Marijuana Deathsquads began as a collaboration between P.O.S and his Building Better Bombs bandmates and has since evolved into one of the most progressive and sprawling noise bands in the Twin Cities. Their Wednesday-night house gigs at Nick and Eddie are notorious for featuring a revolving crew of musical luminaries from around the Twin Cities and for showcasing bombastic and unpredictable sets of improvised mania. Which is no surprise; spearheaded by emerging producer Ryan Olson, Marijuana Deathsquads’ band members and collaborators weave a tangled web of overlapping side projects that span from Minneapolis to Eau Claire and beyond. The band’s set in the park will feature a live collaboration with P.O.S (pictured) and members of Olson’s internationally renowned recording project Gayngs. – Citypages

with
WOAH HUNX
HOLLOYS || Listen

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

Southern Culture on the Skids || Listen || Watch

Friday night’s Southern Culture on the Skids show at the Gothic Theatre left a mark on Denver, as they used down-home country pickin’, grinnin’ (and just the right amount of fried chicken) to lead a packed house to hillbilly stomping glee. The venue became a back woods hoe-down as frontman Rick Miller and his cohorts strung together a set of pure white-trash-in-a-blue-collar fun, with silver tongue deftly planted in cheek.

From the first strums of the opening number, Miller mixed surf, punk and country guitar wizardry with slack-jaw wit as he sang his half of the songs. Bassist (and heartbreaking truck stop beauty queen) Mary Huff belted out her share of the set in strong, sultry vocals from beneath a nearly Marge Simpson-sized, red bouffant wig, forming a no-nonsense rhythm section, and the core of funk behind the band’s shimmy-groove, with drummer Dave Hartman and touring rhythm guitarist Tim Barnes.

The quartet successfully mixed humor and sexual innuendo with the perfect amount of schtick, and ended up sounding anything but camp. Huff, decked out in white go-go boots, shining gold nylons, a miniskirt and what looked like a 7-11 clerk’s zippered uniform shirt, adjusted her makeup between almost every song. As she introduced the Wanda Jackson classic “Funnel of Love,” she also drew down the zipper on her blouse and adjusted her bra, preparing both herself and the audience for its saucy sensuality. – Denver Post

with:
Lynda Kay
Jeremiah and the Red Eyes

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

Stereo Total || Listen || Watch

French/German duo Stereo Total has been combining synth pop, new wave, dance music, and indie pop since the mid ’90s, and their latest album seems to find these vets in a properly self-possessed place. Doing pretty much whatever tickles their fancy, they’ve included some covers of tunes by their favorite artists, including Brigitte Fontaine, and they’ve assembled a guest list of a whole slew of their friends and co-conspirators, from Can “Khan” Oral to the Original Upper Kreuzberg Nose Flute Orchestra. Yeah, that’s right. – Prefix

with:
Hawnay Troof
Kisses || Listen
Allister Izenberg

plus:
Club Underground Resident DJs

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

8:30pm / $14 advance, $16 day of show / 18+

BOOTIE LA
LA’s bimonthly mashup bootleg dance party

iPAD DJ SET
From special guest:
DJ TRIPP

Resident Bootie DJ:
DJ PAUL V.

Resident dance crew:
R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance)

Vinyl turntables and CD DJ decks are soooooo 20th century! Which is why Bootie LA is presenting the latest way to DJ — with Apple iPads! Known for always pushing the latest technology in his sets, DJ Tripp was one of the first to embrace this new, cutting-edge way to DJ. For this special guest set, he’ll be utilizing the multi-touch displays on a pair of iPads to control, manipulate, and play mashups!

Resident DJ Paul V. will also be on the decks, spinning all your favorite (and soon-to-be favorite mashups) while resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance) provides the on-stage eye-candy with their trademark gold suits and fierce go-go dancing.

Launched in 2003 by DJs Adrian & Mysterious D, 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 regular parties in several cities on four continents. Mixing and matching every conceivable musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome, Bootie’s DJs keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. Bootie provides the soundtrack for the A.D.D. generation, with free mashup CDs given away like candy!

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

FREE Bootie CDs to the first 100 people through the door!

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

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

Guest DJ:
Jose Maldonado (from The Sweet And Tender Hooligans)

resident dj Michael Stock spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI: Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Vanaprasta || Listen || Watch

L.A. quintet Vanaprasta has come a long way since they got inside my head with their nifty guitar work last March. Not so far that they have an album out yet — that’ll happen when “Heathy Geometry” is released later this year — but far enough that their dramatic blend of churning rhythms, bright riffage and glowing imagery sounds ready for big stages. The band — Collin Desha, Steven Wilkin, Taylor Brown, Cameron Dmytryk and Ben Smiley — traveled to Portland late last year to record, and the initial results of those sessions, the “Forming the Shapes” EP, will be out next month. Vanaprasta will also contribute a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” to a forthcoming L.A. charity compilation, “Uncovering a Cure.” On the EP version of their album’s title song, Vanaprasta takes some liberties with the word “geometry,” but their math works for me.- Buzz Bands

