Somewhere
Kingsizemaybe
Mike Stinson
David Serby || Listen
Leslie and The Badgers
The Psychedelic Cowboys || Listen

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

Friday 12.07.07: THE THERMALS @ Echoplex

The Thermals || Listen

Portland, Oregon natives the Thermals have been hovering on the periphery since their 2003 debut, delivering solid records to undersized acclaim. The band’s third album, The Body, The Blood, The Machine, conjures an America piloted by some sort of Christian-fascist regime (“They’ll pound you with the love of Jesus…They’ll own your days/ They’re only God’s babies/ They follow, they know”), and traces the frantic, fiery flight of an ex-pat and his girl (“I can see she’s afraid/ That’s why we’re escaping/ So we won’t have to die, we won’t have to deny/ Our dirty God, our dirty bodies”). The Body’s story is just vague and gruesome enough to be weirdly terrifying, totally Orwellian, and grander, louder, and more electrifying than anything the Thermals have spit out before. – Pitchfork

with:
The Big Sleep || Listen
Scandells

@ The Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

8pm / $13adv, $15dos / all ages

Friday 12.07.07: CLUB UNDERGROUND

with Underground DJs

Spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

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

Saturday 12.08.07: THE 8 with BALKAN BEAT BOX @ Echoplex

A Crazy Worldwide Hannukah Party

with:
Balkan Beat Box || Listen
Dengue Fever
Soulico

and
Festival of Rights

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / $15 / 18+

Sunday 12.09.07: ECHO ART PROJECT

with:
Nate Devner
Rich Ferguson
Bollweevil

Plus Films & Spoken Word

FMI: Echo Art Project Myspace

3pm / $10 / all ages

Sunday 12.09.07: PART TIME PUNKS w/ MEDIUM MEDIUM

Medium Medium || Listen
Yes. That MEDIUM MEDIUM. The ones who were produced by Adrian Sherwood. The ones who toured with Gang Of Four, PiL and The Pop Group. Better than Glaxo Babies or Minimal Compact. And as underrated as APB and, more recently, The New Bloods. DO NOT MISS THIS SHOW!

with:
Abe Vigoda
Guest DJ Paul V || Listen

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $10 / 18+

Monday 12.10.07: HELL YA! NIGHT with CHRIS GARNEAU

with:
Chris Garneau || Listen
Miniature Tigers
Goodbye Ian
The Rosewood Thieves || Listen

Plus The HELL YA! DJS

8:30pm / FREE for 21+, $5 under 21 / 18+

Tuesday 12.11.07: MOSCOW

Moscow

MOSCOW is an all girl band that prides themselves in writing sophisticated music. The influences they put forth into each of their songs also contain the ingredients of their own individuality. Their music has primarily been compared to the sounds of both Bauhaus and Interpol – dark and moody like Bauhaus, melodic and danceable like Interpol. Vanessa’s voice ties it all together with her beautiful vibrato and bluesy tone. Some of their main musical influences include The Cure, Radiohead, Depeche Mode, Blur, Portishead, Bjork, and The Cranberries.

with:
The Voyage

9pm / FREE / 21+

Wednesday 12.12.07: DUB CLUB w/ RAS MICHAEL @ Echoplex

Plus 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 / $12 / 21+

Thursday 12.13.07: MOVING UNITS @ Echoplex

Moving Units || Listen

Moving Units’ latest has the swagger and sneer of the most iconic rock, combined with catchy, sexy, melancholic dance riffs recalling classics from New Order to the Cure. Opener “Pink Thoughts” is dramatic yet focused, with guitars that remind me of favorite Chameleons songs of yore. Miraculously, even with all these 80’s references, Moving Units never sound dated. Instead, they’ve got enough going on in their novel electronics and within the music’s subtext to come off as fresh and modern. – Sentimentalist Magazine

