Classixx – “I’ll Get You”
Dir. Mark the Cobrasnake
The other week I covered the 30th Annual Sunset Junction. This weekend marks the first Pacific Festival in Costa Mesa. The festival has a good mix of genres, not covering just dance music or just indie rock like so many new festivals. The festival will include performances by Steve Aoki, The Sounds, LA beasts Classixx, the super hot CC Sheffield, and my boy and Cinespace resident Them Jeans. But I think the most interesting thing in the Line-up may be the first live U.S. performance from Miami Horror. I’ve been a fan of Miami Horror’s New Wave inspired electro for a few years, and even got to see them DJ a couple years ago, but this will be the first time they perform Live in America. That’s gotta turn some heads. So all you OC dance fans and indie kids, get ready for the Pacific Festival!
One of the best LA traditions is the Annual Sunset Junction street festival. Every year they block off a section of Sunset Blvd. in the Silverlake area and throw a 2 day festival with amazing music, great food, and tons of shopping. This year was a little different however as Sunset Junction celebrated their 30th Anniversary. I’m not 30 yet, so I had no idea Sunset Junction had been going on this long. But it’s such a great tradition it’s not surprising. One of the best things about the festival is the abundance of local artists. A few Golden Bloggen faves happened to be on this year’s bill. LA locals Pollyn, who I have featured on Golden Bloggen several times, smashed an early evening set on Saturday. They have great chemistry as well as a sexy female lead singer with a sweet voice. One of my favorite thing about their performances is how angry their back-up singer looks when she sings. It’s quite hilarious. Another local artist that played Saturday was Chief. A band that consists of a few friends I’ve known since high school, who also attended NYU with me. I saw them perform about 5 years ago in some warehouse in Brooklyn, which I believe was their first show ever. Now they’re playing festivals, touring the country, and getting their music videos played on MTV. Get em Chief!
Day 2 consisted of some heavier hitters including Sam Sparro and Mayer Hawthorne, but the biggest name would have to be headliners Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros. It seems like this band, made up of about a dozen musicians, became fan favorites over night. It may be due to their amazing live performances or their very impressive debut album which was released last year. Whatever the reason, their popularity is very well deserved. Their music is heartfelt and organic, no gimmicks or record label antics here. I was lucky enough to see their amazing sunset performance at Coachella this year so I knew what to expect, I did not know what to expect from CC Sheffield however (pictured above). CC is somewhat of a local celebrity, appearing in movies and performing around town, but this was my first time seeing her in person. I don’t quite know how to describe her set. She only performed for 15 minutes, had out of shape dancers, and didn’t really sing as much as she informed the crowd with lyrics. But the girl is a star. She seemed really comfortable on stage and is unbelievably attractive. I know superstars that have much less going for them than she does, so all the best to you in the future CC.
The great Reverend Al Green performed at the Greek Theater this past Saturday night and even though the man is almost 65 he still puts on one hell of a show. He high-stepped onto stage Donning a suit and black C0nverse All-stars, still as cocky as he was when he was posing for album covers with his shirt off. And why shouldn’t he be? He’s only the greatest soul singer of all-time. He immediately headed for the pile of strategically placed roses on stage and threw them to some screaming ladies in the first row. He must have gotten lonely after a few songs, because he ran into the crowd to dole out kisses to some adoring fans (see the VIDEO ABOVE), not once, but twice. The Reverend performed some songs from his latest album, 2008’s “Lay It Down”, as well as every classic Al Green track you could imagine. He even played some of his favorite soul songs from the likes of the Temptations and the Four Tops.
I grew up on soul music. Al Green is a musical God in my book. Quite simply put, he is the best male singer of all time. My advice to you is to catch him while you still can. Nothing can compare to seeing Al Green perform songs like “Love and Happiness” and “I’m So Tired of Being Alone” in person.
