Friday 10.01.10: The Echo & Club Underground present: FOSTER THE PEOPLE / SUPERHUMANOIDS @ echo

Foster The People || Listen || Watch

We got word about this LA group last week called Foster the People who only formed in autumn 2009, but because of the speed with which information is disseminated these days, their song Pumped Up Kicks, which has yet to see an official release, is already being talked about as one of the sure-fire surprise hits of the summer. It’s one of those lo-fi indie tracks that, like Peter Bjorn and John’s Young Kids, has “alternative anthem” written all over it. Its crossover potential is confirmed by the simple, shuffling beat, the buoyant Brian Wilson bassline, and the outrageously catchy melody. The tune is sung through some muffling device that merely serves to make you strain even harder to hear the words, and after a verse or two the melody is bolstered by some whistling. And if that wasn’t enough to ingratiate itself into the heads and hearts of festivalgoers this summer, the lyrics are well chant-worthy. The verses aren’t easy to make out, but the chorus, even if it doesn’t mean much, does the trick: “All the other kids with the pumped-up kicks/You better run, better run, faster than my bullet.” It’s MGMT’s Kids meets Young Kids, with a hint of Empire of the Sun’s We Are the People. Quite clearly, Foster the People are into people power, and they’re doing it for the kids. – Guardian

With:
Superhumanoids || Listen

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

Friday 10.01.10: SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS / ACTIVE CHILD @ echoplex

SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS || LISTEN || WATCH

Turn off your mind, relax, and float downstream, kids: experimental dream-pop group School of Seven Bells is releasing the follow-up to 2008′s collection of transcontinental trance-jams, Alpinisms (TMT Review). The new album, Disconnect from Desire, is set for a July 13 release on Vagrant/Ghostly International (and Full Time Hobby in Europe). And just in case you’re into such kooky things as laying down all thoughts, surrendering to voids, listening to the color of your dreams, etc., this swirly twirly brainchild of former Secret Machines and On!Air!Library! members will also be playing two shows at Mercury Lounge in their hometown of New York City on June 9 and 10 before heading out into the, you know, Summer Tour Void or whatever. Cosmic. Plastic soul, man, plastic soul.

The album was produced by band member Benjamin Curtis in the band’s home studio and mixed by Jack Joseph Puig at Ocean Way in Los Angeles. “From the start, we knew we wanted to make a record that connected on more of a direct and personal level than we ever had before,” Curtis said. “It’s a complete account of our lives this past year, and it’s crazy how taking an honest look at yourself can tell you the most about the world around you.” – Tiny Mix Tapes

with:
ACTIVE CHILD || LISTEN

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

8:30pm / $15 advance, $17 day of show / 18+

Saturday 10.02.10: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Sunday 10.03.10: GRAND OLE ECHO @ echo

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Sunday 10.03.10: DEAD MEADOW @ echoplex

DEAD MEADOW || LISTEN || WATCH

Stoner-rock avatars Dead Meadow have slimmed down to a power trio, but their fat, rubbery sound hasn’t lost any of its bluesy bombast in the process. They seem oblivious to the passage of time, still riding the heavy train that Iron Butterfly, Cream, Sir Lord Baltimore, and Hawkwind set in motion. That doesn’t mean they’re oblivious for the need for new product, though—their most recent studio album is still last year’s Old Growth, but they’re working on an old-fashioned feature-length concert film called Three Kings. (They’ve moved from Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles, so maybe they think they have to make a movie now.) There’s a trailer up on their MySpace page, and I’m getting a distinct Song Remains the Same vibe, probably mostly from the footage of the band wandering around in hooded druid robes. Despite all the vintage-­colored self-indulgence and the whiffs of 70s hippie neopagan cheesiness, Dead Meadow’s hazy, smoky, languidly violent music can achieve an eerie beauty that transcends era, and onstage they’re a fiercely disciplined rock machine—in other words, don’t hold your breath for a dwarf trampling a miniature Stonehenge. – Chicago Reader

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

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

Tuesday 10.05.10: FIRST AID KIT / FERRABY LIONHEART / BASIA BULAT @ echo

FIRST AID KIT || Watch

First Aid Kit’s debut is all delicate picks and humble strums, where many girls its makers’ age – they were born in 1990 and 1993 – match their pulses to the skip-along sounds of the pop Top 40. Though the Söderbergs once sang along to Britney hits, their original fare is of the world-weary, heavy-hearted variety; disregard acknowledgment of their age and one could assume these voices sing from experience, not fanciful imagination.

