LA Drugz, The Horror Squad, Pu$$y Cow and Attila & the Hunks at the Blue Star

It is a tradition by Pu$$y Cow to throw a Halloween show. This time around LA Drugz, The Horror Squad, (of course) Pu$$y Cow and Attila and the Hunks hit the stage.  Folks dressed up for the night, which perhaps out shined the music.  There were various custom contests:  scariest, funniest, sexist and best.  I would post some photos, but hate to post photos of folks who might not want to have their images posted on the Internet.

Witches, pirates, ketchup bottles, cats, Thor and many many more were represented at the Blue Star.  

LA Drugz




The Horror Squad




Pu$$y Cow



Attila and the Hunks

Mind the Gap and The Sister Ruby Band at The Bootleg

My October Monday night residency tour continued. It was off to the Bootleg to catch The Sister Ruby Band and Mind the Gap. My initial thought of The Sister Ruby Band: Mazzy Star. For Mind the Gap, I kept on thinking: I recognize these guys. Then I went to their Facebook page, they used to be called Cahn and Yang -- I previously saw them under this name at Hotel Cafe.


The Sister Ruby Band



Mind the Gap

Dropkick Murphys and Swingin Utters at the Palladium

I got invited to catch Dropkick Murphys at the Palladium. My friend and I decided we'd go ahead of the rest of our group as they were interested in only Dropkick Murphys.  We wanted to catch one of the opening bands, which turned out to be Swingin Utters. (Here's a most amazing thing:  we found FREE parking right in front of the Palladium.  How is that for amazing?) 

The audience was ramped up.  For Swingin Utters a massive mosh pit formed in the middle of the floor.  I think Swingin Utters was even amazed by this as one of the band members comments, "We weren't expecting this kind of reaction.  Thank you so much."  As for Dropkick Murphy, they gave an awesome, pound thumping concert, but what was up with the audience.  Fights were breaking out all around me.  At one point, Dropkick Murphy called out, "What's up Los Angeles, we're doing a love song and you're fighting?"  Seriously.  I don't know what the whole story was, but Guy A just starting punching Guy B.  From those around us, Guy A was to blame.  Guy A then took off.  He then came back and starting fighting Guy B again.  Then he ran off again.  Now when things are heated, one thing perhaps not to do is to ask if everything is okay.  Guy C (next to me) called out to Guy B, "Is everything all right."  Guy B must have misinterpreted and started yelling if Guy C wanted to fight.  Guy C was like, "No no."  What a mess.

Anyways, toward the end of the concert, I got a head butt.  It was all good though.  The guy was playing and I was able to protect myself from the morning after headache by sort of placing my hand in between the two of our heads.  Okay, so I'm not a punk crazy.  We smiled and shook hands.

I guess you just need to be surrounded by the right people.  If you piss of a Guy A at a punk concert, watch out.  He's a big jerk. 

Swingin Utters




Dropkick Murphys

The Child, Cameras, Papercranes and Guineafowl at The Echo

It was off to The Echo to catch one of my favorite bands, The Child, along with their favorite co-mates,
Papercranes. Along the way I came across two Australian based bands, Guineafowl and Cameras.

First to hit the stage was Guineafowl.  Per Wikipedia, Guineafowl is a type of bird that is native to Africa.  Now I don't know why an Australian band would name themselves after an African bird.  After re-listening to their songs on Youtube, I still don't get the connection.  The bird is ugly, their music is not.  The Child hit the stage next.  They had the funny interaction of the night:  "Papercranes are next."  Response, "We love all the bands playing tonight."  Reply, "No we don't."  This was my third time seeing this band.  Love them.  Papercranes followed.  And guess who was dancing in front of the stage:  Lauren and Holly from The Child.  I was going to head home after Papercranes -- my midnight rule -- but I decided to stick around.  How many times would I get to see Cameras again?  I'm happy I stayed.  Lead singer Elanor Dunlop's vocals just keep you in wonder.

A great night of music.

Guineafowl





The Child




Papercranes



Cameras



A special thanks to The Echo for allowing me to photograph this night.

Club Moscow 7 year anniversary: Mr. Downstairs, Standing Shadows and Early States

Seven years for Club Moscow. Wow. I’ve probably been going there off and on since 2007 – I am positive my first time there was to catch The Mulhollands. Congrats to Club Moscow.

Being of a certain age (not under the age of 21), I feel old going to Club Moscow when I’m surrounded by 18 year olds (especially when I’m in line waiting to get inside). However, there is something unique about going to Club Moscow. In all honestly, I probably spend way too much of my Los Angeles music life hanging out east of Vermont Avenue. Club Moscow gives me a totally new perspective of the Los Angeles music scene. The music is always meant to make you want to dance.

