Download: Dam-Funk “Hood Pass Intact”

(off Toeachizown Vol. 4: Hood out now on Stones Throw)

Dam-Funk (as anyone lucky enough to cross paths with him knows) is one of the realest people operating in the city of Los Angeles, and his 5XLP/2XCD monsterpiece Toeachizown (out now on Stones Throw, though the vinyl has been rescheduled to release in December) is like Prince and Parliament Funkadelic supercharged with the visionary energy of a Joe Meek or Rogerio Duprat. Like he told us two issues back:

Is Toeachizown your life’s work?
Dam-Funk: I feel funk has never been given an opportunity to be released like this. That’s why I give it up to Stones Throw—funk was always on a major or a real small label, and this time it’s on a small label but in a new era where a small label can do something like this. The verdict is out, but I hope when the judge’s hammer slams down, people will look back and say, ‘This dude stuck to his guns and he did a funk record from beginning to end. And it wasn’t just funk—he even did new wave rock! The funk had all the influences!’ Prince—‘Let’s Pretend We’re Married’—that’s new wave! Funkadelic did rock songs—‘Cosmic Slop!’ That was killing a lot of early metal! I’m being positive but it’s definitely not gonna be a Mayer Hawthorne out-of-the-box hit. But I’d rather have the slow burn. Ten years from now—‘Man, that dude did what he believed in!’

And so L.A. RECORD is honored to be able to help present his release party—featuring his full band Master Blazter plus fellow L.A. RECORD cover alum Peanut Butter Wolf doing a VJ set and tons more—next Thursday at the Echo. Tickets here and see you there!

Time again for L.A. RECORD‘s release party—this time with Piper from Pearl Harbor (as seen on the cover of the new issue) and Cole from Haunted Graffiti (UPDATE: Cole can’t make it but don’t worry, we got plans…) joining us in the back booth with the turntables plus who knows what other special guests? Free as always and starts at 9 PM—21+ since it’s a bar but come out and visit and grab a new issue!

This month we have Jared Swilley from Black Lips conducting his first interview ever—with Seattle’s the Dutchess and the Duke, whose new LP (produced by longtime L.A. RECORD hero Greg Ashley) is out now and very killer, too. We’ve also got the first part of the deepest Kim Fowley interview since Ugly Things, in which the Satan of Silverlake discusses the secrets of love, control, wealth and reality itself. (He has two new compilations with award-deserving liner notes out now on Norton.) Then we’ve got vital locals Zero Film Fest and Echo Curio plus Tom Brosseau checking in from Europe and the Pop Noir twins issuing their first vinyl, as well as interviews with the Flaming Lips, Waajeed, Richard Thompson, Rose Melberg, Jack Oblivian, Neon Indian and Cold Cave, who frankly discuss human skulls and the genitals of hopeful strangers. All this and more! Free all over town or from us tonight! Thanks for your support and hope to see you,

L.A. RECORD

New issue! See you at the release party Monday! Find print issues here and contact us if you’d like to advertise in the next one!

Penny Ante is a giant book collecting the art and writing of some of the best people on planet Earth—Billy Childish! Roger Miller! Sharon Cheslow! George Parsons!—that comes out with the frequency of a portentous celestial event. This edition is probably the biggest and wildest yet and tickets for the Aug. 1 release show (which gets you your own copy of the book AND your own copy of the accompanying CD with music by contributors like Jad Fair, Childish, Lucky Dragons, Robert Pollard and more!) are on sale now! Buy them here and enjoy more info below!

SATURDAY AUGUST 1st
PENNY-ANTE THREE PRE-RELEASE PARTY
with JAD FAIR, URINALS, MAN’S ASSASSINATION MAN,
MICK FARREN + MUCH MORE

Penny-Ante will be celebrating the release of our new book, THREE (out September 15th) on Saturday August 1st at the Center for the Arts, Eagle Rock! Three hundred lucky Los Angelinos will get there hands on a copy of Three before anyone else with purchase of ticket!

We have a great night set-up full of the best in music, art, and writing… With music performances by prolific lo-fi legend and co-founder of HALF JAPANESE, JAD FAIR (who will be performing with Brooklyn art/musician Lumberob), Los Angeles art-punk veterans URINALS, and the ass kicking Los Angeles local Black Flag-esque, MAN’S ASSASSINATION MAN (members of Residual Echoes).

In addition, readings will take place by writer MICK FARREN (also of 60s proto punk band, THE DEVIANTS), and writer/author LARRY FONDATION (Harvard Business Review, Fiction International,Flaunt).

Performance/artist DAWN KASPER has curated EXPOSURE OF PROCESS, a look into process-oriented art through performance, with artists COREY FOGEL, YASMINE KITTLES, and JASON WALLACE-TRIEFENBACH, as well as DAWN KASPER, set to perform.

