Stone Darling and Whispering Pines @ The Satellite

It was off to The Satellite to continue my normal Monday rotation to catch the various residency bands. Up first was Whispering Pines and then it was the residency band, Stone Darling.

Whispering Pines gave an inspiring set.  Someone from the audience yelled out, "Ten more songs."  A person from the band yelled out, "Ten more beers."  The response, "Ten more songs.  I can't drink ten more beers."  I wasn't sure what to expect from Stone Darling.  I had never seen them before and kept on wanting to call them Summer Darling.  I am happy I caught them and quickly "Liked" them on Facebook.  To end their set, Whispering Pines joined them on stage.

Comment:  Ben and Shaun, report to the stage.

Thought on Summer Darling:  I'm sure everyone has a role in a band.  I suspect the drummer is the no-nonsense type when it comes to practice or sets.  I overheard her saying, "Are we playing or what?"   If I had to make a bet on who makes sure things get accomplished, I'd place my bet on her.

Whispering Pines







Stone Darling

A Movie Review: Crazy Stupid Love

Crazy Stupid Love. A movie that focuses in on love and how crazy and stupid it can get sometimes. We have Cal (Steve Carell) who over dinner learns that his wife, Emily (Julianne Moore), wants a divorce. At the same time, his young son, Robbie (Jonah Bobo), is expressing his love for the baby sister, Jessica (Analeigh Tipton). And we have Jacob (Ryan Gosling), picking up random women at the bar, but being rejected by one who might actually be his soul mate, Hannah (Emma Stone).

This is a multi-generational story of love and it works marvelously: puppy love to first committed relationship to perhaps the ending arc of a long-term relationship. It is a well acted out movie led by the driving forces of the movie, Steve Carell and Ryan Gosling. You also find yourself falling in love with Emma Stone and Julianne Moore.

A Movie Review: Cowboys and Aliens

Cowboys and Aliens. We have Jake Lonergan (Daniel Craig) in the desert, he has lost his memory. Horse riders come up, asking for directions. They see a strange devise attached to his arm and assume it is a sophisticated handcuff. They decide to take him in as they assume there might be an award. Bad mistake. Jake wonders into a town where he soon encounters a couple interesting folk: Ella Swenson (Olivia Wilde) who has an interest in Jake and Colonel Dolarhyde (Harrison Ford) who pretty much rules the town. We quickly learn there are issues between Colonel Dolarhyde and Jake Lonergan. Those are quickly put to the side when a common enemy comes around – aliens.

I know this movie isn’t winning over the critics and it is under-performing at the box office (I could see it still making $100m, but that is probably a far cry from what was hoped), but I enjoyed this cowboys and aliens genre mix. It was just fun watching cowboys dashing off after aliens who obviously had vastly superior technology.

The Maxies, Talky Tina and maybe (White Night The Regressions) at Blue Star

I was reading a book when a friend sent a text Saturday evening, asking if I wanted to head over to the Blue Star to catch some bands. Of course . . .

Now I have to admit that I'm not sure about the names of a couple of the bands. I do know that Talky Tina and The Maxies were the 2nd and 3rd bands I saw. As for the first and last bands I saw, maybe White Night and The Regressions.  Talky Tina was trying to figure out the names of the two bands that played before them, but no one in the audience seemed to know.  Oh well.  And the last band didn't introduce themselves -- or I missed it.  Bummer.  If anyone comes across this blog and knows the answer, please let me know.

Talky Tina gave us some love from San Jose.  They joked about the fact that they might have been the oldest band at Blue Star.  The Maxies put on a show with folks spraying silly string all over the stage.  You can see the aftermath below.  It got slippery on stage.  A friend jumped on stage towards the end and immediately slipped -- sheepish embarrassment.  As the next band was getting ready to go on stage, I over-heard someone say, "Good luck with all that."

A great last minute night of music.

White Night






Talky Tina





The Maxies









The Regressions

A Movie Review: Friends with Benefits

Friends with Benefits. Okay, one has to give it up to Mila Kunis, she definitely picked the better movie in the post-Black Swan competition with Natalie Portman. I’m not saying that Friends with Benefits is the perfect movie, but it is far better than No Strings Attached.

In this version of two friends trying to have a sexual relationship without the emotional attachment, we have Dylan (Justin Timberlake) and Jamie (Mila Kunis). Dylan is a successful art director executive who is contacted by a headhunter, Jamie, to take the top art director position at GQ magazine. He is initially hesitant about moving from Los Angeles to New York City, but he finally decides to go for it. As Jamie is the only person he knows in NYC, he strikes up a friendship with her. And well, the title tells the rest of the story.

The movie is entertaining, but at moments I couldn’t help but think about No Strings Attached. I swear at one point I was totally confused about which movie I was watching. That aside, Kunis and Timberlake had real film chemistry together. And I love the moment in the film where there is a distinct miscommunication regarding the direction of their relationship.

Also the side characters played by Patricia Clarkson, Jenna Elfman and Woody Harrelson were awesome and enhanced your understanding of the two leads.

