A night at Old Towne Pub Pasadena with UCP, Power Cords, Get Set Go

I headed off to catch Underwater City People, Power Cords and Get Set Go at Old Towne Pub Sunday night, 11 January. I’ve followed two of the bands (Underwater City People and Get Set Go) for awhile. It was a last second show. It was a farewell for Sarah, who is Mike TV’s girlfriend. I’m not friends with Sarah (though I do know who she is), but I was happy to show up and catch the show. What was cool about the night was that there were only three bands – what is so cool about that? Well, the night started off at 9:15 p.m. and ended at around 12:15 a.m., which meant that each band had an approximate 45 minute set. That is what was so cool about the night. Underwater City People started it off. It being a last minute gig, per them, they hadn’t practiced. None the less, it was a great set. (Amusing moment: for one song they had to talk things over for a moment to figure out exactly how to get the song going.) For Underwater City People, I believe they played a set list that was requested by Sarah. The Power Cords were up next. This is a band that I’ve heard of, but never seen. For some reason, they reminded me of another local band called New Fidelity. They are a four piece band. Their sound is semi-similar to New Fidelity. They call themselves avant garde post-post rock. I have no clue what that means. I will mention that on their myspace page, New Fidelity is one of their top friends so perhaps it isn’t just my imagination thinking that the two bands sound similar. Like New Fidelity most of the band members share vocals though perhaps for Power Cords it is more of a shared responsibility versus New Fidelity where there is more of a lead vocalist with the other guys doing backup vocals. As for Get Set Go, they started their set with a cover song from The Cure. I have to say that Mike TV is one of the coolest musicians in the Los Angeles area. During both UCP and Power Cords, he was out in front pogo dancing to the music. I was at another Get Set Go show where he was the only person standing near the stage for the first band of the night. Get Set Go also mainly played a set list requested by Sarah. Towards the end, Sarah tossed out a couple other requests and after that the night ended.

Off to Spaceland: Ida Maria, Rocco Deluca, HoneyHoney

Spaceland on Monday night, January 12, was apparently the place to be among my various friends. I met up with a handful of friends and then ran into other friends who had also made the trek out. “I heard there were a number of good bands playing tonight,” was the common theme among us all.

Ida Maria. She rocked Spaceland. She’s an artist from Norway. I’d never heard of her until reading about her in the LA Weekly. The LA Weekly describes her as “packed with bare-bones garage-punk jams longer on attitude than ornamentation . . . larger-than-life reputation for onstage antics.” She’s definitely a woman filled with attitude. At the end of her set, she’d destroyed the stage, but she still had vocals to finish up so she grabbed two microphone stands and rushed towards one end of the stage with finality on her mind. Her onstage antics included a self-only wet t-shirt contest which resulted in everyone noticing she wasn’t wearing a bra. She does have the onstage antics down, but I can’t say they’re larger-than-life. Maybe people who love Ida Maria haven’t seen Shayne from Spider Problem – now that’s a person with onstage antics. I loved the set – and the pink high top shoes she wore. Perhaps my thirty minutes of enjoyment had something to do with the fact that just before the set began a friend of mine began jumping around chanting, “Ida Maria. Ida Maria. Ida Maria.” It sort of got me going and I will say that from her very first song, I had a smile on my face.

Rocco Deluca. He’s doing the residency at Spaceland this month of January. This guy can rock it. The first half of his set was a thrill of rock and roll. He uses a resonator guitar, which in my mind gave the music a southern rock feel. He had folks bouncing with the music. He slowed it down during the second half of his set. There were a couple cool duets with a female singer. There were also a couple other guest musicians. My nitpicking, I got really into the first half and wished he’d continued in that vein, but I can’t complain too much because as mentioned I did enjoy the two duet songs. I read online that Kiefer Sutherland of “24” fame has taken an interest in Rocco Deluca’s music and that a Rocco Deluca music video is on the “24 – Redemption” DVD. I couldn’t help but think that his music would be great for that Louisiana-based TV show “True Blood.” (Anna Paquin just won the Golden Globe for “Best Performance by an Actress in a TV Series – Drama.)

