Music In Press

Randsburg: Songwriting for a Devil's Dance

About two years ago the bandRandsburg approached me about listening to their music. When I asked what they played, they responded, “music to drink to.”

At an Altar, in a Church, in Los Angeles with Gifted Nina Persson

Nina Persson took change of The Church stage as though she had been a priestess in a former life, her kimono sleeves like fine vestments for the worship of some divine femininity. “I’m Nina Persson, and these are Nina’s Persons,” she said, nodding toward her band. 

Johnny and June are Smiling Somewhere Thanks to First Aid Kit

First Aid Kit is a duo from Sweden that showed us last Monday night there is no reason to stay at home even on the worst of weekdays. These gifted girls bandaged the audience with emotion, passion, and some pop rock balanced by some Neil Young guitar playing and Bob Wills style pedal steel guitar. Sometimes, discovering a new band is a rebirthing experience – leaving a womb-safe environment, stepping out into a cold world where someone will soon smack you on the ass – not pleasant but you’re better for it. So it is with First Aid Kit and the bandages they have for your soul. Klara and Johanna Söderberg, how do your sad songs calm my soul, how do the make me feel so happy? I’ll never know.

Rock and Fun Should Never be Apart. Listen to Taymir

Next up was the building frenzy ofTaymir (pronounced tie-meer), a group of indie rockers from Amsterdam whose set starts out promising to be rather demure, with babyfaced lead singer Bas Prins in a button-up shirt tucked into office slacks fidgeting about the way he’s holding his hands behind his back (one hand holding the opposite arm or both hands clasped together? Let’s try it the other way again…)

In Bed With Big Monsta

Depending on the stringency of your personal moral compass, this may make me seem like an “easy” girl, but it took less than 13 minutes and 5 songs for me to hop in bed with Big Monsta’s sound.

The Devious Means Escape Holdings with New Album

In a decade when most new bands are chasing a pop song,The Devious Means seem guitar-bent committed on running away from it. On their new album, Other Animals, Chirstopher Faris, Rachel Anderson and co. are actively destroying would-be perfectly catchy songs, and are the better for it.

Interview with Sleep Thieves: "It's About Transporting People out of the Room"

Red and blue lights illuminate in purple a dark-haired girl in floor-length black lace on the alter of a church. Her voice pierces the vast space above her. She dances with her eyes to the rafters, inviting you to enjoy the moment with her, drawing you into the sound. She is Sorcha Brennan, and along with Keith Byrne and Wayne Fahy, who are playing synthesizers, drum pads, and guitar alongside her on stage, they are Sleep Thieves, a Dublin three-piece that bring a human touch to digital sound and who just released their self-recorded second album,You Want the Night.

The Visceral Horror of Scott Walker’s “Soused”

The pulse of Scott Walker’s work has pumped the black blood of his twisted vision for decades now. The bright-eyed days of his youth have long since been replaced with eyes that comfortably and skillfully maneuver their way through the dark. His new album “Soused” is no exception and with the help of Sunn O))), Walker creates another bleak soundscape where the fragility of life is exposed and extinguished at his will.

Getting Under the Skin of the Delta Riggs

It’s a night of kicks. Up on stage, the lead singer grips the microphone as he kicks its stand out from under it and, in the same fluid motion, kicks the stand back up straight into his other hand. Leaning off the edge of the stage toward the gathering crowd, he finishes the song with a cathartic, raw, primal scream of “revolution!”

Listen to Torches: Thriving on Drawn-out Sonics

With so much great new talent each year at The Culture Collide Music Festival in Echo Park, one can easily expect to come away with a few new gems to add to their weekly playlist. For me, it was Cloud Nothings, Delta Riggs, and this band: Torches, a trio from Pasadena comprised of Azad Cheikosman (guitars, vocals), Eric Fabbro (drums, vocals) and Adrian Acosta (bass, vocals). They arrived at one of the more unique stages at Culture Collide – The United Methodist Church - with some significant momentum from a recent residency at The Echo and an enthusiastic support from KROQ. For some, the UMC is an ideal setting, with high ceilings that perfectly echo the music. For me, it was finally a good reason to go to church.

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Timber Timbre - Hot Dreams

As the year comes to a close, many music writers have been providing lists of their favorite releases from 2014. Rather than tap into my music snob ego and tell you which albums were “the best” this year, I’d much rather focus on the record that stands out as my favorite new release of 2014 and tell you why.

The Delta Riggs, Yeah, Turn it UP

The Delta Riggs raise the bar on what it is to perform live rock and roll. Their set in the Taix Champagne Room was a definite high note for the final night of the festival, both musically and visually. Saturday night had frontman Elliott Hammond throwing himself and various equipment around the stage in frenetic lurches as he flew between a center-stage mic and a keyboard with movements that pay serious homage to unbridled inebriation. Yet, he was in full control and we were ensnared in his world.