It’s also tough to trace the roots of this material to Scandinavia’s fertile musical soil, as its primary touchstones are artists exclusively of stateside lineage – the bruised, soul-exposed lo-fi Americana of Bill Callahan; Cat Power’s spare, smoke-trail-detailed evocations; the soft-focus dynamics of Midlake and Fleet Foxes. As such questions can be posed, as to the ‘authenticity’ of First Aid Kit’s repertoire; but so finely accomplished is the sisters’ execution that doubts are soon dismissed.

While songs are, at times, little more than sketches – embellishments are at a premium, much on offer bare-boned and probably better for it – there’s only ever one element that’s properly illuminated: the vocals. And the sisters can sing, wonderfully so, uncommon richness wrapping itself around syllables drawled with all the ache of an individual battered by the conflicts of love, but stubbornly still standing. They can hold the listener in a trance-like state, the grip only broken when a sharp acoustic cuts the cord to mark the arrival of another song. – BBC

with:
FERRABY LIONHEART || Listen
BASIA BULAT || Listen

8:30pm / $13 advance, $15 day of show / 18+

Tuesday 10.05.10: Filter and Echo Present TALVIN SINGH @ echoplex

TALVIN SINGH

Talvin Singh born 1970 in Leytonstone, east London is an accomplished Tabla player, electronic musician, music theorist, record producer and DJ.

As a solo artist, he is perhaps best known as the father of modern Asian electronica music, though he is also a highly celebrated tabla player, record producer and visual practitioner.

Drawing inspiration from the classical Indian arts, Singh first came to prominence as tabla percussionist in the 1980s London music scene.

Whilst still in his mid teens, Singh traveled to India to earn pupilage from Acharya Pandit Laxman Singh, master tabla maestro of the Punjab school. This period made an indelible mark on the young artist and he has since continued to practice and perform the art form internationally. Singh’s collaborations with Indian classical musicians include Ustad Sultan Khan, Rakesh Churasia, Ustad Imrat Khan and Ustad Amjad Ali Khan amongst scores of others.

Singh also became involved in experimental music collaborations beginning in the late 1980s, working with Sun Ra and Courtney helping to popularize the burgeoning Asian underground sub-culture movement. Singh has collaborated with several musical pioneers in various genre’s including Bjork, Blondie, Sioux & the Banshees, Madonna, DJ Spooky, The Master Musicians of Jajouka, Jay Z and Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan.

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

8:30pm / $15 advance, $17 day of show / 18+

Thursday 10.07.10: FILTER MAGAZINE’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echo

For More info: culturecollide.com

8:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Thursday 10.07.10: FILTER MAGAZINE’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echoplex

For More info: culturecollide.com

8:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Friday 10.08.10: FILTER MAGAZINE’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echo

For More info: culturecollide.com

7:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Friday 10.08.10: FILTER MAGAZINE’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echoplex

For More info: culturecollide.com

7:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Saturday 10.09.10: FILTER’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echo

For More info: culturecollide.com

7:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Saturday 10.09.10: FILTER’S CULTURE COLLIDE FESTIVAL @ echoplex

For More info: culturecollide.com

8:30pm / $20 for festival pass / 21+

Saturday 10.09.10: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Sunday 10.10.10: GRAND OLE ECHO @ echo

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Sunday 10.10.10: Echo & Filter present TOM TOM CLUB / PAUL RYDER @ echoplex