Pacific Hurt || Watch

While some things change — as in, say, a band’s name switching from Aushua to Pacific Hurt — some things remain very much the same. Their moniker may have morphed, but Pacific Hurt’s sound still hues closely to the sweeping and sleek intricate rockers that made their Limbo disc the best local EP of last year. – Web In Front

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

WAIT. THINK. FAST || Listen || Watch

Singer-pianist Jacqueline Santillan shifts between Spanish and English vocals with an inviting casualness, an approach to contemporary pop that takes a multi-ethnic view for granted. Rare indeed is a band that so comfortably executes West Coast traditions, be it the SoCal country of “Trouble,” the working-class guitar vamp of “Covina,” the Latin lament of “Jornaleras” or the orchestral, Hollywood-ready grandeur of “Bad Night.” Think of it as the musical equivalent of Los Angeles sprawl — without the headaches. – LA Times

with
LIGHT FM
MARVELOUS TOY
FUTURE GHOST

plus DJ:
Neil from Origami

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

THE GORIES || Watch

Formed in January of 1986 over a six pack of Budweiser and “Scum of the Earth” on the record player. Played dives around Detroit for six and a half years with a couple of trips to New York City and Chicago. Released three LPs and a handful of singles. Toured Europe in the Spring of ’92. Broke up.

with:
Haunted George
Nice Smile

8:30pm / $20 advance, $22 day of show / 18+

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

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

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

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

Cracker || Listen || Watch

Cracker, the group that veritably introduced brash irreverence and irony into alt-rock, are back and in top form on their 429 Records debut, Sunrise In The Land Of Milk And Honey.

This rich new trove of sharp-witted songs showcases a bristling, late 70’s – early 80’s power pop punk aesthetic which hits as hard as it did at the band’s formation 17 years ago. Eight albums (one platinum and three gold) and a barrel full of anthemic hit songs later, Cracker endures, using their ability to weave decades of influences into an album that is seamlessly riveting.

In Sunrise…, long-time partners David Lowery and Johnny Hickman, 12-year Cracker drummer Frank Funaro and bassist Sal Maida (since 2006), train a watchful eye on the current socio-musical landscape as they weave an eerie yet strangely soothing story of escapism, apocalypse and renewal. Friends John Doe, Patterson Hood and Adam Duritz (whose mega-band Counting Crows was once produced by Lowery) make spirited guest appearances. The recording was helmed by Athens, GA-based producer/engineer David Barbe, a longtime friend of Lowery who has manned consoles for the likes of Son Volt and the alt-Southern rock band Drive-By Truckers.

The explosive title track that wraps the 11-song collection is thematic, belying its seemingly cheery title to take a tough-edged look at the precarious times we live in. Ever the observant storyteller, Lowery calls it like he sees it: the affluence and wealth America seemed to have these past decades was built on a mirage. The sun shines a harsh light on a landscape of decay. The golden age, the promised land, the land of milk and honey, never materialized.

with:
Camper Van Beethoven || Listen

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

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

We Barbarians || Listen || Watch

So, there’s this We Barbarians album called There’s This There’s That and it has some things I should probably tell you about. For example, in order to review it properly I would have to tell you of all of the comparisons that come to mind while listening to the album, or at least that I’ve gathered from the six times I perused it. Some of the songs remind me a tiny bit of their Long Beach neighbors Cold War Kids while other songs portray elements of War-era U2, with anthemic drum beats and precise, cutting distortion. Other songs make me think echoey, orchestral pop, which can be found on “Trickle Down”. “War Clouds” is a pertinent song asking poignant questions about war and the state of the turbulent world around us… but I’m not going to tell you all of that because I mostly just want to say that it is a really great album and that you should listen to it, and re-listen to it again and again. – IndieRockReviews

with:
Superhumanoids
Tijuana Panthers

9pm / $8 / 18+

Helen Stellar || Listen || Watch

While that’s quite a lofty title, it’s also an apt description of the sonic direction in which Helen Stellar are headed. Having already proven themselves virtuosos of spiraling, explosive and ethereal dream-rock, the LA-based trio have given their huge sound a sense of urgency on their first official full-length release. In doing so, vocalist/guitarist Jim Evens, drummer Clif Clehouse, and bassist Dustin Robles expanded from trio to quartet with the addition of second guitarist Eli Lhymn, amping up the energy of Helen Stellar’s carefully crafted and densely-layered sound. With melodies and textures that soar high into the ether, unrelenting drumbeats that thunder from earth below, driving bass lines, and Evens’ lyrical obsession with the battered heart of the human condition, Helen Stellar have successfully exchanged beautifully dripping rock ambience for a head-on swirling sonic attack of bittersweet melodies. Clehouses’ deft bombastic percussion propels the hooks and melodic twists of “Joseph” and “From Here On” at a breakneck pace while Evens sings passionately about overcoming emotional blindness through the thick, gritty pulse of “Hyper-aware.” “The Disappearing Twin” careens out of control like a psychedelic freight train without brakes as the gorgeous heavenly noise freak-outs wrap around sky-bound “Hopeless Romantic” like a warm blanket. – Under The Radar

