Monday, November 12, 2007 3:00PM - By Guest Writer
By Guest Writer: Paul Lakin
50 Cent is captivating – the mix of that overblown menace that rapidly approaches camp with the “You’re one of us, we accept you!” lyrics that talk about having fun, big cars, drugs, etc. In his videos, there’s something downright folksy about the way his jovial explanations of how he’s a cold-blooded killer out to put the rap game in a choke-hold flow seamlessly into how down “we” are with one another.
This style, is to being menacing, what pop music is to being in love. It’s easy-serve aggression. You can pop the top off a can of 50 Cent and be straight for your 9-to-5. This is menace you can drink, blasting in the car on your cell on the way to work, cutting people off and being a fantastic danger to yourself and others, because you couldn’t actually be aggressive at home or at your job. Hell, you and your boss might commiserate about how pimpin’ ain’t easy, but it’s good.
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Monday, November 12, 2007 9:00AM - By Guest Writer
In the Nokia Theatre, located downtown, across from the Staples Center, Los Angeles has found a new venue for music, dance, and theatre. With over 16 high-powered spotlights and high definition screens surrounding the area, the new theatre is impossible to miss. This part of town is beginning to look like a miniature Times Square, or at least, Piccadilly Circus, minus the foot traffic.
Walking up to the venue I found a shortage of scalpers, which was refreshing. I suppose the venue is too new for their shady connections with the box office or Ticketmaster. I wondered why it was so easy to get a pit ticket online seeing as The Queens of the Stone Age are a pretty popular act and this was only the third band to ever grace the largest stage in California. The band was going to test out the new theatre by seeing if they could blow out the speakers. Yes, two bands had already done that. But the Eagles and Dixie Chicks put together do not equal half the volume of the Queens.
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Monday, November 12, 2007 8:01AM - By Guest Writer
They’re the world-famous Kids of Widney High (you can check them out on MySpace here). They’ve been covered by the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, the Aquabats, and Osaka Popstar (made up of members of the Misfits, Black Flag, the Voidoids, and the Ramones), they’ve worked with both Mike Patton (of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle) and Jackson Browne, and they’re a favorite underground band of the likes of Fiona Apple, Marilyn Manson, and Spike Jonze.
So, why don’t you know who they are?
Recently featured in the hit comedy THE RINGER, starring Johnny Knoxville and Katherine Heigl (in which the Kids are, coincidentally, the Ramones to the movie’s ROCK ‘N ROLL HIGH SCHOOL), the Kids of Widney High are a group of young adults with developmental disabilities who write, record, and perform their own unique brand of rock music. They are the best of what truly independent American music is offering these days, and they are also probably the last true vestige of incarnate Outsider Music. By this I mean that, following in the footsteps of the likes of Florence Foster Jenkins, Wesley Willis, and Daniel Johnston, the Kids play music not necessarily because they’re the “best damn singers in the world,” but rather because they have a fervent passion and love of the art, an innocent perspective on the world untainted by commonplace ethos or rhetoric, and an inimitable way of articulating how they experience the world in which we live.
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Thursday, November 8, 2007 10:00AM - By Guest Writer
The doldrums continue this week, folks. In fact, it’s even slimmer pickings than last week…
We’ve got:
That’s right… I actually had to include Feist and a show in Pomona just to make it seem worth mentioning… And don’t even get me started on NEXT week…
Photo by patbreana via flickr
Tuesday, November 6, 2007 8:00AM - By Guest Writer
Tussle, Telescopic Mind Smalltown Supersound, 2006. Born out of the San Francisco art scene, Tussle is one of those bands you find out about because everyone seems to know about them except you… Not in a snobby way, because while there is a certain amount of pretense in some of it, the bottom line with these guys is that they rock. These guys blur the line between garage jam band and minimal dance outfit, with a touch of John Cage thrown in for effect.
Did I mention they have two drummers? That’s right. TWO. Their music is extremely simple, while keeping it’s own unique qualities: you generally have a bassline repeated, a sample or electronic something or other, and the pounding, driving, booty-shaking beat. Continue Reading
Friday, November 2, 2007 12:00PM - By Guest Writer
Ah, the doldrums… We’ve all blown our loads for Halloween, leaving very slim pickings for the upcoming week… Well, that is until Thursday, when three worthwhile shows compete for your hard-earned greenbacks…
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Friday, November 2, 2007 10:48AM - By Guest Writer
We get it. She’s not the best mother in the world, nor is she probably in line for the Nobel Peace Prize. But before Britney became a tabloid spectacle with the panty-less nights, Paris Hilton friendships, and K-Fed debacles, she was known for being an entertainer. The key word in that sentence is entertainer. Yes, she is a singer, but Britney is primarily one who puts on a show, displaying a level of flash that the public eats up. Even when not performing, the public views her every move. Can she sing? Yes. Can she sing well? Not really, but that depends on who you ask.
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Thursday, November 1, 2007 8:00AM - By Guest Writer
Delta 5
Singles & Sessions
Kill Rock Stars
2006
Oh my gawd. These guys rock. Gritty, frequently off-key and off-tempo, these guys are quintessential underground post-punk.
The lyrics are frequently… bad, they come across as a little snotty (I picture all the KXLU DJs, dressed in their finest faux-vintage 80s gear, standing around bobbing their heads to this, their hair perfectly sculpted), but at the same time there’s something genuinely compelling about their music. Something about it all just works.
Bordering on pretentious, this is a nice little guilty pleasure to indulge in when no one’s around.
