Category: FEATURES

T.Y. Ojai: Ty Segall at Ojai Valley Women’s Club

Rob Shepyer March 4, 2025

With MTV’s Unplugged catalogue hitting Paramount+ recently, I’ve been on a bit of an acoustic kick. When a popular artist goes acoustic, it’s a sign of a deeper appreciation and commitment to their fans and music than standard touring, writing, and recording cycle an artist goes through. Choosing to go on an acoustic tour, like the one Ty Segall and King Tuff are currently collaborating on throughout California, presents a challenge to a musician that really tests their artistry. It strips them of all the bells and whistles fans expect from their songs and live show, forcing the artist to compensate with pure charisma and sonic bravado. Both King Tuff and Ty Segall exhibited powerful charisma as acoustic artists, taking advantage of the silence between and around their songs to amplify the meaning of every lyric and note. The result of which is that audiences that were lucky enough to catch these shows may not have had their socks rocked off like they would in a Ty Segall and The Muggers show, or a Witch (King Tuff’s metal band) show, but we did experience the full fleshed out power and message of Ty’s songs like no other fans ever have.

Pentagram- Doom Ages Like Fine Wine At Ventura Music Hall

Rob Shepyer February 21, 2025

Something about old age injects more gravitas into a doom metal musician’s art. Perhaps its being closer to the great beyond, that dark place from which inspiration comes from that we all join at the end of our days. Perhaps something about graying hair and wrinkled skin makes the purveyor of doom metal all the more convincing to an audience. Doom metal, is of course a genre about bleakness and sorrow. A long life devoted to that style of music must have experienced everything the world has to offer, so to come away with singing “doom to world” instead of “Joy to world” gives fans the assurance that this artist is the real deal, and they’re not just playing a character in a gimmick. Then of course, there’s pace. Doom metal is slow metal. Slowness and sloth are what some equate with growing old. Dragging your feet, letting time pass you by because it makes no difference. All these ideas are second nature to doom metal’s mournful verses and tones. Bobby Liebling and the boys in Pentagram have been around since the inception of doom metal. Playing this genre of music before it had a name. To them, it was

Top Ten SHOWS of 2024 Rated by Contributors

Janky Smooth Central Command December 31, 2024

Shows have always been Janky Smooth’s bread and butter. Our contributors are willing travel far and wide for the right show, willing to abandon their families and face every obstacle to get there in time to see a compelling opener with any legit hype. This list will feature shows all across Los Angeles, California, and the whole of the United States. It will feature festival sets and intimate evenings with. It’ll list out shows with mosh pits and intimiate seating. Every musical experience under the sun, our contributors have seen it and are using their expert curation skills to give you the best of the best of 2o24. Publisher, Danny Baraz Ministry at Cruel World Ceremony and Infest at The Hollywood Palladium The Original Misfits at No Values Power Trip at The Fonda HEALTH, Panther Modern, Pixel Grip at The Music Box Tyler, the Creator at Camp Flog Gnaw Boy Harsher at The Glass House Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle at Hollywood bowl The Black Angels at The Lodge Room Front 242 at The Mayan Editor, Rob Shepyer Trash Talk at Echoplex Ceremony at Hollywood Palladium Swans at Lodge Room Ministry at Cruel World Tool at Crypto.com Arena Queens of

Janky Smooth Top 10 ALBUMS of 2024 Rated by Contributors

Janky Smooth Central Command December 31, 2024

2024 came and went with some of the most dramatic and tense moments in the country’s political and cultural history. As any true music head knows, great shifts are predicted in a culture’s music first, so if there’s anything the music of 2024 can tell us about the state of art and the future, we should be very excited for all things to come.Just as entire status quos of thought went challenged and overturned in 2024, many bands changed the dynamics of entire genres will releases that blew our contributors away. Here are the top ten albums of 2024, ranging from every category, from the underground to the mainstream. You will see the Janky signature in these lists with our selections that show appreciation for a huge range of music so unique that you’ll need to listen to these albums yourself to truly understand why 2024 was so monumental for music. Publisher, Danny Baraz Nox Novacula – Feed the Fire Blood Incantation – Absolute Elsewhere Amyl and the Sniffers – Cartoon Darkness Mannequin Pussy – I Got Heaven Hong Kong Fuck You – 1978-1981 Kendrick Lamar – GNX Tyler The Creator – Chromakopia The Cure – Songs of a Lost

Devastation on the Nation w/ I AM Morbid at Belasco

Rob Shepyer December 29, 2024

When someone tells me there’s a death metal show tonight, I usually ask them what kind of death metal. If they tell me Morbid Angel is playing, I’ll definitely think about going. If they tell me Morbid Angel was just replaced by I Am Morbid, David Vincent’s version of the band, I’ve already bought my ticket before they’ve completed their sentence. related content: Morbid Angel at The Regent: A Lesson in Death What differentiates the sort of Death metal that makes a show worth going to for me is often times the vocal. Newly attuned listeners of the genre may consider it splitting sonic hairs to parse between different styles of guttural vocals but if I can understand the lyrics a death metal band is screeching out, then I consider the band superior in some respects. Nothing against the demonic belching of numerous Deathcore and Death Metal bands like Suffocation, that shared the stage with I Am Morbid at this show, but because I was able to understand David Vincent’s gregorian chants from hell, I was able to feel the gravity of his music. It simply sounded and felt more evil, powerful, and scary because the words had meaning. Devastation