with:
Scissors for Lefty || Listen
Tigercity

Plus special guest DJ Le Castle Vania

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

RSVP to get in for FREE

8pm / FREE / 18+

Thursday 12.13.07: SPACELAND ON ICE w/ THE MOVIES @ Pershing Square

Spaceland Productions Presents:The Movies
Fool’s Gold

@ Pershing Square
532 South Olive St
Los Angeles, CA 90013

FMI: Downtown On Ice

8pm / FREE / all ages

Thursday 12.13.07: PACIFIC DIVISION

Pacific Division || Listen

Surely, the booming bass of West Coast hip-hop is grounded in the car culture created when everyone lives in a never ending urban sprawl—but why does it have to be so angry? It’s beautiful outside! The girls outside are beautiful! Pacific Division—an LA County trio individually recognized as Like, Mibbs and B-Young—creates hip-hop as breezy and warm as the sunkissed legs displayed by one of those aforementioned beautiful girls. Their 2006 mixtape Sealed for Freshness is at once an uncompromised homage to the Golden Era when golden rays of sun permeated the music and a genuine understanding that in order to connect to the day’s youth, no one actually says “fresh” anymore. They understand the day’s vernacular, so it’s an update—and it’s definitely fresh. – Urb.com

with:
Basik MC
Diz Gibran
Kartweight

8:30pm / $8 / 18+

Friday 12.14.07: MODULAR RECORDS PARTY @ Echoplex

with:
LA RIOTS
PUBLICIST (Seb from TRANS AM–FIRST LA SHOW!!)
ROYAL RUMBLE
ANAVAN

AND MODULAR DJ DAISY O!!

MODULAR GIVEAWAYS ALL NIGHT!!

RSVP HERE

9pm / $10, $7 with RSVP / 18+

Friday 12.14.07: CLUB UNDERGROUND w/ THE MORNING BENDERS

with:
The Morning Benders || Listen

Plus Underground DJs

Spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

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

Saturday 12.15.07: MELLOWDRONE

Mellowdrone || Listen

If there’s ever an award to be given to an unsigned act that’s opened for some of the coolest bands, it’s hands down – Mellowdrone. Aside from touring with The Smiths’ iconic Johnny Marr and his group The Healers (both in Europe and America) this Jonathan Bates- led project has also logged stage time with The Killers, Secret Machines, Elbow and Fire Theft. Along the way, the enigmatic entity also inked a major label deal and readied the official national debut disc Box by recording at various Los Angeles studios with producer Tony Berg (Beck, X). The results are a hodgepodge of all the aforementioned road mates, plus a lot of laptop derived electronics that move from melancholy to dreaminess to downright pulsating in one instance. – Concertlivewire.com

5pm / $10 / All Ages

Saturday 12.15.07: CHECK YO PONYTAIL w/ KLEVER & TITTSWORTH

with:
Klever & Tittsworth
Japanther || Listen
The Black Ghosts
Ima Gymnist

Plus resident DJs Franki Chan & Paparazzi

9pm / $12 / 18+

Saturday 12.15.07: HANG THE DJS

with:
Hey Chica!
Dream Date
C-Town
Sin
Hyphy Crunk
Dia
Scarlett Casanova

spinning the best in: indie, international pop, britpop, electro, disco, post-punk, new wave, no wave, hiphop and more..

FMI:
Hang The DJs on Myspace

10pm / $8 / 18+

Sunday 12.16.07: PART TIME PUNKS w/ SAVAGE REPUBLIC

with:
Savage Republic || Listen
Solid Eye

Along with NERVOUS GENDER [see above], SAVAGE REPUBLIC
were LA’s other most important offering to Post-Punk. Think Joy Division, Cabaret Voltaire, Fela Kuti and his Afrika 70 crammed onto a stage with stacks of analog electronics and massive oil drums. On fire. Contemporary name-dropping might also include Indian Jewelry (and we’re working on that pairing for next time). Meanwhile Rick Potts’s SOLID EYE enemble, like Savage Republic, were originary members of LA’s LAFMS noise/artcore scene of the late 1970s/early 80s. And if you don’t know more . . . well . . . you should.