As is the norm at Club Moscow, as I was walking in Early States was already one or two songs into their set. I think I caught only four songs, which just allowed enough time to pull out the camera and take a handful of shots versus really getting a feel for their music. Standing Shadows was up next. All you have to do is listen to the last song of their set, “Freak Show.” It’ll have you wanting to dance all night long. I actually came to catch Mr. Downstairs, a female duo with backup band. A fellow blogger, Picksysticks, suggested I check them out. This is a band that just didn’t want to quit and I’m happy they didn’t. One of the lead singers was feeling ill. To conserve her energy she was seen sitting on the stage before the beginning of their set.  It didn’t matter that she was sick as the other singer picked up the energy with her animated body motions.

Comment of the night (via Mr. Downstairs) while doing the sound check: Check Czechoslovakia.

Got to love musicians who remember that the Czech Republic and Slovakia used to be Czechoslovakia.

Early States



Standing Shadows




Mr. Downstairs

Youngblood Hawke, Abbot Kinney and Future Ghost at The Satellite

The Monday rotation took me to The Satellite where I saw Abbot Kinney, Youngblood Hawke and Future Ghost. This was one solid night of music with a variety of genres working it. This mixture doesn't always work, but when you have three awesome bands it works out just fine. Abbot Kinney started the night off for me with (as they describe themselves) a chill wave/piano rock sound. Youngblood Hawke gave us their dance driven rock sound. They remind me of a mix between Eastern Conference Champions and last month's Satellite residency band, Big Black Delta. And ending the night for me, one of my favorites, Future Ghost; rocking hard throughout their set.


Abbot Kinney



Youngblood Hawke



Future Ghost

Donny's Ashes, Come and Take It, Dudes Night and Pu$$y Cow at at unknown location

So it was off to an unknown city and an unknown location to catch Donny's Ashes, Come and Take It, Dudes Night and Pu$$y Cow.  A nice crowd for it being an unknown venue.

Highlight of the night was a simple sight:  the lead singer of Dudes Night placing his beer can in his shoe -- he was barefoot during their set.

Comment of the night:  If you need to go number 2, use the bathroom.  If you need to go number 1, use the bathroom.  If you need to go number 1 and number 2, use the bathroom.  Don't do it outside.

The lighting was great and the stage set-up was perfect for photos of the drummers so I'm posting a couple photos of the drummers below.  I could post photos of all four drummers, but that would be a bit bias.

Pu$$y Cow had one person crowd surfing.

Come and Take It came from Texas and left with a crowd of fans.

Donny's Ashes wins the award for facial expression (see below).

Donny's Ashes



Come and Take It



Dudes Night



Pu$$y Cow

A Movie Review: Drive

Drive. Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan star in this movie.  Two up and coming young movie stars surrounded by veteran actors such as Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman.  The movie follows the Driver (Ryan Gosling) who has three jobs:  movie stunt driver, mechanic and he drives criminals to and from their crime scenes.  Yep, this movie focuses on the shady side of Los Angeles.  But our Driver does have a heart and he falls in love with his next door neighbor, Irene (Carey Mulligan).  A slight problem with this is that she's married and her husband is getting out of jail.  When the husband returns home, he runs into some trouble with folks who provided him protection in prison.  He recruits the Driver to help him steal some money.  And that's where things fall apart.

This movie might sound like a Fast and Furious inspired movie, but if so it is a Fast and Furious movie taken down a number of notches.  I enjoyed the fact that it developed a story.  Here's the problem:  the violence.  It isn't that I'm against violence in movies.  It is the fact that the violence almost had a cartoon-ish feel to it.  The slashing of someone with a knife felt like I was watching a Simpsons episode.  If you can put that aside, which I did, I highly recommend it.  And the soundtrack, lovely.

A Movie Review: Contagion

Contagion A virus develops. It is spread across the globe. Millions die. I read in a review or two that said this movie isn't about character development. I agree with this assessment; however, I don't think this is a huge knock on the film. While watching, I personally was totally involved with the movie. Of course, I like to analyze situations so I enjoyed the fact that the movie dealt with how the virus spread. I wouldn't call this a movie for everyone. It isn't a top notch movie, but if you enjoy learning about the process of how folks react to "black swan" situations, I'm sure you'll love this movie.

The Mulhollands, Queen Kwong and Indians at Silverlake Lounge

The Mulhollands played their last show with Jeff on bass.  One of the last original members of The Mulhollands.  I've probably posted more on The Mulhollands than any other band.  Even though they were the first band up, there was a solid crowd in the audience -- as always.  They also gave a wonderful set to end Jeff's run with the band.  Queen Kwong hit the stage next. Based on her tweets, she was in pain -- rib issues. You'd have a hard time believing that as she slammed through the audience more than a few times. Pain killers.  Got to love her Audrey Hepburn inspired t-shirt.  Indians ended the night for me.  Their lead singer is able to contort his body in ways that many of us can't.  Their set ended in a flash -- thirty minutes going by in fifteen.    