With:
Saucy Jacks || Listen

8:30pm / $8 / 18+

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

FMI: Club Underground on Facebook

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

The Clientele || Listen || Watch || MP3

The best of the Bonfires extends the Clientele’s great project: building, through hyper-evocative descriptive fragments and music to match, one of the great imaginary places in pop. The Clientele’s suburb is obviously the product of an English coming of age, but it’s also just dreamily vague enough to mirror the lives of listeners almost anywhere. (Unless you happen to live in one of those William Gibsonish fourth-world megalopolises with no green spaces.) The vibe of Bonfires is strong enough to almost feel the leaves crunching underfoot and smell the smoke cutting through the growing chill in the air, an indie-pop equivalent to Brian Eno’s windswept and stone-solid world-building circa On Land. It’s not an album you can dance to, but it’s one you can live in and with, alone, which is rare enough to be applauded. The band’s steadily curated one of the decade’s great bodies of mood music. In an odd way, it strikes me as almost cousin to Sufjan Stevens’ quixotic attempt to bring each state in the union to life: The Clientele seem to be trying to capture the light and air and meteorological conditions and attendant emotional baggage of each season, with a disarmingly straight-faced grace and wonder that makes it one of pop’s more laudable long-term career moves. – Pitchfork

with:
Lay Low || Listen
Gangi

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

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

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

with:
Kingsizemaybe
The Running Kind
Gentlemen Farmers
Skip Heller

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

Seminal Scottish rock band Mogwai are thrilled to announce their first official live concert film release, Burning. The film, directed by Vincent Moon and Nathanael Le Scouarnac of the world-renowned La Blogotheque’s Take-Away Shows, was shot at the band’s sold-out three-night residency at Brooklyn’s Music Hall of Williamsburg in April 2009. These creative powerhouses in film and music have come together to produce something undeniably unique and mesmerizing, grabbing the audience from the first opening seconds and never letting go. The 45-minute film presents itself as a modern urban noir thriller, a black-and-white journey, starting on the same electrifying New York streets Bernard Hermann scored for Martin Scorsese. Manholes hiss steam, taxi headlights flare in the camera lens and strangers wait in street corner shadows. Moon and Le Scouarnec call their film an “experience of the senses… a lifetime of feelings in just one night.”

You can pre-order your copy of the DVD/CD here

7:30pm / all ages

THE PROCEDURE CLUB [Slumberland Records LP release party]
SWEATER GIRLS

Guest DJ Mike Schulman from SLUMBERLAND RECORDS!

resident dj Michael Stock spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI: Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $8 / 18+

Vanaprasta || Listen || Watch

L.A. quintet Vanaprasta has come a long way since they got inside my head with their nifty guitar work last March. Not so far that they have an album out yet — that’ll happen when “Heathy Geometry” is released later this year — but far enough that their dramatic blend of churning rhythms, bright riffage and glowing imagery sounds ready for big stages. The band — Collin Desha, Steven Wilkin, Taylor Brown, Cameron Dmytryk and Ben Smiley — traveled to Portland late last year to record, and the initial results of those sessions, the “Forming the Shapes” EP, will be out next month. Vanaprasta will also contribute a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” to a forthcoming L.A. charity compilation, “Uncovering a Cure.” On the EP version of their album’s title song, Vanaprasta takes some liberties with the word “geometry,” but their math works for me.- Buzz Bands

Pacific Hurt || Watch

While some things change — as in, say, a band’s name switching from Aushua to Pacific Hurt — some things remain very much the same. Their moniker may have morphed, but Pacific Hurt’s sound still hues closely to the sweeping and sleek intricate rockers that made their Limbo disc the best local EP of last year. – Web In Front

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

For More Info:
WWW.SMOGLA.COM

10pm / 21+

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

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

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

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

The Chapin Sisters || Listen || Watch

You won’t see the Chapin Sisters on MTV, and that’s probably a good thing. Their music is well crafted with intense lyrics, traumatizing instrumentals, and all that is second nature to their insane harmonies that just makes you wonder how long they practice at it. The sister duo, Abigail and Lily Chapin, have put together a solid album after their debut, Lake Bottom. It’s not much of a step from their first album but it’s who they are, a talented band with heavy folk roots, who may have been born in the wrong era.

Two still has their folk elements that they’re known for but they also tap into a little bit of jazz as well as some country this time around. “Paradise” stood out to me as one of the best tracks on the second record, they throw their harmonies behind some solid piano playing a la Norah Jones, just a little stronger vocally. They stick to the theme of this record with lyrics like “no other drug will do/I know it’s true/I’m so much better off with you.” It’s songs like this that makes you think Two may not be so much about their second record coming out but having that second chance we all want so bad after we screw up in a relationship. This just a beautiful song with nothing but keys and the tambourine. – Indie Media Mag

8:30pm/ 18+

Pantha Du Prince || Listen || Watch

Though he lacks the crossover name recognition of producers like the Field, Burial, and Lindstrøm, Germany’s Hendrik Weber is one of the leading figures in modern techno. As Pantha du Prince, he has up until now released two albums of meticulous, minimal-inspired house music. The last, 2007′s This Bliss, found the rare balance between ambient sweep and dancefloor bounce, and it’s only grown in stature since its release. In part because of a move from the smaller Dial Records to Rough Trade and guest spots from some indie heavyweights, his new LP, Black Noise, is being met with more excitement this time around. And with good reason: Said to be born out of a period of musical exploration in the Swiss Alps, the record is both a stylistic departure for Weber and an extension of what he already does well.