TOM TOM CLUB || Watch

In 1981, during a break from their band Talking Heads, Chris Frantz and Tina Weymouth recorded the first Tom Tom Club record down in Nassau, Bahamas. Creating a funky hybrid of dance, soul and reggae with a completely different sound from Talking Heads, it was their first gold album. The first single from that album, “Wordy Rappinghood,” was an international smash. The second single, “Genius Of Love,” was one of the very first hip hop hits and has been recorded and sampled by more than fifty different artists from Grand Master Flash to P Diddy, and Mariah Carey. Tom Tom Club has recorded six albums. The band has always been made up of great friends and family. Tina and Chris were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 2002.

with:
PAUL RYDER

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

8pm / $20 advance, $23 day of show / 18+

Wednesday 10.13.10: THE ACORN / LEIF VOLLEBEKK / STONE DARLING @ echo

The Acorn || Listen || Watch

The Acorn displayed a knack for writing simple melodies stretched out over the bones of indie-folk, afrobeat, crooked rock and a hint of something more epic. It was never quite clear how the shapes fitted together or how the spell was cast, but there was no disputing the wondrous results. For anyone who fretted that Glory Hope Mountain might have been a beautiful fluke, No Ghost confirms The Acorn’s credentials, building thrillingly on the band’s ability to access a variety of moods and textures. It veers from plangent ballads via scrubby experimentation to conventional rock dynamics, and it’s not incidental that No Ghost was recorded in a cottage in the back of beyond in Quebec, the kind of place where phone signals peter out into static. On occasion the songs here are almost hypnotically hushed. At other times they’re both louder and more unhinged than ever before. There’s always been muscle in The Acorn’s music, now it’s simply more pronounced. It’s most evident on the abrasive “I Made The Law”, a minor-key march that unravels like a curse, and the title track, which kicks off like REM’s “Finest Worksong”, the crunchy riff dodging a maze of harmonics before breaking into a sun-dappled chorus. – UNCUT

with:
Leif Vollebekk
Stone Darling

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

Friday 10.15.10: TILT 3 YEAR ANNIVERSARY with JAMAICA / NIGHTWAVES / PARALLELS / FRENCH HORN REBELLION AND MORE @ echoplex

TILTmag.com Presents

TILT 3 Year Anniversary

Live Performances by:

Jamaica
Nightwaves
Parallels
French Horn Rebellion
and friends!

DJ Sets By Residents:
Short Circuit
Killed By Synth
Mike Woodward
B.R.

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

for more info: TILTmag.com

9pm/ $12 / 18+

Saturday 10.16.10: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Sunday 10.17.10: HOLY FUCK / INDIAN JEWELRY / CLIP’D BEAKS @ echoplex

HOLY FUCK || LISTEN || WATCH

For most of their history, Holy Fuck have operated as the augmented duo of Brian Borcherdt and Graham Walsh, surrounding themselves with a rotating cast of bass players and drummers (sometimes more than one at a time). Over the last few years, though, a consistent lineup has solidified, with bassist Matt McQuaid and drummer Matt Schulz holding down the rhythm section. And as one might expect, the consistency has affected the band’s sound, making Latin, the band’s third album, leaner and funkier than its predecessors.

Borcherdt and Walsh have refined some of their more aggressive noise, and here they use their arsenal of tone generators, guitars, and keyboards to create washes of tone that wrap around the rhythm section like a scratchy blanket. The occasional stab of melody flashes out from the maelstrom, before following the band on its next rhythmic turn. In fact, the album opens with a long ambient wash that builds in volume and intensity before peeling back to reveal the skeletal dance groove of “Red Lights”, a highlight that makes the most of the strange interplay between untethered ambient sound and insistent rhythm.

Even in its new, tighter state, the band can still bring the noise, as on the crunching closer “P.I.G.S.”, whose melodic synth patterns culminate in a vicious stop-time coda that ends the album on its roughest, most brutal note. Holy Fuck’s original mission was essentially to use a live band to create electronic, techno-informed music, and it’s a goal they remain wedded to here. Single “Latin America” in particular seems to pattern its rhythmic breakdowns and buildups on modern dance music.

