April 13, 2012

Weekend Go Go: Rock ‘n Roll Poetry, National Park Music Fest, and Return of the Grand Ole Echo

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Those are not their real bodies.

Easter is over.  Passover is past.

Go Go’ers, it’s time to get the parties started.

A certain music event in the desert just means there’s more room in L.A. for the rest of us to have fun so read on for a weekend jam-packed with music-themed events.  And if you’re really jonesing for a Coachella-like experience, a couple of the events even require sunglasses and a water bottle.

What you put in the water bottle is up to you.

You Belong Everywhere (But Come Here)

Yearning for the loud crowds and anything-can-happen edginess of a concert experience?  Start the weekend with YOU BELONG EVERYWHERE.

Already, you’re taking the affirmation to heart.

Former paratrooper and current poet  Derrick C. Brown has performed on  The Jay Leno Show, at the Sorbonne, and  all over Europe opening for indie darlings The Cold War Kids. A five-time, international poetry slam winner and an audacious, daredevil performer,  Brown is determined to help poetry achieve rock ‘n roll status.

This is what happens when you repeatedly  jump out of a plane.

Filmmaker Stephen Latty (Drums Inside Your Chest) followed Brown around Europe and captured the poet wrangling crowds into silence with the  sheer power of his words.

European crowds require serious wrangling.

The resulting film  You Belong Everywhere, produced by actress/fellow poet Amber Tamblyn, will get its only full-length, L.A. screening to date (with post-screening Q & A) tonight, Friday, April 13th, at the Echo Park Film Center at 8:00 p.m.  L.A. phenom poet Brendan Constantine sets the mood.

Parachute optional.

YOU BELONG EVERYWHERE w/Brendan Constantine — Fri, April 13 @ 8:00 pm; $8 — Echo Park Film Center,  1200 No Alvarado St, LA, (213) 484-8846;  Click here for TIX

Check out Ms. Go Go’s  interview with the highly entertaining Brown and Latty.

A Music Fest in an Old West Town

Must hear music in the Great Outdoors?  Yearning for  a more intimate concert experience?

Determined to use your pup tent?

Head to the Mentryville Music Fest to be held in Mentryville Park: a former oil boom/Old West town   in Santa Clarita.  Part of The Natural Stage Project, which aims to bring “folk music into the forests, parks and mountains of SoCal”, the event features over a dozen bands,  like The Carrions (from Cheryl Lindsey of The Breeders and Exene Cervenka’s band) and Death to Anders (think Pavement and the Pixies),  that will redefine your perception of folk music.

All this and an oil well.

MENTRYVILLE MUSIC FEST — Saturday, April 14, 11am – ?; $5 for parking — Mentryville  Park, Newhall/Santa Clarita.  Info and directions 

There will be so much fun here.

Return of the Grand Ole Echo

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, (you know who you are), you’ve probably heard about CicLAvia, which opens up streets on the Eastside of L.A. for walking, biking, triking, and playing.

So far, a good Sunday.

Here’s where Sunday gets great.  After you’ve tootled around warming up your dancing legs, head over to the Echo for the sixth season kick-off of the Grand Ole Echo: Americana queen Kim Grant’s festival of all things rootsy.

And all things swell.

The season’s inaugural line-up includes: Old Californio, which has been touring after the release of their much-touted album Sundrunk Angels, Afro-inspired Nearly Beloved , twisted backwoods music from Walter Spencer, and the debut of Red Carnations from Jeremy Little, whose songs have been featured on numerous films and T.V. shows.

No dust, plenty of parking, maximum fun.

GRAND OLE ECHO — Sun, April 15th from 5:30-9pm/FREE/All ages- The Echo, 1154 Glendale Blvd, LA 90026 , 213.413. 8200, www.attheecho.com

Ready?  U Know U Want to Go Go….

 

March 30, 2011

GRAND OLE ECHO and Twangin’ around Town

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Yee-ha!

Go Go’ers, if the cold and rain has settled in your very bones, you’ll need more than a couple of high-temp ray days to recover your git-up-and-go.  Luckily, Grand Ole Echo, L.A.’s premier, down home, jump-for-joy returns this Sunday to warm you up no matter what the weather (though it looks like sunny skies all weekend long!)

