Alyeska/Goon with Liv Slingerland at The Echo

It was off to The Echo to catch Alyeska. I've followed her for a little over a year and was so happy to hear that she was doing the residency at The Echo. I was familiar with all the musicians this night though most familiar with Alyeska. Liv Slingerland hit the stage first. I've seen her backing a number of musicians (Lauren Ruth Ward as well as Lucy and La Mer). I will admit I decided to head out this specific Alyeska night at The Echo to catch her set. I've always wanted to see what she brought when fronting her own band. She brought some deep vocals with an Americana sound.

Liv Slingerland

Goon is sharing the residency with Alyeska. I previously saw them at The Hi Hat when they were playing with Alyeska. Interesting how that all works. They brought their heavy, melodic sound to The Echo. I just really enjoyed their set. There is a joy to their sound.

Goon

Alyeska ended the night. There is this awesome youthful wisdom to her sound. And she approaches her set with a modest presence. To show how the night was filled with so many familiar faces, Wolf Woodcock who I also saw at The Hi Hat once, was a backing musician.

Alyeska

Love and a .38 with LANTERNS at The Satellite

It was a free Monday night at The Satellite. The free night wasn't due to a residency, but that didn't stop it from being a great night. Love and a .38 was like the Sunset Strip coming to the east side. They kept the energy up throughout the set to such a degree that I think the light guy got into it.

Love and a .38

LANTERNS opened up the night. The guitarist knows how to play at lightening speed. And the lead singer was chill with his Hawaiian inspired shirt.

LANTERNS

Space Diaries and Molino at the Silverlake Lounge

Space Diaries

Time passes and I hadn't been to Silverlake Lounge in a couple months. Molino and Space Diaries had the night. Space Diaries is the residency band for October. The lead singer hadn't had the best of days and so their set didn't go the full 30 minutes, but they still put out some solid tunes. Molino was dressed in black, but played with some smiles.

There was a solid crowd there to enjoy the night.

Molina

Janelane and French Vanilla at The Smell

It was off to The Smell to catch Janelane and French Vanilla. Janelane is one of my new favorite bands. As I believe I mentioned, the lyrics are filled with break-up emotions. French Vanilla turns it up on the hip-hop punk, especially when the saxophone comes out to play.

Opening up was Lunch Lady and Jody.

Decorator with The Mosaics and The Unending Thread at The Satellite

A new night for The Satellite's residency band hit this month of October. Decorator opened their residency with some awesome jazz infused RnB sounds. The night had that type of cool factor sound with The Mosaics and The Unending Thread opening up for them.

Lemolo at Hotel Cafe

So my story about Lemolo goes like something like this: I believe there were some stage delays at Music Tastes Good 2016. So I took a walk towards another stage to see what was going on there. I heard the lovely vocals of Lemolo and fell in love with the music.

A year later and this Seattle based band was playing Hotel Cafe on the Friday before Music Tastes Good 2017. Was I heading over to catch them? You bet. And from the looks of things, a number of friends of the band showed up, as well.

It was a set of some sweet sweet sounds.

Hopefully, during the rest of their US tour, they were able to get the keyboard working.

Jesse Jo Stark with Leroy from The North, Whispertown and Night Talks

It was Jesse Jo Stark's final residency night. I definitely was going to head on over for a second helping. Opening up were two top notch folk bands. Leroy from The North opened the night with a sound that got two women dancing on the floor. Whispertown is one of those bands I've followed for years and love to catch them whenever I can. Then Jesse Jo Stark hit the stage to an appreciative crowd. Loved the lights. Loved the sound. Loved her casual, but intense way with her performance. Night Talks was the midnight band. I couldn't stay long, but I did have to stick around to catch their first song. Always love their pop style.

Mara Connor, Desure and David (Bjorn and the Sun) at The Hi Hat

A couple Sundays back, The Hi Hat had a fundraiser to help those impacted by the hurricanes that have hit the US. Knowing that Mara Connor was going to play a set, I knew I was going to get to enjoy some folk music. David from Bjorn and the Sun opened up the day. Desure had that sound and look that reminded me of I Love Lucy and Tennessee Ernie Ford. Mara Connor was great as always. I love getting to catch her whenever I can.

