Download: Diabiase + P.U.D.G.E. “Smoke It Up”

(from L.A. Series Vol. 1 out now on All City)

Dublin’s All City‘s 7X7 series combined into an album that everybody probably needs to have and now All City is directing their efforts completely into the L.A. music scene. Starting this month, they’ll be releasing the first of 12 producer + producer 10″s featuring everybody in L.A. you’d want to hear on vinyl. Number one is L.A. RECORD alum Dibia$e and P.U.D.G.E.—download above and more info below!

All City Records is releasing a series of limited edition 10″ releases every month for the entire year of 2010.  Each 10″ features 2 Los Angeles based producers, and the first release features Dibiase and P.U.D.G.E, two brewing LA producers that have been making their mark w/various releases and production placements.

In support of this release, here is “Smoke It Over” a track produced by both Dibiase and P.U.D.G.E. which is featured on this first LA Series 10″, which is on iTunes now.

Absolutely paralyzing work from photographer Shaun Bloodworth—a year’s worth of portraits of Low End Theory regulars and live gigs. Flying Lotus, Daddy Kev, Exile, Daedelus, Gaslamp Killer, Ras G, Samiyam, Dam-Funk and more. Perfect photos that will arouse your hometown pride! Thanks for the folks at Brainfeeder for the tip!

L.A. Times reports that Hollywood’s Knitting Factory—which the Times says spent $200,000 wrangling with city permits almost exactly a year ago—will not seek to renew its lease at its current Hollywood Boulevard location once it expires this October 31. Company CEO Morgan Margolis told the Times he is considering other L.A.-area locations, however:

Margolis said he’s been aiming to leave Hollywood since before the struggle to keep his permit began. “I’ve been looking two years now for the right space,” he said. “I’m looking all over — downtown, Silver Lake, Los Feliz, North Hollywood, Studio City. I’ve looked as far as Alhambra.

“I don’t want the community to think that the Knitting Factory is done in Los Angeles,” Margolis said. ”I’m looking, and have a couple deals on the table. If one of these goes through, there may be a full-on lateral move and no shutdown. It may just be a week or two changeover.”

But before anyone gets too optimistic, he adds, “Or it could be a year.”

Shows scheduled this fall should proceed normally until the lease is up. More info from the Times here.

Download: Graveyard “Thin Line”

(from Graveyard out now on Tee Pee)

Swedish heavy band Graveyard (last seen and interviewed for the Manifest Destiny show last October) will be returning to the U.S. to tour with CKY and play with Night Horse at L.A.’s Bootleg Theatre and Bar Pink. Info below:

The quartet features Rikard Edlund (bass), Axel Sjöberg (Drums), Joakim Nilsson (Guitar/Vocals), and Jonathan Ramm (Guitar/Vocals). When recording of the album was complete ex-member Truls Mörck quit and was replaced immediately by Ramm. Upon their initial formation Graveyard quickly recorded a two track demo, which would serve as a preview of what was to come. After playing only three gigs and recouping from three severe injuries, Graveyard managed to find themselves recording an album for the venerable Tee Pee Records.

Tour Dates:
7/15 – The East End – Portland, OR w/ Danava
7/16 – Cafe Du Nord – San Francisco, CA w/ Lumerians
7/17 – Historic Brookdale Lodge – Brookdale, CA
7/18 – Bootleg Theater – Los Angeles, CA w/ Night Horse
7/19 – Bar Pink – Los Angeles, CA w/ Night Horse
7/21 – The Clubhouse – Tempe, AZ w/ CKY
7/22 – Gators Bar and Grill – Farmington, NM w/ CKY
7/24 – Granada Theater – Dallas, TX w/ CKY
7/25 – White Rabbit – San Antonio, TX w/ CKY
7/26 – The Meridian – Houston, TX w/ CKY
7/28 – The Culture Room – Fort Lauderdale, FL w/ CKY
7/29 – The Social – Orlando, FL w/ CKY
7/31 – The Loft At Centerstage – Atlanta, GA w/ CKY
8/01 – Pop’s – Sauget, IL w/ CKY
8/02 – The Rave – Milwaukee, WI w/ CKY
8/03 – Station 4 – St. Paul, MN w/ CKY
8/05 – House Of Blues – Chicago, IL w/ CKY
8/06 – Peabody’s – Cleveland, OH w/ CKY
8/07 – St. Andrew’s Hall – Detroit, MI w/ CKY
8/08 – Mr. Small’s Theatre – Pittsburgh, PA w/ CKY
8/09 – Xtreme Wheels – Buffalo, NY w/ CKY
8/10 – Recher Theatre – Towson, MD w/ CKY
8/11 – The Norva – Norfolk, VA w/ CKY
8/13 – Blender Theatre At The Gramercy – New York, NY w/CKY
8/14 – Paradise Rock Club – Boston, MA w/ CKY
8/15 – Theatre Of Living Arts – Philadelphia, PA w/ CKY

