Author Archives: Nicole Poulos

As we’ve noted from time to time, we tend to be a pale or sun deprived bunch here at TVD HQ, but when the opportunity presented itself to be a part of a very special event at LA’s The Record Parlour, we decided to throw on a clean pair of socks and emerge from the cave to present a very special in-store performance from an artist who’s no stranger to TVD, Will Dailey.

What’s so special about this event aside from featuring an incredible artist at one of our favorite establishments to crate dig? This performance will be recorded live—directly to vinyl.

How this works is that during the performance, the analog disc cutting head engages the master lacquer used for pressing records and is not stopped until the entire side is complete. What’s the big deal, don’t artists record live all the time? Yes, of course they do, but with digital recording there is room for edits and to remix (not the DJ remix, but the mix of the sound being fed through the microphones).

With this process there is absolutely no editing. Once it’s grooved into the wax—that’s it. (No pressure, Mr. Dailey.) This is one of the few establishments aside from Third Man Records in the country that does this.

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PHOTOS: PETE RAPPAPORT | The very first show I saw San Francisco’s The Stone Foxes live was in 2010 at SXSW. This was their very first time playing the festival and it involved crowd surfing, dancing, sweating, a band member jumping off of 12-15 feet of amps—the jump being taped which ended in a phone call and a scolding from Mom.

It’s nice to know sometimes that some things never change and the Stone Foxes stormed into night number one of their three night residency with as much energy, piss and vinegar, and sheer bombast as that band playing Austin for the first time.

Love ’em or hate ’em there is one thing for certain, this band knows how to put on a show. Lead by front man and master showman Shannon Koehler, the Stone Foxes can uncross the arms and induce a hip swizzle in even the most pessimistic of patrons.

This hand is made up of three guitar players, two drummers, a fiddle player, two bass players, and a keys guy—yet there are only six band members. Improbable, you say? Well, the solution to this riddle is that each member plays multiple instruments that they interchange throughout the set. Each player has his own style which makes the music exciting and makes it hard to put in a single genre pocket (in a good way).

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Los Angeles has an incredibly diverse culture and the city has warmly embraced some of its more prominent traditions, one of our favorites being “Dia De Los Muertos,” or the Day of the Dead.

The Mexican tradition focuses on the gathering of family and friends to pray for, remember, and celebrate the lives of the deceased. One of downtown Los Angeles’ historical theatres, the newly renovated Paramount in the heart of the Boyle Heights Community will be celebrating Dia de Los Muertos with their Noche de Agave, event on Saturday, November 1st.

The event will feature revered holiday traditions with face painting, flower crowns, and traditional Mexican food. The night also features live music from headliner and stunner Lissie, George Stanford, and KCRW DJ Dan Wilcox holding down the ones and twos. The event is all ages as well.

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It’s Rocktober and we’re giving away a pair of tickets to see spaced out rockers White Denim at the Fonda on Tuesday, October 21—along with a show poster and a signed vinyl copy of Corsicana Lemonade. Not bad, hm?

This mind bending band continues to morph and change their sound, yet keeping one thing a constant—insanely good rock n’roll. This album is the perfect blend of the out-there-kitchen-sink feel of Fits, with the more tightly produced D.

The term “jam band” has become a dirty word in certain circles—ok, pretty much every circle outside of the jam band community—but what the term refers to is simply experimentation. What you hear on a White Denim album will be stretched, twisted, and morphed into a very different orchestration within a live show. This is a group of gentlemen with a complete mastery of their instruments who are not afraid to take liberties, although there’s no “noodling for noodling’s sake” in their set—guitar solos, yes—noodling, no.

Above all, White Denim is simply a guitar driven rock and roll band, and they could be the band that saves the term “jam band” from drowning in the granola.

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This year for its fifth anniversary, Culture Collide, “a convergence of inspiration,” will not only be invading our fair city but also our sister to the north, San Francisco, as well as New York City with a series of stages and even more bands than years prior.

The festival’s name reflects its international line up and the bookers have searched far and wide to bring some of the most interesting underground scenes from around the globe to converge in one arena. It’s a rock ‘n’roll United Nations—and these are but a few of the bands we have our sights set upon.

THURSDAY
MØ – 10:30PM at The Echoplex
There is something in the water in Scandinavia that is turning out perfecto electropop. I do love these songs and although some of MØ’s album can be thrown into the indistinguishable electronic pop pile—there is LIVE music going on here, including a horn section, which gives anyone an automatic 7, sight unseen in my book.

I have never seen her live, but anyone who can rock a side ponytail, a sports bra, and leggings, has a horn section, and is known to crowd surf on a regular basis may catapult themselves to an 8.5—sight unseen.

