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Weekend Rock

frankel.jpgThe agenda for this weekend is both bittersweet and exultant.

Frankel Plays the Last In-Store at Sea Level Records, Saturday 4pm…(come early for beer.)
Local multinstrumentalist Frankel (myspace) (aka Michael Orendy, ex-Athalia, Meow Meow) gets the “Band on the Titanic” award for playing the final in-store show at sinking Sea Level. While he plays everything himself on his new album (which was mixed by Earlimart dude Aaron Espinoza), he’s assembled a really great band for live shows (Raymond Richards on guitar and keyboards (The Idaho Falls, Mojave 3, Mazzy Star), Christopher Dion on bass (a recent Detroit transplant) and Rob Poynter drumming (The Harpeth Trace)).* I asked Orendy if there would be Punch and Pie and he said, “Well, I might punch someone.” So, I figure, that’s reason enough to go right there.

Click here for LA Record’s story on Sea Level.

*Yes, I am aware of the embedded parentheses.

Behind the jump: Mezzanine Owls at Summer Camp and Totally Radd!! in the perfect venue for them.

This post has been brought to you by Amber Headlights’ “Domani,” Ghostland Observatory’s “Victory Lap,” and Thee More Shallow’s “2 AM”.
Continue reading “Weekend Rock”

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Time to reset my presets

Earlier this week, I was baffled when I turned the radio in my car and heard something twangy coming out of it. I looked down: 105.1. Wha????!!!??? Surely it had to be a mistake. I flipped my tuner to 92.3 for my classical music fix. And then a while later when I got bored, I flipped back to 105.1… Is this twangy stuff a mistake?

So this morning, I went to the K-Mozart website and found this notice:

K-Mozart has not gone away, we are still on FM in High Definition and also simulcast on 1260AM. From Monday February 26th at 6am, KMZT will be available on 1260am and HD2 105.1

We truly appreciate your loyal support and hope you will continue listening to K-Mozart on 1260am and on 105.1 HD2 Radio.

It turns out that the station at 105.1 on the FM dial will now be “Go Country 105.” K-Mozart will move to 1260 AM signal leaving KCSN (88.5) and KUSC (91.5) as the only two FM classical music stations in LA. KCSN is broadcast out of Cal State Northridge and is only audible in the Valley and the Westside. With KUSC, you have to put up with the incessant pledge drives (but there are no commercials). But I can tell you one thing… there is NO WAY I am going to listen to K-Mozart on AM radio. Who wants to listen to classical music on AM? Not me!

Do you remember losing KFAC (92.3) in 1989? I rightfully predicted at the time that someone else would step up in fill KFAC’s space on the dial. This time, I’m not making that same prediction… even though I wish it would happen.

Other coverage ::LA Times:: ::LA Daily News:: ::franklin avenue:: ::martini republic::

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Killradio.org’s As*-Whoopin’ Fundraiser!!!

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In the winter of 2000 I was working teaching classical fine art to kids at a mall in Sherman “Boob Job” Oaks, home of Frankie B. jeans (the first super low-rise ones, made by one of the mothers of one of my students–the little girl was named Frankie–and during share-time, when the parents would sit in the rear and the kids would show their work, all the male instructors would line up in the back of the room to gawk at the mother’s thong gloriously effusing its lurid fuschia or cerulean butterfly wings over her spray-tanned backside–but I digress) and a co-worker whose name I’ve since spaced on told me I should come with her to this meeting for an independent pirate radio station.

“But I don’t know how to DJ,” I said, somewhat ashamedly, ‘cuz this was in the days when everyone but me knew how.

“They’ll teach you,” she said.

Thus was my introduction to killradio.org, and I have to say…

(exactly WHAT I have to say is behind the jump.)
Continue reading “Killradio.org’s As*-Whoopin’ Fundraiser!!!”

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24 makes 103.1 Commercial Free, Sort Of

All week I’ve been hearing on 103.1 how they are going to go commercial free all day today and tomorrow in celebration of the 24 season premier, sponsored by them in fact. So this morning I drive to the grocery store expecting commercial free 103 but what do I get? the ENTIRE time I was in the car the DJ was on his knees blowing fax and 24 and going on and on about how they are sponsoring 103 all day so there are no commercials and everyone should go watch 24 because OMG Jack Bauer is soo bad ass and go watch 24 and yeah no commercials all day. Except guess what? THAT IS A COMMERCIAL! Commercial free would be the DJ talking about the music and then playing it. Yapping on and on about a TV show everyone should go watch because they paid to sponsor the whole day is just different kind of commercial. Puke.

