Category: FEATURES

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

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

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

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

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.;

The Black Angels at Levitation by Grace Dunn

Levitation 2023: The Catharsis of Heavy Music

Janky Smooth Central Command January 11, 2024

Halloween weekend. Thickness in the air. Darkness in the world. I’m committed to a music festival far from home and it’s supposed to rain. Austin, Texas: despite having been there only 5 months prior for Austin Psych Fest, one of the most special community-based music experiences of my life, I felt anxiety leading up to Levitation 2023. So when I left LAX and landed at AUS Airport on Thursday afternoon before the music began, I begged the weight of the world to lighten, with hopes for a familiar outcome of levity, connection, and reclaimed freedom. I believe all of us lost festival goers are in search of an escape from our daily lives. We’re looking for something to feel, something to connect to, and to be amongst similarly yearning souls that are open to the ebb and flow of this world. An ebb and flow that gets the best of us sometimes, for better or for worse… But this weekend, we tried to make it for the better, in the live music capital of the world, together. Words: Michelle Schuman Photos: Grace Dunn related: Austin Shines On: Levitation 2022 Community, that’s what Levitation has to offer. Psychedelia, in all its

JANKY SMOOTH Top 10 Shows of 2023 Rated By Contributors

Janky Smooth Central Command December 31, 2023

Live musical entertainment is the lifeblood of Janky Smooth, that’s why we’re so blessed to be in the best concert city in all the world, bar-none. Los Angeles hosted so many of the year’s greatest bangers, it’s quite impossible to recall them all, however our contributors have compiled their top ten most incredible memories of 2023. For years to come, they will be able to say they were there in regard to so many moments that will live on much longer than the year. Whether it was Siouxsie performing in Los Angeles for the first time in decades at Cruel World, Skinny Puppy’s final shows, the return of Ladytron or Cynic or Saetia, or brand new festivals we won’t ever forget like Sick New World or Darker Waves. Take a moment to breeze through these lists and remember those shows if you were there. Publisher, Danny Baraz Siouxsie Sioux at Cruel World Iggy Pop at the Regent Obituary at the Fonda Run the Jewels playing RTJ2 at the Hollywood Palladium Angel Du$t at Echoplex Skinny Puppy at Belasco Depeche Mode at Crypto.com Arena Ladytron at Belasco Sparks at Hollywood Bowl The Adicts at Belasco Editor sometimes, Rob Shepyer System of