Author: la_koga

I’ve heard from a semi-reliable source that tonight’s 10:30 PM “Special Guest” at the Hotel Cafe is The Cranberries‘ lead singer Dolores O’Riordan (MySpace), whose solo album, called Are You Listening, streets on May 8th.

(Photo courtesy of Dolores O’Riordan.)

UPDATE: Turns out the “Special Guest” was Alexi Murdoch (MySpace), per the Upcoming.org listing (and confirmed at Losanjealous). My semi-reliable source is now a little less reliable.

On Friday, the LA-based The Ditty Bops (MySpace) and Jesca Hoop (MySpace) concluded their most recent tour with a performance (including a cover of “Lonesome Town”) at the Swedish American Hall inside Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco.

Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett have been proponents of clean living and a vegan diet, but they’ve also embarked on a new environmental campaign that’s personified by their new (ironic) song “Summer Rains” and their “Paper Or Plastic” musical sketch.

More, including four additional photos from The Swedish American Hall as well as eight photos from McCabe’s Guitar Shop earlier this month, after the jump.
Continue reading “The Ditty Bops & Jesca Hoop @ The Swedish American Hall…”

Turesday, Kevin Bronson at BuzzBands reported that Eastern Conference Champions (MySpace)’ gear was stolen on Monday night from their tour van in Hollywood:

Eastern Conference Champions finished its February residency at the Silverlake Lounge with a bang on Monday night. Then, thieves lowered the boom on the Philadelphia-area trio.

The band’s van, parked on a side street in Hollywood off La Brea, was burglarized and ECC’s gear was stolen. “Every bit of it,” front man Josh Ostrander said this morning, still in shock. “Well, they left our T-shirts.”

More after the jump.
Continue reading “Eastern Conference Champions’ Gear Stolen…”

Fresh off her performance with G. Love (MySpace) on Friday’s edition of Late Night With Conan O’Brien, San Diego-native and singer-songwriter Tristan Prettyman (MySpace), who’s been referred to as the female Jack Johnson (MySpace), returned from New York on Saturday to headline an acoustic set at Twiggs Coffee and Tea‘s Green Room, with fans reportedly flying in from as far away as San Francisco, Chicago, and Connecticut.

Opening for her at Twiggs were Chris Torres (MySpace), Melissa Larkin (MySpace), and Molly Jensen (MySpace).

Prettyman is fascinated by celebrity tabloid gossip, so when I suggested beforehand that she perform her cover of “Toxic” as a tribute to Britney Spears’ recent most erratic behavior, she happily obliged. Speaking of newsworthy pop starlets, Prettyman also debuted the live version of “Lindsay [Lohan] Goes to Rehab” (as originally heard on Prettyman’s MySpace page and Stereogum), which was sung with song co-writer Anya Marina (MySpace), who just happened to be sitting in the audience.

More, including three photos, after the jump.
Continue reading “Tristan Prettyman @ Twiggs…”

LA-Underground has been at Fiona Apple (MySpace)’s shows lately, continuing a ten-year relationship that originated from a meeting at Spaceland.

So leave it to them to beat me to the punch in mentioning that Apple is doing two shows next week, to benefit Friends of Gungi, at Largo in the Fairfax District:

Gordon “Gungi” Paterson is a legendary figure in the music industry, having been a highly respected engineer, tour and production manager. From his early days in the UK with acts such as Black Sabbath and Judas Priest, he was a mainstay of the 80’s touring scene with bands like Megadeth, and continued through the 2000’s with bands such as Live, System Of A Down, Tears For Fears and most recently Fiona Apple. Gungi’s easily recognizable physical stature is only overshadowed by his immense heart, personality and positive attitude. Last summer, Gungi was diagnosed with cancer – A large lump was discovered in and around the lymph nodes in his neck.

The Monday, March 3rd show teams Apple with producer Jon Brion, who worked on the original version of Extraordinary Machine that was leaked onto the Internet, while the Friday, March 9th show teams Apple “and Friends” (according to the Largo website).

More after the jump.
Continue reading “Head’s Up: Fiona Apple @ Largo…”

Brooklyn Vegan has been closely monitoring the fallout of EMI‘s merger of Capitol Records and Virgin Records, with an “…anonymous, yet reputable tipster” reporting that 30 acts will be dropped from Capitol and four from Virgin:

Other artists rumored to be among those dropped [besides Kevin Devine]: The Dandy Warhols, Sound Team, Shout Out Louds, The Redwalls, Otep, Fischerspooner, The Vines, and Airbourne.

Employees are going too. Possibly Jax.

More after the jump.
Continue reading “Capitol Records Fallout…”

On Wednesday, Kevin Roderick @ LA Observed mentioned that The Guardian is asking its readers to suggest songs about California while The LA Times has been interviewing songwriters about their LA songs:

The U.K.’s Guardian has a music blogger who asks readers to suggest songs based on themes. This week it is tunes about California. I haven’t counted, but many dozens have weighed in. “Can I re-nominate ‘LA County’ by Lyle Lovett? Still sad, and unrequited, and a gun tune, so it’s about bloody time it was included,” writes one. Via Theresa Duncan at Wit of the Staircase.

* Closer to home: If you like this kind of thing, LAT Calendar staffer Geoff Boucher’s biweekly SoCal Songbook interviews songwriters about their L.A.-centric lyrics. He kicked off last summer with “Celluloid Heroes” by Ray Davies and last month talked with Don Henley about The Eagles’ “The Last Resort.” Rickie Lee Jones and “A Second Chance” were featured on Feb. 11.

Kevin and I exchanged e-mails after he posted the article, with me mentioning Blender‘s recent list of “The Best 25 Songs About L.A.” and him mentioning Wikipedia‘s List of songs about Los Angeles. But among those songs that are still missing from that comprehensive list is “Moon Over The Freeway,” which was written about the LA freeway system, by the LA-based The Ditty Bops (MySpace).

Previous posts on the subject of LA songs here and here.

Monday night, the LA-based Kristy Krüger (MySpace), who’s been labelled the female Johnny Cash, performed at the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood before embarking for the next year across every state in the country (she joked about needing plane ticket donations for Alaska and Hawaii) in honor of her late brother Lieutenant Colonel Eric John Kruger, who “…became one of the highest-ranking officers to die in Iraq [this past November]… when a roadside bomb blew up the Humvee [that he and two other soldiers] were riding in”:

This will be my last L.A. show for a while as I head to all 50 states, performing a memorial concert for my brother, LTC Eric Kruger, in every state. Please lemme know if you have friends in certain regions of the country. I’m going to need all the help I can get..

“Goodbye,” dedicated to her brother and performed solo on guitar, was the high point of her set, which had the usually noisy crowd atypically quiet for the duration of the song. I even had to set down my camera out of respect for her and her late brother.