Harvard & Stone: Luci and Rambling Ways

Talk about some heavenly voices. Luci has three lead vocalists who just shine.

Luci

Rambling Ways brings the Latin flavored sounds. Just a thrill to catch this band.

Rambling Ways

The Satellite: Love Nothing with Gracie Gray and Jet Trash

Love Nothing is the residency band at The Satellite. They brought some solid rock sounds to The Satellite. There are some real tender tales in those lyrics.

Love Nothing

Gracie Gray hit it out of the park with her set. I just love her vocals and how she wraps that up in her layered music. Her vocals have a bedtime story quality to them.

Gracie Gray

Jet Trash opened up the night. They said they hadn't played a set in 2 years. They put on such an energizing set, I had to ask, "Are they sure they haven't played together in 2 years?"

Jet Trash

The Smell: Kicked off the Streets, Skippin Stoned and The Slop

A few months had passed since the last time I was at The Smell. I figured it was time to head on over. It was a night of mosh pits. Skippin Stoned started it off by encouraging the crowd to start moshing. By the time Kicked Off The Street hit the stage, there was no need for encouragement. The fans knew what to do. The Slop did a quick set. It was a 15 minute set, but worthy of praise.

Kicked Off The Street

Interesting moments: The Smell was having problems with their lights. Kicked Off The Street had to play their last couple songs in near total darkness.

The Slop

Skippin Stoned

The Hi Hat: The Morning Yells, Jessi Williams and Coyote, Sumeau

Way too much time had passed since I last went to The Hi Hat. I'm talking May. How is that even possible? It was time to change that by heading off to catch a night where I knew I'd enjoy. Two of the bands on the schedule were bands I'd seen before: Sumeau and Jessi Williams and Coyote. The third was a band that I'd meant to catch The Morning Yells.

It was a sweet night filled with a crowd that were friends with the various bands. Jessi light-heartedly tried to convince her friends to move to Topanga.

Jessie Williams and Coyote

Sumeau reminded folks why they're a cult music group.

Sumeau

The Morning Yells is a band that share song-writer duties. It is cool knowing that everyone in the group is involved in creating their songs.

The Morning Yells

Lucky Strike Live: The Puscie Jones Revue and The Things

I got an invite to catch The Puscie Jones Revue at Lucky Strike Live. I had heard of the band, but never seen them before. I also had never been to Lucky Strike Live, which is at the Hollywood and Highland complex.

I figured this would be a nice adventure. And it sure was. I have to say for a music venue, which is more of a bowling alley, they put a lot of effort into having good stage lights. It was awesome. Now for the Puscie Jones Revnue, that was one flamboyant show. There were three costume changes. Maybe more. The music was funk and the action on stage was non-stop (well, except when there were intermissions for costume changes, but even then the music continued).

The Puscie Jones Revue

Opening up the night was The Thing. They rocked it and rolled it. This band loves to riff. Their last song was perhaps 20 minutes long as they highlighted their driving sounds.

The Thing

Hot Shot Mufflers: Lune Rose, Xoller and Oddnesse

This was largely a night of firsts. This was my first time ever at an event space called Hot Shot Mufflers. I was told that it used to be a muffler shop that is now an event space. I have to say the those who transformed the spot did a good job at it.

This was my first time also seeing Lune Rose. Now I am familiar with Lune Rose as she used to play keys with Night Talks. She left Night Talks a couple years back, but she's still involved in the music scene with her singer-songwriter music. There's a quiet tenderness to her music, but don't let that think that Lune isn't a competitive person. As her set was ending, she challenged folks in the crowd to a game of ping pong.

Lune Rose

Xoller was another first for me and a first for her, as well. This was her first set ever. It was a solid first set. She looked comfortable both with her vocals and stage presence. Impressive.

Xoller

Oddnesse closed out the night. I've seen Oddnesse a couple times prior. One has to love those folk Americana tunes. The crowd demanded an encore and the band provided one.

Oddnesse

Bootleg Theater: Polartropica with Lucy & La Mer and WASI

A recent Monday night at the Bootleg Theater was the final night of the Love is Gay tour by Polartropica, Lucy and La Mer and WASI.

Polartropica always puts on a vibrant, colorful show. That was emphasized by her pink costume and blue hair. And also the stage design that Jess Joy (previous of Moon Honey) did. Joining in for a couple songs was Jett Kwong.

