Sea Level's Unofficial Going Away Party 6/29/07

Jim Putnam = Patriot

Friday night was the final nail in the coffin of Sea Level Records. There was a very small get together for many of the people who helped out with the store over the years. Charlie Wadhams and Jim Putnam were kind enough to entertain us with some songs. I was happy to hear that the Radar Bros. are currently mixing their new record because they're one of my favorite local bands.

Sea Level Going Away Party @ Safari Sam's

Thanks to everybody who came out to the official Sea Level Going Away Party at Safari Sam's last Friday. We had a great turnout, the bar made money, we were able to pay the bands and everybody had a lot of fun. Special thanks to Division Day and the Switch for playing and Kevin Bronson and Marcos for DJ'ing and funny man Matt Dwyer for the comedy. The Switch and Division Day are two up and coming bands that keep getting better and better every time I see them. If you haven't seen these two local bands, do yourself a favor and catch their live performance. Big ups to Aquarium Drunkard, Scott, Joe, Jax, Jeff and the LAist for helping spread the word and showing up and having a good time. It was nice to see so many LA bands show their respect for one of the true supporters of the local music scene. I was way too drunk by the end of the night, but I do remember seeing members of Silversun Pickups, Earlimart, The Broken West, Irving, Radar Bros. and Let's Go Sailing (I'm sure I'm leaving out about 50 other bands). Thanks to Safari Sam's for hosting the party, cooking us dinner (I hear the cheeseburger there is excellent. The penne pasta was quite good too.) and the free drinks. Thanks to Sylvia for pretty much planning the whole thing and Graham and Todd for opening the store in the first place. One tip - if you're planning something like this make sure to designate a photographer to take pictures. And preferably make it a photographer who's not drinking massive quantities of beer and Maker's. I snapped a few of the bands but totally missed out on the DJs and crowd. D'oh.

Sea Level Going Away Party Tonight

I hope to see everybody at Safari Sam's tonight for the Sea Level Records wake. Todd and Sylvia will be DJ'ing along with Magic Marcos and Kevin Bronson. A lot of the bands that Sea Level Records has supported over the past five and a half years should be in attendance. The music will start on the early side, so be sure to get there by nine to see the Switch followed by Division Day. The show is all ages, so everybody's welcome. Hopefully a lot of the younger kids who don't get a chance to see Division Day and the Switch very often will be there. Stick around after the bands for drinks and DJs.

Download some older Division Day songs: "Bad Black Moon" and "There Is No Telling"

Download The Switch's "Tongue Tied" and "Living in Another World" [these are pop-up downloads so you have to click on the title]

Press Coverage of Sea Level's Closing

Some of the press coverage for Sea Level:

Billboard’s Coverage (picked up by Reuters and Yahoo)

LAist

Floating Away

Blogging.LA

Buzz Bands

LA Record

Rock Insider

The Tripwire

Losanjealous’ Elegy for Sea Level

Nothing from the LA Weekly. They probably don't care.

Sea Level Todd & Sylvia on Little Radio Soon

Tune in to Little Radio today from 11:00AM - 1:00PM to listen to Sea Level Todd and Sylvia spin records. Sea Level's closing its doors forever this Monday. Get in there and buy some stuff to help Todd pay for his retirement. Also, don't forget about the big going away party we're presenting at Safari Sam's this Friday night. See the flyer above for details.

Save the Date - Sea Level Records Going Away Party 6/22

Unfortunately, the rumours that Sea Level Records in Echo Park is going out of business at the end of June are true. For more than five years, Todd and Sea Level have served a valuable niche and been huge supporters of the local music scene. I've been turned on to a lot of great bands through the store, met a lot of great friends (including my girlfriend) and wasted countless hours browsing the shelves. Sea Level will be sorely missed.

Sea Level and You Set the Scene already had plans to co-present a show at Safari Sam's on June 22nd (it was never meant to be the going away party). Big thanks to Sea Level Sylvia for organizing the whole thing. She got a couple of great local bands that are part of the Sea Level community (Aaron from the Switch and Seb from Division Day have even spent time working there). Sylvia and Todd will be DJ'ing along with Nikki from Silversun Pickups, Kevin Bronson from LA Times/Buzz Bands and Magic Marcos from the Movies. So come out on Friday June 22nd and buy Todd a drink (he likes Jameson) and wish him well on future endeavors. Hopefully the mood will be festive. Enjoy some cool bands, dance to some cool DJs and have fun.

Thanks to Tony Cervone for designing the poster. When he designed it, we didn't know it was Sea Level's going away party. It's an homage to Love's great song, "Orange Skies."