L.A. RECORD » anaheim

BURGER RECORD STORE GRAND OPENING ON SAT. w/THEE MAKEOUT PARTY! + AUDACITY + MORE

lar_import — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:18:06 +0000

Download: The Burger Basher! Mixtape

Our old pals at Burger have further conglomerized the powerful Burger brand and opened a brand new real-deal record store to go with their real-deal record label! If you’re in the cholesterol-coated heart of Orange County, be sure to stop by to see Audacity and thee Makeout Party! perform and get first pick on a sure-to-be-staggering collection of used vinyl and of course the legendary Burger cassette collection!

BURGER RECORDS GRAND OPENING SHOW WITH AUDACITY AND THEE MAKEOUT PARTY ON SAT., OCT. 3, AT BURGER RECORDS, 645 S. STATE COLLEGE BLVD. UNIT A, FULLERTON. 7 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. MYSPACE.COM/BURGERRECORDS.

LIL WAYNE @ THE HONDA CENTER

lar_import — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 22:53:48 +0000

After a 40-minute wait, the huge screen above the stage showed Lil Wayne preparing to perform. The crowd in the Honda Center shrieked. When he appeared on stage, bass shook the whole venue, making Lil Wayne almost inaudible, but the audience knew every single word anyway. As explosions spontaneously blasted, everyone was out of their seats, entranced by the tattooed, dreadlocked rapper with the bejeweled teeth. He nonchalantly walked around the stage, wielding the power of knowing that he is on top of the world, in his prime. In the first break of songs he laid down the rules, “I believe in God, do you believe in God?” To which, the crowd responded unanimously, “Wooo!!!!” Rule number two, “I ain’t shit without you!” The audience approved. Number three, “I ain’t shit without you!!!” The place went nuts. In a song catalog nearing one thousand, Lil Wayne turned the concert into a veritable medley, doing about two to three minutes of a song before moving onto the next. Every new song was met with squeals of approval. During another song break, L.W. acknowledged the world’s best rappers: B.I.G., Tupac, Jay Z, and…himself. At this point, the words “#1 Rapper Alive” flashed across the screen. At THIS point, Weezy picked up a guitar and proceeded to do a guitar solo. He cannot play guitar, but he wants to give the impression that he can do anything. His rock album Rebirth is due in November, and he played the rock single “Prom Queen,” which seemed right at home among the rest of the songs. Mid-show, Lil Wayne brought out the newest editions to his Young Money label, which is an imprint of Cash Money Records, which is a subsidiary of Universal, which simply has a lot of money. All the young rappers seemed eager to please (Lil Chuckie was like a mini-Lil Wayne crossed with Chucky from Child’s Play. He ran around the stage like the Tasmanian Devil…it was frightening). An hour and a half into the set, Lil Wayne still had hits to play—“Lollipop,” and the contagious, “Mrs. Officer.” Contrary to what naysayers nay-say, he barely used the vocoder tonight.

—Devon Williams

THE ZOMBIES: MAYBE WE SHOULD HAVE WAITED A BIT LONGER

lar_import — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 05:25:29 +0000

jim hall

The Zombies “Time of the Season”

By the time the Zombies’ 1968 song ‘Time of the Season’ became a staggeringly huge radio hit, the band had already broken up. In March, surviving founding members Colin Blunstone (vocals), Rod Argent (keys), Chris White (bass) and Hugh Grundy (drums) celebrated the 40th anniversary of the their only proper LP, Odessey and Oracle—now regarded by critics and music fans alike as one of the best albums of all time—with a double-disc live recording. Blunstone speaks now with Linda Rapka.