Weber is unlike most minimal techno producers in that he doesn’t look to locate one groove and ride it for the course of a track. His songs open up, unfurl, and regularly change course. With Black Noise he develops this to incorporate a wide range of sounds– field recordings, atonal noise, and stray percussion all populate the album. Above all, here he aims to reproduce sounds already in nature, and where This Bliss was airy and celestial, this record is gritty and earthbound. It’s darker, more forceful, and more chaotic. – Pitchfork

with:
The Sight Below

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

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

MEN || Listen

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

FMI: Club Underground on Facebook

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

BOOTIE LA
LA’s bimonthly mashup bootleg dance party

11 PM — Live on stage:
TRANZKONTINENTAL
LA’s live glam-rock drag mashup revue

Resident Bootie DJ:
DJ PAUL V.

Resident dance crew:
R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance)

Live on stage at 11 PM — and making their Bootie LA debut — are hot new LA band Tranzkontinental. Featuring Xander Smith and Charlie Paulson (original members of the Club Makeup band) along with LA drag superstars Momma and Kelly Mantle, the band was conceptualized with Dragstrip 66 & Bootie LA’s own DJ Paul V. The group came together with a singular goal in mind: to bring some sexy glam, glitz, and gender-bent sleaze back to the Sunset Strip, where they’ve been wowing crowds with a monthly residency at The Roxy. With a rotating cast of fierce queens on the mic, the band rips through classic rock ‘n’ roll jams — and new electropop hits — and mashes them all together, such as Lady Gaga vs. Metallica, and AC/DC vs. Peaches.

DJ Paul V. will also be on the decks throughout the night, spinning all the mashups you love, while resident dance crew R.A.I.D. (Random Acts of Irreverent Dance) will provide the on-stage eye-candy with their trademark gold suits and fierce go-go dancing.

Launched in 2003 by DJs Adrian & Mysterious D, 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 regular parties in several cities on four continents. Mixing and matching every conceivable musical genre, era, and style into one big dance party where everyone feels welcome, Bootie’s DJs keep your brain guessing and body dancing with creative song combinations, celebrating — and satirizing — the many different forms of music. Bootie provides the soundtrack for the A.D.D. generation, with free mashup CDs given away like candy!

@ Echoplex
enter at
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA

FREE Bootie CDs to the first 100 people through the door!

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

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

resident dj Michael Stock spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI: Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $5 / 18+

Vanaprasta || Listen || Watch

L.A. quintet Vanaprasta has come a long way since they got inside my head with their nifty guitar work last March. Not so far that they have an album out yet — that’ll happen when “Heathy Geometry” is released later this year — but far enough that their dramatic blend of churning rhythms, bright riffage and glowing imagery sounds ready for big stages. The band — Collin Desha, Steven Wilkin, Taylor Brown, Cameron Dmytryk and Ben Smiley — traveled to Portland late last year to record, and the initial results of those sessions, the “Forming the Shapes” EP, will be out next month. Vanaprasta will also contribute a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” to a forthcoming L.A. charity compilation, “Uncovering a Cure.” On the EP version of their album’s title song, Vanaprasta takes some liberties with the word “geometry,” but their math works for me.- Buzz Bands

Pacific Hurt || Watch

While some things change — as in, say, a band’s name switching from Aushua to Pacific Hurt — some things remain very much the same. Their moniker may have morphed, but Pacific Hurt’s sound still hues closely to the sweeping and sleek intricate rockers that made their Limbo disc the best local EP of last year. – Web In Front

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

The Parson Red Heads || Listen || Watch

If you’ve spent any time in the Silver Lake/Echo Park axis over the last half decade, chances are you’ve seen the Parson Red Heads. They’re hard to miss, an all-white-costumed crew who have, over the years, swelled to as many as eight people, looking like a cross between Danielson Famile and the Partridge Family, and playing sun-soaked and serene tunes that touched on the Beachwood Sparks and the usual Laurel Canyon suspects (The Byrds, Fleetwood Mac, CSNY).

Their live shows ran the gamut between drowsy folk-tinged acoustic sets and unruly psychedelic guitar workouts. The band played early, often and everywhere, with residencies at Spaceland, the Echo, and Silverlake Lounge that evidenced a visible joy that distinguished them from the often ultra-serious swarm of indie bands. Lamentably, the jubilation and jams will be far less frequent in these parts, with the band’s core trio of Evan Way (guitars, vocals), his wife, Brett Marie Way (drums, vocals), and Sam Fowles (guitar, vocals) announcing that they will be relocating back to their native Oregon. – LA Times

8:30pm / $5 / 18+

What Laura Says || Listen || Watch

If you’ve heard of What Laura Says at all, it’s most likely due to the fact that they’re on Terpsikhore Records—a label run by Annuals bassist Mike Robinson. Either that, or perhaps you’ve seen them play acoustically in their native Arizona back in the day. Nowadays, their acoustic days are long gone, focusing instead on tightly coiled guitars (“Training”) and psychedelic vocals reminiscent of Akron/Family on their second full length album, Bloom Cheek. Although they’ve already shared stages with the likes of Lou Reed, My Morning Jacket, and Yo La Tengo, What Laura Says is still carving out their own sound. On Bloom Cheek, they wear their influences out on their sleeves. Maybe in a few albums from now, they’ll learn to roll their sleeves up and not be so outright in emulating their peers. – Pop Matters