Tyler’s Camp Flog Gnaw Year 10 Intersects w/ Chromakopia Number 1

Aria Silva-Espinosa December 17, 2024

A long hike up the hills of Elysian Park is a small price to pay for the view from the top. Three massive stages situated in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium and boasting a wildly impressive hip-hop centric lineup, Camp Flog Gnaw celebrated its 10 year anniversary this past weekend and sold out well in advance, and the lineup wasn’t even announced until a month before the festival. related content: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly: Camp Flog Gnaw 2019 From legendary acts to tributes, DJ sets and soulful serenades, Camp Flog Gnaw Carnival is a uniquely curated exhibition of mainstream and underground artists, youth culture and untethered creative expression. The fan engagement and level of commitment to the art is evident in the way the incoming fans have chosen to dress. It’s early November and we’re up on a hilltop so everyone is a bit bundled up knowing that once the sun goes down it’ll be about as cold as Los Angeles is willing to tolerate. Workwear, faux fur and puffer jackets are out which would make a New Yorker giggle to see how dramatic we are about the shift into cooler weather. Among the masses it’s

Earth’s Crust: CY Fest 2024 at the Belasco

Rob Shepyer November 6, 2024

What does a typical LA punk want out of a festival? Given that Los Angeles is the most prominent live music hub in the USA, and the world, the average LA punk attends enough shows to make any given concert, no matter how badass, still leaving something to be desired. From my personal experience, that thing LA punks are left desiring from their scene is to have their minds, tastes, and boundaries expanded. I want to see something different, new. I want a band to show me something I didn’t think was possible. The best way to do this is by assembling bills with bands of various styles from various parts of the globe, and no festival has gathered more international acts in Los Angeles than CY Fest 2024. It was the World Cup of punk, with heavy representation from Sweden, Spain, Japan, Italy, Mexico, and so many more countries. Topping off the festivities, the USA’s contribution to the lineup came in the form of a rare Dropdead co-headlining performance before the reunion of Portland’s female-fronted crusties, Detestation. related content: Set The Animals Free: Wolfbrigade and Dropdead at 1720 With a few bands of the upcoming CY Fest 2025 already

Boys Noize, IHEARTCOMIX founder Franki Chan, and The Dare with Yo Gabba Gabba shot by The Cobrasnake

Partying Like It’s 2004: IHEARTCOMIX 20th Anniversary

Danny Ryan October 29, 2024

IHEARTCOMIX have established themselves as one of the most forward-thinking and distinct promoters in recent LA history over the past two decades; dipping their toes into events celebrating nearly every form of art not limited to raves, parties, movie premieres, album release events, and interactive art exhibitions. Celebrating their 20th anniversary, IHEARTCOMIX threw an absolutely wild party with a complete hodgepodge of a lineup; Featuring The Dare, Boys Noize, Fcukers, Nation of Language, Chela, and even Yo Gabba Gabba blessing the night with their presence. Comedy legend Reggie Watts hosted the entire event, completely taking ownership of the evening’s vibes and making sure everybody in attendance had the most memorable night possible. Although the early 00’s where they started may be long over, IHEARTCOMIX went above and beyond in providing a futuristic lineup that still evoked a nostalgic feeling that celebrated their history in the most crafted way possible. As soon as I approached The Bellweather, it was instantly apparent that this was not the average club event with the eccentric and colorful outfits that everybody was decked out in. While it was a more formally dressed crowd, IHEARTCOMIX’s brand is entirely based on being as expressive and colorful as

Music for Trees: PJ Harvey at the Greek Theatre

Rob Shepyer October 25, 2024

PJ Harvey’s return to North America saw her playing songs off 2023’s I Inside The Old Year Dying, her most recent album, which for those expecting the heavy, knock around sound of Steve Albini-produced Rid of Me, were in for a softer, more ambient and touching treat. The album cover of this 2023 effort visual communicates the sound, a slender twig made whole by its shadow, the image is minimalist and fragile, similar to the music but the music has a fuller element, as if you’re riding a wave from start to finish of every song. Hearing this in the heart of Griffith Park, surrounded by giant trees on either side which create a force field so that the music is for only those in the theatre’s arms, gave the evening a sort of contact high we’d feel with every song. related: Dangerously Artsy- Geneva Jacuzzi at The Lodge Room You felt in these songs a primal connection to nature, which PJ Harvey embodied this night with her long white dress. For those that were itching to hear her more punk rock material, like myself, we had to wait a little bit but it was well worth it to hear