I enjoyed the movie, but I can't fully praise it.  In my opinion, the movie played it rather straight, but I felt that when they dealt with Dylan’s learning disability with math, they went over the top silly. It just didn’t fit with the movie style. Also, hopefully not giving too much away, but later in the movie we find out that Dylan’s decision to switch jobs was faced with major complications versus just the LA vs. NY reason that is giving at the beginning of the movie. This later revelation might make sense in the Dylan/Jamie department, but it doesn’t work out very well for the audience, which has to at least briefly consider rather or not Dylan is just a thoughtless jerk.

Raining Jane at Hotel Cafe

I'm planning to post something on Intraffik regarding this night so just some photos of Raining Jain for now.














Guest Back-up Musician

Robert Francis, Boots Electric and Taylor Locke at The Bootleg Bar

I'm planning on including this night in an Intraffik blog so here are some photos for now of Taylor Locke, Boots Electric and Robert Francis.

Taylor Locke




Boots Electric













Robert Francis

The Belle Brigade and Little Hurricane at Levitt Pavilion Pasadena

This night will be part of an Intraffik blog post so I'll just post some photos of The Belle Brigade and Little Hurricane.

Little Hurricane









The Belle Brigade

10,000 Maniacs at Pershing Square

10,000 Maniacs at Pershing Square. I'll likely be writing about this night on Intraffik so I'll just leave it at photos for now.

Black Elephant, The Smiles and Mister Loveless at The Smell

It was off to The Smell to catch The Smiles, Black Elephant and Mister Loveless. This was the first time at The Smell for The Smiles.  They're from USC.  They admitted that most of the band members had never been to the Smell, which resulted in a question later in the evening.  When I was outside, I overheard someone ask, "How did they get on the bill if they'd never been here before?"  I'm sure there is a connection, but it is an interesting statement that highlights the culture of The Smell scene. 

Now Black Elephant is definitely not new to The Smell.  They had the crowd forming a mosh pit.  If you rank folks who have the most fun on the drums, I'd think the drummer for Black Elephant would have to rank high.

Mister Loveless is a band from Oakland that I saw previously just across the way at the 5 Star Bar.  They had the camera and video guys working to document the night.

Anyways, it was very hot and muggy inside The Smell.  A little too much body odor at times, but whatever, it was a good night of music.



The Smiles






Black Elephant




Random Art




Mister Loveless

Andy Clockwise and The Street & Babe Shadow at The Satellite

It was off to a good night of music at The Satellite where I caught The Street and Babe Shadow and
Andy Clockwise. The Street and Babe Shadow gave us a country tinged show that brought along with it a band name that made you mentally repeat it so that you could look them up in the future.  Andy Clockwise had us all feeling like we were part of the band.

Comment of the night via Andy Clockwise:  Can you turn up the bass monitor and the drum monitor?  I can't hear, I'm deaf.  

Time.  The theme of the night was time.  The Street and Babe Shadow kept mentioning how they had two songs left.  They kept going for awhile, but who cared that they gave us some anti-climatic moments because they gave us a solid set.  Andy Clockwise got cut off by the sound guy.  Andy Clockwise, "We have one last song for you."  Sound guy, "Sorry, I was told to cut you off."  Andy Clockwise, "Why?"  Sound guy, "There is another band after you and you've gone on for an hour and twenty minutes."  Andy Clockwise, and just to note that he was being totally cooperative and understanding of the situation, "Oh . . . okay guys [his band mates], we're done, let's take our bow."  Oh well, like I said, time was the theme of the night . . . the lack of it.  No matter, we had two great sets played at Satellite on a Monday night.

The Street and Babe Shadow










Andy Clockwise

Mere Mortals end their run

From Buzz Bands LA (20 July 2011), Mere Mortals: Bidding farewell, with ‘Love X’. I only caught Mere Mortals a couple times; however, I do distinctly remember my first time seeing them a little over two years ago at Cinespace.  They were on the same bill as The Mulhollands.  I loved them.  It is sad to hear they're calling it quits.

A Movie Review: Kiss Me Know Kiss Me Later

I was privileged to catch a screening of the documentary Kiss Me Know Kiss Me Later.  It tells the story of the Kiss or Kill Club scene in Los Angeles that reached a peak in 2005 before ending in 2007.  The more well known bands that came out of that scene included The Dollyrots, Bang Sugar Bang and The Randies.

The underlying theme of the movie is family.  Families have fun together, but unfortunately there are serious breakups.  One of the open wounds for the Kiss or Kill Club scene is the rift that developed between The Dollyrots and Bang Sugar Bang.  Jealously, hurt feelings, ex-communication.  It is there for all to see.

I will say that I wish a coda was added on to this movie in regards to this family rift.  I distinctly remember seeing in 2007-ish, The Dollyrots showing up at The Scene in Glendale to support Bang Sugar Bang.  Also, those of us who were part of the Kiss or Kill Club scene know that The Dollyrots came back to play one of the last shows.  It would have been nice to show that families fight, but they do mend their ways.

Over-all, a nice walk down memory lane.