The Mulhollands



Queen Kwong




Indians

Light FM and Big Moves at The Bootleg

My Monday night rotation took me to The Bootleg where I saw Light FM and Big Moves. After each song they played, my opinion of Light FM grew.  I just loved them by the end.  Big Moves was the residency band for September.  They had the door guy cheering them on.  I have to say that this was probably the first time I've seen the Bootleg door guy really into a band.  That speaks volumes about Big Moves' jazz/pop sound.

Light FM



Big Moves

Summer 2011 Movies: my rankings

Here's my ranking of the Summer 2011 movies I saw:

Awesome

1. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows - Part 2
2. Bridesmaids

So Good I Want to Say Awesome, But I'd Have Too Many Awesome

3. Midnight in Paris
4. The Help
5. X-Men:  First Class
6. Crazy Stupid Love

Good


7. Horrible Bosses
8. Super 8
9. Fright Night
10. Cowboys and Aliens
11. Rise of the Planet of the Apes
12. The Debt
13. Thor
14. Friends with Benefits
15. Our Idiot Brother

Okay

16. Green Lantern
17. Hangover 2
18. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

Awful

19. Captain America:  The First Avenger
20. Tree of Life
21. Transformers:  Dark of the Moon

I saw about the same number of movies this summer as last summer.  Taking a look at my rankings from last year, I had more movies that I ranked in my top 2 categories.  On the other hand, I had 6 movies versus 3 movies that I ranked as "Awful" -- last year I named this category "Oh mercy."  So that means this year has way more movies that were worth watching, but not fantastic.  So which summer was better 2011 or 2010?  I'll go with 2011.

A Movie Review: The Help

The Help. Up front: I LOVED IT.

 resisted seeing this movie for a few weeks, but when the long Labor Day weekend approached I decided to catch this movie (saw this movie before heading off to a wedding so perhaps that skews everything I’m about to write). What else was I suppose to see: Apollo 18, Shark Night 3D? Why my resistance? All you have to do is take one glance at the poster and it tells you: chick flick combined with, as one friend put it, the white savior genre (or as the WSJ critic put it, the white guilt genre). As for the chick flick comment, the male actors in The Help are almost an after thought: a handful of boyfriends/husbands, a waiter, a boss, a pastor and all of them playing two bit roles. Nelsan Ellis (playing Henry the Waiter or better known to many of us as Lafayette Reynolds from True Blood) has a somewhat pivotal role, but let’s just say the movie would have done just fine without his character. As for the white savoir comment, it follows that glorious (infamous) line of movies starting with Dancing with Wolves and moving on to The Last Samurai, Gran Torino and The Blind Side – I’m sure I could find similar movies that date before Dancing with Wolves, but I am under impressive that Dancing with Wolves is seen as the godfather of this genre. I’m not saying that all of those movies are awful and unintentionally racist. I loved Gran Torino. I was insulted by The Last Samurai. It is just that when you combine chick flick with white savior, in my mind, a film immediately starts out with two strikes. (For a deeper dive into the white savior comment, read Patricia A. Turner’s op-ed in the NY Times.)

Now that I’ve shown my willingness to attack a movie just based on the poster, let’s move on to a movie summary. Skeeter (Emma Stone) has returned to Jackson, Mississippi after graduating from Ole Miss. She finds a job working at a local newspaper answering questions from stay at home moms, but she is soon inspired to write a book about the African-American maids that work in Jackson. This inspiration comes when she finds out that her family maid, Constantine (Cicely Tyson), no longer works for the family and she is given an explanation that feels like a lie from the start. She gets further inspiration when she sees how her hometown friends treat two maids in particular, Aibileen (Viola Davis) and Minny (Octavia Spencer).

If the above summary isn’t the definition of a chick flick combined with the white savior genre, I’m not sure what is. On the other hand, I walked out of that movie surprised that 2 hours and 26 minutes had gone by. I LOVED IT. And I love it even after thinking about some of the movie flaws such as rather or not Missus Walters (Sissy Spacek) is suffering from dementia or not – seriously, one single moment she can’t even remember what town she lives in while during the rest of the film she seems as sharp as a wacky university professor.

One has to say that this is one of those films that might have a few strikes against it, but it is pushed into the I LOVED IT column by the actresses. Emma Stone lights up the screen (one perhaps can understand Jim Carrey’s video if you see this movie along with Crazy, Stupid, Love and Easy A). Jessica Chastain (Celia Foote, the woman born on the wrong side of the tracks – and if you’re into thrillers/international intrigue, check out her other film that is currently in the theaters called The Debt) brings a bubbly personality that will result in proclamations of love as her last scene ends. Viola Davis portrays perfectly a character that has suffered an enormous loss and yet uses it to develop inner strength. Octavia Spencer plays to comedic perfection that untrusting personality who once she finds you trustworthy will talk your head off (or if you play her wrong will take sweet revenge). Bryce Dallas Howard (Hilly Holbrook), Ahna O’Reilly (Elizabeth Leefolt) and Anna Camp (Jolene French – Anna Camp also is from that True Blood cast of characters) are delicious as the Mean Girls of Jackson.

All-in-all, one of the top 5 films of the summer.