With:
Skybox || Listen

7pm / $8 / all ages

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

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

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

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

Jim Jones Revue || Watch

The Jim Jones Revue wants to save your soul. Former Thee Hypnotics and Black Moses veteran Jim Jones’s screaming vocals and Elliott Mortimer doing indecent things to the piano combine with Rupert Orton’s guitar, Gavin Jay’s bass and Nick Jones’s drums for an unholy orgy of rock ‘n’ roll idols from Jerry Lee Lewis and Elvis to the MC5 and the Sonics. – Spinner

With:
The BellRays || Listen
Coasting

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

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

FMI: Club Underground on Facebook

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

Aquarium Drunkard, in conjunction with the Echo, is holding its second all ages festival here in L.A. in Echo Park. Dubbed WAVED OUT, after Justin Gage’s favorite Robert Pollard solo album, this is the first of what will be a recurring event featuring emerging national, local and international artists.

with:
DUNGEN || LISTEN
THE ENTRANCE BAND
JOHN GRANT
THE FRESH & ONLYS
SHANNON AND THE CLAMS
JOHN CARPENTER
SO MANY WIZARDS
SUMMER DARLING
YOUNG PRISMS

And many more!

enter at
Echoplex
1154 Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

3:30pm / $10 for the first 100 tickets, $13 after / all ages

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

FRANKIE ROSE [Slumberland Records LP release party]
HUNX & HIS PUNX

resident dj Michael Stock spinning mutant disco * Postpunk * indiepop

FMI: Part Time Punks on Myspace

10pm / $8 / 18+

Vanaprasta || Listen || Watch

L.A. quintet Vanaprasta has come a long way since they got inside my head with their nifty guitar work last March. Not so far that they have an album out yet — that’ll happen when “Heathy Geometry” is released later this year — but far enough that their dramatic blend of churning rhythms, bright riffage and glowing imagery sounds ready for big stages. The band — Collin Desha, Steven Wilkin, Taylor Brown, Cameron Dmytryk and Ben Smiley — traveled to Portland late last year to record, and the initial results of those sessions, the “Forming the Shapes” EP, will be out next month. Vanaprasta will also contribute a cover of LCD Soundsystem’s “All My Friends” to a forthcoming L.A. charity compilation, “Uncovering a Cure.” On the EP version of their album’s title song, Vanaprasta takes some liberties with the word “geometry,” but their math works for me.- Buzz Bands

Pacific Hurt || Watch

While some things change — as in, say, a band’s name switching from Aushua to Pacific Hurt — some things remain very much the same. Their moniker may have morphed, but Pacific Hurt’s sound still hues closely to the sweeping and sleek intricate rockers that made their Limbo disc the best local EP of last year. – Web In Front

8:30pm / FREE / 21+

ONEOHTRIX POINT NEVER || LISTEN

Though it sometimes feels like drone music will be forever relegated to the fringes of the indie world, an impressive batch of bands and labels have sprung up recently to counter that idea. Alongside bigger acts such as Sunn O))) and Grouper (not true drone, but plenty drone-y), artists like Emeralds, Black to Comm, and Yellow Swans are each tugging the style into intriguing directions. Daniel Lopatin, who records as Oneohtrix Point Never and shares a label with Emeralds, could plausibly be lumped into this group but also exists outside of it. Where others bring to bear a wide range of instrumentation in creating these glistening, open-ended sounds, Lopatin does so using only electronics (synthesizers and arpeggiators, primarily) and as a result, his music is arguably more distinctive and often more difficult to pin down.

Because he’s worked outside the label structure and released albums on limited-run cassette and CD-R until now, Lopatin’s music also hasn’t been easy to find. But Rifts, a 2xCD collection of his material since 2003 (including all three Oneohtrix Point Never full-lengths– Betrayed in the Octagon, Zones Without People, and Russian Mind), seeks to correct that by compiling just about everything he’s recorded as OPN to date. At two and a half hours long, it’s a dizzying amount of music and virtually impossible to absorb in one sitting but for anyone with a passing interest in drone or ambient music, it’s worth setting aside the time. – Pitchfork

With:
SUN ARAW || Listen

8:30pm / $10 / 18+

THE FELICE BROTHERS || Listen

The Felice Brothers and their long time friends and band mates Greg Farley and Christmas Clapton, come to us from the Catskill Mountains, where a homegrown sound has been working its way through the bloodlines for generations. Their rambling journey so far has brought them from busking in New York City subway stations, to tours across the world that have included enthusiastically received performances at major music festivals including Bonnaroo, All Points West, Outside Lands, and Langerado.

Titled with a phrase drawn from the pages of Mark Twain, Yonder Is The Clock is a nod to all of the American ghosts that lend their narrative and characters to the Felice Brothers’ April 7th release. Their studio was built from the remains of an abandoned chicken coop and it was there over the summer and fall of 2008 that they wrote and recorded this new collection of songs. Presented by Team Love Records, Yonder Is The Clock is teaming with tales of love, death, betrayal, baseball, train stations, phantoms, pandemics, jail cells, rolling rivers and frozen winter nights. This is music that hasn’t lost sight of the history of the land from which it came, and that quality alone makes The Felice Brothers the next great American band.

