Lucy Schwartz at Bordot, It's A School Night

Lucy Schwartz at the Bordot, It's A School Night. More to come on intraffik.com. A trio of photos for now.

It was getting a little late for me, but I did catch probably half of A Fine Frenzy's set. I definitely wish to catch a full set in the future.

The Mo-odds, Restavrant, High Life Cavaliers, Hello My Name Is Red and Don Juan Y Los Blancos

What a crazy weekend of music. Friday night hanging out at Echo Curio. Saturday night hanging out just east of Downtown to catch some great bands: High Life Cavaliers, Hello My Name Is Red, Don Juan Y Los Blancos, Restavrant and The Mo-odds in the U-Haul show. And just to note: I missed Health Club. I was off at Pershing Square catching Autumn Nights and so missed out on their set.

The night was hosted by The Mo-odds. The first band that I caught was High Life Cavaliers. There was some high praise for them afterward. I was happy to hear that as I was just blown away by their set when I first heard them over at Blue Star. Hello My Name Is Red and Don Juan Y Los Blancos came up next. Don Juan Y Los Blancos had folks dancing and reminded folks that red dresses are hot. The Mo-odds had everyone going nuts. Folks formed a mosh pit in the rather tight confines. Joe from Pu$$y Cow was there to give a piggy back ride. And Restavrant closed out the night with a cool accustic set (I don't know if this was due to the electric generator running low).

Concern of the night: Someone voiced concern to me that at some point in the night someone would fall out of the back of the U-Haul. It didn't happen though the two of us did notice one person who nearly tripped on his way out.

Comment of the night: We're here with three-quarters of the Mo-odds.

High Life Cavaliers



Hello My Name Is Red






Don Juan Y Los Blancos

The Mo-odds

Restavrant

Autumn Nights: Pershing Square

A friend sent me a text saying she was heading off to Pershing Square for Autumn Nights. In a future blog, you'll see that I had other plans for a Saturday night. But since I don't exactly get to hang with my friend all that much I was more than happy to head on over for a little over an hour. What did we catch, some really rocking outdoor art. Was it better than Glow? I don't know about this year's version of Glow, but Autumn Nights was definitely better than the 2008 version of Glow.

The Shakers, Mad Planet and The Swagger Sticks at Echo Curio

It was off to Echo Curio to catch The Swagger Sticks, The Shakers and Mad Planet. In between, I stopped off at Ballard's Artwork Framing to see a photo exhibit displaying the work of some of our local music photographers.

The Swagger Sticks have a new band mate. As you can see in the first photo, she had a notebook that she was using throughout the set. At one point, a song came up that she didn't have any notes on and so she asked, "What are the lyrics?"

The Shakers were next. I missed their first song as I took off to Ballard's. Two photos I really liked there was a shot of The Like at Silverlake Jubilee and a Happy Hollows portrait photo. The Shakers killed it, giving us all a great set. To close out the night was Mad Planet. Last photo, there was some body twisting going on there.

The Swagger Sticks

The Shakers

Mad Planet

At a DUI checkpoint in Glendale

So I'm driving home on a Saturday night and I come across a DUI checkpoint. I know the drill. I get my license out. As I'm looking around, I notice three cars pulled over. Sort of a haul. I get to the officer and I show him my license.

Officer. "So Mr. Notes from Vivace, have you been drinking tonight."
Me. "No, nothing."
Officer. "Not ever water?"
I'm like, what? "No, actually."
Officer. "You do know that water makes up most of your body."
I'm like giving him the stare that one probably shouldn't give an officer. A stare that indicates total irritation.
Officer. "I've got to entertain myself somehow. It's a long night."

Okay, so the officer was trying to play cool with someone who obviously wasn't drunk. I found it somewhat amusing. But then I also live in Glendale where I think a lot of the cops can be jerks at times. Friends call the cops in Glendale Nazi cops. So part of me was a bit irritated. Oh well, I guess in the end I have to give the guy props for having a sense of humor.

Eastern Conference Champions, Pity Party, Andy Clockwise and Come On Go With Us at Spaceland

It was off to Spaceland to catch Eastern Conference Champions, Pity Party, Andy Clockwise and Come On Go With Us.

Pity Party made some cool comments. "You can hand us cash when we get off stage. It will not be tax deductible." "They clearly feel deserving of an exit." They ended their set with a minimalist song and the lead singer's head slowly sinking below her keyboard. Eastern Conference Champions simply rocked the night. It was amazing how Spaceland just filled up to capacity as they were setting up. Joshua played with a sprained right hand. Greg had a fever. It was all good. Andy Clockwise was the final band of the night. Midnight is normally when I head off towards home, but I stuck around for a couple songs. I'll have to see this band again. The first two songs were great. And lead singer Andy just doesn't stop moving. I walked in while Come On Go With Us was playing. I swear they called themselves something different at the end of their set, but I'll go with the band name Come On Go With Us. They had a nice Halloween themed Jack O' Lantern to the side.