paul rodriguez | styling by ton y van van

Stream: Fool’s Gold “Surprise Hotel”

(from the self-released “Surprise Hotel” 45)

Fool’s Gold transcend the smog of Los Angeles with their big-band tropical-orchestral call-it-what-you-will multi-cultural dance music. If the crowd isn’t sweating by the end of their set, they warrant medical attention.

What instruments are in the band?
Lewis Nicolas Pesacov (guitar): Three guitars. We have bass, we have drums, and then we have percussion. Two saxes and three percussionists, sometimes four.
Garret Ray (drum kit): And whatever Erica does.
Luke Top (vocals/bass): She pats my aura. She does this crazy dance behind me sometimes and behind people in general.

Does she tell you what color your auras are?
Amir Kenan (back-up/keys/percussion): We wouldn’t be able to understand it anyway.

Do you ever get mail for the record label Fool’s Gold?
Lewis: No but we’ve definitely been confused with them. Our Myspace page has an earlier date that theirs, if that’s a modern copyright. There’s also Fool’s Gold the movie, which I saw recently. It was on TV. It was pretty dreadful. I was surprised that Donald Sutherland was in it. I can’t believe he was in such a bad movie. It’s bad.
Garret: It’s like a date movie, right?
Big Search (rhythm guitar): A shitty date.
Lewis: It was tropical though. Treasure hunting. Gold doubloons.

When was your Myspace page started?
Big Search: I think it was two years ago—our first show at Silverlake Lounge.
Lewis: It was a free-for-all at the beginning. If you showed up with percussion, you could play.
Big Search: A lot of those people weren’t doing stuff. They were just clapping and banging shit. Drunk.
Lewis: Now we have a core of musicians. I actually think people are insulted that we try to keep it smaller.

What’s the most people you’ve had on stage?
Lewis: I think fifteen. It’s kind of like a marching band. Or a chamber orchestra.

I saw you wearing towels on your heads at the Echo.
Lewis: I got that from Wu-Tang. Ghostface. Like boxers. That’s the thing. Get into it before you get on stage.

Do you construct your sets out of songs or let them go?
Luke: It depends on the show. Sometimes we’re allowed to stretch out a little more.
Lewis: That’s what we like to do. It’s all about the small venues. The larger venues we always have to pare it down. We played the House of Blues of Anaheim and we were supposed to play a 35 minute set. I think we played three or four songs. And we played a 50-minute set and no one told us to stop. That was interesting. We don’t have the courage yet but if we get a half-hour set we should play just two songs.
Garret: We’ll have to pass out drugs at the door.
Lewis: No, but the whole thing is just, like—dance. This music is dance music. I was looking at this review from 1994—this one song was the number one hit in the Congo and it was a 15-minute song. There’s going to be a guitar solo then there’s going to be singing then there’s going to be more guitar playing. It’s all about the trance.
Luke: They go out for lunch, they come back, it’s still going.
Lewis: Maybe we should play really long at SXSW. Oh, last year when we went to Texas, we got pulled over and the cop brought out the German Shepherd and he took all our IDs, and one girl had her passport and the cop was like, ‘What country you from, girl?’ And she was like, ‘America?’ He had never seen a passport before. He was confused. And he couldn’t understand why she didn’t have a driver’s license and was over 16.
Garret: How we got out of there was we told him we were in a country band. And he changed his tune.