He never for a moment stopped moving, whether dramatically abusing the mic stand in every imaginable fashion, jumping off the drum set, screaming at the crowd, or disappearing from the stage only to emerge with a hat, a beer, or maracas, there was no break in the chaos. “Rah Rah Radio" had him throwing himself around the stage and then leaning into the crowd to sing the chorus, and the recently-released Rancid-inspired “No Friends” has an energy that must be heard to be appreciated. Their music is pure rock with a punk attitude, raw vocals, and strength at its core.

What does it mean for a young band to play the legendary stage at the Troubadour in West Hollywood? “A lot” explained Sean Stentz while we spoke before his September 29th set. “Radiohead played here,” he adds for perspective. Sean plays bass guitar for the band, Black English (Formerly NO), who hit the stage a short time later for a set promoted by Filter Magazine as a part of their new artist concert series in LA. Black English is part of the Echo Park music scene, having arrived there late in life to collaborate and make music in a recording space above the Echo/Echoplex. 

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When Music In Press got started, we wanted a publication where we could share music in the same way one makes a mixtape and gives it to a friend. We wanted a publication about the ecstasy, emotions and experiences of live music without the compromises of big media companies. We then got really lucky: the writers we attracted shared our passion, and the musicians we covered believed in what we were doing. Out of nowhere, we had our creative dream “job.”

How 5 people and bold ideas turned into 23 friends with a thousand wild stories is well beyond what we ever dreamed of, but that adventure is coming to an end in April.

After two years as part of the Orange County and SoCal music scene, life as it happens, is taking some of us in different directions, and instead of fading away or lowering our quality, we’ve decided it’s more Rock & Roll to call it a day and say good night.

MIP has been home to many writers, photographers, videographers, designers and musicians who embrace simple pursuits: do your best, break conventions and have fun. That last part we took very seriously. Yet, what mattered most to us throughout these years is the enthusiasm we received from this incredible community of artists, venues and fans.

To you all, drunk with appreciation as we are now, thank you for being part of this adventure.

Until we see you at the next live show

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“That’s me in the corner, that’s me in the spotlight”

That place, that place right at the corner is Detroit Bar. It shares the asphalt with a superstore and a laundrymat, but might as well own the entire parking lot on a good night. And that’s what Detroit bar is reknown for; for putting pretty-damn good nights.

Tapioca & the Flea at Detroit Bar

This ostensibly unpretentious locale is responsible for some memorable, fun and absurd nights of my life. I won’t revisit them now, but I’ll tell you why I got nostalgic when I heard Detroit Bar is closing down:

Orange County has the bad reputation of being too mellow, and home to a toothless youth. That can be blamed on the clean streets, unpolluted beaches and breathable air; but behind the appearances, we always had issues being worked on at the scruffy corner of Federal and 19th St. This was trench away from the sane sameness.

I went to UC Irvine, and at the time, nothing felt more rebellious than to smoke a cigarette in the cage by the door at Detroit bar. Nothing contrasted better to the Irvine life than coming to Costa Mesa for live music, drinks and a healthy intake of second hand toxins. When I imagine what it will be like once the new owners take over, I imagine clean tables, a clean floor and a no-smoking sign. My heart is getting sick to the stomach just thinking about it.

Detroit Bar is responsible for some of the most resounding nights of my life, including amazing concerts, drunken stories and WTF moments, and the best part is that most times it was for free. This place is my CBGB, and I’m watching it go away, as it should be, with a “Grand Finale” concert.

However, this isn’t a valentine to my favorite OC bar; this is a middle finger in the air to a friend who is going away. Because when you say goodbye to the trenches, you talk about the one time, during an Aloe Blacc concert, when a crowd surfing girl dropkicked you with boots, and gave you a bloody nose. Yes, that was fun. F-you, D., I’m going to miss your troubled artist temperament.

On another good night, Joel Pott of the band Athlete told me point-blank to “put the camera down and fucking enjoy the music” Ever since, whenever I’m at a concert, his words come to mind, “…enjoy the music.”

The Lonely Wild at Detroit Bar

Yet, the longer list are the new-names witnessed here and how we came of age watching them become household names. Bands like Young the Giant, Venus Infers, The New Limb, Jeramiah Red, The Spell, Robert Jon & The Wreck, This Time with Feeling, Randsburg, Tapioca & the Flea, Well Hung Heart and so many more, made me realize that the OC has a wild beating heart, and it only needed the right venue to bring it to life.

Tonight, as the velvet curtain calls, and we see that iconic Detroit Bar metal sign one last time, I hope the place is packed, and that many of us leave unceremoniously, I’m sure we’ll forget some of the things that happened here, but I truly wish that the attitude this place represented never fades.