Jonneine Zapata has a stare that makes grown men cower and weep. She is the closest thing to Jim Morrison in the Silverlake scene and her live show is mesmerizing. She speaks to Scott Schultz about Nick Cave, the importance of eye contact and how macrobiotics go with an Italian meal in Brooklyn.

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Silverlake, 2008 moved to the El Rey Theatre for a night and they brought visuals with them for the Tar Fest. The three bands on the lineup all showed that they not only are up to the challenge of performing at the larger venues, they also know how to make use of the additional space, sight and sound.

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Manimal Records owner Paul Beahan is hosting the 2nd annual Manimal Festival today and tomorrow in Joshua Tree with 20 bands including Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, Hecuba, Warpaint, Alexandra Hope and many more. Beahan sat down at a French Cafe to discuss Manimal Festival and which KROQ artist he would sign in under a minute. Interview by Scott Schultz.

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IO is one of those performers. She has a great backup band and as a front person, you can’t take your eyes off of her. She was climbing the lighting grids, exploiting the electric fans to launch her parachute blouse, jumping around and collapsing on the stage and interacting a lot with the audience. They also had plenty of fog and great lights which made for a really cool visual experience.

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Cobra Lillies are a free-for-all freak folk band made up of several Eastside bands. The band began as a side project for The Monolators, and every time I see them they have new members and routines, which have included stomp dancing, cheerleaders, and tonight a flamboyant fashion show sketch to open the show. There were bicycle bells ringing throughout the night and all sorts of weird, down-homey folksy instruments.

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I am happy to say that Ozzy is still fucking awesome! He opened his one-hour set with an energized version of “I Don’t Know,” and he looked fit and happy, and his vocals sounded great. He played a few Sabbath classics like “War Pigs” and “Paranoid” and a bunch of his solo favorites. He hosed the crowd down several times with foam fire retardant. I got nailed, and I was a good 20 yards away. I saw one dude perched in a tree yell to his friend who was standing next to me that this show was his personal rock and roll moment, just as Ozzy nailed him square in the face with the foam like he was an anarchist at a WTO rally.

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Phoenix, the current French electropop band du jour thrilled a sold out Greek Theatre on Wednesday with a one hour musical equivalent of eating an entire can of cake frosting with a spoon. At first it’s good, then you start to feel a little sick, you smoke some pot with the person sitting next to you, it starts to become enjoyable again, and then by the time you’re finished, you realize that you’re left both full and hungry at the same time.

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IO Echo has yet to release an official album yet they have already managed to open for Nine Inch Nails, star in a national commercial and have fans who dress up like IO at shows. L.A. RECORD sat down with IO, the Greek Goddess of Goth, and guitarist/producer Leopold Ross to discuss stage fright and how an IO Echo show is like an Italian restaurant. This interview by Scott Schultz.

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One of the best parts of the Circus was the success of the side stages, with some of Henry Clay People’s favorite bands playing stripped down acoustic sets between main stage acts. By the end of the night, side stages were appearing out of thin air. I think I saw Eli Monolator (the night’s emcee) start playing songs on a bench in the smoker’s patio, but I was sharing a joint with a blogger and a singer from one of my fave local bands, and blogger weed is a lot stronger than mine, so I may have imagined that.

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Sissy Saint-Marie and Eddie Chacon are a fun band to watch live. Chacon works the crowd from his side of the stage like an aerobics instructor in a commandant’s outfit, while Saint-Marie plays cool Euro diva so convincingly, that for a long time, I actually thought she was from Europe and didn’t speak English, even though she’s from California.

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