Queen of Americana Kim Grant kicks off the sixth season of  the Big City hoedown in style with honky tonkin’ headliner/L.A. native Sarah Gayle Meech who’s back in town from her new Nashville home.  Bluesy faves Far West jumpstart the evening at the free, all-ages Echo show;  self-monikered “outlaw folk rocker” Maxim Ludwig & the Santa Fe Seven drive it home til Sarah Gayle takes the stage.  Grant’s new booking partner Julie Richmond settles folk/rock/alt-country L.A. newcomer Kelly Pardekooper on the Back Porch along with longtime local boys the David Brothers who’ll ease you into the week ahead.

The sippin’ whiskey won’t hurt either.

Need to scratch that Americana itch before Sunday supper?   The following shows dish up heaping helpings of you-got-my-number and yeah-that’s-right.

Country on the coast.

The Mint’s not foolin’ around this April 1st.

Welcome the weekend in sophisto fashion on Friday with roots ‘n brass veterans Royal Crown Revue who helped usher in the Swing Revival movement way back in ’89.   These days, Jennifer Keith puts the sultry in chanteuse alongside Crown co-founder/vocalist  Eddie Nichols.  You may remember these swing kings from their long-time residency at the now-shuttered Derby.

Isn’t it time you renewed your acquaintance?

Whoopin’  it up on the Westside this Saturday, Marty Axelrod guest-hosts Ernest Troost’s Juke Joint Gang at the Talking Stick in Venice.    Songs of Shiloh,  the richly textured country narrative from Axelrod and  powerhouse vocalist Nicole Gordon, sets the standard for the evening.  Solo bard Shaun Cromwell references roots and ragtime with his fingerpicking and fine-tuned lyrics while Little Faith revs up the jump and jive, tent revival style, at the shank of the evening.

Bay City may never be the same.

Craving more country?  Check out the recently launched Southland Serenade, your online source of all things Americana in the City of Angels.  (http://southlandserenade.bandzoogle.com/fr_home.cfm)

Ready?  U Know U Want 2 Go Go….

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February 11, 2011

IT’S ABOUT THE MUSIC, MAN….

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Crack Ho, let's go

Go Go’ers, it feels like the world has been in Val-Day countdown  since January 2nd so let’s all take a little breather and in honor of the Grammys,  focus on music instead of love or lack thereof.

THE BEATLES’ COMPLETE FIRST AMERICAN CONCERT

Here’s your chance to forget Paul McCartney’s recent Saturday Night Live appearance and Ringo on Larry King Live.

Watch the blast force that was Beatlemania 47 years to the day of the moptops’ first U.S. concert at the Coliseum in Washington D.C.

Cinematheque is screening a pristine, first generation picture quality print of the original broadcast, which hasn’t been seen in its entirety since March 1964.  Relive it if you were there or check the reality if you just say you were.

Film also includes footage of Lesley Gore and the Beach Boys; Domenic Priore hosts a post-screening panel discussion. ( Friday, February 11th @ 7:30 pm at The Egyptian Theatre $11 www.americancinematheque.com/archive1999/2011/Egyptian/specialevent_FEB_ET_2011.htm

GRAMMY GO SEEK HUNT

Want to be the Trivia Whiz Kid at your upcoming Grammy bash?

Sign up for this music-centric scavenger hunt — you can join an existing team or bring up to five of your music geek friends — and poke around the Grammy Museum finding “trivia and treasure” for prizes, bragging rights, and an afternoon spent at one of the coolest museums in town.

No prior knowledge of music required!  (February 12 @ 2:00 pm; $29, which includes Grammy Museum admission; starting destination revealed after sign-up;  http://losangeles.going.com/event-880740;Out_of_the_Box_Events_Grammy_Go_Seek_Hunt)

CRACK WHORE GALORE

If  your inner rebel is feeling a bit twitchy, make a late night date with the “glamorous” Galores Abbey and Danny as they stumble through post-rehab reality with the help of sex, songs about sex, discussion of sex, an alleged for-sale sex tape, and really loud rock ‘n roll.

