Saturday and Sunday Night Live Music Options

Hippies with Flying Vs - My Morning Jacket Play the Wiltern on Saturday

Saturday Night’s Pick:
My Morning Jacket / Elvis Perkins @ Wiltern (Sold Out) – My Morning Jacket is one of the best live acts working today. I’ve seen them a handful of times, and with one bad festival exception at Austin City Limits, they’ve always pleased me. They didn’t put out a new studio album in 2006, but they did release a double live album and live DVD, Okonokos. Most live albums are snoozers, but this one gives you a pretty good taste of their power as a live band. A lot of my indie snob friends dismiss them as lame, Skynrd revivalists, but that’s off base (and anyway, what’s so wrong with Skin-Nerd?). Jim James is a versatile songwriter who has probably listened to a lot of Neil Young and the Band, but also likes to cover Wham and Lionel Richie. Jeff Weiss wrote a gushing review of their recent San Francisco shows and has some live MP3s of those weird covers. Opener Elvis Perkins used to live in LA and would occasionally play with Let’s Go Sailing.

Nearly Equally Rad:
Stephen Malkmus @ El Rey (Sold Out) – I love a good 75% of the stuff Malkmus has done. He has a bunch of new material that he’s going to road test. Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinnney and Quasi) is his new drummer. Hopefully he’s not quite as intent on showing everybody what a good guitar player he is. If you already bought tickets for My Morning Jacket, you might consider buying Malkmus tickets for the Glasshouse in Pomona next Friday the 12th; I think that’s what I’m going to do.

Intriguing But I Know Less About Them:
The View / Monsters Are Waiting @ Spaceland ($10) – Really young Scottish kids. Bobby Gillespie of Primal Scream called them his favorite new band.
Polar Goldie Cats @ How2HQ [1515 South Vermont Avenue] (Free)
The Ditty Bops @ McCabe’s (Sold Out)

Sunday 1/7/07
Indian Jewelry / Clipd Beaks @ the Echo (free before 11pm, $5 after)
Signal Hill Transmission @ Molly Malone’s ($7)

Death Valley Days / Spacelord @ Spaceland (Free)

Friday Night Music Options - 1/5/07

The Bronx Play Safari Sam's Tonight

After a pretty slow week for music, things are picking up again.....

Tonight's Pick:

The Bronx / Qui / 400 Blows / Sirhan Sirhan @ Safari Sam’s ($12) – I haven’t seen Sirhan Sirhan, but the other three bands are three of the better heavy (in the punk way) bands that LA has to offer. This is a great chance to see them all on one stage. Qui now has ex-Jesus Lizard singer, David Yow as a full time member. I still haven’t seen 400 Blows with their new-ish guitarist, but I’ve heard it hasn’t slowed them down at all.

Also Perfectly Awesome:

The Clean Prophets / The Shakes @ Knitting Factory ($8) – Here’s another chance to see one of my favorite local bands, the Clean Prophets. This time the show is all ages. See my posts earlier this week for more information. The Shakes are on Jim Freek’s label, Teenacide.
Ferraby Lionheart / Charlie Wadhams & the Harmony Brothers @ El Cid ($5) – I need to see Ferraby Lionheart one of these days. He’s a talented local singer-songwriter.
Bobb Bruno @ the Smell ($5) – He’s good people, and he plays in a bunny suit.

I know less about these, but they sound intriguing:

The View @ the Viper Room - Buzzy new Scottish kids. They're at Spaceland on Saturday night.

Crime in Choir / Triclops / Health / Federation X @ the Echo ($7) – Night two of GSL’s 2nd Annual Flood & Mudslide Season Warm Up Party.
Minutes ‘til Midnight / Year Long Disaster / Black Palms @ Spaceland (?) – Minutes ‘til Midnight sound like they probably own a few Spiritualized and My Bloody Valentine records. Year Long Disaster is Daniel Davies’ band (you know, Dave Davies son). I apologize for pointing that out again, but the Kinks are my favorite band of all time.

Peter Bjorn & John - Buy Tickets for the Roxy on 2/1/07

If you're anything like me, then you're a blog hating blogger who skims other blogs. I read about Peter Bjorn and John for months before I finally broke down and shelled out the $23 for an import CD. These Swedes are incredible. Had I gotten this record in time, it probably would have made my top five records in 2006. I put one of the songs on my best of 2006 compilation and it's the one track that everybody either asks me about, or tells me how much they already love it. The standard critic and blogger line is that they combine Motown, 80's synth pop and power pop. I don't hear an overt Motown thing (or an overt Phil Spector sound either). I do hear some baroque pop, synth pop (not in a cheesy way, but synth-y in a good, Moby way - if good Moby's not an oxymoron) and some mid 90's American indie rock (I hear a touch of Superchunk on some of the more rocking songs). Even if you hate most twee indie pop, I think you'll really appreciate this.

Writer's Block will finally get a domestic release on February 6th on a new label called

Almost Gold Recordings. Since the record's already sold a ton of expensive import copies to suckers like me, they're adding a special six song bonus disc. I strongly urge you to buy this record. There are at least seven great songs on it; three of them can be streamed at their Myspace page. I was playing the record so much that I recently bought their second album so I wouldn't get so sick of the this one as fast.