Plus Deejays:
Jim Smith (THE SMELL)
DJ Jesspeleta (Weird War, ESPS)
& DJ Freak Stik 13 (of Eagle Rock’s best record store, Don’s Music)

Q. “$22!?!?! WTF. That’s too expensive!”

A. Yes, we know that might be out of some’s price range, but here’s why:
You get a FREE COPY of Three, a 320 page squarebound book, plus CD with music from our contributors (Jad Fair, Robert Pollard (Guided by Voices), Billy Childish (Thee Headcoats), Growing, Lucky Dragons, and more!

Three, the book itself, features personal written and visual works from a wide range of musicians, artists, and writers including everyone from Roger Miller (Mission of Burma) to Sean Bonniwell (The Music Machine), to Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth), to Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone to artist Maya Hayuk and Terence Koh. Over 80 contributors have participated in this issue, our biggest and fattest yet!

A small percentage of your ticket price is going to Penny-Ante for the issuing of free books, and what’s left goes to the performers, as well as the nonprofit space hosting the event: CENTER FOR THE ARTS, which provides art programs for young children in the Eagle Rock/Los Angeles area.

UPDATE: We are thrilled to turn over the turntables to L.A. RECORD writer and Shark Toys singer Daniel Clodfelter, the always wiggy Short Shorts and the cosmic classicist Turquoise Wisdom, who is one-third of the formidable Small Town Talk collective and who you will have enjoyed at any of Animal Collective‘s recent L.A. shows. Party is free and starts at nine—see you there!

Hello to all! Tonight we celebrate the release of Vol. 4 Issue 4—Pasadena country singer DAVID SERBY on the cover and the much-touted NOSAJ THING decked out on the poster, and then inside you’ll find BRUCE LaBRUCE discussing love and romance and STEVE ALBINI of SHELLAC discussing fish, food and forest fires! Plus the mighty SONICS, the almost-Angeleno ART BRUT, the formidable FEMI KUTI, the unstoppable SHARON JONES (who did her interview immediately after returning from the hospital!) and the legendary LEROY SIBBLES of Studio One’s HEPTONES and much more than we could courteously insert in just one simple email! (THE SHINS, CHAIRLIFT, BUSDRIVER, HANDSOME FURS, YA HO WHA 13, THE HUNCHES discussing their last show ever, Grandaddy’s JASON LYTLE and still yet more…) Issues available at the Cha Cha tonight—free to visit and copies of the new L.A. RECORD free as always! Hope to see you there and many thanks for all support!

Hello to all! Tonight we celebrate the release of Vol. 4 Issue 4—Pasadena country singer DAVID SERBY on the cover and the much-touted NOSAJ THING decked out on the poster, and then inside you’ll find BRUCE LaBRUCE discussing love and romance and STEVE ALBINI of SHELLAC discussing fish, food and forest fires! Plus the mighty SONICS, the almost-Angeleno ART BRUT, the formidable FEMI KUTI, the unstoppable SHARON JONES (who did her interview immediately after returning from the hospital!) and the legendary LEROY SIBBLES of Studio One’s HEPTONES and much more than we could courteously insert in just one simple email! (THE SHINS, CHAIRLIFT, BUSDRIVER, HANDSOME FURS, YA HO WHA 13, THE HUNCHES discussing their last show ever, Grandaddy’s JASON LYTLE and still yet more…) Issues available at the Cha Cha tonight—free to visit and copies of the new L.A. RECORD free as always! Hope to see you there and many thanks for all support!

Hey, all! We have just finished our biggest issue in a year — the table of contents page is practically hanging out the bottom — and we will be celebrating with our traditional free night at the Cha Cha in SIlverlake at 9 PM this Monday!

This issue has Project Blowed co-founder Abstract Rude, desert nomads Golden Animals, Long Beach’s stunning Avi Buffalo, Animal Collective, the Flatlanders, the Vaselines, Extra Golden, dublab’s Tonalism, Cleveland’s firebreathing Midnight, part two of our Rollins interview and a giant interview with Eddie and Gary of the legendary Monks, who (among other things) reveal the fate of the lost last Monks recordings and of course so much more… we will have them on Monday (if you don’t grab them over the weekend!) so come out and see and say hi!

We also have some L.A. RECORD-related things we’d like to tell you about — our arts editor Drew Denny will be performing at the Smell tonight in Big Whup with Pizza! and My Pet Saddle and the fearsome Studiofix. And our writer and reviews editor Daiana Feuer will be presenting HATS AND HOT DOGS! with L.A. RECORD cover alum k-the-i??? and recent interviewees 60 Watt Kid plus Sister Mantos and beers and barbeque at Bandit Gallery in Echo Park on Saturday! Visit if you can and thanks for all support,

Inside we have interviews with Happy Hollows, Wale, Amanda Jo Williams, rock ‘n’ roller Andre Wiliams, Carlos Nino and Miguel Atwood-Ferguson of the Dilla orchestral piece “Suite For Ma Dukes,” the Phantom Surfers, Large Professor, Brazil’s Garotas Suecas, Ethiopian jazz-funk originator Mulatu Astatke, Wrecking Crew drummer Hal Blaine, the Nothing People, A.C. Newman, the sound artists of Sound In Space 2, Mike Mills, the Crickets (of Buddy Holly fame!) and even more!

The party is free and so are the issues! Hope to see you there!