The Zombies just released the double-CD Odessey and Oracle: 40th Anniversary Live Concert. How’d the idea of performing the entire album come about?
We realized it was forty years since the album was released, and it just seemed a good idea to celebrate the anniversary. We did three nights and all sold out, so we thought it also might be a good idea to record it. We DVD’d it as well. The CD has just come out in the UK. The DVD will be a bit later.
What’s it like to have respected peers and droves of fans sell out three nights of live performances for an album initially regarded as a failure?
It’s intriguing, isn’t it? First of all, it’s just very exiting. Whenever an album gets that kind of a response—even when you have to wait quite a long time!—it’s exciting; it makes you feel like your work has some worth. In some ways it’s intensified because it’s taken such a long time. It kind of validates what we were doing, like, ‘Yeah, we were on to something!’ At the time I really felt it was a strong album. I think that’s probably part of the reason the band finished—we’d only released one or two singles, but they went nowhere, and that was that. The band did finish before the album was even released. That does seem a bit premature. Maybe we should have waited a bit longer.
What do you think would have happened had the band not split?
Going on from a scene of ‘what if,’ it does intrigue me sometimes because I felt that at that time Rod and Chris were at the height of their songwriting capabilities. I would have been intrigued to have seen what we could have done next. But it doesn’t make any sense to think like that really. I think it makes much more sense to concentrate on what’s going on at the moment.
Is it true that up until just recently you were unaware ‘Odyssey’ was spelled wrong on the album?
I knew it was spelled wrong, but I thought it was spelled wrong on purpose. The cover was printed by an artist called Terry Quirk. We had a release date and the printing presses were ready to go with the artwork when suddenly he realized he’d spelled it wrong. Obviously, it wasn’t done on the computer in the ’60s; it was a painting. Rod Argent and Chris White decided to concoct a story about how it was done on purpose, a play on the word ‘ode.’ They decided they would even tell the other members of the band this so it would sound more authentic. So I believed it until two or three years ago when I was doing a radio interview with Rod and he said it was a mistake and they tried to cover it up. I thought, ‘I don’t believe you’ve kept that secret for about 37 years!’ I thought it was really funny. Terry Quirk’s a wonderful artist, but he’s not a very good speller.
In the sixties Odessey and Oracle went virtually unrecognized until an entire year after its release, when ‘Time of the Season’ became a massive radio hit in the States—after the band had already broken up. After this success, why didn’t the band regroup?
Everybody had decided that it was time to move on and try new projects. Once we had split Rod and Chris were really committed to their new band Argent, and although the Zombies did have that huge hit ‘Time of the Season’ and we were offered a lot of money to come to the States and tour, it was never even a conversation. We were all involved in new projects. Everyone thought the time had passed.
There’s talk that the Zombies may do some live performances of Odessey here.
All I can say is that discussions are ongoing. There’s also talk of us doing a few more nights in the U.K. as well next year. It’s just because it was so successful and there’s a demand. To start with, we were only thinking of doing one night, and it spread to three. It’s not something that we really ever thought about touring in the full sense, but we’ve been offered a very big venue in London and four other dates around the country, and I would imagine that if we did it in the U.S., it would only five or six concerts at the most.
You once said your dream band would be made up of all bass players. Who would be in this ultimate bass lover’s band?
I don’t remember saying that! But I’m a huge fan of Sting so I’d expect to pick him if he wouldn’t mind being in my band.

THE ZOMBIES WITH JEFFERSON STARSHIP ON THUR., JULY 17, AT THE GROVE OF ANAHEIM, 2200 E. KATELLA AVE., ANAHEIM. 8 PM / $17.50-$45 / ALL AGES. TASTEOFANAHEIM.COM. THE ZOMBIES’ ODESSEY AND ORACLE 40TH ANNIVERSARY LIVE CONCERT IS OUT NOW ON ABSOLUTE. VISIT COLIN BLUNSTONE AT COLINBLUNSTONE.CO.UK.

US NEWS AND HOT CHICKS: RAIN UN NAZI'S SHIT FOR MONSTER JAM

lar_import — Sun, 27 Jan 2008 07:41:27 +0000

JAN 26
SPECIAL UN MUSIC REPORT

When life gives you lemons and rain you make lemonade and wet t-shirt contests but apparently nobody told that to the Monster Jam Monster planners! What I thought was going to be a muddy mess of chaos at Anaheim stadium for monster jam turned out to be a much tamer version of the amazing America fuck yeah i saw last year. While Grave Digger tried hard to re Nazi the field the rest of the gang was lack luster. Though the Donkey Kong truck was rather impressive and the always homo erotic Tropical Thunder tried as hard as he could to give the crowd a reach around but it just wasn’t good enough. In short the jumps were weak and there was nothing really big to smash. God knows Cleavon and I love it when big things go boom while we sip on our Mountain Dew. Hell even the jet powered truck didn’t make a lap and there was a lack of chicks in pick ups shooting soon to be thrift store Glamis barf rags into the crowd. In the end one car almost caught on fire and two others flipped over but nothing really broke. Also whats up with the Shattered truck? From the looks of it he built his ride with monster truck food stamps and spare parts that Grave Digger has dropped along the way. But if one thing was clear its that Cleavon is alive and breeding at an ever rapid rate and populating the world with Brawndo drinking kids who don’t want your toilet water!