Pictured (bottom): Charlotte Stokely & Dana DeArmond

Last night was Vivid-Alt (Myspace)’s release party, for Girls Lie and Dana DeArmond Does the Internet (aka D3TI), at Beauty Bar in Hollywood.

Among those in attendance were Vivid-Alt’s Eon McKai (MySpace) as well as stars Charlotte Stokely (MySpace) and Dana DeArmond (MySpace).

Two photos after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

Pictured: Jesca Hoop

Tom Waits had the following to say about the LA-based songstress Jesca Hoop (MySpace): “[Her] music is like a four sided coin. She is an old soul, like a black pearl, a good witch or a red moon. Her music is like going swimming in a lake at night.”

The first time I saw Hoop perform was a little over two years ago, when she opened for The Ditty Bops (MySpace) @ Largo in Los Angeles. That night, I was quite taken not only by her dramatic outfit (and not everyone can pull off wearing a top hat to boot), but by her vocal control, as it was (and still is) an astonishing instrument in its own right. Further complemented by a squeezebox, a pair of guitars, and sometimes her band of boys, or even The Ditty Bops, her shows are always an aural delight.

And 2007 already looks to be a memorable year for Hoop, as her debut album (recorded with producer Tony Berg) is tentatively scheduled to be released this spring. But here’s a look back at her favorite moments of 2006, in her own words:

Jesca Hoop’s Top 10 Favorite Highlights Of 2006:

1. “Living in the sweetest country cottage Topanga has to offer.”

2. “Growing a garden and writing music in that home of mine.”
3. “Signing a record contract with Columbia/3e Records.”
4. “Playing SXSW with Ian Walker, Sasha Smith, Damian Anthony and my then pregnant sister Carissa.”
5. “Traveling to Mallorca to play in an ancient church that need no amplification.”
6. “Recording with Stuart Copeland, Matt Chamberlain, Mikah 9, Patrick Warren, Jose Pasillas, Ian Walker, Sasha Smith, Blake Mills, The Yoshida Brothers, Sam, Alex and Cedrick… and listening to the whimsy unfold into a magical record!”
7. “Traveling to Barcelona to play in Gaudi’s La Pedrera.”
8. “Watching Bush squirm as he lost both the Senate and the Congress!”
9. “Meeting my nephew Justice Emanuel Garza.”
10. “Having a wonderful holiday season with friends and family.”

(Hoop’s next shows are on Saturday, January 13th @ the Hotel Cafe in Hollywood and on Sunday, January 21st @ Tangiers in Los Feliz.)

Previous Top 10 Lists: KGRL and The Ditty Bops as well as Playboy.

Playboy recently listed “America’s 10 Best Rock Clubs” (link via Brooklyn Vegan):

The right venue can become an incubator for talent and make its own deep mark in music history. Identifying the 10 rock clubs in America fulfilling this mission best was tough. Many cities have cool venues with distinct personalities that support local music, but the best also have adventurous lineups and exercise just enough pull to draw up-and-coming touring acts. After consulting with musicians, music journalists and industry insiders, we tagged these 10 sonic hotspots (listed in alphabetical order) as the ones booking the most exciting and forward-thinking acts.

So here’s their list, which includes The Echo (MySpace) in Echo Park, home to Jax @ Rock Insider‘s Hell-Ya! (MySpace):

• 2 Galaxies, San Francisco, CA
• Black Cat, Washingtonb D.C.
• Cake Shop, New York, NY
• Doug Fir Lounge, Portland, OR
• The Earl, East Atlanta, GA
• The Echo, Los Angeles, CA
• Emo’s, Austin, TX
• Empty Bottle, Chicago, IL
• First Avenue, Minneapolis, MN
• Mercury Lounge, New York, NY

And here’s their description of The Echo:

The Los Angeles rock scene has had a decadent streak ever since Jim Morrison started drawing crowds at the Whiskey-A-Go-Go. So it’s fitting the Echo, which arose from a converted Latin dance club, sports post-disco debris like mirrored walls and vinyl booths. The floor still sees plenty of wear and tear during regular DJ events, like Dub Club reggae nights, but the real action is onstage. Located in the artist-heavy East L.A. neighborhood of Echo Park, the venue draws on L.A. hipsters and a constantly replenishing supply of local talent. It’s also the sister club to the larger and more established Spaceland, but because it’s more intimate, the Echo tends to draw edgier, under-the-radar touring acts.