Rufus Wainwright played the Greek Theater in Los Angeles this past Friday, a show that started off as some sort of baroque Oprea, but ended with Rufus playing all the songs everyone wanted to hear, including “Hallelujah” with his sister Martha Wainwright. Rufus walked out in a long Black cape, something that looked like it belonged on a Vampire bride. He sat down and played an hour of new material and told the crowd not to applaud. One of the strangest requests I’ve ever heard at a show. He then slithered off the stage only to return 15 minutes later in a loud pink, floral pants suit, reminiscent of Elton John or Liberace, and played an hour of his earlier material. This time the crowd was allowed to applaud and this set was much more friendly as Rufus had a nice back and forth with the crowd.
I’ve been a fan of Rufus’ for a while. He has a smooth yet unique voice and is a great songwriter. I caught an in studio set of his on KCRW several years back and have been wanting to see him ever since. The guy is a showman, definitely, but his performance was very minimal. I expected a band, but it was just Rufus and his piano. During the set he expressed his love of Jeff Buckley and darkly joked how jealous he was of Jeff, and that his death came as almost a relief, and may have been one of the biggest breaks in his career. It was quite an honest moment, if not morbid and inappropriate. But you can definitely hear the Jeff Buckley influence in Rufus’s music, and maybe even a little Thom Yorke. I don’t know what more Rufus can do as an indie pianist. He has had some great commercial success and has been critically lauded his entire career, appearing on several movie soundtracks and winning tons of awards. But, if he’s anything like his father Loudon, he’s going to be doing this for a long time.
Ok so maybe the tracks aren’t brand new, but these are three folk rock songs that have been stuck in my head all year. I love a good folk rock song to break up the constant Hip-Hop and dance music coming out of my speakers. I covered the Angus and Julia Stone show earlier this year and the Roots had me drooling on their Monsters of Folk and Joanna Newsom samples off their new album. About a dozen years ago I got into folk rock with Jewel, Sarah McLachlan, Natalie Merchant and all those Lilith gals. I was looking for some guy singers and couldn’t find any good ones. The only dude making stuff was Duncan Sheik. Remember him? “Barely Breathing” anyone? Now I got a ton of artists to choose from, Indie Folk Rock is growing almost at the same speed as Electro. And its coming from all over the world. Angus & Julia are from Australia, Mumford and Sons are from England, Vandaveer is from DC, and Everest is from right here in Los Angeles. Enjoy!
If you were lucky enough to catch the sold out Wolfgang Gartner performance at Avalon last Friday night then congratulations and no explanation of the show is necessary for you. Skip right to the attractive and intelligent people in the party pics section. For the rest of you, let me paint the picture. It was like being a spectator in the future of gladiator times in the Coliseum of Rome. If that doesn’t make any sense, imagine that instead of watching a man fight a lion you’re watching two 25 foot tall robots battle to the death — instead of sitting in an arean, you’re dancing your balls off — and instead of it being the 1st Century BCE it’s 3030 with lasers and fog machines and shit. I guess what I’m trying to say is the energy was comparable to a gladiator battle or even a bull fight in Spain.
Wolfgang brought the heat from start to finish, and for that we thank him.
See if you can spot Keyvon’s biggest crush IN THE WORLD in the party pics section. HINT: Her first name is two letters.
Finally! Empire of the Sun made it’s way to LA, playing 4 sold out shows at the Music Box at the Henry Fonda Theater. I was lucky enough to make it to their final show on Saturday night, and even though I was warned that their stage show was elaborate, I was not prepared for their over-the-top performance. It resulted in one of the best performance’s I’ve seen all year. Their stage apparatuses looked like they belonged in the dance tent at Coachella. Their entire show was accompanied by dancers who looked like they came out of a Lady Gaga or Kylie Minogue video. This may have been the tour supporting Empire of the Sun’s first album, but band members Luke Steele and Nick Littlemore have been owning their homeland of Australia for 10 years as members of The Sleepy Jackson and Pnau, respectively. It doesn’t look like they will be playing many more shows this year, so if you missed out this time around, make sure you make the sacrifices needed to catch them next time. It might have taken a spot in a Vizio commercial to gain them some notoriety in the US, but if Empire of the Sun turns out to be more than just a side project, you can bet you will be hearing their name for years to come.
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