Pee-in-your-pants funny and good music to boot. (Ensemble Studio Theater – Los Angeles at Atwater Village Theatre, 3269 Casitas Ave., Atwater Village; Thurs. & Sat., 10:30 p.m.; thru March 12, ensemblestudiotheatrela.org. (323) 644-1929.)


SUSAN JAMES’S RECORD RELEASE SHINDIG AT THE ECHO

Ms. Go Go is counting the days ’til the GRAND OLE ECHO  returns on April 3 but booker extraordinaire/Queen of Americana Kim Grant and her new partner Julie Richmond (a.k.a. Carolina Chickadee) are giving Angelenos a little taste of twang and sway next Tuesday.

In honor of singer Susan James’s release of her fourth album Highways, Ghosts, Hearts, and Home (Ryan Adams is a fan), there’ll be a GOE-worthy shindig with Old Californio, Tony Gilkyson and Kip Boardman, Anny Celsi, Double Naught Spy Car, Evie Sands, Cosmo Topper and The Quarter After.

James will be backed by Paul Lacques and Paul Marshall (both, I See Hawks in L.A.) and DJ Bonebrake on drums.  Grant and Richmond hint at some surprise guests as well.

$10 entry gets you one of James’s CDs; $5 without.  (Tuesday, February 15th;  doors @ 7:00 pm, show @ 7:30pm; $5 – $10; The Echo, 1822 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles 90026; http://www.kgmusicpress.com/home.cfm)

 

August 2, 2010

Blue jean summer: heartland music for hipsters

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Full Music Jacket (Art by Zoe Axelrod; image courtesy of Songs of Shiloh)

If last weekend’s Roots Roadhouse left you jonesing for more blues, alt country, and Americana (or if, sadly, you missed the swell shindig thrown by Grand Ole Echo promoter Kim Grant), check out these off-the-beaten-track venues where the artists/songwriters sing songs of  big lives lived small on back roads and in bypassed towns.

On August 4th,  “Brad Colerick’s Wine and Song” at WineStyles in South Pasadena scores a Big Ticket coup with headliner Freebo who played a decade of bass for Bonnie Raitt and also backed up artists from John Mayal to Crosby, Stills & Nash to Dr. John before turning to full-time (and award-winning) singing and songwriting.   Music Connection, Los Angeles notes that Freebo creates “a provocative and haunting landscape which beautifully balances biting criticism, strong patriotism and a sense of whimsical optimism.”  (Second act TBA)  Come to hear a folk-rock/blues icon and drink good wine (from sponsor Donati Family Vineyard) in a living-room-like setting.

On August 5th,  Arnie’s Cafe presents “Pocket Goldberg and Friends”  featuring singer-songwriters Nicole Gordon and Marty Axelrod‘s Songs of Shiloh: an “emotionally affecting cycle of pop songs about a waitress named Shiloh ” according to Pasadena Weekly, which also notes that the duo “paints vivid, believable portraits of thwarted dreams and cautious hope” buoyed by the “shivery beauty of Gordon’s voice”.   Back-up singer Zoe Axelrod lends her high, clear soprano to the mix.  Valley Scene describes headliner John Zipperer (Jethro Tull and Vanilla Fudge) and Friends‘ music as “a cross between folk/acoustic/jam that brings to mind lazy summer afternoons lazing back on green grass and sipping a cool beverage.”   Both acts are backed by the kick-ass house band: Pocket Goldberg, Debra Dobkin, Nick Kirgo and Dave Fraser. Come early (to get a seat) and to see soulful songsmiths, singers, and musicians perform in a so-close-you-can-touch-them cafe.

Wreck N Sow raises hell at Farnsworth Park

You’ll get the full SoCal summer evening experience at Wreck N Sow‘s performance at the Farnsworth Park Summer Concert Series on August 7th.  The San Gabriel Valley Tribune says “Their sound’s foundation is bluegrass, but it reaches into alternative folk and other Americana genres, along with warm harmonies and a big dash of humor.”   The Altadena-based band, featuring Pierre Dupuy, Randy Cochran, Mike Stave, Andre Dupuy and “ghost performer” Dan Leahy, also contributed two songs to Divided We Stand: A Road Trip through an American Election (2006). Come to experience Americana under the stars.