Holy Fuck have carved out a unique and identifiable sound of their own, and as the band itself has solidified, it’s made their identity even stronger. – Pitchfork

with:
INDIAN JEWELRY
CLIP’D BEAKS

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

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

Tuesday 10.19.10: SCOUT NIBLETT @ echo

Scout Niblett || Listen || Watch

On a surface level, this music can resemble PJ Harvey on Rid of Me or Nirvana on In Utero, both of which were also engineered by Niblett’s collaborator Steve Albini. The substance is closer to Cat Power’s Moon Pix and the early albums by the reclusive songwriter Jandek. Like them, Niblett has a way of making you hang on her every note, and making her guitar strings sound like some kind of fragile tether to sanity. Her voice is expressive and raw, shifting between wounded soulfulness and unhinged fury. Her songs are not uninviting, and tracks like “I.B.D.” and “Duke of Anxiety” have strong, memorable melodic hooks, but the starkness and intensity of it all makes for a very difficult and challenging record. However, on the occasions when the music connects, it is mesmerizing and uncanny whether you are directly relating to her or having a more voyeuristic experience.

The extreme intimacy implied by the recording is both fascinating and uncomfortable, but that isn’t necessarily a complaint. This is an excellent document and a successful expression of something that is clearly personal to the artist. Our comfort level and patience is beside the point, but not unimportant. Niblett’s music is very much an acquired taste, and there are few ways to enjoy this other than on her terms. She’s not oblivious to this, and she has a sense of humor about it. The black and white photograph on the cover is a sly, on-the-nose bit of dark comedy: She’s standing there waving and smiling at us as she holds up a welding torch, presumably about to set herself on fire. It’s her odd little way of welcoming an audience to what she describes on the title track as her “self-made sweat box.” It’s grim and indulgent, but not lacking in style and wit. – Pitchfork

8:30 / $8 in advance, $10 doors / 18+

Thursday 10.21.10: FILM SCHOOL / LOVELIKEFIRE @ echo

FILM SCHOOL || LISTEN || WATCH

Los Angeles post-shoegaze outfit Film School have been together for nearly a decade, and with their fourth LP ‘Fission’ coming out on July 20, the band is more congealed than ever, serving up a melodic, fervent, hazy and deeply collaborative effort. Instead of mourning the separation from their label, the band gleaned new inspiration from the change. “It’s like any breakup — you either bury your head in the sand or you use that energy to create something,” lead singer Greg Bertens tells Spinner. “This band’s creative fuel always seems to come from a mix of the freeing energy you get from separation and the challenge to prove you’re still worthy.”

Their new single, ‘Heart Full of Pentagons,’ showcases a shift in sound as bassist Lorelei Plotczyk contributes vocals. With music born of band-practice jam material and idea sprung forth by a friend’s Facebook status, ‘Heart Full of Pentagons’ is an ode to a five-way love triangle — a love pentagon, if you will. It’s a “good, messy” story and a tease of what’s more to come. – Spinner

with
LOVELIKEFIRE || LISTEN

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

Friday 10.22.10: OWEN PALLETT / LITTLE SCREAM @ echoplex

OWEN PALLETT || LISTEN || WATCH

If you’re lucky, you might already know this guy as Final Fantasy. His reasons for dropping that name are probably boring and copyright-related, but still: The name change seems healthy on whole other extra-legal levels. I’ve never known anyone not to be wowed by Final Fantasy’s live show, and Final Fantasy’s live show is just Owen Pallett: the guy himself, a violin, and a loop pedal. It’s about as solo as anything gets– a performance, not a project. Stepping out under his own name feels like an acknowledgement of this, as if Pallett’s ready to cast aside the modesty of having a “project”– it’s just this thing I’ve been working on– and present himself, fully upright, as an artist.