Music Tastes Good: Day 2

Music Tastes Good Day 2.

Brainstory opened up the festival on Day 2. Their jazz improve had me thinking about one of the opening bands last year, Bootleg Orchestra. It was a chill way to start off the festival.

Brainstory

The Bearcoon duo put on an energetic mid-day set. I couldn't help but think about travelling nomads who make money here and there by putting on sidewalk music sets.

What I noticed: the guitarist knows how to kick. The percussionist knows how to wear a black hat.

Bearcoon

Tied for best set of Day 2: Y La Bamba sound at times reminded me of an old Mickey Hart (Grateful Dead drummer) album, Planet Drum. Sure, Y La Bamba didn't have a line-up of drums, but just how they used their vocals seemed to carry similarities. And then, of course, this band is from Portland and I have a love affair with Portland based bands.

Y La Bamba

Side topic: The Long Beach Stage had a rotating stage. When I first looked at the schedule, I couldn't help but think, "Wait, how's that schedule going to work?" On Saturday, when I first noticed the rotating stage, I was like, "Of course. Duh" There were some amusing moments due to the rotating stage. For Y La Bamba the stage started to rotate a few minutes too early. The lead singer pleaded, "We still have one more song." The stage rotated back in place to let them finish up their set. Jay Som who came on stage after Y La Bamba said, "I'm a little dizzy from the rotating." And as the stage rotated Los Lobos off, they kept on playing in a style that just had me thinking of Disneyland's old Country Bear Jamboree show.

Comment of the day came from Guadalajara's Los Master Plus, "It's about to get a little hotter today, because we're playing some cumbia today!"

Los Master Plus

Dengue Fever lead singer gave us some Asian infused music theory scale vocals. And backing up those vocals were some jazz style sounds. So interesting, so intriguing.

Side topic: as the shade extended across the Long Beach Stage, the crowd grew.

Dengue Fever

!!! put on one great show. The lead singer throughout the set blew kisses into the audience, jumped into the crowd, and put on some John Travolta moves. I'm pretty sure this drove the crowd to dance like no other crowd of the festival.

!!!

Tied for best set of day 2: Peaches put on a theatrical influenced set. Initially, Peaches and her two dancers came out dressed in full body bird-like costumes. As mentioned, in my Day 1 review, the weather was perfect, but how close were they to fainting in those costumes? Well, it didn't take long for Peaches to strip down to her underwear and make a costume change.

Comment of the set: Jesus walked on the water. I'm going to walk across the crowd. (And she did, as fans helped her walk a good 20 meters or so from the stage.)

Lyric of the set: Dick in The Air.

Moment of the set (well, other than walking on the outreached hands): during Dick in The Air, a massive condom floated across the audience. Like massive, like 20 meters across the audience. She walked through the condom and then "came" into the audience.

Peaches

For me, an amusing moment happened during the Los Lobos set. I caught the first part of their set and then took off to catch a few songs of Rhye. Then I rushed back to catch the last part of Los Lobos. I stood towards the back of the crowd. A woman looked at me and I had this feeling she was thinking, "Hey photographer, you're probably not getting the most exciting photos of Los Lobos." I say this, because she said to me as she looked at my camera, "They're so laid back. I love it." Then not a second later, Los Lobos said, "You're definitely the most laid back audience we've had."

Los Lobos

When I was in the photo pit for TUNE-YARDS, a photographer next to me started screaming. We locked eyes and she said, "I'm such a big fan of hers." I say there's some blues-synth fusion genre going on there. Those rapid fire vocals, I'm sure, reverberating across the ocean.

TUNE-YARDS

Sleater-Kenney ended the night with some country/punk fusion sounds. There were some staccato rapid beats coming from that band. It was a great way to end the night. I know this is awful to say, but I took off a little bit before their set ended. As I walked down the road that was parallel to the festival, a skater was sitting on the grass with his camera phone filming the set via the large video monitors that could be seen above the fence that separated the festival from the street. As I walked pass him, I thought, "Now there's a true fan of Sleater-Kenney."

