One Week in Loud Town
CityBeat's musical core sample
Of all the reasons Angelenos commonly preen themselves over living here, our stupendous live music scene isn’t typically one of them. Basineers wax bombastic over banalities like the Dodgers, the Queen Mary and Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, deafening the many (and themselves) to the miraculous din going on around them. For, despite idiot officials, ball-busting cops, quickbuck jackrollers and a suffocating fog of upscale pretension descended over much of the town, live music in L.A. is an unparalleled aesthetic – and sometimes physical – thrill rare enough anywhere in this pinched and repressed era. There’s literally no way even a Benzedrine werewolf could hope to experience it all, a definitive statement of mortal limitation I reach after a decade’s inquiry and much lost shoe leather.
And so…
[cue drum roll]
attempted for the first time if (my) memory runneth not contrariwise is a reasonable core sample of the L.A. music scene; a snapshot (to appropriate junk technology) of this moment in music for this week in the dog days of 2008. Yes, as economy and political system crash in this final Summer of Dubya, we can take great municipal pride in the fact that we do, after all, rock – as seen here, in Loudtown, where we attempt to point you to every musical act of the week. And we may even almost (not really) succeed! My apologies to brilliant bands like Earlimart, the Moon Upstairs and hundreds more who missed inclusion by quirk of calendar. You rock too. (Capsules by Ron Garmon, Gabrielle Paluch, Heather Price, Rebecca Schoenkopf, and Carman Tse.)
–Ron Garmon
THURSDAY
Baka Beyond
(Skirball Cultural Center)
Musicians Su Hart and Martin Cradick went to live in the rainforests of Cameroon in 1992 to make recordings with the Baka tribe. Since then, their music has become a fusion of Celtic sounds and traditional Baka beats, and their band has grown to include people from Sierra Leone and the Congo. Album profits have gone to building a recording barn in the rainforest. (GP)
Bipolar Bear
(The Smell)
Doughty standbys at the Smell, these local experimentalists bid fair to be the Next Medium Thing to come out of that venerable downtown noize-kiln. To avoid any hint of L.A. snobbery, it also does a July 25 turn at the Scene in scenic Glendale. Ability to discourse intelligently on this band will constitute 50 percent of your final grade this quarter at Hipster U. (RG)
Burning Brides
(Safari Sam’s)
This hard rock band from Pennsylvania, playing with Nebula and Middle Class Rut, will be arriving in their vegetable-oil-powered vehicle to play tracks off their new self-produced album Anhedonia. Be prepared for rock anthems and tubular guitar riffs. (GP)
Dizzee Rascal
(Echoplex)
In a perfect world Dizzee would’ve been a huge star, but we just weren’t ready for his incredible gift. In 2003, he took the world by storm with one of the best debuts in years, his incredible Boy in Da Corner. Unfortunately, Americans just couldn’t grasp what the U.K. had repackaged as “grime,” their own version of hip-hop with a more futuristic and darker twist. No worries, as he continues to record and has since then put out two excellent records. The latest, Maths + English, features the likes of Lily Allen and American hip-hop crew UGK to provide a more mainstream flair. (CT)
The Life & Times
(Spaceland)
I first caught up with this visionary trio at Spaceland in 2006, as they toured in support of The Magician, a release that failed to crack my year-end Top 10 by pettifogging dint of being an EP. Pavement psychedelia in the vein of an Americanized My Bloody Valentine and Swervedriver, L&T’s broad, spacious sound wars with the urgent lyrics and Allen Epley’s flat, cramped vocals result in a tension like that generated by Roger Waters’s thin Anglo yelp wallowing in the four-color madness of Pink Floyd. Outta Kansas City, MO, Midwestern road dogs like these are what rock’s always been about and they cleverly market their alienation by time-tested device of not sounding like anyone else going. (RG)
Rockin’ the Colonies
(Music Box @ Fonda)
If you’re feeling nostalgic for the ’80s, like perhaps everyone else on VH1, this throwback line-up is just right for you. The alternative pop tour is making new wave new again, featuring The Alarm, The English Beat, and The Fixx to round out the act. The sound might be a little old, but the younger fan base is a good indication of the geezers’ ability to make it fresh and compelling again. (GP)
Published: 07/23/2008
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You guys must be frickin' deaf by now.....