Come On Go With Us



Pity Party







Eastern Conference Champions





Andy Clockwise

Dreams: Cher and a CD

I had one strange dream recently. I found myself sneaking into a Cher concert. A Cher concert, serious? I had really good seats, but was worried that the ticket holders would eventually show up so I got up and watched from the aisle. I then went into a record store inside the concert arena, searching for a Sid and Nancy album, yes the movie, but for some reason they were a band. In my dream, I knew it wasn’t a Sid and Nancy album I was looking for, but in fact a Mates of State album. Now why I was looking for an album by Sid and Nancy versus Mates of State, I do not know. I bought the vinyl copy, but moments later decided to return it for a CD. I went looking through the rack, but couldn’t find it. As I was about to give up, I looked over and saw the CDs lined up in mass. After exchanging the vinyl for the CD, I then gave consideration to sneaking back into the Cher concert, but decided it was too risky. Wake up time.

A Book Review: The Associate by John Grisham

The Associate. I had this on my bookshelf for awhile. I lent the book to my mom and then just never got around to reading it. John Grisham does make for a nice quick summer read. Admittedly, it took me a couple weeks to read this book when really one should be able to finish it up in a handful of days, but then as one can tell from my blog I have this music thing that takes up my time.

So what did I think of this book? It is a nice page turner, but there isn’t much depth here. And honestly, I didn’t like how little is eventually revealed about the villains. I’m sure this was done on purpose, but I wish there was a bit more intel. Perhaps, keep is vague, if you wish, but I wanted a bit more than the idea that . . . well, I won’t give away too much more than I already have.

There are certain things that just make you scratch your head. For example, there is a confined research room in the law firm, which is accessible during only certain times of the day. I don’t work at a law firm, but I do on occasion work rather long hours – past midnight at times. Seriously, someone cutting you off at 10 p.m. when you’re dealing with a major lawsuit, I’m not so sure.

Summer 2010 Movie Rankings

Awesome

1. Toy Story
2. Inception
3. Salt

Great Popcorn Movie

4. Iron Man 2
5. The Expendables
6. Machete
7. Cyrus
8. Despicable Me

Just short of being a great popcorn movie, but just a touch

9. Predators
10. Scott Pilgram vs. the World
11. Shrek
12. Dinner with the Schmucks
13. Twilight Eclipse

Whatever

14. Knight and Day

Oh mercy

15. Robin Hood
16. The Sorcerer's Apprentice
17. A-Team
18. The Other Guys
19. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
20. Get Him To The Greek

I looked at my movie rankings from the summer of 2009. I ranked 21 movies last summer. I only listed two that I definitely wished I'd missed. For this summer, I have six -- and slightly less movies watched. I have the same number of great movies at three, but last year I had more movies that I ranked just below great: 7 versus 5. Yes, 2009 was a much better year for summer movies.

Local Natives at Music Box

A little late here, but I've had some other life events suck up my time over the last couple days.

Also, sorry, no photos from the night. I figured any photos I took at the Music Box wouldn't come out all that great -- we (intraffik) didn't ask for press passes.

The night started out great with Love Language. They hail from North Carolina and so I couldn't help but wonder if some of them were Duke fans. Or perhaps Carolina fans?

Local Natives came on next. Their set started out with a video: an artistic take on the words Local Natives. It was cool. Then they came on stage and the crowd went wild. Noticed: two distinct clouds of marijuana. I have to wish I had a better memory for song titles. There was a song in the middle of their set, which was just so so so sweet. For a couple of their final songs, the string instruments came out. I'll admit I was hoping Amanda Violin would come out on stage. Oh well. I miss her energy on the violin. With the end of their set, along with the two encore songs, I looked around me and up to the balcony and the crowd was giving cheers. How far Local Natives has come over the last couple years? Maybe the next time I see them they'll be playing at the Greek.

Photo from the FYF Fest.

The Mulhollands, Kozmonaut and Hyena at Club Moscow

It was off to Club Moscow to catch The Mulhollands, Kozmonaut and Hyena. I was telling a friend that the one cool thing about going to Club Moscow is that I catch bands that I wouldn't normally see -- such as the Kozmonaut and Hyena.

I missed the first band, Royal Heist, as I arrived a little later than I normally do. Hyena were the first band I saw. They're a two piece band that had the crowd dancing. Next up were the Kozmonaut. I noticed the lead singer playing with some spilled liquid on the stage. I think lead singers get bored while waiting for their band mates to set up their gear. When everything was set up, the lead singer knocked off her shoes and off they went on an intense filled set. "That song is about being in love . . . and I'm also a liar." Aafter reaching out to grab the hand of a young woman, the lead singer said, "Sometimes you see a hand and you've just got to grab it." A special cheers goes out to the guitarist who was playing with a dislocated finger. The Mulhollands were the final band of the night -- one of my favorite Los Angeles bands. An amusing interaction went on for their last song. Matt (guitar) took off on the next song and you soon saw Jeff (bass) coming over and then Matt stopped playing. Sarah Jeanette responded, "Matt just wanted to do a solo thing." Yes, Matt accidentally started off on the wrong song. His response, "I'm just looking at the list." Earlier, I saw Matt putting hit set list on the monitor. But it fell off and so he was looking over at Jeff's set list. Obviously, Jeff's set list was too far away to get a proper read. Hey, it all ended well, though.

Hyena







Kozmonaut







The Mulhollands