8:30pm / $15adv; $17dos / 18+

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

Spinning the best in classic reggae, dub and dancehall

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

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

Justin Townes Earle || Watch || MP3

“Between pure talent and a winning stage presence, there’s little more acclaim I can throw Justin Townes Earle’s way other than to repeat that his was the best performance I’ve seen in well over a year, hands-down.” —Minneapolis City Pages

“I have a feeling that in a few years we’ll need backstage passes at the Ryman auditorium to get anywhere near him. He’s just THAT good.” —Chattanooga Free Press

“It seems every time we encounter Justin Townes Earle live, the guy has peeled another layer off himself revealing another astounding bit of his promise. Barely three years into his career, Earle is seemingly moving at an accelerated rate, even if the casual listener or viewer can’t quite discern what it is that shaping up.”—Houston Press

with:
Jessica Lea Mayfield || Listen
He’s My Brother, She’s My Sister

at The Autry Museum
4700 Western Heritage Way
Los Angeles, California, 90027

6pm / $13 advance, $15 day of show /All Ages

Jukebox the Ghost || Listen || Watch

Jukebox The Ghost are three friends, Ben Thornewill on piano, Tommy Siegel on guitar and Jesse Kristin on rhythm. Bouncing out of Washington D.C. two years ago, Jukebox The Ghost purvey classic ebony and ivory pop, flavoured with their own brand of quirky lyrics and inventive song writing. Since the bands birth they have been writing and touring non stop, determined to bring their music to the masses the good old fashioned way; by doing everything themselves. It seems to have paid off; Jukebox The Ghost can boast ‘Let Live and Let Ghosts’, various EP’s and singles, and a second album well on its way. Plus, over 250 shows world-wide, with the likes of Ben Folds, Tokyo Police Club, Ra Ra Riot, Jenny Owen Youngs and more.

Written in equal parts by band members Ben Thornewill and Tommy Siegel, produced by Ted Comerford, ‘Let Live and Let Ghosts’ is 40 minutes of rambunctious, exuberant pop rock.

Jukebox the Ghost just finished recording their second record with Peter Katis (The National, Interpol, Mates of State) at Tarquin Studios in CT, and will be on the road again this March with tour-mates Tally Hall (Atlantic Records). The next record will be released in 2010.

with:
Hooray For Earth || Listen
AB and the SEA || Listen

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

JAMIE LIDELL || Listen || Watch

If you’ve ever seen electro-soul whiz Jamie Lidell live, you know the guy can deliver ample amounts of ecstatic joy. It just feels good to be in the same room as him. So it makes a lot of sense that talented people including Beck, Feist, Grizzly Bear’s Chris Taylor, Daniel Rossen, and Chris Bear, Wilco’s Pat Sansone, legendary R&B drummer James Gadson, soul belter Nikka Costa, Beck keyboardist Brian LeBarton, and producer/songwriter Gonzales would want to help out on Lidell’s new album. That album is titled Compass and due out May 18 courtesy of Warp.

This isn’t the first time Lidell has worked with Feist (he contributed to The Reminder sessions) or Beck, who got Jamie (and Feist and Wilco and Gadson) to sing and play on his most recent Record Club covers project. Compass was recorded at Hudson Studios in Los Angeles (where Beck and Lidell teamed up to write and produce some songs), Hollywood’s Ocean Way Recording, New York City, and Feist’s ranch in Ontario’s Niagara Escarpment (where Feist helped write and sang background vocals, while Chris Taylor did some producing, mixing, and bass clarinet playing). – Pitchfork

with:
TWIN SHADOW

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

8:30pm / $20.00 advance, $23.00 day of show / 18+

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+

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

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+

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+

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+

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

For More info: culturecollide.com

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

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

FMI: Grand Ole Echo on Myspace

5:00pm / FREE / All Ages

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+

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

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

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+

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

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+

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+

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+

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+

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+

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

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

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+

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

with DJs:
Music Man Miles
Clifton AKA Soft Touch

FMI: Funky Sole on Myspace

10pm / FREE / 21+

THE APPLES IN STEREO || Listen || Watch

Studio-obsessed indie rockers The Apples in stereo are celebrating the start of a new decade with the release of their seventh studio album, Travellers in Space and Time, their most hi-fi and hook-laden production to date. Described by frontman Robert Schneider as ‘retro-futuristic super-pop,’ the album is the official follow-up to 2007′s New Magnetic Wonder, and the band’s second studio release for Elijah Wood’s Simian Records. The album will be released on April 20 via Yep Roc/Simian/Elephant 6.

Travellers contains sixteen piano-driven tracks, bubbling over with vocoder harmonies and sci-fi sound effects, like 70′s AM radio filtered through a UFO; including the robotic first single ‘Dance Floor’, the four-on-the-floor dream-scape ‘Hey Elevator’, the Hall and Oates-tinged ‘Told You Once’, and the epic, yearning ‘Dream About The Future,’ among many instant hits. The musical theme heard in these songs is strung throughout Travellers: intense pop hooks and electronic sounds, mixed with a pumping, get-up-and-moonwalk beat.