Sleater-Kinney

Music Tastes Good: Day 1

Music Tastes Good Day 1.

Let's just start out with the huge positive. Last year at Music Tastes Good, it was HOT, middle of a late summer heat wave. This year, the weather was perfect. Even at high noon. So sure, Alvvays said during their 5:20 p.m. set, "It's nice there's a breeze now. We're benefiting from that greatly now," but who could argue the point that Long Beach had perfect festival weather.

It's always nice when you catch a band playing a dive bar (and let's be honest, Silverlake Lounge is a dive bar) and the next thing you know they're playing a music festival. That was the case with Spirit Mother who opened up the day at the Long Beach Stage. What did I notice: they sure weren't intimated by the large stage. They roamed that stage like professionals.

Spirit Mother

L.A. Edwards set had me thinking back to an episode of The Andy Griffith Show, The Guitar Player, where Andy helps Jim Lindsey join a band. L.A. Edwards had you believing in the revival of old time Americana country.

L.A. Edwards

Vagabon had one of the quotes of the day, "I didn't prepare any jokes to tell you or I would so we'll just have to sit here while I do this (tuning)." This singer-songwriter would fit in perfectly at Hotel Cafe. And if it weren't for those shades she was wearing, I'm sure her eyes would have shown a fierceness that would juxtapose against those plaintive vocals. And those teeth, she sure knew how to show them.

Vagabon

Juana Molina and her silver hair had the most layered vocals of the festival. I was memorized.

Juana Molina

When I saw Diane Coffee, I immediate tried to think of a movie comparison. Shaun Fleming's (lead singer) set was so lounge singer theatrical that my mind immediately went to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Then I took a look at the Music Tastes Good website and the bio for Diane Coffee mentioned Little Shop of Horrors. Hmm, I say I wasn't that far off.

Diane Coffee

Best set of Day 1: Alvvays. Awesome cool melodic pop driven vocals. Dreamy. That's just how I love my music.

What I noticed: the lead singer made sure everyone in the band was taken care of in terms of their set needs. The leader.

Lyrics I loved: You don't have to leave, you can just stay with me.

Alvvays

Diane Coffee wasn't the only theatrical set of the day. of Montreal had their flamboyant x2 fun. The last time I saw of Montreal was in 2012 at the Culture Collide music festival. That time, I'd say that the flamboyant side of the band was via backup dancers. This time, it was the lead singer.

of Montreal

The last moments of the festival was a rush between stages to catch Built to Spill, Ride, Ween and
Joyce Manor. The two bands at the New Orleans Stage (Built to Spill and Joyce Manor) couldn't help but mention the more -- let's say -- larger bands playing over on the Long Beach Stage. Built to Spill actually wondered out loud why everyone wasn't over on the other side to catch Ride. Their fan base yelled out, "We're here to see you." Yeah, their fan base was there to catch one rumble in the jungle. Joyce Manor joked about cutting their set short so that they could rush over to catch a couple songs of Ween. Of course, I'll admit that I cut out early on Ween to end my night with some Joyce Manor punk -- was I wrong, I don't think so, but I suppose that's based on your taste of music.

Joyce Manor

Built to Spill

As for the "main" stage, Ride had those speakers vibrating, the lights flashing and the crowd screaming. I'd say that Ride probably had the best light show of the festival -- personal opinion. It made for some awesome photos. And what was funny for me: towards the end of the set, the lead singer Mark Gardener started to chew some gum. I started thinking, "They're done with their set." Ha ha, I was wrong, they went on for a few more minutes.

Ride

Based on my informal polling of t-shirts, I'd say that most of the festival goers were there to see Ween. I don't think their fans were disappointed with their alternative college rock sound. There were some amusing moments during the set. During a tuning break during the set, Dean Ween, lifted out his right arm as he tuned with his left. Whenever their drummer hit that beat, he'd point it out with his fingers. The crowd loved it. Then later, there was a stage runner with a cowboy hat. The guy wanted to put it on the head of Gene Ween. Security chased him down and dragged him off the stage. But hey, Gene later said "Thank you" and put the hat on his head.

Ween

If you're interested in seeing more photos from Day 1, click on this Facebook link.