HoneyHoney. This band is the main reason I headed out to Spaceland Monday night. For some reason, reading the LA Weekly, the band name just caught my attention and I figured I had to give this band a listen. I wasn’t disappointed. As the LA Weekly puts it, HoneyHoney is “an appealing uptempo brand of melodic folk-rock.” Hey, when Suzanne Santo is jamming on the violin, you can’t deny that this is uptempo music. She also plays that banjo, but she had problems tuning it so she didn’t really use it during the night. HoneyHoney is a two piece band (I think) with Ben Jaffe on guitar. He helps out on vocals, as well, but Suzanne is the main vocalist for the band. They also had two other musicians playing guitar and drums. What was endearing (at least to me) was the fact that midway through their set (which started a bit after midnight) Suzanne said something like, “I’m going to sleep in tomorrow morning. I’m so used to going to bed early that by 9:30 p.m. I was wondering how I was going to make it through the night.” It is nice to know that not all musicians get an extra boast of energy starting around 1 a.m. It was unfortunate that Spaceland partially cleared out soon after Rocco Deluca, because people missed a great set. (I suspect that Suzanne isn’t the only one who needs her sleep. Tuesday is a workday and I think even in Silver Lake people need to head to bed for the next day’s grind.)

Other than music, something to remember the night by: there was a guy who was trying to hit on every woman in his near vicinity. Most of the women shifted just out of conversation distance soon after initial contact.

Over-heard comment from Suzanne regarding the audience, “Hey, everyone, why don’t you . . . oh thanks, I thought you were all going to stand away from the stage during our set.”

Notes from Vivace

Movie Review: Curious Case of Benjamin Button

Straight out: sorry about this review.

Based on looking at Yahoo, I know this is a well liked movie by audiences. Currently, it has an A-. As for me, I was bored stiff. (Last year, I had the same reaction to Sweeney Todd. People loved the movie, but I walked out of the movie bored.) After an hour, I was looking at the time. This is a rather bad sign when the movie is nearly 3 hours long.

To me, the movie was going through the motions between the various stages of the Benjamin/Daisy relationship. The relationship moments I loved -- except for the last scenes, which to me just made the movie look silly. The whole tug boat, World War II portion of the movie felt like some useless side story. I will attack one part of the Benjamin/Daisy storyline. The part where Benjamin re-creates the moments before Daisy's accident in Paris. Oh mercy. Was this five minutes long? It felt like an hour. (Note: it is interesting how a drawn out moment like this bored me, but there were scenes in another movie called Rachel Getting Married that were probably even more drawn out that I simply loved.)

And is it me or did this movie seem to have an anti-George Bush feel. Was the whole Hurricane Katrina moment meant as a dig at George Bush? If so, another attack on this movie for having a useless political bent. Or perhaps Katrina had some over-arching meaning to the movie that I totally missed.

Anyways, I can't say this is an awful movie due to the fact that it felt like such a well made movie. I will say I don't consider it Oscar worthy and rate it as an average movie -- not the best movie of the year, but also not ranking with the worst.

Movie Review: Doubt

This is the second movie I've watched recently where ambiguity rules the day. In Doubt, one isn't sure if Sister Aloysius Beauvier (Meryl Streep) is correct in her child molestation accusations against Father Brendan Flynn (Philip Seymour Hoffman). My guess is that she is not correct in her accusations that Father Flynn is molesting the first black student, Donald Miller, in school history; however, I do believe she might be on the right track. There is one child who appears to withdraw from Father Flynn, but then even there just because a child withdraws whenever a figure of authority passes by doesn't mean there is child molestation going on.

I consider this a well done movie -- great acting, great storyline, great everything.

Spider Problem @ Silverlake Lounge

Spider Problem. This is a band that plays like the Roller Derby. At least, the lead singer, Shayne, does. Within the first two or three songs, she was driving her way into the audience and then sprawling herself on the floor. She uses the microphone more than just for singing, swinging it around while this way and that until it came flying off the stage and a fan needed to retrieve it while she looked blankly around wondering what had happened. Later in the set, her microphone went dead -- the cord was disconnected from the wall.