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

8pm / $13 advance, $15 day of show / All Ages

Stew and The Negro Problem

The XXL African-American gent who fronts pop-rock smarties the Negro Problem and records alt-cabaret songs under the chummy moniker Stew has an incredibly, er, black sense of humor for someone whose songs often recall lite-rock icon Bread. But Stew’s latest finds his heart overtaking his sense of absurdity. “Love is not the instrument of pain,” he advises on the song of the same name, “it’s your own mind,” while “The Statue Song” turns a high school English exercise (“Write from the perspective of an inanimate object”) into a blue ballad about stasis and homesickness. YES, HE’S GOOD EW named Stew’s last two LPs Albums of the Year; how many times must you be told? A-

-Will Hermes
Entertainment Weekly

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

8:30pm / Seated: $25 advance, $28 day of show / Standing: $20 advance, $23 day of show / 18+

YELLE || LISTEN || WATCH

Despite finding fame with the very public ridiculing of a fellow musician’s manhood (MySpace hit “Short Dick Cuizi,” which cut Parisian rapper Cuizinier down to size), Yelle’s all about relentless Euro-electro charm. The dance world’s been thoroughly seduced by French acts of late (Daft Punk, Justice et al.), and here comes another one. Almost defiantly singing in her native tongue only ups Yelle’s coy joy as she wraps genuine melodies and nursery-rhyme refrains around squelchy/fuzzy Radio Shack synths and migraine-inducing megakicks. “Je Veux Te Voir” (the finalized version of “Short Dick Cuizi”) bounces all over Toni Basil’s “Mickey” with help from Human League, Ace of Base and flurried déjà views of Neneh Cherry’s “Buffalo Stance,” while “A Cause des Garçons” could be the analog-driven incidental music from some early-’80s movie, weaving fake-for-fake’s-sake beat-box cascades around textured stop/start science-project stabs. Yelle’s performance at the Music Box in November had even the bar-hugging +1 posers moving — you’re next. – LA Weekly

@ Echoplex
enter at
Glendale Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90026

9pm / $15 advance, $17 day of show / 18+

Kurt Vile || Listen

“Kurt Vile (real name, no gimmicks) has seemingly absorbed a lifetime’s worth of FM rock, and the ghosts of Springsteen, Seger, and others glimmer under the surface of his woozy, homemade bedroom pop.” –Pitchfork

There’s a bunch of clowns all over the USA, all around around the world, cluttering up the rock n’ roll stage with studied talent and recycled tunes. Hobbyists and hacks with guitars, eager to churn out a limp performance to kill a night and earn a couple free drinks. And then there’s Kurt Vile (the handle his mother gave him) out of Philadelphia. A wild-eyed, baby-faced long-hair who’s spent the last 12 years climbing up the stage or setting up in the back of a bookstore to stand, hunched over and giving breathless crowds from 5 to 500+ a string of bona-fide HITS that transcend genre or some passing aesthetic ghetto. He’s remained a step outside any scene that’s tried to claim him. Whether performing solo or backed by a first class American rock band called the Violators, he’s dextrous and confident on the neck of an acoustic or electric, both relaxed and full of life at the microphone.

8:30pm / $12 / 18+

THE PAINS OF BEING PURE AT HEART || LISTEN || WATCH

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart had quite a 2009, and 2010 is shaping up to be even better. They released their self-titled debut last February to universal acclaim, racking up features in magazines like Spin, Rolling Stone and NME, earning Best New Music status from Pitchfork, and touring the US and Europe non-stop. They began 2010 with a month-long tour of Japan, New Zealand and Australia, but somehow managed to take a breath to record this fantastic new single.

Say No To Love is a big step forward for the band, combining The Pains’ now-trademark youthful energy and infectious song craft with a more considered approach to the studio. The result is what we think is the best Pains single yet, a peerless slice of pure pop just right for the summer.

Says the band’s Kip Berman: “It’s got 3 chords, a fuzz pedal and lots of feelings. But instead of recording in the basement like we did for our album and both EPs, we recorded in an actual studio (Stratosphere Sound in New York). We tried hard to make it sound, as Peggy would say, ‘life affirming’ and we’re pretty excited about how it turned out.”

with:
WEEKEND

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

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

MARGOT AND THE NUCLEAR SO AND SO’S || LISTEN

Margot & the nuclear so and so’s third album Buzzard is primal and truculent, going straight for the vitals. Opener “Birds” finds the band going to places they haven’t before – lovely, languid verses progressing into fuzzed out, howling choruses throughout the song’s twists and turns – while still holding to the guitar-based ethos on which the album is founded. “Lunatic, lunatic, lunatic” may be familiar sonic territory for singer/guitarist Richard Edwards, but the (very) dark humor that slowly unveils is something that he has only flirted with (innocently) in the past. “New York City Hotel Blues” and “Claws Off” distill Margot’s music to its essence: melody-driven pop music with teeth, set adrift against Edwards’ surreal and emotional, if slightly twisted lyrical tendencies. Similarly, “I Do” refines the evocative chamber-pop for which the band is known to its most heart-rending fundamentals, supported by simply Richards’ plaintive voice and an acoustic guitar.