And there are a lot of things about Heartland that feel like Pallett is presenting himself more and more fully as an artist; the scope of breadth and mood of it are all grander, more assured, making ever more of a case that the guy shouldn’t be viewed as a side note (string arranger for the Arcade Fire, the Pet Shop Boys) or a minor interest (D&D enthusiast, guy who titled an album He Poos Clouds). After all, one of this album’s closest cousins in the indie world is a notable, well-regarded one: Joanna Newsom’s Ys. Both are ambitious, classicist, cleverly arranged, lyrically high-concept, dense with possible meaning– and, yes, a little strange. – Pitchfork

with:
LITTLE SCREAM

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

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

Saturday 10.23.10: THE OCTOPUS PROJECT / STARF*CKER @ echoplex

THE OCTOPUS PROJECT || Listen || Watch

Drums vs. drum machines. Samplers vs. guitars. Take these oppositional elements, add a willingness to start a band first and learn how to use the gear later, crank it up to 25,000 and under certain laboratory conditions another band like The Octopus Project might emerge. The Octopus Project has created a unique sound perhaps best described as “ambidextrous equipment failure junk-tronica,” merging the experimentation of progressive post-rock, the blips and bleeps of electronica and the raw, human ROCK of rock.

Toto Miranda, Josh Lambert and Yvonne Lambert play with un-self-conscious joie de vivre. They create irresistible music – a feat all the more amazing considering none of their songs follow anything close to a rote pop, rock or dance structure. You can only call what they do happiness.

with:
STARF*CKER

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

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

Saturday 10.23.10: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Sunday 10.24.10: GOLD MOTEL / MICHAEL RUNION / FAMILY OF THE YEAR @ echo

GOLD MOTEL || LISTEN || WATCH

GOLD MOTEL doesn’t exist, but if it did, you’d find it on a winding road somewhere in the sun-drenched hills of Southern California. Singer-songwriter Greta Morgan wrote her first song at age three and never stopped, cutting her teeth in the music business and honing her chops as a driving creative force of the Chicago jangle-pop act The Hush Sound. After four years, three albums and a relentless touring schedule that included shows to devoted fans on three continents, Greta packed up her guitar, her piano, and her record collection and headed to Southern California to write the songs which would become her solo endeavor.

Gold Motel represents the evolution of a musical identity that hearkens back to pop’s crowning achievements: the dreamy energy of The Kinks, the quickwitted lyrical dexterity of Elvis Costello, the unassuming sophistication of a Beach Boys melody, light as air and deep as the Pacific. The youthful energy and sheer joy of Greta’s work is captured on the Gold Motel EP, recorded with friend Dan Duzsynzski (of the band This Is Me Smiling). Until then, old and new fans alike can catch Greta at live performances throughout the US, where she charms and beguiles with all the talent and soul of a singer in the lobby of a gilded motel.

with:
MICHAEL RUNION || LISTEN
FAMILY OF THE YEAR || LISTEN

6pm / $8 Advance, $10 day of show / all ages

Tuesday 10.26.10: REIGNING SOUND @ echo

Reigning Sound || Listen || Watch

The Reigning Sound was born in Memphis, TN. Its daddy was a Flash & The Memphis Casuals 45 and its mother a Barbara Pittman single. Life was not easy for this musical what-not. Kids shunned it for its rock`n’roll sensibility and obvious lack of polished shtick. In true stepchild fashion though, the band continued to develop a unique sound all it’s own that didn’t really focus on any of the preconceived genres. Within weeks they found their audience and were shakin’ down the house at clubs all over town. “Hail, Hail Rock ‘n’ Roll and fuck your prefab garage” appears to be some sort of battle cry for them. This from their leader Greg Cartwright whose previous bands The Oblivians & Compulsive Gamblers were so closely linked to the “Garage Punk” stereotype of ten years ago. “We were never really like most of the other bands” says Greg.” I covered R&B, gospel or country songs with absolutely no regard for any 60′s aesthetic or sound, I just enjoyed finding an obscure song and breathing some new life into it.” This same instinct for a truly inspired cover or a genius original can be found in the Reigning Sound. Greg is aided by bass player Jeremy Scott, organist/guitarist Alex Greene and drummer Greg Roberson.

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

Saturday 10.30.10: NINJATUNE 20TH ANNIVERSARY @ ECHO & ECHOPLEX

9PM / $20 ADV; $25 DOS / 18+

Saturday 10.30.10: FUNKY SOLE @ echo

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+