Category: NEWS

HEALTH at the Grammy Museum- photo by Taylor Wong

HEALTH at The Grammy Museum- Making It In The New Music Industry

Danny Baraz October 18, 2024

So here I am for the first time at the Grammy Museum in Downtown Los Angeles to see HEALTH perform a half set in a small 200 person theater with seats, and to live premier their latest song collaboration- “Ashamed” featuring Lauren Mayberry of CHVRCHES. Prior to the performance was a less awkward than I imagined Q and A with Nic Harcourt and the band that focused heavily on the creation of the 2023 full length release of Rat Wars. Singer/Songwriter and HEALTH guitarist, Jake Dusik was much more chatty than I expected for someone with such a catalog of sad bastard, isolationist song credits. Dusik spoke in great detail about that despair, which peaked during the pandemic lock down. The birth of his child during this bleak time and the death of society conceived their most critically acclaimed HEALTH album, to date. HEALTH co-founder and ambassador John Famiglietti, always bringing levity to the band described a completely different lock down experience that didn’t always shelter in place and was echoed by HEALTH drummer BJ Miller. HEALTH were asked their thoughts on who was the quintessential Los Angeles band and the answer given was The Doors. I found that to

Dangerously Artsy: Geneva Jacuzzi at the Lodge Room

Rob Shepyer September 13, 2024

Geneva Jacuzzi‘s “Art is Dangerous” isn’t just the banger single from her most recent Dais Records full length album, Triple Fire, “Art is Dangerous” is both an affirmation of the intention to comfort the disturbed and disturb the comfortable (a sentiment lost among more and more corporatized and bubble-wrapped, cookie cutter artists) and it’s also a reference to a timeless debate that transcends culture. Is art dangerous? Were Tipper Gore and the PMRC right all along? Can you ingest as much devil worship, pornographic, sinful material as possible without having your soul tarnished one iota? Can you play endless hours of GTA, shooting up civilians without feeding a subliminal bloodlust, can you listen to Radiohead without feeling lonely or binge-stream Slayer without losing faith? Far too many people in the current state of the world are beginning to veer toward answering “yes”. That art, is in fact, dangerous. Even though Geneva Jacuzzi is affirming that danger, I have to wonder if she sees it dangerous in the same way as a certain sector of extreme believers who’s rhetoric makes you think they desire a modern bonfire of the vanities. I say this because Geneva Jacuzzi’s performance for her album release

Featured Song: Phantom Hound’s “From Boom Town To Ghost Town”

Rob Shepyer July 16, 2024

If you like your music equal parts moody and crushing, Phantom Hound’s latest release, “From Boom Town To Ghost Town” is just the jam you’ve been looking for. Hailing from Oakland, California, Phantom Hound is a power trio that plunges new depths of heavy psych and stoner rock to conjure a sound too hallowed to be restricted by the genre conventions of “doom”. Signature to this band’s sound and aesthetics are their grunge influence and love of all things vintage, be it western saloons, scarred leather, or good ol’ fashioned American gothic. “From Boom Town To Ghost Town” is a slow, methodical journey through American history, where black and white film can’t help but feel macabre. These grainy, faded memories marry the song’s themes well, about venturing back to places in your own past and discovering all that remains is a ghost town of what once was. The song juggles between a melancholy reverie of American shamanism to a stoner clinic with a brutal, sludge-fest of riffs, transcendent solos, and a powerful vocal performance that you would follow anywhere. Whether you prefer to pair their playing with a joint or bottle of whiskey, these riffs go down thick and Jake

Stone Age Swagger: Queens of the Stone Age at SB Bowl

Rob Shepyer June 7, 2024

This review is being written by a metalhead and punk. This review is not being written by a psych or stoner rocker. I was not a part of the Kyuss revelation. My history with Queens of the Stone Age mostly amounts to seeing “No One Knows”, “Go With The Flow” and “Little Sister” on MTV. There is one moment though, that Queens of the Stone Age changed my life. In 2007, along with three other college companions, I went on a drug fueled pilgrimage to Las Vegas for the shortly lived but deeply missed two-day rager known as Vegoose. The lineup for which featured Rage Against The Machine, The Stooges performing Funhouse, Daft Punk, and Queens of the Stone Age among a multitude of other great bands. related content: QOTSA and The Kills blow up the Forum on Halloween Night The four of us were on a mission that weekend to consume cocaine for the first time. A drug that seemed like an anachronism to us, a thing of the 80’s as extinct as the quaalude. However, at the most miraculous, uncanny moment that the festival could have produced, the drug magically came to us. During the Queens of the

Ministry at Cruel World shot by Taylor Wong

Cruel World 2024: A Legacy Forms in Year 3 at The Rose Bowl

Danny Baraz May 27, 2024

It’s very rare for a music festival to have a storied legacy to live up to after just 2 years. But after a total lunar eclipse that turned the moon blood red before completely disappearing during Bauhuas for Cruel World 2022 and inclement weather and lightning that thwarted Siouxsie Sioux from performing on Saturday in 2023 and adding a 2nd day on Sunday, it felt like raising the bar could be quite dangerous. For a moment, it looked like the massive storms on our star might cause the Aurora Borealis to materialize for a SECOND night in Southern California for Cruel World 2024. Was there some type of deal with the devil to manifest this excitement, pleasure and existential angst? Maybe a collab with the folks at CERN to find the physics of the post punk genre through the mysteries of particle colliders? Alas, we could not view the Northern Lights here in the southland but the stars fell from the sky and landed on the 3 stages, Brookside at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena for yet another celestial Cruel World experience. related: Cruel World 2023- Redemption and Romance at The Rose Bowl Fandom has always been weird, wonderful and