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Noisy Bob Bellerue, Arty Lola, and The Moz: This Coming Weekend’s To Do List

Sound Artist and Noise Enabler Bob Bellerue at Dangerous Curve
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A release came across my desk today for a new event at Dangerous Curve, Downtown. They often have good, high-quality shows, but this one particularly knocked my socks off. Bob Bellerue–known to many of you local rock snobs as the dude who keeps Il Corral open for the noise-rock kids and who really helped midwife the scene in 2005–is bringing his own performance art / experimental music / soundscaping to Dangerous Curve on the night of the 13th. In a hybridization of various other shows I’ve seen around LA that I’ve loved–Christian Ristow‘s giant clattering robots, Jeff Boynton’s circuitbending, and pretty much everything done at Machine Project, plus a Long Beach event called SoundWalk (for the love of the Lard, Flood, bring it to LA!)–Bellerue uses found and repurposed objects to make some seriously…
(continued behind le jump)
Photo courtesy brilliant photog Aaron Farley from Get The Fuck Up Radio.
Continue reading “Noisy Bob Bellerue, Arty Lola, and The Moz: This Coming Weekend’s To Do List”

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Woman confesses to murder on Leykis

Anyone who knows about LA based radio talk show host Tom Leykis has a reaction to him, either they love him or hate him for a whole collection of different reasons. And anyone who listens also knows that many of the callers seem to have fallen off the boat and are swimming towards dumb island, which only leads to the amusement. Last week one of those callers might have taken the prize by admitting to murdering someone on the air. The caller, “Sue”, said that after a one night stand she’d become pregnant and attempted to get child support from the father. When he refused to pay up she bragged about shooting him in the heart (going as far as to say she is a nurse and knew just where to aim) and killing him. When Tom asked how she liked jail she laughed it off saying that she got away with it by simply crying a lot and saying the guy had been drinking, was upset, and had shot himself. Of course Tom went over the details with her and confirmed the name of the small city she lived in as well as her phone number and then informed her that he was turning that info over to the cops at which point she hung up. Well he did, and now it seems that detectives think the call was legit and this actually happened. They are looking further into it at this point, and I’ll keep you posted when charges are filed.

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Sweatin’ Bullet Points (9/4/06): Birthday/Labor Day edition!

Happy Birthday to my city of Angels! Sometimes, you smell like a monkey, but I love you anyway. And without Los Angeles, how could there be a blogging.la? Sorry about choosing sleep instead of that nine mile walk I’d promised to go on, but I needed some rest allow me more time to write about your beautiful birthday suit…

In what sounds like a genius guerrilla marketing effort by contestants on The Apprentice, a number of official looking freeway signs have appeared around L.A. telling drivers where to find the Trump National Golf Club in Rancho Palos Verdes. The Daily Breeze points out that two of the signs were placed on the 405 conveniently near “another hoity-toity course — the Riveria Country Club.”

XM Radio will rebroadcast “five hours of music, jingles, sound checks and local color” from the archives of KFWB (AM 980). The clips will be from the 60’s, when the now all news station was spinning Top 40 hits. (source: Daily News)

City officials participated in a simulated terrorist attack last week, and the LA Times (who also financed the exercise) has the details of the frightening scenario and how our paid overseers handled the emergency. A good read for both Tom Clancy fans or anyone who wants an inside look into what the government has to deal with, and how the citizens, even in the best of all bad situations, will need to be ready to take care of themselves.

“Across from the mock-Uzi store on 3rd street at Los Angeles” the Slo-Mo Tourist has discovered downtown’s Bong Row. “every other store on this block was selling… glass bongs and hookahs of various sizes and boxes of the flavored tobaccos you put in them.”

Ron at LosAnjealous has the “Top 10 Notable Residents of Whittier”, with Tina Yothers just beating Richard Nixon to the number one spot. #3 are The Cold War Kids who perform on Friday at the Troubadour.

Zach at LAist is keeping count of all the candles on LA’s cake with a roundup of today’s commorative events.

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Hey Jill – I Want My Name Back

Yeah, you heard me, Jill. You, and your bland, inoffensive focus group generated identity can give back the best part of yourself: your name. Which, might I add, is mine.

I’m referring to JillFM, Jack’s spinoff station. According to the LA Times article (“Jack May Be Annoying, But Jill’s An Airhead”), Jill is not widely available in all of the SoCal area yet – but she’s on her way. She is not so much a radio station, but a composite identity of a woman who owns a radio station, and therefore, plays what she wants. She likes cosmopolitans, but will drink a beer after surfing, she might have a bad girl streak, she has a mountain bike and maybe a Mercedes coupe. She is a self-made woman whose daddy bought her a radio station.

