If you're a fan (like me) of Passion of the Weiss and Jeff Weiss' writing, then you'll want to be at Freak City this Thursday. His latest event is the record release party for Flash Bang Grenada (Busdriver and Nocando). Also performing are: Foliero, Jonti and Vex Ruffin (who are all on Stones Throw). But the tipping point for some of you might be the special guests (who, rumor has it, will be Peanut Butter Wolf and Gaslamp Killer).
I've got some tickets to give away, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite Stones Throw release. The deadline is Wednesday at 6:00 PM.
I've got some tickets to give away for the Dam-Funk, Coathangers, Nocando, Salva show this Thursday at Freak City (see the poster above for the address). This show's being presented by our pals at Passion of the Weiss. Weiss has really good taste, so this promises to be a cool mix of Low End Theory, hip hop and punk rock (The Coathangers are an all girl punk rock band from Atlanta).
To win a pair of tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite record of 2011. The contest closes Wednesday at 9:00 PM. Please put "Dam-Funk Tickets" in the subject line.
If you’re a fan of soul music even a little (or love the sound of a Hammond organ), I shouldn’t have to explain the historical relevance of Booker T. Jones to you. But just in case you need a little prodding to go see him at the Satellite next Thursday June 16th (buy tickets), here are ten facts about him. I’m also giving away some tickets, so email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite Stax single. The contest closes Monday at 3:00 PM and winners will be notified Monday night.
1)Co-wrote, along with the MG’s, his most famous song, “Green Onions” while he was still in high school.
2)As part of the Stax house band (when he wasn’t away at college), Booker T. played on a ridiculous number of classic songs by Otis Redding, Sam & Dave, Eddie Floyd, William Bell and the rest of the Stax roster, serving an integral role in defining the southern soul sound.
3)Co-wrote, along with William Bell, “Born Under a Bad Sign,” which is a vital part of the blues-rock canon.
4)Co-wrote a ton of underrated soul jams, one of my favorite being, “I Forgot To Be Your Lover” (co-written with William Bell) which slays me every time I hear it (except, when Billy Idol did it).
5)Produced (as well as arranged and played on) Bill Withers’ classic debut album, Just As I Am.
6)Produced Willie Nelson’s pop standards, crossover album Stardust, which has sold over 10 million copies worldwide (and shows how an album of pop standards can be done right).
7)In 1993, he toured, along with the MG’s, as Neil Young’s backing band in the US and Europe. He also played on Young’s Are You Passionate? LP.
8)In 2007, Booker T. and the MG’s received a lifetime Grammy award
9)His 2009 solo album,Potato Hole, features Drive-By-Truckers as his backing band with Neil Young on guitar (and also won a Grammy for best pop instrumental album).
10)Has a new album on Silver Lake’s Anti Records called The Road From Memphis, which features The Roots, Sharon Jones, Lou Reed, Jim James and Matt Berninger.
I've got a couple of pairs of tickets to give away for the Autolux show this Friday at the Echoplex. The Soft Moon opens the show. If you've never seen Autolux, I highly recommend checking them out. Really good live band. What I've heard from the Soft Moon is cool too (with a cold/krauty/Joy Division vibe).
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite record of the new year. Please put "Autolux Contest" in the subject line. The contest closes Thursday at 7:00 PM and winners will be notified later that night.
The gifts keep on coming.. I've got a couple of pairs of tickets to give away for the Sebadoh and Quasi show that's going down this Friday (February 25, 2011) at the Echoplex in Echo Park. Sebadoh's calling their tour "The Bakesale/Harmacy Remembering Time Tour" which is pretty incredible since those are my two favorite Sebadoh records. Not coincidentally, both of those records will be reissued/expanded later this year on Sub Pop. The band for this tour consists of Lou Barlow, Jason Loewenstein and Bob D'Amico.
Opening the show will be Quasi. I haven't seen Quasi for a really long time (maybe not since they toured as Elliott Smith's backing band). They've been a trio for the last five years and feature: Sam Coomes, Janet Weiss and Joanna Bolme. Janet and Joanna are also in Stephen Malkmus' backing band, the Jicks.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite character from The Wire. Please put "Sebadoh Contest" in the subject line. The contest closes Friday at Noon.