How did you bring the Hebrew singing to the band, Luke?
Luke: To these white people? Lewis and I were into world music and it happened organically. Started off playful. There’s no direct reason for it.
Amir: We both moved here when we were three and a half. So between the two of us we’ve got a 7-year-old Hebrew going on. We’re like one good 7-year-old Jew on stage. It’s really fun though. I feel lucky to be able to understand Hebrew on stage because Luke sings stuff that sometimes is kind of amazing and sometimes really funny and sometimes subversive, sometimes just commenting on what’s happening in the crowd at the time.
Luke: There’s always one Israeli in the crowd that knows what I’m saying.
Garrett: I like sitting in rehearsals when you guys are teaching everybody else the lyrics. Like phonetically.

Do you have an album ready yet?
Luke: We’re working on the full length but we have a 7-inch out. It’s two songs. We might add a third. We’re just stalling until we get the record out. I want to call it Notes From The Rat Race in Hebrew but I don’t know how to say it.

You’re associated with museums and animals—why?
Luke: I think it’s because public spaces that are more cultural centers—general public, instead of niche audiences—are really fun. In fact, the shows where there are adults and really young kids and also people our age are most fun because they all get into it.
Big Search: I totally agree. At the Getty show, older Israeli people would come up and get really into it and my little niece that’s a couple months old seemed really into it. So anyone from 2 months old to 70-year-old Jewish ladies seem really into it and a few non-Jews in the middle. I don’t want it to seem exclusive.
Lewis: The Eagle Rock music fest was like that also. People who take their kids to the street fair are good with us, and then we can do Cat Power shows. We’re all-ages.

If you could play anywhere in the world, where would you play?
Lewis: I want to play this music festival in Mali, in the Sahara desert. It’s four hours by 4×4 out in the desert from Timbuktu. It’s the most remote music festival in the world. I think we could probably do it. They have Innuits performing, then French bands. I saw Navajo Indians. It’s in January every year­—it’s called the Festival in the Desert.
Big Search: I want to play on a space station. Why do we have to be world music? Let’s be universal.
Luke: We should play on the border between Israel and Palestine. Bring the two-state solution through sound. One foot on each side of the border. ‘Dear governments of the world, we are Fool’s Gold. Shalom.’

Where would they put your music at Amoeba?
Big Search: Staff Picks, of course.

What do you like most about playing music?
Amir: Just the sheer fun of it. It’s a party every time there’s a show. Even sound check is cool. There’s so many people, it’s great.
Luke: This kind of music allows you to take the time with your music instead of having to package it in a certain way. We do have a lot of song structure but within that there’s a lot of room to dig into that.
Lewis: We have structure but within that structure, it’s really free. You never know when that structure’s going to happen but everybody knows it’s coming up. We’ve honed in on that.

It seems weird to share consciousness with that many people at once.
Big Search: And there are so many people that have really simple parts, me being one of them. I’m basically playing one riff for eight minutes. It’s like a piece of a machine. And Lewis freestyles guitar over that and Luke with his singing freestyles over that. But me and the percussionists and the drums all play very repetitive parts that you lose yourself. You give yourself up to what’s happening, in a cognitive way.
Lewis: It’s a communal trance in a weird way. You can feel when everyone’s locked in. And it’s fleeting! You can feel when everyone comes in and goes like a wave. And everybody knows when it happens.
Luke: It’s not just going through the motions. I’ve been in bands where it’s like, ok, there’s that part. And there’s that part! But here I can’t believe it works.

FOOL’S GOLD WITH BLK JKS ON FRI., MAR. 6, AT THE NATURAL HISTORY MUSEUM, 900 EXPOSITION BLVD., LOS ANGELES. 7 PM / $6.50-$9 / ALL AGES. NHM.ORG. VISIT FOOL’S GOLD AT MYSPACE.COM/FOOLSGOLDLA.