I have to mention the big stuffed white teddy bear that she brought on stage. She spent time jumping on top of it. The guitar player had a bit of fun with it, as well. Towards the end of the set, there was a bit of fun with the bear as she would toss it into the audience and the audience would toss it right back.

Her other band mates join in on the fun on occasion. The guitar player and her have this "slam dance" relationship on stage, banging each other around with some glee. The bass player got involved at one moment. Shayne was sprawled over the monitor and he stepped on her.

A brief appearance was made by the female singer from the previous band for one song.

A sweet moment towards the end was when Shayne asked the audience, "Should we do one or two more songs. You guys don't have to go anywhere do you?" It was pass midnight by this point. Spider Problem was supposed to go on at 11 p.m. The audience had dwindled to less than half of those that listened to the previous band. Even in hipster Silverlake, people need to get up and work the next day.

Porterville at Silverlake Lounge

Monday, May 19, 2008. Porterville is a band that will send you into a dancing frenzy. The band hails from Porterville -- therefore the name. Porterville is a three piece all male band. As I mentioned, the band will send you dancing, which is strange when you see the band, because one could describe them as geeky. It doesn't matter, because their sound will have you going. For a couple songs, they had a guest female take the lead vocals -- red hair flying.

Notes from Vivace

Queen Kwong

I saw Queen Kwong at the Silverlake Lounge on May 14. It is a three piece band with a female lead singer. Per her website, the lead singer, Carre Callaway was the opening act for Nine Inch Nails in Fresno. This sort of explains things, because the set at the Silverlake Lounge was very good -- especially for a band that was only doing its third set (if I heard correctly.) So even if the band is new to the Los Angeles music scene, she is hardly a new face in music.

Queen Kwong has this Mazzy Star feel to it so this is hardly a band that has NIN influences. Most of the set was relatively mild focusing on Carre's vocals. For their last song, it picked up dramatically, which lead to an interesting situation. I guy in the audience got inspired and jumped to the front of the stage where he began to prostrate himself in front of the band. He hugged the monitor and then threw the microphone stand aside. Someone from the audience sort of looked at the situation and then pushed the guy back into the audience. Another person came over and put the microphone stand back together. Ah, the crazy drunk guy . . . every so often you see them around the Los Angeles music scene.

Notes from Vivace

Eject at the Viper Room

I caught this band called Eject at the Viper Room recently. It is a four piece band. I guess I’d describe them as a Cure-like band without the depressing sound. I guess that is a strange sentence that might not make much sense. Their set was filled with some great catchy songs. There was a nice group of friends that had come out to see them. Most of them were rather hip looking folks. I wouldn't mind catching them another time.

Jean Paul Yamamoto at Safari Sam's

I saw this band called Jean Paul Yamamoto at Safari Sam’s in Hollywood Tuesday night. It’s this Asian band with a Caucasian drummer. I did a little research and the lead singer/guitar player is Lun*na Menoh, a Japanese artist. Their set started out with a lady coming out on stage with a stack of paper with written words on each sheet, which she proceeded to toss across the stage one by one as the audience read what was on each sheet. I wasn’t sure if this was the start of the show or not. It was of course, and was a uniquely artistic way to open a set. It was too bad I didn’t pay closer attention to the written word. The band than proceeded came on stage and started their set. There were two ladies, one on each side, dressed in white, looking like either angels or characters from sci-fi cartoons. They slowly swept their arms around as the band sang. The music itself has an electronic feel to it. The other three members; a guitar player, drummer and singer/guitar were also dressed in white. What was interesting about the whole set was that the two ladies made three costume changes throughout the set, but for some reason I was preoccupied by other things on the stage that I didn’t even notice them exiting. I’m not exactly sure how that occurred since this isn’t a band that provides you with a big stage show. Perhaps it is just the subtle action on stage during these transitions that caused me to get distracted. And oh, there’s that big white wig that the lead singer wears.