I've got a couple of pairs of tickets to give away to see Telekinesis and The Love Language show this Thursday at the Echo. Opening the show will be One Trick Pony. As I mentioned last week, I'm really enjoying the new Telekinesis record.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your pick for Best Picture at this Sunday's Academy Awards ceremony. Please put "Telekinesis Contest" in the subject line of the email. The contest closes Thursday at Noon.
I've got a couple of pairs of tickets to give away to see Lucero and Olin and the Moon this Thursday (February 17th) at the Echoplex. Lucero's got one of the most intensely dedicated fanbases. For the uninitiated (I guess some people still hadn't heard of Arcade Fire before last night) think gruff, slightly twangy heavy drinking rock'n'roll.
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite Lucero record. The contest closes at 6:00 PM on Wednesday. Winners will be notified by Noon on Thursday. Please put "Lucero Tickets" in the subject line.
I've got a few sets of tickets to give away for the Henry Clay People's 2nd Annual Rock'n'Roll Circus this Friday (October 29th) at the Echo and Echoplex. Check out the details on the poster.
To win a pair of these tickets, email me [dukeufo @ gmail] with the name of your favorite Henry Clay People song. The contest closes Friday at 2:00 PM. Please put "Henry Clay Person" in the subject line.
I've got a few pairs of tickets to give away for the Women / Manchild this Wednesday (Oct. 20th) at the Echo. Should be a doozy.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your celebrity crush. The contest closes Wednesday at Noon.Please put "Women" in the subject line.
I've got some tickets to give away for the David Bazan / Wye Oak show this Friday (October 15th) at Spaceland. Bazan's band this time around features: David Bazan: guitar, vocals. Blake Wescott: guitar, backing vocals, Andy Fitts: bass, backing vocals. Alex Westcoat: drums.
Wye Oak's If Children was one of my favorite records of 2008 and I've been itching to see them since. Indie rock fans take note.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite album this year. Please put "Bazan Tix" in the subject line. The contest closes Friday at 3:00 PM.
I've got a few pairs of tickets to give away for the Tom Tom Club show this Sunday at the Echoplex. Opening the show will be Paul Ryder and members of Fool's Gold will be DJ'ing.
For any of you kids out there, Tom Tom Club is Tina Weymouth and Chris Frantz (who were founding members of the Talking Heads). Their classic jam "Genius of Love" was a #1 dance hit back in 1981 and has been sampled by a laundry list of rappers, as well as Mariah Carey. But they weren't one hit wonders. It's still a weirdly, cool album with a lot of early hip-hop influences.
Madchester fans will want to get there early for Paul Ryder (Happy Mondays, etc.).
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite Talking Heads jam. The contest closes Friday at 3:00 PM.
Just in time to soundtrack your summer barbeque is the third long player from Glendale's finest citizens, The Henry Clay People. Somewhere on the Golden Coast comes out next Tuesday (June 8th) via TBD Records (home to Radiohead and Autolux amongst others) and delivers 11 guitar rock anthems. The record's a natural musical progression that pushes them farther from their early, indie/Pavement sound (although I do hear a little bit of "Major Leagues" in "Two Lives At the End of the Night") and more in a bluesy/Stones direction (Jordan Huddock's piano highlights that vibe on a few tracks).
But this is classic rock'n' roll drinking music, and the band's got a record release party scheduled for Tuesday night at Spaceland (CDs and vinyls will be available for sale). It's the last chance you're going to get to see them for a while (at least until Fall), as they're heading out on the road with Silversun Pickups and Against Me!.
To win tickets to this record release show email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite place to drink in LA. Please put "Henry Clay Person" in the subject line. The contest closes Tuesday at Noon.
I've got some tickets to give away for this Saturday's show at Spaceland. The headliner is Freddie Gibbs who was featured in an LA Weekly cover story last December. He was also called "SXSW's rap breakout" by Entertainment Weekly. Joining Gibbs on the bill are: Pollyn, Davinci and Hanni El Khatib.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite tequila (in honor of Cinco de Mayo). Please put "Freddie Gibbs" in the subject line. The contest closes Friday at Noon.