Famous Alumni: Elliot Smith, Mia Doi Todd, Rilo Kiley
Bands to See Now: Lavender Diamond, The Gray Kid

More after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

I couldn’t say goodbye to 2006 without acknowledging that the House of Davids, located on the southeast corner of W 3rd St. and S Muirfield Rd. and just west of S Rossmore Ave. in Hancock Park, has once again been adorned with Christmas and New Year’s decorations.

And while Losanjealous reported that “…last year’s Santa and Mrs. Claus appear to be absent in the foreground,” when I visited the house yesterday, Mr. and Mrs. Claus were sitting at their now usual spot, perhaps due to popular demand?

I noted with amusement that during the time I was there, cars passed by the house every few minutes, passing by very slowly, or pulling over for a closer look, or even stopping entirely so families could get their photos taken in front of the house. And not just families, as there were college students and young couples as well. I could totally imagine people of all ages and demographics dropping by every year.

Speaking of which, I don’t know how long this annual decorative tradition has lasted, but I have to admit I’m already curious what next Christmas has in store for Youngwood Court.

UPDATE: Drove past the house this morning (01/03/07) and the decorations have disappeared, presumably until December. Also, according to Losanjealous, the house and its occupants will be extensively featured in E!‘s upcoming reality series High Maintenance 90210.

Five photos after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

Pictured (top): Sy Smith & her band Deeznuts

Saturday night, soulful songstress Sy Smith (MySpace) and her band Deeznuts performed a day-early New Year’s Eve show at Temple Bar in Santa Monica.

Eight photos after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

Pictured: Sara Bareilles

I first became aware of KGRL (MySpace) @ the Hotel Cafe while in line for a Kate Earl (MySpace) show last July.

According to their website, “KGRL is a non-profit non-commercial internet radio station that plays ALL female artist mixed-genre, easy-listening, flower-powered hits from past to present. … The songs played falls in a wide variety of genre, mostly indie, alternative, jazz, pop, folk, rock, trip-hop, classic, and even japanese pop. Artists range from popular mainstream to obscure ones.” Considering the fact that I listen to female singer-songwriters and female-fronted bands on a regular basis, KGRL sounds like a station that is tailor-made for me. They also just happen to be based in LA.

So here’s their list to help close out this year, as compiled by Mysty @ KGRL, which includes several artists based here in LA.

KGRL’s Top 10 Artists To Watch Out For In 2007:

10. Emi Meyer (MySpace) – “Pure Jazz bliss in the likes of Sara Gazarek [MySpace]. With today’s lack of appreciation in Jazz, Emi comes to bring back some loving to the genre. Her EP Magnolias is a sure sign that we are to expect something big from this emerging artist.”

9. Schuyler Fisk (MySpace) – “Sissy Spacek’s daughter writes and sings well-crafted acoustic ballads. Schuyler scrapped the idea of having an EP made available in favor of working on a full-length. With enough fans anticipating the CD, it’s probably the right decision to work on something bigger.”

More after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

Pictured: Amanda Barrett & Abby DeWald from The Ditty Bops

With 2006 coming to a close, many lists are being published on those Internet tubes.

So here’s a rather unique one, contributed by LA residents The Ditty Bops (MySpace), based on their recent cross-country summer bicycle tour from LA to New York City.

The Ditty Bops’ Top 10 Food Stops On Their 2006 Bicycle Tour Across The US:

1. Bedrock Depot (Dinosaur, CO) – “Best lemon ice cream.”

2. Big Sur Roadhouse (Big Sur, CA) – “Best chocolate cake.”
3. Bistro Campagne (Chicago, IL) – “Best mac ‘n’ cheese.”
4. Cheese Board Pizza Collective (Berkeley, CA) – “Best pizza.”
5. Holy Land Diner (Springfield, IL) – “Best Middle Eastern buffet.”
6. OTTO Enoteca Pizzeria (NYC, NY) – “Best olive oil ice cream.”
7. Planet Juices & Java (Nevada City, CA) – “Best juice and smoothies.”
8. Sages Cafe (Salt Lake City, UT) – “Best peanut butter chocolate non-dairy shake.”
9. Souen (NYC, NY) – “Best macrobiotic cuisine.”
10. Westville (NYC, NY) – “Best mac ‘n’ cheese.”

(The Ditty Bops’ next shows are next Saturday @ McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica to celebrate the release of their 2007 Vegetable Bikini Calendar.)