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $10 / 18+

Tuesday 12.18.07: THE KRIS SPECIAL

The Kris Special || Listen

The Kris Special (Anne – vocals, guitar, Nick – drums, Jeremy – bass) has an indie meets So-Cal desert rock… Kind of like Old 97s tempered w/ Silversun Pickups within a Cowboy Junkies framework. Fans of the Whiskeytown and Grandaddy both should enjoy their set… Pretty good stuff. The Kris Special’s long-awaited debut album “Alone Feels Like a Hotel Room” will be released on Tuesday, November 20, 2007 on No Exit Records. – Arizona Reporter

with:
Get Set Go || Listen
The Stevenson Ranch Davidians || Listen

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Wednesday 12.19.07: FARAWAY PLACES

Faraway Places || Listen

“According to the band’s Website,principals Donna Coppola (keyboards,vocals) and Chris Colthart (guitar, vocals) met in Boston while watching a Sun Ra video, and their music—first put out under the moniker the Solar Saturday, and fleshed out by an ever-changing ensemble of players—evokes the experimental, jazzy and frequently downright wacky spirit of the Arkestra’s work. Except that the Faraway Places are a helluva lot more listenable: They combine jangly and fuzzy guitars, layers of electronic and orchestral flourishes and a pop sensibility that straddles 60’s England and 70’s California, with Ms. Coppola’s matted voice sounding like a cross between Nico and Kim Deal. Unfocus on It, their debut album, manages to be both cool and warm, especially on the wistful ‘Summertime’ with its melancholy string arrangements and back-up sighs, and the Beach Boys-meets-Bowie ‘City on the Ocean’.” – New York Observer

with:
Fool’s Gold
Sunset

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Wednesday12.19.07: 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 12.20.07: SPACELAND ON ICE w/ THE HENRY CLAY PEOPLE @ Pershing Square

Spaceland Productions Presents:

The Henry Clay People || Listen
Bollweevil

@ Pershing Square
532 South Olive St
Los Angeles, CA 90013

FMI: Downtown On Ice

8pm / FREE / all ages

Thursday 12.20.07: RUMSPRINGA

Rumspringa

As drummer Itaru de la Vega and guitarist/vocalist Joe Stevens take the stage where a million hopefuls have previously set foot, it’s as if I was in some sort of mystical ceremony. Fans were dancing in this sort of sacrificial trance-like state and it wasn’t a surprise. Something about this band’s music is hypnotizing. As the show progressed, Rumspringa include their fans in their music by handing out tambourines and maracas—this sort of union speaks to the down-to-earth quality of the band and proves that (more or less) they are one with their crowd, as well as humble people. The crowd definitely took full advantage and it was absolutely a beautiful sight to see. Looking around, it was inevitable that between the first song and the third or fourth, everyone in the room had succumbed and were dancing or—to say the least—bobbing their heads. – LA Record

with:
The Devil Makes 3 || Listen
Army Navy
Chief

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Friday 12.21.07: CLUB UNDERGROUND w/ RADEMACHER

with:
Rademacher || Listen
Wait Think Fast

Plus Underground DJs

Spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

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

Saturday 12.22.07: RRIICCEE @ Rec Center Studio

RRIICCEE
Featuring Vincent Gallo & Erik Erlandsen

RRIICCEE is a spontaneous collective between the two musicians (with the potential of additional members) and exhibits the creation of composition within a live performance. For all appearances, the outfit does not perform pre-written music and is not limited to the boundaries of one specific musical genre. At the present time, RRIICCEE has no recorded music and has no plans on recording a commercial release.

Gallo offered, “Improvisation is not a good word for what we’re doing. It’s more a gesture of composing and performing at the same time, always hoping to avoid musical cliché or jamming. We’ve chosen not to go into a studio in a traditional way like other bands have done in the past: to make recordings, cut them up, dub on them, fine tune and mix them, and then release them as an album, then later, go on tour, pantomiming those recordings over and over each night as a form of cabaret. Instead, for a long time now, we’ve chosen to remain open, to grow and change more naturally, and when we play live, the music is often created during the performance. If we choose to record a performance, the recording itself is only evidence of that creative moment. The purpose of recording then, is to listen back for enjoyment.”