They just announced three US dates and one of them is in Los Angeles. They will be appear at the Roxy on February 1st. I've been told that tickets will go on sale tomorrow (although it wasn't on Ticketmaster last I checked) for $16. This show will sell out, so don't hesitate to buy tickets. Pitchfork reports that Victoria Bergsman of the Concretes (who sings on "Young Folks") will be with them. UPDATE - BUY YOUR TICKETS HERE

Download "Young Folks" (courtesy of Pitchfork)

Thursday Night Music Options - 1/4/07

Spaceland was packed last night for the Clean Prophets/Switch show (with DJs Kevin Bronson and Solid Todd). As usual, the Clean Prophets sounded great. They played a couple of songs not on the record (but skipped my favorite song) and won over new fans. I was glad to finally see the Switch too. Nice acoustic guitar and keyboards. Since many clubs in LA were closed, it ended up being an industry night. Had you dropped a bomb on it, you would have wiped out half of the Silversun Pickups, 75% of the Movies, 40% of Irving, an LA Times writer, a local record store owner, the bookers of the Fold and the Scene, half of the staff of Safari Sam's, Scott from Autopia, and about 200 others that I see out all the time.

Tonight's Options:

The Colour / Austin James Band / Sparrow Love Crew @ Spaceland ($8 probably?) – The Colour’s a local band with a new album coming out on Rethink Records (an EMI subsidiary) on 2/6/07. They play blues-based rock’n’roll. Spin had this to say about them: “Wyatt Hull's vocals on Devil's Got a Holda Me drip with a surprising amount of sexy rock'n'roll swagger considering the weighty themes he dwells on, which include religion, spirituality, and the natural world. And his band's album boasts tons of bluesy pulses and gritty riffs, especially on its excellent title track." They’re playing at Spacealnd every Thursday in January. Three members of the band met at Biola. What’s in the water down there? The Cold War Kids, The Colour and the Austin James Band all have ties to it. Maybe A&R guys should quit hanging out in clubs and hit the classrooms.
The Parson Red Heads / Bodies of Water @ Pershing Square (Free) – Ice skating with one of my favorite local bands, The Parson Red Heads. Sounds like fun. Eskimohunter’s listed on the Echo’s site, but they canceled and the Parson Red Heads stepped in.
GSL Night: Sabertooth Tiger / New Collapse / Tender Buttons / Sirhan Sirhan @ the Echo ($7) – GSL’s a SoCal label that was founded by Sonny Kay and Omar Rodriguez. If you like harder music on the experimental tip, buy some of their records and hit the Echo tonight and tomorrow.
Richard Parsons / Biirdie @ Tangier ($8)
Brian Wright & the Waco Tragedies / Jr. Juggernaut @ Silverlake Lounge ($8)

See the Clean Prophets for Free Tonight

I hope everybody had a great New Year's Eve. As usual, I kept a low profile and hid out in my apartment with my lady watching Jackass 2 (not as good as the first one) and You, Me and Dupree (Owen Wilson saved an otherwise lame movie). I did catch a little bit of Mystic Chords of Memory and Minor Canon on Saturday night. It was a big crowd and both bands sounded great. Minor Canon fills out their lineup with horns and strings; it's always nice to see an ambitious local bands doing something different.

Tonight's Pick:

The Clean Prophets / The Switch with DJs Kevin Bronson and Solid Todd @ Spaceland (Free) - If you're a regular reader of this blog then you know I'm a big fan of the Clean Prophets. They were #3 on my list of top 10 local albums in 2006 and "More Than Enough" was on my best of 2006 compilation that I sent out with my holiday cards. They're inspired by a lot of British bands (I usually say Echo & the Bunnymen, classic Cure or the Chameleons), so it's cool that they're playing an NME night. If you haven't seen them, I strongly encourage you to check them out tonight (plus it's free). They're going out on their first national tour next month; wish them well and pickup a CD and t-shirt to send them on their way. I haven't seen The Switch yet, but the lead singer has great taste in music and he's good people. They've got interesting instrumentation too (which makes me curious to see how they'll sound in person). They've got a new record coming out in a couple of weeks. DJ Kevin Bronson covers the local scene for the LA Times. In most cities, the alternative weekly is where you'd turn for the best local coverage, but I always gravitate to Bronson at the Times. He started a blog this week, check it out HERE. In keeping with the spirit of the NME night, he promises to dig deep in his massive collection for lots of obscure Britpop. DJ Solid Todd is the proprietor and manager of Sea Level Records in Echo Park. He's spent just about every day of the last five years in that store, and he's a huge supporter of the local music scene. It's been really sad watching indie stores like Rhino and Aron's die over the last couple of years (I saw Tower Sunset in a movie this weekend and even got a little sad). Sea Level is about the only non-major chain store left in the city of LA that stocks new, independent music (I'm not counting Amoeba since they branched off from stores in Northern California). I think you should support them. What fun is it to hang out in the iTunes store? See you there.

Download The Clean Prophets' "Praise is Poison" and watch their video for "Tambourine Crown" on You Tube HERE. Along with Kennedy's video it's one of my favorites of the year.