Off The 405: Summer Concert Series at The Getty

Janky Smooth Central Command May 24, 2024

One of Los Angeles’ most beautiful places to see a concert is The Getty museum’s mountain top vista sitting Off The 405 freeway between the Valley and the West Side. Soak in the summer rays and bursts of colorful sunset while surrounding yourself with art from around the world and across the ages. The Getty is a setting that inspires artists to perform at their peak, join us and get inspired. Between June 1st and August 24th 2024, The Getty has blessed Los Angeles with concerts by incomparable artists like Julia Holter and Helado Negro. Each night serves as a reflection of LA culture, offering a diverse range of sounds and artists that LA has come to expect from The Getty’s Off The 405 Series. You can see the schedule of all shows this summer below: Hailu Mergia DJ set by Mark Maxwell Date: Saturday, June 1, 2024 Time: DJ set at 6 p.m.; Performance at 7:30 p.m. Location: Museum Courtyard Admission: Free, tickets required. Get Tickets here. Slauson Malone Date: Saturday, June 15, 2024 Time: DJ set at 6 p.m.; Performance at 7:30 p.m. Location: Museum Courtyard Admission: Free, tickets required. Tickets available May 23, 2024 Helado Negro Date: Saturday, July 20, 2024 Time: DJ set at 6 p.m.;

Summon and Purge: Swans at the Lodge Room

Rob Shepyer May 22, 2024

Tasked to describe Swans to a friend and convince him to join me at this sold out Lodge Room show, I wasn’t able to pinpoint any genre to pigeonhole the band into an understandable phenomenon. With a little research, Swans is usually categorized as a noise rock band, but even that is reductive given the band doesn’t necessarily need to be loud or noisy to be themselves. What makes Swans sound like themselves is their urge to connect to the spirit world. This can be done with excessive volume or hair-raising whispers, or it can be done through mantra-like repetition which they often utilize, or as I witnessed firsthand at the Lodge Room, a band can connect with the spirit world simply by creating so much sustained musical chaos that every witness becomes completely spellbound by awe. To open the show, Swans steel guitar player, Kristof Hahn opened with moody ambient crooner tunes, the sort you might expect to accompany a David Lynch film or the slower side of an Orville Peck reverie. His voice was both sweet and seasoned, carrying the sort of pain that only comes with a life full of experiences both beautiful and tragic. Once Kristof

The Book of Revelation Records: Judge, 7 Seconds, Side by Side and Youth of Today at 1720

Rob Shepyer May 17, 2024

Revelation Records is perhaps hardcore’s most iconic record label. With heavyweights like Gorilla Biscuits, 7 Seconds and Youth of Today in their lineup, the label has cemented their place as a necessary pillar of an entire genre. Even today, Revelation Records is still just as relevant, giving hardcore artists like Torso and Primal Rite the “rub” that extends their reach all around the world, a world that would be much softer without Revelation Records. related content: Two Times The Biscuit Power: Gorilla Biscuits at The Roxy This special weekend, where four of the label’s most influential bands would share the same stage on two co-headlining nights, was an event that could only take place in Los Angeles, at 1720, and booked by SOS Productions. 7 Seconds and Judge on Night 1, Youth of Today and the final Side by Side reunion show on Night 2. This was a bill too good to be true even in New York, for all the legendary matinee shows they witnessed, they never got see a collaboration this epic. There was almost a religious aspect to the shows, as if hardcore kids all over California had to make pilgrimage to beat witness to this holy

Gary Numan at The Fonda Theater shot by Saryn Christina

Gary Numan and Frontline Assembly at The Fonda: An Evening of Synths and Industrial Bliss

Saryn Christina May 8, 2024

On April 7, 2024, The Fonda Theatre in Los Angeles welcomed the eager fans of Gary Numan and Frontline Assembly with a line stretching around the block. The atmosphere buzzed with anticipation as the doors swung open, revealing a packed theater ready to witness both artists take the stage. Frontline Assembly kicked off the evening with a thunderous set that fused industrial beats with haunting melodies. Starting right on time, they strode from the darkness and exploded with sound. Playing classics like “Mindphaser” and crashing into newer tracks that showcased their evolution, Frontline Assembly delivered a performance that was as intense as it was mesmerizing. The entire band performed with an energy that set the stage for an incredible night. The crowd, bathed in pulsating lights and engulfed in a wall of sound, was entranced from start to finish. Related: Nitzer Ebb And Flow – A Night Of Dance And Darkness At The Music Box Soon after Frontline Assembly exited, Gary Numan took the stage and from the opening notes he captured the audience with his enduring sound. He delivered a career-spanning set that perfectly balanced his early, more pop-oriented sounds with the darker, industrial leanings of his later work.