For all the parents out there. If you haven't taken your kids to the monthly Kidrockers party, here's your chance. I've got some tickets to give away for the Warpaint / His Orchestra show this Sunday at 1:00 PM at the Echo. Warpaint is a local, all girl group that recently signed to Rough Trade records. His Orchestra is fronted by musician/actor Douglas Smith who plays Ben on Big Love.
I don't have any kids myself, but as a member of the press, I have made it to a couple of these shindigs. Usually how it all goes down is that there's a brief introduction by the hosts (Matt Dwyer and Jonah Ray this week) followed by a few songs by the opening band, then a brief Q&A with the opening band and then a couple of more songs by the opening band (usually the kids are invited up on stage to dance during the final part). The hosts then pop up on stage again to introduce the headliner who play a few songs, then get asked a few questions, then wrap it up with a couple of more songs. The kids usually sit on the floor on Twister mats and parents usually stand around the outside (or hold the little guys). Parents can have a drink at the bar (hopefully they aren't driving) and parents and kids can order pizza and have it delivered from Two Boots. The whole thing lasts a little less than two hours.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite pizza place in Los Angeles. Please put "Warpaint" in the subject line. The contest closes Friday at Noon.
If you're anything like me, you don't go see that many rap acts. But last year at SXSW by Saturday night (and after seeing about 45 guitar rock bands over the course of a few days), I was completely guitar rock-ed out. So on Saturday night I stumbled into Vice on 6th Street to see a few rappers. I didn't completely escape guitars (I think they all had live bands) but I still accomplished what I set out to do, see something different...
So in addition to seeing Asher Roth (who was pretty awful) and Janelle Monae (who was great) I saw the Knux. And they were super fun and really talented. Which brings me to Friday night...
My pals at Passion of the Weiss are putting on a show at Spaceland this Friday night. As my go to authority on rap, Jeff Weiss turned me on the Knux. And readers of his blog will recognize two of the other artists on the bill: Nocando and 5 O'Clock Shadowboxers (check out their Myspace page for "Stay Clean" which is the first rap song I've heard with an Elliott Smith sample). The Holloys are also appearing...
To win a pair of tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite rap album of all time. Please put "Knux" in the subject line. Contest closes at Noon on Friday...
I'm giving away tickets to see Brazilian legends, Os Mutantes this Friday at the Echoplex. Also appearing are DJ Nobody and Buyepongo.
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] and tell me how you became familiar with this band (I'm assuming you weren't there from the beginning). Please include your first and last name and "Os Mutantes" in the subject line. The contest closes Friday at Noon.
The Fruit Bats are one of those bands that still hasn't fully found its audience yet. They're not obscure (they're signed to Sub Pop and frontman Eric Johnson is also in the Shins and Vetiver) but you ask a lot of music lovers and they still don't know much about them. When you see them live, they really connect with their audience; fans sing along and arguments erupt about their best album. So it just feels like they've barely scratched the surface of their potential fanbase...
I've got some tickets to give away for their show this Wednesday at Spaceland. So if you're not going to M.I.A. or Deerhunter or Dungen or The Dead Weather or Cake or Music Go Music do yourself a favor and check these guys out. You won't regret it. Opening the show are Death Vessel and AB & the Sea.
To win these tickets, email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite Fruit Bats' song. Please put your first and last name in the email and "Fruit Bats" in the subject line. The contest closes Wednesday at 2:00 PM.
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] with the name of your favorite garage rock band. Please put "Sonics" in the subject line and include your first and last name. The contest closes Friday at Noon.
Le Switch and The World Record are two of my favorite local bands. Roadside Graves are on Aquarium Drunkard's Autumn Tone record label and recently got some love from Pitchfork. Should be a lot of fun....
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] and tell me if you prefer Miley Cyrus' look or Hannah Montana's. Please put "Le Switch" in the subject and include your first and last name in the body of the email. The contest closes Friday at 3:00 PM.
I've got some tickets to give away for the Henry Clay People homecoming show this Friday at the Echoplex. It promises to be a great time. The fellas impressed a lot of folks last weekend at Lollapalooza....
To win these tickets email me [dukeufo at gmail] with your favorite sno cone flavor. Please put "THE HCP" in the subject line and include your first and last name. The contest closes Thursday at 3:00 PM.