And there is, of course, an intriguing path that led Margot towards this evolution in sound, which contrasts the lively optimism of 2008’s Animal! (and/or Not Animal, simultaneously released after contention with former label Epic). Buzzard was recorded over one freezing month last winter in an abandoned movie theater in Chicago’s Ukrainian Village neighborhood. Edwards had taken up residence there after leaving his hometown of Indianapolis, when the house where he and the previous seven members of the band had lived was damaged in a fire last summer. Once settled, he began writing a collection of songs loosely inspired by the 8mm ‘nudie cutie’ films unearthed in the theater’s basement, and the youthful reaction of mixed emotions that the films evoked.

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

8:30pm / $14 advance, $16 day of show / 18+

Legendary Pink Dots || Listen

Few bands polarize listeners quite like the Dots and they are secretly delighted about this. Love ‘em or hate ‘em, ignoring them or remaining indifferent is just not an option. Critics will accuse them of being a bunch of terminal hippies spouting nonsense and nothing to do with rock ‘n’ roll at all, and perhaps they have a point. Even so, singer Edward Ka-Spel’s lyrics
do seem to have an uncanny knack of foreseeing future events in vivid and sometimes uncomfortable combinations of images. The music moves in tandem, peculiar, enthusiastic and extremely psychedelic.

And as for rock ‘n’ roll… what is it by now anyway? You may dance to the Pink Dots if you choose. The melodies will stick in your head and there are moments when their sound is as “industrial” as raining tanks on Detroit, as gentle as
whispering leaves on Venus….

The following is young and old, male and female and borderless in a World seemingly obsessed with frontiers. The Pink Dots are coming to liberate you with color. No escapism, no religion. They come as they are, and so should you.

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

Click to buy tickets!

8:30pm / $18 advance, $20 day of show / 18+

Idlewild || Listen

Both a leap forward artistically as well as conceptually, Idlewild’s sixth studio LP, Post Electric Blues, will be released stateside October 12 via Nice Music Group. The revered Scottish folk-punk septet will follow this up with their long-awaited return to the U.S. this fall, for the first time in five years. The tour will launch with a two-night stand at The Echo in Los Angeles on November 16 and 17 and snake its way up the West Coast for several dates before heading east to New York for back-to-back nights at the Bowery Ballroom on November 22 and 23, then finally wrapping in Chicago.

This album was an experiment for the veteran band, who after more than a decade of having the support of a record label, found themselves in 2007 on their own. Not wanting to continue down the same perilous path they’d walk before, they took a chance; instead of chasing a deal, they turned to their fans. The gamble was a triumph – both emotionally and financially – and an outpouring of fan support energized the band. Thousands of fans pre-ordered the album via the band’s website and facilitated its creation. The result is an album that pays tribute to the group’s 15-year history while pushing their sound into new directions.

Post Electric Blues finds the band with a rejuvenated spirit, as the Boss-like-bombast that pours out of the speakers attests. Formed in 1995 in Edinburgh, Idlewild has consistently churned out albums oozing of melodic, hook-driven pop-rock and for their latest, they leap from Fleetwood Mac epic folk/rock/pop peaks to joyous Loch-side sing-alongs with the same devil-may-care attitude that put the band on the map. It’s the sound of a deft and defiant group, comprised of frontman Roddy Woomble on vocals; Rod Jones on guitar, backing vocals, keyboards; Colin Newton on drums, percussion; Allan Stewart on guitar and Gareth Russell on bass.

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

Idlewild || Listen

Both a leap forward artistically as well as conceptually, Idlewild’s sixth studio LP, Post Electric Blues, will be released stateside October 12 via Nice Music Group. The revered Scottish folk-punk septet will follow this up with their long-awaited return to the U.S. this fall, for the first time in five years. The tour will launch with a two-night stand at The Echo in Los Angeles on November 16 and 17 and snake its way up the West Coast for several dates before heading east to New York for back-to-back nights at the Bowery Ballroom on November 22 and 23, then finally wrapping in Chicago.

This album was an experiment for the veteran band, who after more than a decade of having the support of a record label, found themselves in 2007 on their own. Not wanting to continue down the same perilous path they’d walk before, they took a chance; instead of chasing a deal, they turned to their fans. The gamble was a triumph – both emotionally and financially – and an outpouring of fan support energized the band. Thousands of fans pre-ordered the album via the band’s website and facilitated its creation. The result is an album that pays tribute to the group’s 15-year history while pushing their sound into new directions.

Post Electric Blues finds the band with a rejuvenated spirit, as the Boss-like-bombast that pours out of the speakers attests. Formed in 1995 in Edinburgh, Idlewild has consistently churned out albums oozing of melodic, hook-driven pop-rock and for their latest, they leap from Fleetwood Mac epic folk/rock/pop peaks to joyous Loch-side sing-alongs with the same devil-may-care attitude that put the band on the map. It’s the sound of a deft and defiant group, comprised of frontman Roddy Woomble on vocals; Rod Jones on guitar, backing vocals, keyboards; Colin Newton on drums, percussion; Allan Stewart on guitar and Gareth Russell on bass.

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