Even if I wasn’t named Jill myself, I would be offended, as a woman, at this station. It isn’t just the music, but the entire concept of the personalized, inoffensive station personality. The website is a makeup mirror. The logo is a lipstick print. The station is “fun with a sassy attitude!” (what, it isn’t sassitude?). And the music itself is equally stereotypical and boring, with songs that range from bland to blander. “AC, Hot AC, CHR, Oldies, Rock, even Country!” (By the way, I don’t even know what AC and CHR are – but I assume the former is Adult Contemporary, a genre I find nauseating at best)

So Jill, please give my name back. Stop degrading me, and fellow Jills everywhere. And by the way, Jillian’s in Citywalk? I’m coming for you next.

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Country Radio Not Quite Dead Yet

Following the abrupt dissolution of KZLA, LA found itself with no country music station. I have good news for disappointed fans — at least those of you with XM Satellite Radio or the inclination to get it.

Reader and ex-Angeleno David, who happens to work for XM, sent me a press release announcing that they’ve taken over as sponsors of “Country Music Bash 06,” formerly hosted by KZLA. The complete release, with information about the various XM country stations, is behind the cut.
Continue reading “Country Radio Not Quite Dead Yet”

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I don’t even listen to the radio

…so I am probably not the ideal person to post this. (Alternate title: blogging.la isn’t a news site, but here is some news.)

A trip to Franklin Avenue finds the news that KZLA is making the dramatic switch from country music to dance/top 40 and changing their name to Movin 93.9. Furthermore, Rick Dees will be the host of their new morning show. Oddly, I am sure I remember Dees, though it seems unlikely that I listened to KIIS FM much in the two months between when I moved here and when he left the station.

The question is, what will LA do with no country music radio? (And what will I do without the “Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy” billboards to make me laugh?)

Read the full story at Franklin Avenue.

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Where, oh, where is my 5-pak?

I’ve been a KCRW subscriber for years–an Angel, for the flush ones. (I listen to a lot of NPR in between Dr. Laura and Tom Leykis.)

But these are leaner times chez communicatrix, and I’ve had to cut back lately to the $100 pledge level. Less than I’d like, but the nice volunteers during Weekend Becomes Eclectic (where I’ve pledged since Joe Frank went off the air) seemed satisfied, and I still got 5-count-’em-5 CDs of my choosing plus, if I timed it right, a free subscription to Los Angeles magazine.

To my great dismay, I’m listening to the (interminable) pledge drive this morning during Nic Harcourt’s show and I hear a lot of “4-pak at the $100 level”, but no 5-pak! Damn this inflation. Between that and Ann Litt off having her baby, this could be the worst pledge drive ever…

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What A Pleasant Surprize [sic]

So I’m all set to brave the heat and the madding crowds of Costco just now and I bust out the front door to find a DHL box on the steps. At first I figure it’s something for my wife since I certainly wasn’t expecting any deliveries, but when I pick it up nah, it’s got my name on it. Full of curiosity I see it’s come from an M. McGuire at KFWB-AM and immediately I’m all “no frickin’ way!” loud enough that the old unneighborly neighbor examining his overly manicured front lawn across the street looks up at me dourly as if I’ve just confirmed to him that indeed I am a raving loon.

I give him a half wave and bust back inside, practically giddy. In fact I was entirely giddy because I knew that inside the yellow box was the prize for a contest I had entered around the middle of June, and one that I had figured I hadn’t won since there’d been neither a personal notification sent nor nothing I could find on the KFWB website.

The contest? I can’t remember the exact title but it was something like “Super Shooter” and the station was looking for photo submissions that focused on “favorite moments at Dodger Stadium.” And while I have plenty of fave moments from the many games I’ve watched there over my lifetime, there’s only one that I captured digitally, and that was this one taken Sept. 17, 2001, from the top deck prior to the start of the first baseball game to be played there after 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Continue reading “What A Pleasant Surprize [sic]”

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KCRW Needs Volunteers

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Santa Monica-based radio station KCRW is looking for volunteers. Broadcasting to Los Angeles and Orange Counties, this member-supported station hosts such favorite programs as Which Way LA with Warren Olney, Art Talk with Ed Goldman, and This American Life by NPR dreamboat Ira Glass (in fact, KCRW is NPR’s California flagship station). This August 11-21 KRCW invites both new and returning volunteers to help with their new computerized pledge drive:

Welcome to KCRW’s new volunteer website.

We are very excited to announce that we have entered the modern age and our pledge drive is now fully computerized!

What this means to you is that all volunteers will be using computers to enter pledges, so please be sure that you feel comfortable working with computers before signing up.

KCRW’s Summer Sign-Up will be held from
August 11th-August 21st, 2006

Go to the Volunteer page for more information. If you’re new, they have loads on info, questions, and orientation materials.