Tuesdays are New Release Days when it comes to music, movies, and (sometimes) videogames. But if you’ve grown accustomed to buying your sweet audiovisual software at the Sacramento-based Tower Records, you’re going to have to find a new place to shop, as last Friday was the final day its brick-and-mortar stores were open for business (a “last hurrah” for its employees was held last Monday @ The Viper Room):

Starting in October 2006, all Tower Records stores in the United States prior to liquidation held “going out of business” sales before final shutdown on the night of Friday, December 22, 2006. …

Tower Records entered bankruptcy for the first time in 2004. Factors cited were the heavy debt incurred during its aggressive expansion in the 1990s, growing competition from mass discounters, and internet piracy. Its policy of selling most Compact Disc (CD) based music recordings at list price also proved detrimental. …

On August 20, 2006, Tower Records filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy for the second time in order to facilitate a purchase of the company prior to the holiday shopping season.

A friend went to Tower’s landmark Sunset store last Monday, and he said the mood was rather somber inside. He reported that not only were the fixtures and wall art onsale, but any remaining product that was marked at 80-90% off were being scooped up by opportunists hoping to flip it elsewhere.

The last time I was there was for Fiona Apple (MySpace)’s in-store appearance to promote Extraordinary Machine last October, which shows you how often I went there to buy music.

More after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

A little over a week ago, I was in the videogame section @ Fry’s Electronics when I overheard a conversation involving one of their employees and a Fed Ex deliveryman about the Nintendo Wii console and when their next shipment would arrive. After their conversation ended, I pulled the deliveryman aside, we engaged in a pleasant 15 minute conversation about videogames, and I gave him some advice on securing a Wii for his family.

The most important tip I gave him was to check the FatWallet.com and SlickDeals.net forums on a very regular basis, as many of their members live on the East Coast (what happens there in terms of delivery schedules may apply here later in the day) as well as in Southern California (likewise). At one point, I was checking those forums once every few minutes during that crazy first week the Wiis and Sony Playstation 3s were onsale. Also important is to know when the UPS and Fed Ex delivery trucks arrive, because often times, the consoles are unpacked from their respective boxes and brought over to the store shelves immediately. And finally, when checking to see if a console is available at a particular store, try physically going there and asking someone (in a managerial position if possible), as opposed to calling over the phone. If you’re friendly and not a douchebag in your approach, chances are that said employee will fill you in.

Meanwhile, if you still looking for one of those elusive consoles for Christmas, and contrary to 1Up‘s glum prediction (via Digg/Joystiq) about availability through the rest of the year, Toys R Us announced (via Joystiq) that they will have additional Wiis and PS3s before the end of the year (but probably only as part of a bundle, so be ready for that).

More after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

I found out earlier through a friend, whom I worked with at Tower in the early 1990s, that there is a “Last Hurrah” party for their employees tonight at The Viper Room (which is directly across the street from Tower Video on Larabee and almost directly across the street from the legendary Tower Records location on Sunset). He also told me that the order reportedly came down from the regional manager of all Tower retail locations in the Southern California area.

I haven’t been able to find confirmation of this party online, and a check of The Viper Room’s schedule doesn’t indicate anything of the sort either. (For what it’s worth, doors are @ 8:30 PM and the bands performing tonight, as part of an Indie 103.1 presentation, are Protection, The Spores, Year Long Disaster, and Lana Now Fell).

Apparently Tower’s parties have been legendary in the past, and if this news is true, I’d imagine that tonight’s will be one for the record books.

Last Thursday night, L.A.-based songstress Jesca Hoop (MySpace) was at Temple Bar in Santa Monica. Here is a photo from the show.

Four photos after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

In January, when I observed that the search for an Xbox 360 was going to be “…a mere dress rehersal for the Playstation 3‘s release later this year,” I didn’t anticipate that last weekend would involve violence.

Since the early birds around Los Angeles, many of whom were hoping to flip the scarely limited consoles on eBay, were already camped outside the local Best Buy, Circuit City, Target, Toys R Us, and Wal-Mart for days, the Sony Style Store at the Westfield Topanga (fka the Topanga Plaza) in Woodland Hills seemed like the best option (Sony has another local store in the Beverly Center).

For two days, I did reconnaisance work, talking with Sony Style employees and security as well as mall security and uniformed LAPD officers, and found that shoppers were discouraged from camping on mall property, which theoretically meant that everyone had a potential shot at getting a PS3 when the mall doors reopened on Friday morning at 6:00 AM. However, when reality set in on Thursday morning, after I saw that campers had already been waiting on the sidewalk outside the parking structure that was closest to the nearest mall entrance to the Sony Style Store, I decided not to even bother.