@ Rec Center Studio
1161 Logan
Los Angeles, CA 90026

7pm / $17 / all ages

Sunday 12.23.07: PART TIME PUNKS

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 21+

Monday 12.24.07: CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY

Tuesday 12.25.07: CLOSED FOR THE HOLIDAY

Wednesday12.26.07: 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 12.27.07: CLOSED

Thursday 12.27.07: SPACELAND ON ICE @ Pershing Square

@ Pershing Square
532 South Olive St
Los Angeles, CA 90013

FMI: Downtown On Ice

8pm / FREE / all ages

Friday 12.28.07: CLUB UNDERGROUND

with:
Mere Mortals
Seasons

with Underground DJs

Spinning the best in Brit / Indie / Soul / Twee / Madchester / Punk / Glam

FMI: ClubUnderground.net

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

Saturday 12.29.07: MARS VOLTA @ Echoplex

The Mars Volta || Listen

SOLD OUT

8pm / $30 / all ages

Sunday 12.30.07: MELVINS @ Echoplex

Melvins || Listen

With a similar sardonic glee, Melvins (now swollen to a quartet with the addition of Coady Willis and Jared Warren of L.A.’s Big Business) add to their already-weird canon with this latest 10-song bounty. Willis and Warren are themselves known for prostration before the almighty riff, and the partnership seems to have inspired in Messrs. Crover and Osbourne a measured return from their recent, more experimental work to the rock and roll drawing board. No trifling from the lead-off “The Talking Horse,” which blasts off with a tenderizing fuzz bass grind and interlocking play from the dual drummers. Here and throughout the record, the band’s new double-kit approach steers clear of bash-happy exploitation, and Crover, for one, downplays his megaton-concussion capability. When not locked into unison, honest-to-gawd grooves, Crover and Willis squeeze off clackety, dueling cymbal and percussive patterns and superimposed fills. “Horse,” along with “The Blood Witch,” introduces the Melvins’ new three-throated vocal attack – nearly every stanza is delivered via a raucous gang harmony. – Dusted Magazine

with:
400 Blows || Listen
Tweak Bird

@ Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / $16 adv, $18 dos / 18+

Sunday 12.30.07: PART TIME PUNKS

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

FMI:
Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 21+

Monday 12.31.07: New Year’s Eve w/ DUB CLUB ALL STARS featuring SISTER NANCY @ Echoplex

Sister Nancy

Sister Nancy was one of 15 siblings; her brother Robert, known to her family as Dickie, found fame as Brigadier Jerry. The latter began chanting on Prince Norman’s sound system before settling with Jahlove Music. While the Brigadier’s reputation as the number one cultural DJ flourished, by her mid-teens, Nancy was occasionally performing on the sound system. Winston Riley was the first producer to take Nancy into the recording studio in 1980 for her debut, “Papa Dean”. The tune was a success and Nancy’s career began in earnest. She performed at Reggae Sunsplash, which was transmitted globally. A notable appearance on A Dee Jay Explosion saw Nancy performing “Chalice A Fe Burn” and “Boom Shacka Lacka”. continued appearing live in the dancehall where she often performed alongside her brother on the Jahlove Music Sound System. The sound toured internationally to rave reviews, including a celebrated session at Brixton Town Hall, London, where both Jerry and Nancy made their debut performances in the UK. – BigUpRadio.com

with:
Ranking Joe

Plus 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 / $17 adv, $20 dos / 21+

Monday 12.31.07: Hang The DJs & Club Undergound Present – New Year’s Eve w/ GRAM RABBIT

Gram Rabbit || Listen

They’ve gone from strange to stranger, those Joshua Tree denizens known as Gram Rabbit. On their third album, RadioAngel and the RobotBeat, out November 17, they come out spitting, with lead singer and co-songwriter Jesika von Rabbit coming off like Grace Jones with a bunny fetish on the fed-up-with-technology electro-ditty “American Hookers.” Considering they go to sleep every night under a sky filled with more stars than the rest of us can only dream of, it’s not surprising their lyrics express a great deal of concern for “the world gone wrong.” They also come from a place with fewer teeth per capita than the rest of the state, hence references to priests smoking crystal meth and pit bulls. Even weirder is “The Rest of Us Sleep,” which sounds like video-game effects. My pick hit is “Fancy Dancy,” with what may be the best line of the summer: “Any way you slice it, it’s still bologna.” They even wrote a song about Landers, called “Landers,” which is some blips and plucks and pounds and maybe some voices. Bonus: Most of the new tunes are excellent for doing “The Robot.” – LA Weekly

complimentary champagne toast at midnight

10pm / $15 adv, $20 dos / 18+