Notes from Vivace

Automatic Music Explosion. Venice Air Conditioned Supper Club.

I caught The Automatic Music Explosion at the Venice Air Conditioned Supper Club. The audience at Venice-ACSC was a bit stand off-ish at first, but by the end of the set there was growing interest. It was likely driven by the active performance that the band displayed throughout their set. The ending was particularly energetic with various band members flying around the stage. One can tell that they’re a well rehearsed band. At one time, the two guitar players and bass player were aligned in a sharp angle. It is a small thing to notice, but indicates a belief in practice makes perfect. I’d recommend checking this band out. And the Venice-ACSC is a good place to check out, as well. There were probably 80 – 100 people there during the Automatic Music Explosion set.

Notes from Vivace

Lady Danville at UCLA

I came across this band called Lady Danville recently. I enjoyed their set so figured I'd give a quick write-up:

This is a folk/acoustic type band. It is a three piece band with a keyboardist, guitar, and a percussionist. The percussionist plays on a cajon (a beat box, box drum type instrument). It was a pleasant set. It is the type of music that you listen to when you want to sit back and relax. The melodies are strong, the rhythm is pleasant. The guys in the band appear to get along with each other. There isn’t much interaction on stage between the three members, but you still get the feeling they enjoy playing as a trio.

Notes from Vivace

"Definitely, Maybe" film preview

I've seen the trailer for "Definitely, Maybe" a handful of times. There is a scene where the father is telling his daughter about a threesome. The daughter asks, "What is a threesome?" The father says something like, "It is a game that adults play." I wonder if others out there find this a bit disturbing. Okay, so it is meant as comedy and it is sort of funny, but on the other hand it isn't. Why would anyone talk about a threesome with their pre-teen daughter? And the actress herself is a pre-teen. It just seems wrong to have allowed something like this to be written and filmed.

Notes from Vivace

I am Legend

I enjoyed the movie, but so many questions. Some of these questions might be stupid or might have been answered if I’d paid better attention to the movie, but here they are:

First, how did Robert Neville get all that lab equipment into his basement? I suppose that while the virus was starting up, he might have gotten some help from the military.

Second, if “the infected” are smart enough to put together a trap, why aren’t they smart enough to track Robert Neville’s daytime movement more carefully? They obviously knew where he went to get his videos. I suppose you could argue that they didn’t track him to the video store, but instead randomly came across it during their night walks and made the assumption that this was where Robert Neville hung out at times.

Third, how could Anna and Ethan survive in a truck with “the infected” all around the country?

Fourth, I understand that there is easily a breakdown in communication when a country falls apart, but why was Robert Neville unable to get into contact with the safe zone over a 3 year period? Anna and Ethan had obviously heard of this safe zone so why wouldn’t Robert Neville with all that fancy equipment of his not have known about this safe zone as well? And if he somehow wasn’t aware, why wasn’t the safe zone looking for him? Anna knew that Robert Neville was an important figure in the fight against the virus. Wouldn’t this safe zone be interested in figuring out if Robert Neville was still alive in New York? And wouldn’t the safe zone also be sending out messages to the potentially uninfected?

Fifth, if “the infected” have this ability to scale three story townhouses, wasn’t the safe zone walls rather short?

Sixth, what are all the side effects of being infected? You obviously look awful, but you’re still able to strategize. You turn extremely vicious and violent, but you also wear cloths and hoard American dollars.

Seventh, for a city with the infected in it, the city looked remarkably well kept. The infected looked a bit vicious, I just wonder why more damage wasn’t done to the city.

Eight, what do the infected eat after three years? I suppose they feed on animal flesh.

Ninth, do the infected reproduce?

Tenth, so Robert Neville uses a grenade to kill off the leader of the pack. So wouldn’t using a grenade in the basement cause problems for Anna and Ethan who are in the safe? Couldn’t a blast potentially jam the door?

Notes from Vivace