And on Friday morning, mirroring what happened at the Sony Style Store in Boston, the scene in Woodland Hills was nearly as chaotic, as Pao experienced for himself.

More after the jump.
Read the rest of this entry →

On a whim, and because I had insomnia, I ventured out earlier this morning on Black Friday to check out the local scene in the West Valley, particularly at the Porter Ranch Town Center (located just off the 118 Freeway) and the Northridge Fashion Center.

The fascinating thing is that in both cases, traffic in the surrounding communities was absent, so I had no idea of what was coming until I got to both locations.

The scene at Porter Ranch was an exercise in organized chaos, as there were huge lines (several shoppers deep) outside Best Buy and Wal-Mart (which are neighboring stores). But Best Buy’s was particularly noteworthy, as it actually surged eastward past Wal-Mart and the other storefronts. There were at least two LAPD patrol cars monitoring the activity, and loud cheering when doors at Best Buy finally opened at 5:00 AM.

I stuck around for a few more minutes, thinking that the scene was a candidate for The Consumerist‘s “Craziest Black Friday Place”, and from there, checked out the scene at the Northridge Fashion Center. The longest line was directly outside the Disney Store (which was already open) and Gamestop (probably due the news of more Playstation 3s and Nintendo Wiis being available). Meanwhile there were only a handful of people waiting outside Macy’s and just two people outside the Apple Store.

What’s the scene like in your neighborhood?

UPDATE: Mike @ Franklin Avenue was actually in that Best Buy line and wrote a report from the front lines.

Yesterday’s edition of The LA Times covered the news that the Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival “…will launch a follow-up event with mainstream, ‘outlaw’ and bluegrass acts” next year:

The Coachella Valley Music & Arts Festival will expand to three days next April, but the bigger news is that the West Coast’s premier rock and dance event will also welcome a country cousin: The concert’s stages and tents will stay in place for an extra week to host a country music bonanza featuring George Strait, Kenny Chesney, Willie Nelson and Lucinda Williams.

Coachella promoter Paul Tollett said Monday that he’s not ready to announce the new venture’s name and entire lineup just yet, but he did acknowledge that it will be staged May 5 and 6 at the Empire Polo Field in Indio, a site that has been home to the Coachella festival since 1999. Tickets are expected to go on sale in January. …

There will also be a bluegrass stage with Ricky Skaggs, Earl Scruggs and Nickel Creek. The latter booking takes on added intrigue with the Grammy-winning trio’s announcement that they will be going their separate ways after their 2007 tour, ending a run that began when the group formed in 1989 in Carlsbad.

There will also be tents devoted to cowboy poetry, rural Americana and storytelling, and Red Steagall, host of the syndicated radio show “Cowboy Corner” and the 2006 poet laureate for the state of Texas, has been booked, as has Garrison Keillor of “A Prairie Home Companion” fame. Another tent will have Riders in the Sky, the heritage music and comedy act that has reached the most ears through two Pixar productions, the hit film “Toy Story 2″ and the Oscar-winning short “For the Birds.”

Speaking of Nickel Creek (MySpace), Sean and Sara Watkins have been hosts of The Watkins Family Hour at Largo for several weeks (their last show was this past Thursday). I had a chance to catch them three weeks ago when their special guests were the aforementioned The Ditty Bops (MySpace), and their collective version of “I’m An Old Cowhand” was quite a harmonic spectacle. So the opportunity to see Nickel Creek at next year’s Coachella for quite possibly their last performance in the Southland is something I can’t pass up.

(Photo of Nickel Creek courtesy of Nickel Creek.)

Just a quick head’s up that The Ditty Bops (MySpace) are performing two shows on Saturday, January 6th, 2007 at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica to celebrate the release of their 2007 Vegetable Bikini Calendar.

Tickets went onsale last Thursday, and as of this writing, 45 tickets are left for their 7:30 PM show and 37 tickets are left for their 10:00 PM show.

I admit, I’m biased since I’ve been a longtime fan of theirs for almost three years, but it is difficult to resist Abby DeWald and Amanda Barrett’s uniquely charming blend of “folk, bluegrass, jazz, western swing, ragtime and musical theater.” And given how small McCabe’s is, I anticipate that both shows will sell out soon.

(Image courtesy of The Ditty Bops.)