4 posts tagged “los angeles”

I've been away in Tokyo, but luckily my return to LA has netted me a plethora of concert offerings for fall 2007. So here are some dates of bands I love and appearances of interest throughout California. I've also bolded the ones I personally plan to attend if I can get tickets:

August 30 - Let's Go Sailing @ Roxy, Los Angeles
September 26 - Hello Stranger @ Roxy, Los Angeles (First show since they went into hiding, I'd bet new songs.)
September 26 - Ladytron @ 4th & B, San Diego
September 27 - Ladytron & Pet Shop Boys @ the Hollywood Bowl, Los Angeles (Cancelled - BOOO!)
September 27 - Ladytron @ TBD, Los Angeles???
September 29 - Ladytron @ Mezzanine, San Francisco
October 2 - Metric @ Glass House, Pomona
October 3 - Metric @ House of Blues, San Diego
October 5 - Metric @ Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles [bought my ticket already]
October 6 - Metric @ Download Festival, San Francisco
October 13 - Polysics @ Troubadour, West Hollywood
October 19 - The Go! Team @ Mezzanine, San Francisco
October 20 - The Go! Team @ Glass House, Pomona
October 21 - The Go! Team @ Echoplex, Los Angeles [also bought ticket already - this is TWO BLOCKS from my house!]
October 22 -  The Go! Team! KCRW Radio Session, Los Angeles (Not a concert, but an NPR radio session!)
October 23 - múm @ Belly Up, San Diego
October 24 - múm @ The Orpheum, Los Angeles
October 30 - The Polyphonic Spree @ The Grove, Anaheim
October 31 - The Polyphonic Spree @ The Fillmore, San Francisco
November 1 - The Polyphonic Spree @ Belly Up, San Diego
November 2 - The Polyphonic Spree @ Henry Fonda Theatre, Los Angeles
November 16 - Polysics @ Warfield, San Francisco
November 17 - Polysics @ Soma, San Diego
November 18 - Polysics @ Wiltern, Los Angeles
November 19 - Polysics @ Wiltern, Los Angeles (again)
November 20 - Polysics @ The Grove, Anaheim
November 23 - Polysics @ House of Blues, Las Vegas

And what else am I missing?

Quick post since I'm muy tired.

Let's Go Sailing tonight (6/7) @ the Troubadour in WeHo. I'm going - anyone else can stop by and dig this mellow, charming local band.

-Tommy

Today I'm pimpin' a bit of local cred in the form of Los Angeles band The Outline, who I was fortunate enough to discover opening for Polysics. In addition to having a wacky drummer, talented lead singer, and fucking hot keyboard player (who, natch, shares my affinity for the thin but versatile Korg MS2000), their music is also pretty good. I look forward to going to concerts they headline, as their show was fun all  on its own even though they were opening for Polysics - and that's saying something, considering that they were opening for a band that punks out onstage in orange jumpsuits and visors. Even opening for a band with vocoder gimmicks and robot-girls, they managed to hold their own and catch a lot of audience interest. And when I heard them live a second time, it only made me like them more.

You can check out some samples at the Outline's MySpace page but I'm posting a rec here too:

THE OUTLINE - Death to Our Enemies (We'll Make 'em Sorry) - This song nicely showcases the vocal range of the lead and is a damn catchy tune. Surprisingly, it sounds even better live (though their album does sound good). And of course it has a funky MS2000 intro, which gives it a Ladytron kinda kick. <3

At the San Diego show, we were also introduced to local band Rocket, which is comprised of like 30 girls and a screaming blond chick, who plays with a less cool keytar than Hello Stranger and does it badly. They are one of those bands that sings songs about how they like rock and roll. I am pretty sure they were anime fans. They sucked. When playing The Casbah in San Diego, jokes about rocking it are not permitted nor funny; they are already implied by the name of the venue. I cannot find a link to them and am pretty sure they were just a bad dream. They were very friendly but not cool.

Until next time, kids!

-Tommy

So why jump on the VOX bandwagon?

...Well, it's always useful and fun to diversify your blogging a bit. I could use a little music-blogging fun and prefer to keep it separate from my emo bitching and political rants.

...But mostly I just wanted to see if they had an LA cityscape layout yet.

WE'RE THE SECOND LARGEST CITY IN THE UNITED STATES. DO OUR FUCKING SKYLINE ALREADY. OUR BUILDINGS ARE TALLER THAN TOKYO'S AND WE HAVE MORE PEOPLE THAN SAN FRANCISCO, BOSTON, SEATTLE, AND CHICAGO.

I did a little Googling. A request for an LA skyline on Vox was met with snot like "LA has a skyline?" Seriously, what is it with this "L.A. isn't a real city" attitude? Clearly the 10 million people in Los Angeles County are hiding something, right? Get your head out of the 1980s, commenting guy! Every day I see the city grow and develop more and more, and every day brings new hope and new life to this vibrant, weird, wonderful place I call home.

And that's really what today's music is about. Speaking of LA, here's a song about it by a band that is pretty much personifies the New LA Sound:

I can prattle on and on about Hello Stranger... if I decide to keep music-blogging here. For now, though, one of their great songs - perfect for a night on the town or a windy midnight drive through the urban landscape...

-T