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PHOTOS: TAMEA AGLE | Breaking in America is a VERY big deal for British bands. I think it’s the imperialist spirit coming from a country that at one time conquered nearly 50% of the world which has given UK bands the work ethic to cram into and play tiny clubs in U.S., despite possibly being quite used to sold out arena crowds and private planes at home. Kasabian’s first album came out ten years ago and ten years of crushing live shows and excellent albums have earned them the coveted feather in the hat of being a Glastonbury headliner. So, what’s left to do after that? Whatever the F*&^k they want!

Not to knock my current hometown of Los Angeles but it has been notorious for relatively un-energetic live music crowds—but this crowd was full of fans, Americans, and some rowdy British ex-pats.

Kasabian did not mess around or think about scaling down their arena sized set for the Wiltern Theatre. They kicked off an all out aural assault launching into “Bumblebee” from the recently released 48:13. Outside of their natural habitat (of playing huge shows in Europe and Australia) they did have to work a little bit harder to earn the energy of the audience—and here’s the thing with artists this seasoned—they know and have perfected the art of working a crowd. Vocalist Tom Meighan and guitarist Sergio Pizzorno effortlessly traded off to get the crowd going.

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Maybe it’s the unnatural heat of fall in Los Angeles, or the encouragement of the mass consumption of beer with the highly celebrated and numerous Octoberfests around the city, or the winding down of the festival season that brings a heavy concentration of rock to LA. This is the first installment of some of the most Rocktober shows this month.

The War on Drugs | October 2 and 3 at the Fonda | Last time the War on Drugs were in town they did two sold out nights at the Troubadour (a 650 person room) and now they are doubling that and moving up to the 1,300 cap Fonda and success could not be more well deserved for a band who put out one of the best records of the year.

It’s atmospheric but feels deeply personal, and I cannot wait to see how big their wall of sound will grow as they move to larger venues.

Kasabian | October 8 at the Wiltern | What do you do after headlining Glastonbury? Manifest Destiny my friends. Kasabian are headed west to tear their way through our amber waves of grain and conquer America.

Yes America, Kasabian is a BIG BIG band, maybe not here in the States yet, but everywhere else in the world they are massive and have a colossal anthemic sound to match.

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This weekend down in San Diego—home of Rocket from the Crypt, Iron Butterfly, Eddie Vedder, RATT, Tom Waits, Waaves, Slightly Stoopid, and more—comes the Vinyl Junkies Record Swap.

Former M-Theory owner Eric Howarth is bringing the goods to San Diego (you know, that southern, beachy, more laid back, better looking second cousin of Los Angeles) this weekend for the San Diego Music Thing, a festival and conference in its 7th year benefitting the San Diego Music Foundation. We chatted him up prior to this weekend’s swap.

Please introduce yourself and give us some insight on the what the Vinyl Junkies Record Swap is.

My name is Eric Howarth and I’m the founder of the Vinyl Junkies Record Swap. People in San Diego also know me as the former co-owner/founder of M-Theory Music (the record store). Prior to starting Vinyl Junkies and after selling M-Theory (it’s still around and going strong), I was running my record label Hi-Speed Soul with vinyl releases by the likes of Afghan Whigs, Nada Surf, Swervedriver, Film School, and managing bands like The Black Heart Procession.

The Vinyl Junkies Record Swap happens every couple of months at the Casbah and we select a bunch of vendors from Southern California to sell. We also have 6 DJs spin…usually people in bands, on air DJs, or local music writers. So far we’ve had David J of Bauhaus/Love and Rockets, Dale Crover of The Melvins, Matt and Ken of The Bronx, Pall from The Black Heart Procession, Justin Pearson of the Locust and a bunch of well-known local SD band members spin. It’s always great to hear what they end up playing.

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Not only do we recommend this show for the guaranteed facemelt from the stellar line up curated by Buzzbands’ Kevin Bronson that includes up and coming rock quartet Dorothy, guitarless shredding from LA’s clavinet-driven trio Crash Kings, and singer-songwriter Cary Brothers’ new synth-driven project SD3, but we also recommend this show for some serious beak rocking.

The festival is held in one of the best neighborhoods for some stellar eats—and the fest includes live cooking demos rounded out by a desert eating contest on the Culinary Stage hosted by Eddie Lin and Shirley Zhang—along with some of the finest food truck fare that makes LA the best place for motorized eating. The culinary schedule can be viewed here.

Now, there is the age-old saying that nothing good happens after midnight but we would show up at any hour to hear this dirty guitar heavy track from LA based band Dorothy. Yes Virginia, rock n’ roll is not dead.

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