Polartropica

WASI opened up the night with their exercise routine rock. You can't help but work up a sweat watching their constant movement.

WASI

Lucy and La Mer is shifting from their sing-songwriter sounds. There is definitely a shift to an uptempo pop beat.

Lucy & La Mer

Shaken Vanity Block Party: Light Shadows, Jenna Noelle, The Adjacents

Shaken Vanity has a cool block party that is thrown on the first Friday of every month. From what I heard, the neighborhood allows businesses in the area to do whatever they want on the first Friday of the month. Honestly, it does look like this is the only business that throws an event.

This happened to be my second time attending this block party. I got to catch Light Shadows, Jenna Noelle and The Adjacents.

Light Shadows with a Western Style Scifi attitude. One might actually think about the TV series Firefly while watching the band.

Light Shadows

Jenna Noelle slowed things down with some thoughtful tunes.

Jenna Noelle

The Adjacents ratcheted things up with some rock tunes.

The Adjacents

Harvard and Stone: Zoya

Zoya. It was one of those hit and run nights. I got pinged about catching Zoya's set and so I went off to catch her. She loves to tell stories in her songs. Does she love her time in California? She'll sing you a tune. One has to love how she interacts with the audience. As her set was coming to a close, she left the stage and bounced around the crowd. She tells her stories and has fun doing it.

Bootleg Theater: Rounds with Anna Vogelzang

Bootleg Theater earlier in the year did a residency featuring Jamie Drake doing a rounds music setting. They must have liked the results of that residency, because they handed off similar duties for June's residency to Anna Vogelzang. It was mentioned that she has writing/music sessions at her house. She hosts those sessions with Adam Levy.

The rounds were split into three sections of artists. Fay Wolf and Ben Jaffe (of Honey Honey fame) took part in the first section.

Dan Sheron (Balto), Peter Harper (Motor Sales) and Sydney Wayser (CLARA-NOVA) played the second section.

And the night closed out with Sofia Wolfson and Rett Madison.

A handful of them played songs they'd written that day or within a couple days or so. I believe it was based on how Anna and Adam set up the rules of their hosted writing sessions. Sydney Wayser mentioned that one of her songs was a CLARA-NOVA song, but was being played and sung the way it was meant to be heard before it got transformed to align with the CLARA-NOVA sound and style. Ben Jaffe sang a couple songs based on a fictional individual. A very wonderful evening.

Anna Vogelzang

Stories Books and Cafe: Annie Hardy with Thomas Hunter

After losing track of Annie Hardy for awhile, this was my second time catching her set this year. This night was her birthday party set. The back patio of the cafe was packed. Perhaps the most packed that I've ever seen. There is definitely something about her ruminations about life. And there's something cool about the near haphazard way she approaches her set.

Annie Hardy

Thomas Hunter opened the night with some folk sounds. He reminded folks that when the hat was on, his songs were awesome and that when the hat was off things went downhill.

Thomas Hunter

Chungking Studio: Jett Kwong

The month of May is Asian Pacific American History Month (APAHM). And apparently, my support for this yearly event is to catch Jett Kwong. Last year I caught her at Junior High Gallery in Hollywood. This year, I caught her at Chungking Studio in Chinatown. If you aren't familiar with her, she plays a mean guzheng, which is a long string instrument that is parallel to the ground. Her music style is to play it with the backing of Western string instruments. It makes for a unique sound.

Also on this night, three short films were previewed. One dealt with Chinese immigrants in Germany and The Netherlands. Another was a short film about Chinese women dealing with sexual harassment in a unique way. And the final film was about Jett Kwong's grandmother.

Harvard & Stone: Ariel Beesley with Suzie Chism and Repenter

It was off to Harvard and Stone and a Softer Sex Production night.

Playing first on the night was Suzie Chism. Her comment of the set basically described her music, "I'm playing rock like GnR in a dress."

Suzie Chism

Repenter's lead singer, Holly, could be seen pacing in front of the stage as her band set up. When they did hit the stage, she dug deep for her vocals, proving that power resides in an emotional delivery.

Repnter

Ariel Beesley closed out the night. She has quickly become one of my favorites. As her fellow fans sang along to her music, she couldn't help but say, "WTF, how do you even know the words to my songs?"

Ariel Beesley