New online magazine I AM A LASER has organized a monthly beat music + live electronics + visual art thingy to coincide with the Downtown Art Walk. First event should be pretty rad with local electronixperimentist, TAKE (aka Sweatson Klank), and R/D and Cannibal Flower’s LC. Info and press release below:

Online magazine I AM A LASER along with Los Angeles events team The Service Company (Destroy LA, We The People Festival) has created a new night of cutting-edge cultural expression. Hitting Los Angeles on the second Thursday of every month, I AM A LASER aims to connect seekers from different scenes with a love of visual arts, beat purity, festival ethos and urban gypsies.

Coinciding with the Downtown Los Angeles Art Walk and picking up where the evening hours end, I AM A LASER is a showcase of fresh electronic beats, live artwork and an eclectic mix of wanderers from the LA area, yourself included. A perfect nightcap to the city’s Art Walk, I AM A LASER brings people together under an umbrella of gritty beats in a Blade-Runneresque environment, a slick and swanky setting for the fine future sound whose many miscreant children run amok in our fair city, beats flung out to the far reaches of mindspace and beyond.

Held at the upstairs Mezzanine Bar of Club Nokia, the first installment of I AM A LASER takes place Thursday, November 12 and features the beat mastery music of Take (AKA Sweatson Klank), R/D and LC. At the forefront of this new and innovative era in experimental beat music, Los Angeles’ own Take fuses instrumental hip hop and outer space to create intricate melodies that are wrapped in bass and infused with a laid-back, psychedelic flavor. R/D is a favorite of the festival crowd who brings a unique perspective to West Coast lean: danceable downtempo tracks that are bright and funky yet still laid back- just like LA. Finally LC comes from the Cannibal Flower & Think Space Gallery and will bring some of the city’s finest painters to create live artwork, further uniting this new night of music with the city’s larger arts culture.

Entrance to I AM A LASER is free before 10PM, $10 after and is 21+. Club Nokia is located in downtown Los Angeles at 800 W. Olympic Street; enter on Figueroa Street across from the Holiday Inn, and click here for parking information.

To find out more on this event, please visit IAMALASER.COM/LIVE where you will also find more information on West Coast sound, vision and style: get free exclusive mixes and tracks, check out videos and artist interviews, and read fashion and art editorials!

Download: Friends of Friends in ’09 Podcast

1. Ernest Gonzales “Dancing in the Snow” Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!
2. Daedelus “C’est Super” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
3. Daedelus “C’est Super” (Michna Remix) Friends of Friends Remixed out 7/28
4. Jogger “Nice Tights” (Nosaj Thing Remix) Friends of Friends Remixed out 7/28
5. Jogger “Nice Tights” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
6. Larytta “You Got Nothing” Friends of Friends Volume 2 out in August
7. Ernest Gonzales “Self-Awakening” (Take aka Sweatson Klank cover) Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!
8. Daedelus “LA Nocturn” Friends of Friends Volume 1 OUT NOW
9. Ernest Gonzales “Self-Awakening” Been Meaning to Tell You out in October!

L.A. impresario Lazy Brow started the Friends of Friends label this spring with the intent of letting one musician pick another friend to make a split release with, and then inviting in another visual artist to make a compact little package of goodwill. For the debut release, L.A.’s Daedelus tapped actual longtime friends Jogger (who back Daedelus and Laura Darlington in the Long Lost) to share the record—which happens to be their first official release. They also included dublab-friendly L.A. art duo Kozyndan, who have done fantastic illustration for (of course) Daedelus as well as Weezer and the Postal Service. The release show for Friends of Friends’ debut record—available as a t-shirt, an idea recently echoed by Mos Def—will be tonight at the Echoplex with a pre-party at Turntable Lab. This interview by Chris Ziegler.

How and why did Daedelus get to be the very first ‘friend of friends’? What makes him so well-suited to the label’s first release?
Lazy Brow: He’s one of the nicest guys in the world and without a doubt one of my favorite friends in music. When I brought up the idea of starting a label, he was the first one to push me. Without him, I’d still be twiddling my thumbs.
You’ve called him a ‘hero’ as well as a friend—what’s a particularly heroic moment in your relationship with Daedelus?
The sheer honesty he seems to run with. He works all the time and always keeps a happy vibe. It’s infectious—I wish I could leave people saying how nice a guy I am like he does!!
Your first artists are Kozyndan—what made you pick them as well? And what suits them to work with Daedelus?
Daedelus and Jogger actually invited KnD. I wanted the musicians i was working with to really believe in the art so I had them bring on their homies.
When was the last time the five of you were in a room together that wasn’t to make this release? What was happening? Where did the night end up?
I’m not sure we’ve all been in the same room? Kinda the beauty of the project is how it’s grown and expanded from a simple idea to a reality. Thursday night at the release party will probably be the first time—so come find out what happens then!
You mentioned that these are all L.A. people—why was staying local so important for a first release?
It’s just about working with close folks and being able to support the release. Funny though—the next one is a bunch of folks from Switzerland so it’ll be the complete opposite situation.
What do you think of Mos Def picking up on the t-shirt-is-the-album idea? Do you think this is where digital music is going?
I always knew people were going to have to adopt new release models. Just conceding to ‘music being free’ is just kinda lazy to me. It’s time for everyone to THINK about the people they want to buy their shit. If you do and really consider the things they may want and not what you want to give, then we really have the chance at re-valuing music and its consumption.
Who will be the next set of friends? And the next?
Larytta is the Swiss duo i referred to earlier. They invited their friend Bauchamp to do the other half of the music and Tatiana Rihs to do the art. Their Difficult Fun record was on top of my list last year so I was really really happy when they agreed to do FoF Volume 2. Everything’s been turned in so look out for it in August!
At what point will you have totally lost control of this project? And how will you feel about that?
I’m not worried about it at all, really!
Who is the ultimate friend you’d like to include? Like the other end of this long set of links—where would you like FoF to end up?
Hopefully it’s a never ending project! To me FoF is really just an expression of new ideas. The whole model we used for this first release will go away whether it be the way people are invited or the T-shirts. We’ll be changing this ish up to keep it interesting! Now when it comes to the ultimate friend, there is a HUGE list because I’m a music fan in general. To name a few: Erlend Oye, Fourtet, Matias Aguayo, Tunng, Mount Kimbie, Morgan Geist/Metro Area, Panda Bear, Studio, In Flagranti, Department of Eagles—too much good stuff out there!

DAEDELUS WITH PEANUT BUTTER WOLF, JOGGER AND MEXICANS WITH GUNS PLUS DJs LAZYBROW, D. FISH AND SODAPOP ON THUR., JUNE 25, AT THE ECHOPLEX, 1154 GLENDALE BLVD., ECHO PARK. 8 PM / $8-$10 / 18+. FOFMUSIC.NET. PRE-PARTY WITH MEXICANS WITH GUNS AND DJ RIGHTEOUS TRASH ON THUR., JUNE 25, AT TURNTABLE LAB, 424 1/2 N. FAIRFAX AVE., LOS ANGELES. 5:30 PM / FREE / ALL AGES. TTLAB.COM.