Here it is:

The winners of the LA Scavenger Hunt 08′ : I Will Eat Your Asshole Alive

2nd Place: Team 5 H

Runner Ups: The Dave Matthews Band is the Greatest Band of All Time (RIP Sax Dude)

We spent hours going through the list and checking every photo. there was a lot of bogus so we had to make sure.

Best Team Names: Clit Eastwood, Shit Your Pancakes & Two Dicks Four Tits

If you were a part of the hunt get in touch with us cause we would love to see your photos. fyeahfest@gmail.com

Friday Feb 15 @ Charlie O’s:
Mike Stinson
CB Brand
Paperplanes
Last Campfire

DJ sets by:
L.A. RECORD + Secret Guests

BUY PRE SALE TICKETS

Saturday Feb 16 @ 6TH St Warehouse:
Darker My Love
Crystal Antlers
& ‘Specjial Guest

DJ sets by:
Team Illegal Substances
L.A. RECORD + Secret Guests!

FREE BOOZE AND TACO TRUCK BETWEEN 9PM AND 10PM COURTESY OF BUSHMILLS WHISKEY

BUY PRE SALE TICKETS

Valentines Day Party @ Cha Cha Lounge:
Photobooth Contest
Slasher Movies

DJ sets by:
Tony from The Hundreds
Sean Rockers
DJ Short Shorts
Jonathan Toubin
Jax Art

Friday Feb 15 @ Charlie O’s:
Mike Stinson
CB Brand
Paperplanes
Last Campfire

DJ sets by:
L.A. RECORD + Secret Guests

BUY PRE SALE TICKETS

Lead by vocalist/songwriter Axel Steuerwald, the band has undertaken the normal lineup adjustments that plague bands after years of playing. This new edition includes Mimi Star, who has been onboard for more than a year, newly added Todd Demma on drums and Derek Walker on lead guitar. Mere Mortals have evolved from their Brit-pop comparisons into a mix of droney psychedelic songs that mix structure with mind-bending freak-outs.  They effortlessly move between moods and this isn’t a fill-in-the blank band to compare their music to—this is substance eat it whole.

At Spaceland on Saturday night, Mere Mortals immediately pulled you into their web with the spacey “Reverberation.” New material such as “Come Down Easy” made it clear that the pop hook is not exclusive from melody bleeding into the apocalyptic–a gorgeous song that led nicely into “Telescopes,” which was driven by the thump of the petite but mighty Mimi Star’s bass lines.

Fans of Mere Mortals were treated to songs off last years self-released Rebel Radio EP—“Jesus Trip” with its tongue-in-bible refrain for Jesus to come on down, pilling on layers of guitar and vocals to plead the case. When asked how the new line-up feels Axel exclaimed, “The new line-up changed everything. It feels a lot more like some sonic collective than one person’s vision, which really freed up the sound and the writing. The response at live shows has been amazing.”

— E.E.

Greetings Bowie children out there in Hollywoodland and beyond! Welcome to the first edition of Pop Destruction, a place where music, film, fashion, food and last but not least “The Occult” are all under my thumb! Welcome to my nightmare, hope you like it! Tonight’s message will be short and sweet “You creatures of the night” (Not the horrible Kiss LP). Thank you Charles and Chris for resurrecting “The Phoenix” once again! I gotta admit I’m still laughing like a hyena over the fact about Madonna going to Israel for the “Kabbalah Conference.” Granted, Madonna “Does what she wilts,” but she’s still a “Pathetic dime store whore!” Can you say “Kiddy Magic 101?” Anyone associated with Madonna please excuse yourself now! Anyways, a friendly “Hail Satan” to Ariel Pink, Matt Fishbeck and Dirty Don Bolles! Can’t wait to party with Dj Short Shorts!

Love and Kisses
Heru John Basil – Heru Avenger

(Editors note: This blog entry was submitted via third party hand written on the back cover of a bootlegged Kiss Alive Worldwide 1996 documentary)

This show is available to stream from our site or for download from itunes.

HERU AVENGER “Pop Destruction Episode #1″

Download on itunes
Download on L.A. RECORD