Kora (Kora Puckett) opened the night for Jawdropped on a Friday night at Zebulon. He introduced the start of the set by saying, "Check the hands on the clock. It is 8:05, it is time to rock." He then proceeded to blast back open the Zebulon stage doors that had just closed. That did not literally happen, but it could have in an alternate universe where music has physical force.
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| Kora at Zebulon |
I was doing some research about a particular Rocknite LA event at The Goldfish. I was like, okay, I've seen Cartalk a handful of times. I've seen Maddie Ross. Who's this Slowpoke band? I took a look at their Instagram page and the faces looked familiar. Of course, this being Los Angeles, it was very possible that I just recognized the faces from other bands. That is, in fact, true when it comes to Tamara Simons who plays in the band Goon that I've followed for a number of years. When I took a look at their Instagram page, they only had 20-ish posts with their first post coming in 2022. Hmm. I decided to take a look at their tagged photos. There were a lot more photos and as I scrolled through I finally came up with the answer. Yes, I did know this band. They were previously playing under the name New Media.
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| Slowpoke at The Goldfish |
Kesley Bou played a recent WFNM night at Bar Lubitsch. She played a short 5 song set with three of those songs coming from her recent 2024 Bad Dream album. The set opened up with "in the dark" that has the lyrics, "You told me to move on, but I can’t let this one go." Yes, the album is filled with sadness. The next song was also from the album and got the introduction with a chuckle, "This next song is less sad. Give or take. It's called 'the end.'" This one has the lyrics, "Flowers wilting underneath. The weight of your feet."
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| Kesley Bou at Bar Lubitsch |
This was my second time catching Sagittaire, the brainchild of Ivan Mairesse. The first time was at Resident DTLA. That was back in August 2023. I so enjoyed the set that I listed Sagittaire as one of my favorite "new to me, but maybe not to you" bands of 2023. At the time, I described the music as a touch above subliminal.
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| Sagittaire at Zebulon |
It was time to head out to a Swyndle LA night at Harvard & Stone. This night was my first time in 2025. Kind of strange, especially since they've booked bands that I enjoy catching such as Blu Jay and the lovebombs. Something always got in the way and so I finally decided that no matter what, I was going to go to a Swyndle LA night.
That's how I came across Kill My Coquette, the moniker band name for Natalie Denise Sperl. The band started off the set with "Slipped Him a Mickey." It's an homage to The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. That's a book that I finally read last year. I picked it up used at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I've seen both the 2009 and 2011 movies and so it only took me a decade plus to finally read the book.
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| Kill My Coquette at Harvard & Stone |
Since 2018, I've always put the Long Beach's Happy Sundays festival on my calendar. The organizers of the festival (wife-husband team of Julia Kugel and Scott Montoya) recently announced the first set of bands for this year's edition, which will take place over the weekend of August 23rd - 24th. If you weren't aware, starting last year, the festival expanded to a two day festival.
Grand Ole Echo is celebrating their 20th season of Americana and country music at The Echo. A couple years back, Los Angeles Magazine wrote up an article about how country music is a growing scene in the local music community. That is likely true, but even when country music wasn't at the forefront of the community, the Grand Ole Echo stood tall.
Bruvvy recently concluded their Tuesday night residency at Good Times at Davey Wayne's. I went out the last two nights of the April residency. I jumped venues for both of those nights and it was rather convenient. I started off at Hotel Ziggy (I actually saw the band play at Hotel Ziggy in 2024) and then drove east to Davey Wayne's and then continued east towards my bed.
Each year I write up my "New to Me, but maybe not to You" list. The band made my 2024 list. Also, on that list are some musings and statistical info that relates to the year. One of the statistics that I always mention is which bands / singers have I seen the most times during the year. Bruvvy ranked second (along with a handful of others) at 3 times in 2024. After April 2025 ended, I've already seen Bruvvy 4 times. I see them one or two more times and they'll definitely end up on top of that ranking for 2025. In my mind, it would be well deserved, because I have so much fun catching this band live. Hopefully, this doesn't make me into too much of a groupie. There have been two other sets that I just skipped on purpose (meaning I could be at 6 already), because I don't want to be a groupie. I'm a bit too old to be a groupie.
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| Bruvvy at Good Times at Davey Wayne's |
As some people know, I've tried to put limits on how many times I go out to catch live music each week. I mentioned in my 2024 wrap-up, "I went out way too much this year doing photography. I’m going to need to cut that back in 2025 – fortunately or unfortunately." Have I been all that successful in cutting back how many times a week I head out? As of the end of April, I've gone out 10 fewer times than as compared to 2024. Not bad. Of course, I've replaced going out with the re-boot of this blog site, which had remained dormant for a couple years.
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| Jawdropped at Zebulon |
The main reason I went to a recent Swyndle night at Harvard & Stone was because I learned that Bruvvy was on the schedule. I have to say they're one of my favorite bands at the moment. You can read one of my articles on the band here. I was also interested in the other two bands. The opener had recently played a WFNM night that I wasn't able to attend. I was thinking, "Oh yeah, I get to catch them at Harvard & Stone." The other band follows me on Instagram and I figured it would be a good time to catch a set.
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| Ryan Fuller at Harvard & Stone |
Maryon King hit the WFNM at Hotel Ziggy with Sabrina Carpenter vibes. Born in Moldova and raised in Italy and London, King now hangs out in Los Angeles. That seems like an interesting life. That makes my life seem so boring. I did spend three months living in Rotterdam, Netherlands so my life hasn't been 100% boring. I'm not sure this has me wanting to pack everything in a moving van and head off to Nashville or Austin, but it does get me thinking about that dusty passport that I haven't used in years. The jumping across Europe explains her accent. It sounds British, but not really British.
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| Maryon King at Hotel Ziggy |