You’ll be breaking out the moonshine by Monday….

Ready?  U Know U Want 2 Go Go….

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July 27, 2010

Roots Roadhouse @ the Echoplex: Pick the Bones Clean

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Buzzard knows best....

Sure, there’s  a time for glitter tights and pink champagne, Go Go’ers, but sometimes  you haveta forego the frippery and strip it down to the bone.  So even though it’s only Tuesday, you’ll want to start the countdown to Saturday when the Grand Old Echo presents Roots Roadhouse.   At 20 bands for $15 bucks, you’re seeing each act for less than the price of a SnoBawl Slurpee and that is a sweet, sweet deal.

Grammy Award winner Dave Alvin & the Guilty Men, country singer/Merle Haggard contemporary Red Simpson from Bakersfield, and lived-the-blues man T Model Ford from Mississippi will show the young’uns how it’s done at the Echoplex’s blues, country, and roots extravaganza, which also features a comprehensive line-up of locals (I See Hawks in L.A., Chapin Sisters) and out-of-towners (Frontier Ruckus, Chatham County Line) on three stages.   Doors open at 3:00PM and the music starts at 4:00 so you can tear up the joint before taking a break for brew and ’cue courtesy of gourmet food trucks Barbie’s Q and Q Zilla.  (Note: these are not the kind of trucks that Red Simpson sings about.)

Feeling lucky?  There’ll  be bingo on the patio; play to win tickets, CDs, gift certificates and t-shirts.  (‘Cause you can never have enough free t-shirts.)  Old Style Guitar Shop,  Stuck on Vintage and Le Modern Trinkets will be on hand if you’ve got money burning a hole in your pocket. (And if you do, Ms. Go Go would SO love to get to know you….)

Roots Roadhouse: your summer Saturday night ticket to swamp, sweat and twang.

Ready?   U Know U Want 2 Go Go….

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April 10, 2010

“Sinfully Sweet Sunday”@ the Verdugo/Grand Ole Echo 5th season kick-off: Groovin’…on a Sunday afternoon (and evening)

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Sweets Truck, Auntie Em's Kitchen and the Verdugo pair up for "Sinfully Sweet Sunday" on April 11th.

 

It’s the ultimate Big Kids Bash: exotic beers paired with exquisite sweets while lazing on an urban patio on a Sunday  afternoon.   Then, sashay on over to the  Echo  for the opening night of the Grand Ole Echo’s  5th season of BBQ, americana and country music.   Really…does life get any better than this?  

Your “Sinfully Sweet Sunday” starts on the Verdugo patio;  Sweets Truck  has collaborated with Michelle Risucci, pastry chef of Auntie Em’s Kitchen, who created a special menu for the Sunday, April 11th event.  The five item pairing includes: Citrus Cupcakes with Cream Cheese Frosting and Candied Orange Rind (baked with Belgian Witbier) served with Coney Island Albino Python – White Lager brewed with Ginger, Crushed Fennel, Sweet Orange Peel (6% ABV);  Red Velvet Tea Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache and Chocolate Pearls served with Spaten Optimator - Dopplebock (7.2% ABV); and Beer Float – Vanilla Bean Ice cream and Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout (9.0% ABV).   Ms. Go Go knows you’re swooning over the anticipated Sunday  sweetness  but you still have to reserve your spot with a pre-sale ticket; a Jefferson gets you all five pairings.  

Mosey your beer buzz/sugar high over to the legendary Echo to sweat and sway at the 5th season kick-off of the Grand Ole Echo: the start of the summer season of free, all-ages, americana and country music shows every Sunday with BBQ on the patio.  The opening night bill features respected local faves I See Hawks in L.A., Wheelhouse (with Ross Fluornoy and Brian Whelan of power pop band the Broken West), country/rock ‘n roll duet Mars Arizona,  Sam Mellon and the Skylarks (alt-country on the back porch) and Chris Morris, host of “Watusi Radio” (on Scion Radio) as emcee.  

What a way to kick off the season…and your Go Go week.  

Ready?  U Know U Want 2  Go Go….  

   (more…)

 

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